NWEA research into student learning during the 2020–21 school year has confirmed what many suspected was true: COVID-19 school closures have exacerbated inequities in education. This eBook details the findings and offers pragmatic advice for reading and math instruction that can help teachers harness the power of growth mindset.

A fear of math is far too common. While many of us are inadvertently stifled in our ways of thinking and doing mathematics, it doesn’t have to be that way. This compilation of Teach. Learn. Grow. blog posts by NWEA math experts will walk you through how to support all your students in building a positive math identity and a lifelong love of learning.

Educators and NWEA researchers offer research-backed suggestions and strategies to help recover unfinished learning and chart a new path forward after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Traditional grading practices typically incorporate non-learning measures such as behavior and effort into an average. Yet by mixing achievement and behavior, we miscommunicate on both accounts. Students and parents still need information on both, but the critical step is to separate reporting, and Dr. Matt Townsley and NWEA User Experience Designer Chris Thoms will share with us both why this is crucial for equity, and how teachers can put it into action.

To successfully create the conditions where grading for learning practices may thrive, consider first the importance of ensuring student-centered assessment. Hear from experts on how formative assessment is crucial to cultivating a growth-mindset in a safe, respectful classroom environment, and learn how to invite students to be co-pilots in the assessment and feedback cycle rather than passengers.

Let’s begin our journey towards better grading practices! Grades have remained a fundamental component of our education system for over a century. Yet despite shifts across so many other areas of educational practice, grading practices have seen little, if any, change to match the demands of modern pedagogy. The pandemic revealed stark flaws in traditional grading protocols and simultaneously presented a profound opportunity for actual change. What should educators, families, and society in general consider around why change is needed and where to begin?

What happens when reliable data becomes a school’s driving force? At South Carolina’s Great Falls Elementary, it helped the adults align and the students grow—and created a culture of higher expectations for all.