Dive Brief:
- Jefferson County Public Schools, in Colorado, is adopting a digital interim assessment system designed by Northwest Evaluation Association that provides instant feedback on student performance.
- NWEA develops the widely used MAP assessments, which Jefferson County will implement in its schools.
- The district and NWEA are also partnering with Mastery Connect, which will provide aligned curriculum and assessment analysis tools.
Dive Insight:
The Colorado collaboration is intended to provide teachers and administrators with the kind of comprehensive package that data-driven instruction has promised: student performance data tied to supporting tools for teachers. It's the second such project that NWEA has announced this month. The first, with education systems developer NoRedInk, is intended to streamline and improve student feedback and provide students tools to improve their performance.
The move is part of a larger industry-wide trends toward comprehensive assessment packages that don't just provide test questions, but also produce and analyze student data while providing teachers, administrators, and school districts with data-driven tools to respond to student needs. But those packages have also raised thorny questions of teacher agency, about whether teachers will have sufficient training, expertise, and independence to respond based on their judgment. As data-driven education technologies become more common, it will be a puzzle each district will have to navigate.
