The council's areas of focus are education workforce; information systems and research; next generation learners; and standards, assessment, and accountability. One of its nationally recognized projects is the National Teacher of the Year award. Other efforts include the "Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium" (est. 1987).[1] Recent initiatives include a "Shared Learning Collaborative" (est. 2011);[2] and an "Innovation Lab Network" of states, "to assess skills expected by the Common Core."[3]
"National system to test schools is endorsed", New York Times, November 14, 1984 ("Plan would be the first to systematically measure the quality of American education with a wide variety of indexes")