In 1990, NEA embarked on a major research effort to define conditions of school quality. The research led to the development of the NEA KEYS Initiative.

The original KEYS focused exclusively on a school’s organizational conditions that support effective teaching and learning. More than 600 school communities across the country have successfully used the KEYS instrument.

Recently, NEA revised the original KEYS to broaden the scope of the assessment to include analysis of practices that directly relate to curriculum and instruction. KEYS 2.0 is based on more than 10 years of NEA research and development.

KEYS 2.0 retains the best of the original instrument and expands the assessment into substantive areas of importance to NEA members. The theoretical underpinnings for the development of the teaching and learning questions in KEYS 2.0 include the works of Fred Newman and Gary Wehlage on authentic instruction and assessment, Charlotte Danielson’s framework for teaching, the American Psychological Association’s Learner Centered Psychological Principles, and the five core propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (For a more detailed account of the evolution of KEYS, see Tracing the evolution of KEYS.)

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