CA Department of Education Approves NWEA Assessment
Portland, OR (PRWEB) November 13, 2014 -- Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) announced today its Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) assessment has been chosen by the California Department of Education as a diagnostic tool for second grade in English language arts and math.
“We’ve been using MAP since 1999 and it has been transformative for us,” said Eric Lehew, Executive Director for Poway Unified School District, in San Diego, California. “MAP helps us identify our students’ current academic level and growth over time. But the most exciting part of MAP is that our students now follow their own growth to set goals for their own learning. That really changes the relationship between student and assessment.”
Second graders in California are no longer required to participate in the state’s summative assessment. To ensure that second grade teachers have access to high-quality information about their students’ learning and growth, the California Department of Education today named MAP among diagnostic assessments selected for their validity, reliability and appropriateness for intended use, as well as alignment with the Common Core State Standards in ELA or mathematics for second grade.
Approved assessments in English language arts and math were selected in part through an online survey of teachers about diagnostic assessments and the features that teachers find useful in supporting their instructional practice. California school districts can elect to implement MAP in second grade classrooms beginning this month. Funding is available for districts selecting approved assessments.
MAP is an interim assessment that provides immediate feedback to teachers about student learning by pinpointing each student’s unique strengths and weaknesses to a goal-strand level, independent of grade level. As a computer adaptive assessment, MAP dynamically adjusts to each student’s level of learning and provides actionable data for teachers to make instructional adjustments as students are ready to learn. For RTI implementations, it is an approved universal screener, with strong ratings from RTI4Success.
“We are honored to be selected by the State of California, and excited that MAP is being recognized by second grade teachers for its reliability and usefulness,” said Matt Chapman, NWEA President and CEO. “Empowering teachers to understand the learning and growth of young students is paramount to their progress in later grades – and at the heart of our mission at NWEA.”
About Northwest Evaluation Association
Founded by educators nearly 40 years ago, Northwest Evaluation Association™ (NWEA™) is a global not-for-profit educational services organization known for our flagship interim assessment, Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®). More than 6,800 partners in U.S. school districts, education agencies, and international schools trust us to offer pre-kindergarten through grade 12 assessments that accurately measure student growth and learning needs, professional development that fosters educators’ ability to accelerate student learning, and research that supports assessment validity and data interpretation. To better inform instruction and maximize every learner’s academic growth, educators currently use NWEA assessments and items with nearly 10 million students.
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Julie Newport, Collaborative Communications Group, +1 (202) 266-4718, [email protected]
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