In this paper, authors Scott Marion and Paul Leather present an overview of New Hampshire’s efforts to implement a pilot accountability system designed to support deeper learning for students and powerful organization change for schools and districts. The accountability pilot, referred to as Performance Assessment of Competency Education or PACE, is grounded in a competency-based educational approach designed to ensure that students have meaningful opportunities to achieve critical knowledge and skills. Students must achieve these competencies before moving on to the next major learning targets and/or graduating from high school. Performance assessments are used as both summative and interim measures in the PACE system as a way to document student learning of the competencies and to support remediation or extension interventions.
The paper describes the system of assessments being implemented as part of the PACE pilot as well as providing a discussion of the technical quality issues the state is working to address as part of this accountability pilot. The paper concludes by relating the PACE initiative to the push for deeper and more meaningful learning for students.
