6 key trends shaping the future of K-12 assessment

Most educators are concerned that summative assessments cause students undue anxiety, adding to growing concerns over the state of K-12 assessments and how they’re created, delivered, and interpreted.

State of Assessment in K-12 Education, a new report from Instructure, the makers of Canvas, explores the current state of K-12 assessments as COVID-19 continues to push schools into crisis

Overall, 81 percent of educators remain concerned that summative assessments are making students anxious, and teachers and administrators want to move to a more balanced assessment approach. …Read More

Promoting student choice through SEL self-assessment

There is abundant literature on the many benefits of promoting student choice (for an accessible overview see, “The key to making improvements: as the students”).

Among the positive outcomes associated with giving students authentic choices in what they will learn, how they will learn it, and how they will demonstrate their learning are:

  • Better attainment of learning objectives
  • More engagement in the classroom
  • Better generalization of classroom learning to real life situations

I would like to suggest another reason for providing students, especially adolescents, with meaningful choices and then honoring those choices – they know better than adults what is really important to them.…Read More

Independent Study Finds that Amplify Science Has Significant Positive Impact on Student Learning

BROOKLYN, NY (January 26, 2022)Amplify, a publisher of next-generation curriculum and assessment programs, announced today that a gold-standard independent study led by the nonprofit research, development, and service agency WestEd, and with funding support by the National Science Foundation, found promising evidence that the Amplify Science middle school curriculum has a significant positive impact on student learning. 

WestEd researchers found that:

  • The estimated impact was statistically significant (p < 0.001) and corresponds to an effect size of 0.36. This impact is consistent with the average student using the Amplify Science curriculum moving up 14 percentiles compared to their peers who used other materials.
  • The results were similar across gender and racial groups, and for students with varying levels of math and literacy achievement.
  • More than 80 percent of teachers agreed that they and their students benefited from using Amplify Science curriculum.
  • Almost 90 percent of teachers reported that Amplify Science supported them in engaging students in science discourse.

The randomized controlled study focused on physical science for grade 7 and included 28 teachers and more than 1700 students across three districts that served diverse populations.

…Read More

Arizona Department of Education Names i-Ready® Assessment an Approved Universal Literacy and Dyslexia Screener

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., January 27, 2022—The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) recently named Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment as an approved universal literacy and dyslexia screener for the 2022–2023 school year. With this approval, schools across the state can use the online Diagnostic and offline literacy assessment tasks to screen for risk factors associated with dyslexia. This dyslexia screening process is part of Arizona’s Move on When Reading policy, which is designed to provide students with evidence-based, effective reading instruction in order to position them for success as they progress through school, college, and career.

“As a longtime partner to the Arizona education community, Curriculum Associates developed dyslexia screener items specific to the needs of Arizona students as required by state law,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “This recent approval by the ADE reinforces the power and validity of our assessment in identifying potential risk factors for dyslexia, which is necessary so educators can provide the specialized supports students need to succeed.” 

According to the ADE, Arizona students in Grades K–3 will be given a universal literacy and dyslexia screener within the first 45 calendar days of the school year and will also be screened during the winter and spring benchmark periods. Each benchmark data set will then be submitted to ADE’s Move on When Reading team during specified dates throughout the school year.…Read More

FEV Tutor Named Winner of the Inaugural 2021 Supes’ Choice Award for Virtual Instruction Experience

WOBURN, Mass. – Dec. 16, 2021 –  FEV Tutor was selected as an inaugural 2021 Supes’ Choice Awards winner in the Virtual Instructional Experience category. The awards were presented by the Institute for Education Innovation (IEI), an organization that serves as the bridge between district leaders and organizations to support the greatest challenges in K-12 education.

FEV Tutor was selected by a panel of esteemed superintendent judges from across the nation. Their assessment was based on FEV Tutor’s commitment to student outcomes, innovation and ingenuity, client support, interactivity, and engagement. The Supes’ Choice Awards are the only industry awards judged exclusively by school district superintendents.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Supes’ Choice Awards as the inaugural winner in the virtual instruction experience category for our commitment to high-impact online tutoring,” said Ryan Patenaude, Sr. Vice President and Co-Founder of FEV Tutor. “This recognition by district leaders serves as a testament to our decade-long dedication to best-in-results-driven support for the students we serve. We provide continuous data-driven individualized learning plans with designated tutors; 24/7 homework and coursework support as well as test prep tutoring to effect positive change for priority students.”…Read More

How to support older struggling readers

The reasons that students remain struggling readers in middle and high school are frequently based on myths and misconceptions.

The first big myth, based on reading assessment measures, is that comprehension is the problem. The majority of reading assessments and standardized tests for older students focus on reading comprehension measures without determining gaps in the essential components that lead to comprehension: decoding, fluency, and vocabulary. A low comprehension score doesn’t tell teachers what they need to know to intervene, yet the proposed solution is often more reading “strategies.” This is generally unsuccessful because, as stated by Dr. Anita Archer, “There is no reading strategy powerful enough to compensate for the fact that you can’t read the words.”

Decades of research have shown that effective readers have a solid and automatic knowledge of how to translate the sounds of our language to the print that represents those sounds. This begins with the sounds for consonants and vowels—called phoneme proficiency—and an understanding of how speech and print work together for reading and spelling. Without this foundation, the ability to develop accurate and automatic word recognition and fluency will always be limited.…Read More

How to apply the 4 pillars of opportunity in literacy instruction

Consider this: 95 percent of students have the capacity to learn to read, according to the National Institutes of Health, yet only about 34 percent of fourth and eighth grade students read proficiently, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Is this disparity an achievement gap or an opportunity gap?

How we answer this question frames our thinking about solutions. If we look at the disparity as an opportunity gap, we are saying that all students have the same ability to achieve, but not all students have had the same opportunity to achieve.

Myriad opportunity gaps exist in the modern educational system—along with a pandemic that’s only widened these gaps—and are particularly prevalent among students of different races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes.…Read More

Curriculum Associates Updates i-Ready® with New Lessons and Assessments to Further Support Dual-Language Classrooms and Spanish-Speaking Students

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., September 23, 2021—To further support Spanish-speaking students in dual-language or transitional-bilingual programs, Curriculum Associates recently added new lessons and assessments to its award-winning i-Ready program. All of these resources—including authentic Spanish Reading lessons for Grades K–2, new Spanish versions of Mathematics lessons for Grades K–6, and a new Assessment of Spanish Reading for Grades K–6—are all designed for students to see themselves in the learning materials as they work to meet ambitious goals this school year.…Read More

Oregon Department of Education Names i-Ready® Assessment an Approved Universal Screening Tool for Risk Factors of Dyslexia

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., September 23, 2021—The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently named Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Assessment to its Approved Universal Screening Tools for Risk Factors of Dyslexia list for the 2021–2022 school year. With the approval, schools across the state can now use the program’s Diagnostic and offline literacy assessment tasks to screen for risk factors of dyslexia and help provide data-driven instructional support to students in Grades K–1. Today, the award-winning i-Ready program serves more than 9.5 million students and 25 percent of all Grades K–8 students in the United States.

“Identifying potential risk factors of dyslexia is critical, both for students and their families,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “With i-Ready, Oregon educators can be assured they are using a valid and reliable assessment to determine if students show signs of dyslexia so they can deliver specialized reading interventions as needed.”

According to the ODE website, the Department is responsible for ensuring every student who is enrolled at a public school in the state for Grade K or Grade 1 receives a screening for risk factors of dyslexia. The Oregon Administrative Rule further requires the ODE to annually review and update the list of approved universal screeners for risk factors of dyslexia.…Read More

3 key considerations for the future of assessments

The cancellation of summative assessments in the spring of 2020, coupled with the variability of the spring 2021 testing season, has significantly impacted the K–12 assessment landscape.

Though students continue to feel pressure around high-stakes tests, their perceived value has decreased dramatically, according to a recent study that surveyed K-12 educators and parents in the United States. In terms of measuring student success, respondents perceive standardized test scores as the least important among 14 factors, at only 29 percent.

When it comes to formative assessment or assessment for learning, however, things look different. To check students’ understanding, 76 percent of educators delivered formative assessments during remote learning. Though formative assessments have proven instrumental in addressing learning gaps related to school closures, the need for accountability testing has not gone away.…Read More

After Successful Pilot, Schools Adopt EarlyBird Game-Based Screener to Identify Children at Risk for Dyslexia and Reading Difficulties

BOSTON — Aug. 12, 2021 — After participating in a pilot trial of the new EarlyBird game-based early literacy assessment, schools and districts across the United States have chosen to adopt EarlyBird for the 2021-22 school year. Developed and scientifically validated at Boston Children’s Hospital in partnership with faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research, EarlyBird brings together all the relevant predictors of reading in one easy-to-administer assessment, and provides teachers with customized action plans and resources for each student.

During the 2020-21 school year, schools and districts from Maine to California tested EarlyBird with approximately 2,000 children. Maine School Administrative District No. 11 (MSAD #11), for example, began piloting EarlyBird in one elementary school in March, then expanded to a second school in May. This fall, it will implement EarlyBird in all kindergarten classrooms district-wide.

“As soon as we began using EarlyBird, we realized it had a lot of power in terms of the experience it offers students and the actionable data it provides to classroom teachers,” said Angela Hardy, director of curriculum and instruction for MSAD #11. “This data not only helps teachers respond to the needs of the students in front of them, it also helps them think about how they might change their practices or scope and sequence in years to come.”…Read More

Mississippi Department of Education Approves Curriculum Associates’ Programs as Evidence-Based Academic Interventions

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., August 3, 2021—The Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE) Office of Student Intervention Services recently named a number of Curriculum Associates’ programs as approved academic interventions. Through this approval, which is valid until November 2025, schools across the state can confidently use i-Ready Assessment and Personalized Instruction, Ready Mississippi Reading and Mathematics, Teacher Toolbox for Ready Writing, and Phonics for Reading to support the academic needs of Tier II and Tier III students in Grades K–8.

“Addressing unfinished learning, especially for those students who need extra support, will be a top priority for all educators this coming school year,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “The recent approval from MDE reinforces the power of our evidence-based programs in supporting educators with this task of driving meaningful instruction, which will be key as they work to accelerate learning.”

The Office of Intervention Services supports educators and parents who are working with struggling learners, including English Learners. As part of the Office’s review of academic interventions, all approved programs had to be evidence based as well as demonstrate face-to-face, virtual, or hybrid learning components that help improve students’ deficit areas.…Read More