KSDE
TOPEKA — The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) has received approval from the U.S. Department of Education to pilot a new approach to statewide assessment and accountability through the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA). Kansas is one of only seven states approved to participate in IADA since the program began in 2018.
KSDE will begin implementing the Kansas Through-Year Curriculum-Directed Assessment during the 2026-2027 school year with six participating school districts while continuing to meet federal assessment and accountability requirements. The pilot districts are Kansas City, Kansas USD 500, Olathe USD 233, Geary County USD 475, Dodge City USD 443, Great Bend USD 428 and Humboldt USD 258.
Over the five-year pilot, KSDE plans to add more participating districts each year as the assessment demonstrates technical quality, comparability, accessibility and effectiveness.
Annual state assessments play an important role in measuring student achievement and supporting accountability. However, because results are typically available near the end of the school year, they often arrive too late to guide instruction for the students who generated the data.
The Kansas Through-Year Curriculum-Directed Assessment is designed to address that limitation. Instead of relying solely on one end-of-year summative assessment, students in participating districts will complete brief, rigorous assessments each quarter. The assessments will align with the knowledge and skills students are learning throughout the school year.
Results will be returned within 72 hours after each assessment window closes, allowing educators to identify strengths, address learning needs and adjust instruction while there is still time to improve student outcomes.
The assessments will remain aligned with the Kansas Academic Standards and will provide information for both instructional decision-making and state accountability. Results from the quarterly assessments will be combined to produce an annual determination of student performance.