7.23.19 7 Steps to Creating a Growth Assessment that Works Thanks to high-quality assessments, teachers, students and families are able to see and celebrate heroic growth. Consider a fifth-grade student who starts the year reading at a second-grade... Read more
7.18.19 Why It’s Important to Consider the Assessment Data Needs of All Stakeholders When we think about educational assessments, “timely” means that assessment data is delivered at a time when it will be most useful to the people who need it the most. When building a coherent... Read more
7.16.19 3 Questions High Quality Assessments Can Answer For Early Learning Educators To build a foundation for future success, Pre-K-3 students are being introduced to education assessments to help gauge where they are in their literacy and math skillsets. By assessing students... Read more
7.11.19 Three Ways to Better Engage Students to Get the Most from Educational Assessments It’s not uncommon to find a classroom where a few highly motivated students monopolize the discussion. To ensure that all students are learning, teachers need to find opportunities to actively... Read more
7.9.19 Making Sense of Early Childhood Assessment – Four Things to Consider There is consensus among educators that assessments should be purposeful, aligned to instruction, and beneficial to student outcomes. However, there is a vein of debate running through the early... Read more
7.3.19 A teacher’s thoughts on saying goodbye to the school year It seems like every year, my classroom has a song, or a movie soundtrack that exemplifies who they are as a group. A few years ago, it was the soundtrack to Trolls because that group just could not... Read more
6.27.19 Rethinking School Performance with Dr. Andrew Hegedus Dr. Andrew Hegedus, Research Consulting Director for NWEA recently completed a noteworthy research study exploring the relationship between poverty and school performance. We caught up with Andy... Read more
6.25.19 Making Sense of Growth Mindset and Growth Measures For the past few years, “growth mindset” has generated a lot of conversation in the education world. Both adults and students have opportunities to develop a growth mindset, to shift their... Read more
6.20.19 What Can These 5 Types of Assessment Data Tell You? Educational assessments can be used to support learning, as well as validate it. The type of assessment you choose should match the purpose behind the questions you’re trying to answer about... Read more
6.18.19 4 Simple Steps For Streamlining Your Assessment System Every assessment has strengths and limitations, which means no single measure will serve every specific need. If your system has been built piecemeal over time, it’s likely to be chaotic, as... Read more
6.13.19 How this rural, low-income school used MAP Growth data to boost performance The high desert area of northwestern New Mexico, also known as the Checkerboard area, is patchwork of territory owned by the federal government, private citizens, and the Navajo reservation. There... Read more
6.11.19 Involving Students and Parents in End-of-Year Planning A recent blog post – Teacher End-of-Year Planning Using MAP Growth Data – discussed some questions that often arise as the year draws to a close. Were my efforts to support student growth this... Read more