Today, Jacob is joined by an Alaskan and a Texan: Moon McCarley, Principal at Nondalton School and District Testing Coordinator for The Lake and Peninsula School District, located on the Alaska Peninsula; and Ashley Cruz, State Professional Learning Consultant at NWEA. They discuss how NWEA partners with districts across Alaska to create high-impact professional learning opportunities to expand assessment literacy. Along the way, Moon shares her experience as a Certified Facilitator and talks about how it helped her grow as a leader.

NWEA senior research scientist Scott Peters offers a thoughtful approach to using MAP Growth data to identify advanced learning opportunities for students that helps educators balance access, sensitivity, alignment, and cost in making these key placement decisions.

This document offers guidance on how NWEA® MAP Growth can help educators decide which students are ready for or would benefit from advanced learning opportunities, such as gifted and talented programs.

This paper describes high quality teaching practices in two schools that produce exceptional growth for all kinds of students. These practices focus on making the most of instructional time and exposing students to high quality content in a variety of contexts. They prove teachers don’t need to choose between differentiating to meet students’ needs and giving them access to grade-level learning.

Melissa Lim is a Technology Integration Specialist at Portland Public Schools, but she sees herself first and foremost as a teacher, not an IT professional. In this episode, Melissa chats with Kailey and Jacob about showing kids and teachers what’s possible with technology ,and how she makes them more comfortable using it. They cover ChatGPT and its uses in the classroom (like writing better quizzes!) as well as Melissa’s work to bridge the digital divide and give all kids at PPS equal access to tech. She shares her rule for deciding when you shouldn’t use technology, along with her number one tip for teachers: Don’t be afraid to push a new button! You won’t break anything (probably).v

The science of reading is both a body of research and movement in literacy education. How do we keep those two things connected when they’re not always aligned? What are most common myths about literacy instruction, how do we fight them? A roundtable of educators and specialists from NWEA join Jacob & Kailey to talk about how the science of reading works best in classrooms and where both the movement and the research are going.

All reading tests are not created equal. With helpful features, innovative reporting tools, and robust professional learning experiences, MAP® Reading Fluency™ is an early reading assessment unlike any other. Learn more about the equity-advancing, time-saving features included with MAP Reading Fluency