Scott Marion, Ph.D., is the executive director of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. He is a national leader in conceptualizing and designing innovative and balanced assessment systems to support instructional and other critical uses. He has also led extensive work across the country to design and implement school accountability systems. His current projects include designing—and supporting states in implementing—assessment and accountability initiatives, providing technically defensible policy guidance, and implementing high-quality, locally designed performance-based assessments.
Scott is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and is one of three measurement specialists on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress. He coordinates and/or serves on 10 state or district technical advisory committees for assessment and accountability. He has served on multiple National Research Council committees, including those that provided guidance for next-generation science assessments, investigated the issues and challenges of incorporating value-added measures in educational accountability systems, and outlined best practices in state assessment systems.
Scott is a co-author of the validity chapter in the 5th edition of Educational Measurement, a co-editor of the National Academy of Education’s Reimagining Balanced Assessment, and a co-author of Instructionally Useful Assessment. He has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he regularly presents his work at the national conferences of the American Educational Research Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Scott earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder with a concentration in measurement and evaluation.
In addition, Scott served his community for nine years as a member of the Rye, N.H. School Board.
Recent and Relevant Publications
Lane, S. & Marion, S.F. (in press). Validity in educational measurement. In Cook, L. & Pitoniak, M. (eds.) Educational Measurement, Volume 5.
Shepard, L.S., Marion, S.F., & Saldaña, C.M. (in press). Standards-based reform and school accountability. In Cohen-Vogel, L., Scott, J., & Youngs, P. (eds) Handbook of Education Policy Research, Volume 2. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Marion, S.F., Pellegrino, J.W., & Berman, A.I. (2024). Reimagining balanced assessment systems: An introduction. In Marion, S.F., Pellegrino, J.W., & Berman, A.I. (Eds.). Reimagining Balanced Assessment Systems. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education.
Marion, S.F., Pellegrino, J.W., & Berman, A.I. (Eds.) (2024). Reimagining Balanced Assessment Systems. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education.
Evans, C. M. & Marion, S. F. (2024). Instructionally Useful Assessment. NY, NY: Routledge.
Marion, S.F. (2023). Validity arguments for through-year assessments. In Tierney, R.J., Rizvi, F., and Erkican, K. (Eds.). International Encyclopedia of Education (4th Edition), pp. 212-219. London: Elsevier Press.
Braun, H. & Marion, S. F. (2022). Accountability and assessment in U.S. education: Let’s not let another crisis go to waste! Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice.
Marion, S. (2020, October). Opportunity-to-learn data to support a more equitable education system. National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment.
Keng, L., Boyer, M., & Marion, S.F. (2020). Into the unknown: Assessment considerations for spring 2021. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 39, 3, 53-59.
Keng, L. & Marion, S. F. (2020). Comparability of aggregated group scores on the “same test.” In Haertel, Pellegrino, & Berman (eds.). Comparability Issues in Large-Scale Assessment. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education.
Shepard, L. A., Diaz-Bilello, E., Penuel, W. R., & Marion, S. F. (2020). Classroom assessment principles to support teaching and learning. Boulder, CO: Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation, University of Colorado Boulder.
Marion, S.F. & Domaleski, C. (2019). An argument in search of evidence: A response to Camara, et al. (2019). Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 38, 4, 27–28.
Marion, S., Thompson, J., Evans, C., Martineau, J. & Dadey, N. (2019) A tricky balance: The challenges and opportunities of balanced systems of assessment. [Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Toronto, Ontario, April 6, 2019]
Marion, S.F. (2018). The opportunities and challenges of a systems approach to assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 37, 1, 45-48.
