The MAP® Growth™ theory of action describes key features of MAP Growth and its position in a comprehensive assessment system. The basic premise of the theory of action is that all students learn when MAP Growth is situated in a comprehensive assessment system and used for its intended purposes to yield information about student learning and enable…

The Grand Challenges in Assessment (GCA), a collaborative across assessment professionals and organizations, seeks to improve assessment activities through scholarship and access to practical information. To achieve the GCA strategic priorities, the authors provide resources for enacting rapid pedagogical change, defined as instructional…

School grades provide an easily understandable metric to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the school grade and its associated components to understand how well each school is serving its students. The purpose of this technical guide is to provide a description of the procedures used to determine school…

Spatial skills can predict mathematics performance, with many researchers investigating how and why these skills are related. However, a literature review on spatial ability revealed a multiplicity of spatial taxonomies and analytical frameworks that lack convergence, presenting a confusing terrain for researchers to navigate. We expose two…

This article positions the core-selective evaluation process (C-SEP), a pattern of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) model of identifying specific learning disabilities (SLD), within guidelines and best practices recommended for assessing English learners. C-SEP is a broad approach that utilizes multiple sources of data to establish underachievement,…

The article describes practical suggestions for measurement researchers and psychometricians to respond to calls for social responsibility in assessment. The underlying assumption is that personalizing large-scale assessment improves the chances that assessment and the use of test scores will contribute to equity in education. This article…

Education officials have long hoped that the statewide academic assessments most students take each year could be used not only for accountability but also to guide instruction. Congress established the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) program in 2015 to help address this goal, offering up to seven states flexibility from…

Many personal and policy decisions turn on perceptions of school effectiveness, defined here as the causal effect of attendance at a particular school or set of schools on student test scores and other outcomes. Widely-disseminated school ratings frameworks compare average student achievement across schools, but uncontrolled differences in means…

After the pandemic, many students returned to the classroom behind on reading, as shown by data in the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). Those students are now adolescents and approaching a critical turning point in their education: They are expected to read with greater independence. For students who are still struggling to…

Educators everywhere are responding to the realities of student learning loss, unfinished learning, or disrupted learning as they continue to experience the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students of color and students attending high poverty schools experienced the largest achievement declines, increasing preexisting gaps for already…

A significant role in educational assessment is played by measuring behavioural changes based on clearly specified educational objectives and meaningfully interpreting the results. One of the most significant strategies for evaluating a student's learning performance in the classroom is formative assessment. Formative assessment systems…

The last two decades have seen fast-moving and wholescale changes in the ways that education is now provided in French schools, in the nature of learner assessment, and in the form and scale of system evaluation. Innovation and reform have in part followed international trends, themselves triggered by the global impact of the international…

Despite decades of tenacious advocacy and improvement efforts to expand and enshrine rights for students with disabilities, many students with individualized education programs (IEPs) still lack access to high-quality, effective learning opportunities. This can be due to a range of factors, including low expectations, exclusion from general…

Ranking scales is an important tool which serves learning outcomes. Accuracy of Ranking depends upon how accurately & honestly the data is submitted according to the ranking methodology, how accurately Peers are giving their responses and how efficiently the ranking agencies are validating and evaluating the submitted data. However, giving…

When states issued the first coronavirus stay-at-home order last March, few could have foreseen how the foundations of learning and teaching would be shaken. As hopes for a brief disruption confronted reality, state and district leaders began plans to extend some form of distance learning into the 2020-21 school year. They also began to think…