Another year has come and gone, and while I’m still not entirely sure where all the time went, I do know this: I feel so very lucky to have spent the lion’s share of my work hours focused on Teach. Learn. Grow. As managing editor, I’ve had the chance to work with countless brilliant colleagues—experts on everything from assessment to differentiation—to fill these virtual pages with research and advice intended to make the hard work of teaching a little easier.
Here are the posts that resonated most with our readers these last 52 weeks. Whether you’re a veteran teacher looking to refine your practice or new to the profession, we hope they’ll inspire you in 2026 and beyond.
Posts about assessing with MAP Growth
MAP® Growth™, our computer-adaptive interim assessment, helps countless educators nationwide screen students, make placement decisions, and differentiate instruction so all kids are supported in reaching their potential.
Here are the most popular Teach. Learn. Grow. posts about assessment in 2025:
- “Norm- vs. criterion-referenced in assessment: What you need to know”
- “Same scale, new reference: What’s new in the 2025 MAP Growth norms”
- “What can you do with the 2025 MAP Growth norms? Turning test results into action”
- “Realistic vs. meaningful growth: Rethinking growth goals with 2025 MAP Growth norms”
- “3 tips for using data to drive instruction”
- “16 resources for putting MAP Growth assessment data to work”
- “12 common questions parents ask about MAP Growth”
- “Sharing assessment data with parents just got simpler”
Learn more about assessment with our archive of posts about MAP Growth and on our YouTube channel.
Posts about literacy and assessing with MAP Reading Fluency
Reading is a life skill that can influence academic success, including high school graduation and college enrollment rates. Yet according to 2024 NAEP data, average reading scores for grades 4, 8, and 12 are down.
Here are some of our most popular posts on teaching kids to read and assessing with MAP® Reading Fluency™:
- “The science of reading explained”
- “What the science of reading tells us about how to teach decoding—including phonics”
- “The science of teaching reading comprehension”
- “6 strategies for teaching multisyllabic word reading”
- “5 things to know about the new MAP Reading Fluency dyslexia screener”
- “How to get the most from MAP Reading Fluency reports”
- “Azle ISD’s journey with MAP Reading Fluency”
- “Why it’s so important to have students write about what they read”
- “Parent strategies for improving their child’s reading and writing”
Browse our archive on the science of reading for more. If your school tests with MAP Reading Fluency, you may find our archive of posts about how to get the most out of the literacy assessment useful as well.
Posts about differentiating instruction
There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all in education. That’s where differentiation comes in. As elementary school teacher Valerie Gallagher explains in Edutopia’s “Education buzzwords defined: What is differentiation,” “Differentiation is a way to take the monolith of the content and split it off in a way that makes it more accessible to everyone. It allows me to tailor my lessons—although the content is the same—to each group of learners.”
Below are our three most popular Teach. Learn. Grow. blog posts on differentiation:
- “10 ways to meet the learning needs of all students”
- “7 ways to use ZPD and scaffolding to challenge and support students”
- “Everything you need to know about goal setting for students”
Posts by our researchers
How do we know what works best for students? Research. Our team of researchers is always hard at work studying which practices work—and why.
Here are the most popular 2025 posts about NWEA research findings:
- “Getting precise: Why instructional time matters for fair comparisons of student achievement”
- “Normal vs. necessary academic growth”
- “What the research tells us about four-day school weeks”
- “Summer learning loss: What we know and what we’re learning”
Read more in the research archive.
