This is the technical appendix for the NWEA research brief titled, “Behind at the Starting Line,” which examines Kindergarten test scores from more than 400,000 U.S. students and noting patterns that can predict academic success or identify students at risk of falling further behind. This early identification is key for educators, enabling them to intervene and influence learning trajectories before the next critical milestone: third grade.

This is the technical appendix to the research, “Academically diverse classrooms, deeper needs,” research brief examines the academic diversity of post-COVID classrooms, including the composition and spread of academic achievement levels. Key findings highlight the challenges facing educators as more students are off-track and further behind grade-level proficiency.

This research brief examines the academic diversity of post-COVID classrooms, including the composition and spread of academic achievement levels. Key findings highlight the challenges facing educators as more students are off-track and further behind grade-level proficiency.

This guide offers recommendations for how to understand what differences may exist when looking at data for student groups, and gives leaders some structure for how they might consider and interpret those differences.

This technical report outlines the design, scoring, reliability, and validity of the Spanish MAP Reading Fluency assessment, demonstrating how it measures foundational skills and oral reading fluency to support early literacy development.

This technical report presents achievement and growth norms for Spanish MAP Reading Fluency Foundational Skills (grades K–3), enabling educators to interpret student performance and progress in early literacy domains relative to national peer groups.

This research brief examines the data on holding back five-year-olds from starting kindergarten – a practice known as redshirting. Using national data from over three million kindergartners from NWEA’s MAP Growth K-2 assessment, this study explores redshirting trends between fall 2017 and 2025. It also follows a kindergarten cohort (2021-22) through the third grade, examining whether there were academic advantages for redshirted students.