For our final episode on student agency, we thought it was time to help our students set some better goals. So, we brought in Chase Nordengren, senior research scientist at NWEA and author of the forthcoming book, Step Into Student Goal Setting (Corwin, Jan 2022).

In this episode, we present the five principles of assessment empowerment—learner context, learning environments and relationships, appropriate purpose, responsive learning cycles, communication—and offer listeners strategies they can try for each.

In this episode, we discuss information why and how teaching programs fail to prepare gen ed teachers for working with students with disabilities, break down a few common myths about students with disabilities, and give teachers actionable ideas and strategies for building student agency with their entire class. Our guests are two NWEA experts in special education: Douglas Buttorff (content designer) and Elizabeth Barker (accessibility research scientist).

In this discussion, we cover how to recognize the assets emergent bilingual students bring with them, how to get back into the groove of academic language, and how to make room for both language and communication with English language learners.

Math outcomes across a school or district are often far from homogenous. MAP Accelerator, a personalized math learning tool for students in grades 3–8, can help you build a more cohesive, consistent set of instructional practices. It brings MAP Growth data and Khan Academy learning pathways together to better support your math teachers in helping all students grow.

In relentless pursuit of our mission to help all kids learn, the Policy and Advocacy team at NWEA elevates five key areas in which we seek to influence decision-making: informing the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, driving equity and innovation in assessments, supporting the reimagining of accountability, building and supporting a diverse educator workforce, and expanding opportunities to learn.

In this conversation, we venture into the domain specific ways we, as educators, can empower students within our classrooms.