During state assessment season, school leaders face a busy period of coordination and oversight. The School Leader Series Brief #4: What School Leaders Need to do Before, During, and After the Assessment Window is an essential guide for managing the many moving parts of this process. This resource, created with input from state experts, provides school leaders with a clear plan to ensure that students with disabilities take the appropriate state assessments with allowable, appropriate accessibility features and accommodations. It breaks the work into a simple timeline and includes talking points to help explain the assessment process to teachers and families.

A successful testing experience requires careful attention at every stage. Before testing starts, the brief reminds leaders to verify that specific accessibility supports such as braille, extra time, or text-to-speech are correctly configured in the system. During the window, the guide helps leaders monitor classrooms to ensure accommodations are used as intended. Finally, it offers advice on using results to improve future instruction. For state staff, this is a ready-to-use tool to share with schools right now to help all students demonstrate their true progress.