This report highlights the perceptions of parents, whose opinions are rarely sought and whose voices tend to be lost in decisions about how assessments are developed, administered and used. Parents are key consumers of assessment information--and, as taxpayers, they pay for assessments. Classroom teachers and district administrators have the most…

In the Fall of 2010, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) approached Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) to commission a report of system-wide performance for their first full school year of testing as part of the BIE-NWEA Project. Even with only a single year of testing data, some patterns were identified and they are listed in this report.…

In 2007, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute collaborated on "The Proficiency Illusion," a study that illustrated the issues created by having each state set its own standards for what constitutes student proficiency for reading and mathematics tests, while holding all states to the same accountability…

The Portland Schools Foundation's (PSF) Ninth Grade Counts initiative is a network of more than twenty independent summer transition programs targeting Academic Priority (or "at-risk") students. These programs share a common focus on providing academic support, enrichment, and career/college exposure for students who show early warning signs for…

This study investigated the relationships between when a test is administered and the amount of test-taking effort exhibited by examinees. Three time-related variables were investigated: the time of year the test was administered, the day of the week the test event occurred, and the time of day that the test event occurred. Mean effort did not…

The purpose of this paper is to offer an analytic perspective to policy makers and educational practitioners regarding how to use longitudinal achievement data to evaluate schools. The authors further discuss the potential practical applications of their models for superintendents, researchers, and policy makers. The premise of the study is that…

One of the main goals of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all students are meeting high academic standards, and to eliminate disparities in academic performance between traditionally advantaged and disadvantaged groups of students. One could argue that this focus on holding schools accountable…

The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was to ensure that states set educational standards in core academic subjects, and to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all students meet these standards. Given the inflexibility of NCLB's AYP (adequate yearly progress) targets and the federal line drawn in the sand for 2014, critics have…

Virtual Comparison Groups (VCG) were developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association as an alternative to conventional controlled experiments for social science researchers working in the field of education. The VCG is generally a group of up to 51 students who are matched, based on key characteristics of the student and school, to a single…

The difference between the academic performance of poor students and wealthier students and between minority students and their non-minority peers is commonly known as the achievement gap. The current study examines the achievement gap using a large sample of students from a wide variety of school districts across the United States. It examines…

Each year, Montana students participate in testing as part of the state's assessment program. This past spring, students in grades 4, 8, and 10 took Montana Comprehensive Assessment System (MontCAS) tests in reading and mathematics. These tests serve as an important measure of student achievement for the state's accountability system. Results from…

Each spring, Arizona students participate in testing as part of the state's assessment program. Elementary and middle school students in grades 3 through 8 take the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards--Dual Purpose Assessment (AIMS DPA) in reading, writing, and mathematics. These tests serve as an important measure of student achievement for…

This study investigated the relationship between the scales used for the ISTEP+ assessments and the RIT scales used to report performance on Northwest Evaluation Association tests. The RIT scale was developed using Rasch scaling methodologies. RIT-based tests are used to inform a variety of educational decisions at the district, school, and…

Recently NWEA completed a project to connect the scale of the Maryland School Assessment (MSA) with NWEA's RIT scale. One large school system participated in the study, using test information from a group of over 24,000 students enrolled in third, fourth and fifth grade who took both the MSA and NWEA reading tests in the spring of 2005.…

This study investigated the relationship between the scales used for the NMSBA assessments and the RIT scales used to report performance on Northwest Evaluation Association tests. The study estimated the changes in reading and mathematics RIT score equivalents for the NMSBA performance levels in those subjects. Test records for more than 17,000…