1.20.15 Some Global Thoughts on Adaptive Curriculum Everyone who drives a car and uses a GPS navigation system has a story to tell. Some stories are funny and some are just frustrating. Recently, in Chandler, AZ, the GPS instructed me to make a... Read more
1.8.15 STEM in the Primary Classroom: 4 Ways Educators are Acclimating to STEM Education Today’s earliest primary grade classrooms retain some of the hallmarks of classrooms throughout the years; calendar activities, tables for small group learning, and big books for a whole class read... Read more
11.13.14 Using MAP to Predict Proficiency on Summative Assessments NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) assessment serves many purposes, from informing instruction to identifying students for intervention to projecting proficiency on state... Read more
10.31.14 The Power of the Learning Continuum: One Partner’s Journey in Data Analysis A few years ago, I was working with a district that was partnering with NWEA to help all kids grow and learn. This was a new experience for me. I had not experienced the power of MAP interim... Read more
10.23.14 8 Formative Assessment Data Sources that Help Students Become Better Learners Not too long ago Daniel Venables shared a blog at TeachThought titled 8 Frequent Sources Of Formative Assessment Data which talks about data as tools teachers can use to teach better. He provides... Read more
9.9.14 Technology for Our Youngest…Should We or Shouldn’t We? Often, when I am facilitating MAP Foundation Series and Children's Progress Academic Assessment workshops with early childhood teachers, I am faced with a barrage of questions regarding the use... Read more
8.20.14 Classroom Strategies: Using Data to Differentiate Cris Tovani, in her book So What Do They Really Know: Assessment That Informs Teaching and Learning, has a great way of thinking about differentiation: Differentiation is about adjusting my... Read more
8.14.14 Closing the Assessment-Instruction Loop: MAP, MPG & Khan Academy Over the past few years NWEA has been developing a program in which we link MAP/MPG results—particularly goal level RIT scores—to digital content that is commercially available. We have done this... Read more
8.5.14 Attention Teachers! Researchers need your feedback! NWEA researchers, in collaboration with the University of Delaware, are beginning an exciting research project that examines how teachers use assessment data to improve instruction and student... Read more
7.15.14 Why Goals Matter in Educator Performance In an earlier blog I discussed what research says are important characteristics of goals themselves if we want to improve educator performance and students outcomes . The next line of questioning... Read more
6.24.14 Research Explores Impact of Summer Learning Loss on Student Achievement Gaps I’m proud to share the following from our guest bloggers, Kingsbury Data Award recipients Andrew McEachin and Allison Atteberry. ... Read more
6.12.14 To Measure a Year’s Growth, Begin with the Student At NWEA, one of the research team’s functions is to provide high-level technical support on a range of assessment issues, including the use and interpretation of the MAP/MPG norms. In that... Read more