Empowering educators
Assessment data can be an important tool for educators to inform instruction and support student learning. Our research seeks to improve reporting and support data-informed decision making.


Addressing COVID-19’s disruption of student assessment
In this Inside IES Research blog, RAND and NWEA researchers share some early findings from their work under an IES grant to develop strategies for schools and districts to address the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on student assessment programs. In the blog, they describe some key findings from surveys and interviews on key concerns of districts and schools arising from the lack of assessment data from spring 2020.
By: Jonathan Schweig, Megan Kuhfeld, Andrew McEachin
Topics: COVID-19 and schools, Empowering educators


A “Lost Year” of Data? What Disruptions From COVID-19 Mean For Education Research
This Bellwether Education Partners webinar examines how education research can continue to offer meaningful, relevant information to policymakers and practitioners after the “lost year” of data from COVID disruptions to schools and testing.
By: Matthew Soldner, Megan Kuhfeld, Dan Goldhaber, Constance Lindsay, Allison Crean Davis
Topics: COVID-19 and schools, Empowering educators, Measurement & scaling


Assessment education: Bridging research, theory, and practice to promote equity and student learning
This book focuses on practical uses of assessment in education and provides resources and strategies for teachers, administrators, and other educational leaders who strive toward data-informed instruction that balances the use of assessment to address opportunity gaps.
Edited by: Beth Tarasawa, Amelia Gotwals, Cara Jackson
Topics: Equity, Empowering educators


Achievement and growth tables for private schools
This interactive tool provides context on the typical patterns of achievement and growth in mathematics and reading for private and Catholic schools who take MAP Growth assessments. It provides multiple ways to examine patterns for different groups of students, including by student gender, race/ethnic group, region, and state.
By: Michael Dahlin, Art Katsapis
Topics: Empowering educators, Innovations in reporting & assessment


MAP Growth Goal Explorer User’s Guide
This user’s guide for the MAP Growth Goal Explorer describes how to use this interactive tool, the benchmarks it uses to provide context on student growth goals, a framework for goal setting, instructions for how to download information from the tool, and answers to frequently asked questions.
By: Michael Dahlin, Karyn Lewis, Dave Moyer, Nate Jensen
Topics: Empowering educators, COVID-19 and schools, Innovations in reporting & assessment


MAP Growth Goal Explorer
The MAP Growth Goal Explorer is designed to support and simplify the goal-setting process by showing a range of possible fall-to-spring growth goals against the backdrop of important academic benchmarks.
By: Michael Dahlin, Karyn Lewis, Dave Moyer, Nate Jensen
Topics: Empowering educators, COVID-19 and schools, Innovations in reporting & assessment


Start now for a coherent assessment system in the fall
In this guest blog on the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment’s CenterLine, the authors share their perspective on how states, districts, and schools should consider using assessment to support instruction when school begins again in the fall.
By: Patrick Meyer, G. Gage Kingsbury
Topics: COVID-19 and schools, Empowering educators