This report presents the results of a mode comparability study conducted through simulations to evaluate how scores from MAP Growth administered on the constraint-based engine (CBE) compare to those administered on the current MAP Growth engine known as COLO.

The report documents the process NWEA followed to determine and validate the cut scores for fall, winter, and spring that can be used to identify students in Grades K–8 who have severe learning difficulties and need intensive intervention in reading and mathematics.

This study evaluates the performance of Pychometrik, a new item calibration tool, against the existing tool for MAP Growth.

This report examines the academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students, with the goal of documenting achievement trends to provide leaders and policymakers with evidence to guide action to address educational inequities for BIPOC students.

The four-day school week (4dsw) is growing in popularity, especially in rural areas across the western United States. RAND researchers conducted a study of the implementation and outcomes of the 4dsw in numerous districts across Idaho, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, as well as administrative data from these and other states. The analyses resulted in mixed findings, with small cost savings and high satisfaction for teachers, families, and students, but lower test scores related to the 4dsw. Given these mixed findings, communities are likely to make different choices about the 4dsw depending on their goals and the local context.

Two studies were conducted to evaluate whether the existing MAP Growth item parameter estimates are invariant across different calibration samples.

School officials regularly use school-aggregate test scores to monitor school performance and make policy decisions. In this report, RAND researchers investigate one specific issue that may contaminate utilization of COVID-19–era school-aggregate scores and result in faulty comparisons with historical and other proximal aggregate scores: changes in school composition over time. To investigate this issue, they examine data from NWEA’s MAP Growth assessments, interim assessments used by states and districts during the 2020–2021 school year.