Karin K. Hess

Karin K. Hess

Karin K. Hess, EdD, the creator of the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices, is an internationally recognized speaker and leader in developing practical approaches for using cognitive rigor and learning progressions in assessments. Since 1998, Karin has been working in schools as an elementary and middle school principal, district curriculum director, and classroom teacher.

Karin has distinguished herself as a curriculum and assessment expert in multiple content areas at the Center for Assessment in Dover, New Hampshire. Her impact extends beyond the local level; she has guided over 40 US states and territories in developing grade-level expectations and test specifications for both general and alternate assessments for cognitively disabled students. Her extensive portfolio includes a dozen books and book chapters, numerous articles, and white papers covering instructional practices, alignment, cognitive rigor, text complexity, and assessment.

Karin’s books include A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning; Ready to Advance PreK Curriculum; Deeper Competency-Based-Learning; and Rigor by Design, Not Chance. She also wrote “Using Standards to Guide Instruction,” a chapter in Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction and Assessment, PreK–6. Additionally, Karin has held roles such as the state director of gifted education for New Jersey, program evaluator for the Vermont Mathematics Project, co-developer of exemplars K–8 science performance tasks, and content specialist for development of many state assessment blueprints, including the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) content specifications for assessment of the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics.

Karin's expertise in competency-based learning has seen her support school districts and states in implementing competency-based systems. She has also been involved in creating and analyzing high-quality interim and performance-based assessments. Her collaborations with organizations like New Meridian, Renaissance Learning, EL Education, Mentoring Minds, Achieve3000, and World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) demonstrate her commitment to bridging research with practical applications. Karin's work underscores the importance of maintaining fidelity to research while addressing the practical needs of educators and students alike.