Assessment Design + Evaluation

The assessment of student learning is at the heart of the education enterprise. The field is in significant flux as researchers, policymakers, and school staff members struggle to identify the best way to assess what students know.

SRI has an impressive history of innovative assessment design. We lead the application of new and existing methods and technologies. SRI researchers help clients design effective assessments and document development procedures to support assessment validity.

SRI's work addresses design, implementation, and technical quality issues, incorporating the Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry (PADI) approach. SRI researchers conduct, research, and review classroom, state, national, and international assessments in partnership with government and educational agencies, foundations, and commercial firms.

SRI specializes in the assessment of students with special needs, and in assessments involving new technologies, allowing clients to

  • Measure learning that matters, but is not measured by conventional multiple-choice tests

  • Validate the quality of assessments

  • Adapt assessments to better serve learners with disabilities

  • Help teachers use assessments to improve instruction and student learning outcomes

Projects

teacher working with a young student
Alternate Assessment Design – Math and Reading

SRI is working with a consortium of states to design alternate performance tasks that advance how the learning of students with significant cognitive disabilities is assessed.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Special Education/Disability
two girls looking at a world globe and smiling
Contingent Pedagogies for Conceptual Teaching + Learning

Improving classroom assessment is potentially one of the most powerful ways to improve student achievement. To realize such gains, however, teachers must use classroom assessments formatively, that is, to adjust and improve instruction.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Research on Learning Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education Teacher Quality + Learning
young girl in wheelchair
Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center

SRI's ECO Center provides national leadership on measuring the outcomes of programs serving young children with delays and disabilities.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Early Childhood Policy Analysis Program Design + Implementation Special Education/Disability
mother holding young son in her arms
ENHANCE

SRI is studying the quality of child outcomes data reported by states to the federal government under Part C and Part B Preschool services of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Early Childhood Educational Impact Evaluation Extant Data Analysis Policy Analysis School Improvement: Student Success
Teacher watches educational video program with young students
Evaluation of the Ready to Learn Initiative

SRI and its partner are building on a groundbreaking scientific study of how public media materials can help low-income preschoolers develop key early literacy skills.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Early Childhood Learning Technologies Research on Learning
teacher sitting on floor with young students
Learning Progressions

An SRI team is studying how young children with and without learning disabilities think about and learn important concepts in mathematics.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College + Workforce: Disabled Veterans: Transitions to Civilian Life Early Childhood Learning Technologies Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education Special Education/Disability Teacher Quality + Learning
students in a classroom
National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2)

SRI documented the experiences of a national sample of students as they moved from secondary school into adult roles.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College + Workforce: Disabled Veterans: Transitions to Civilian Life Large-Scale Surveys Special Education/Disability
Two images of students working in classrooms
PADI: Evidence-Centered Design

Conventional tests often fail to measure what is most important in student learning. Since 2001, SRI has been measuring important knowledge, skills, and abilities in science.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Learning Technologies School Improvement Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education
teacher working with a young student
Teacher Professional Development in Chicago

SRI is evaluating the impact of teachers' participation in a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored program to achieve high standards for pre-K to grade 3 students in mathematics.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Early Childhood Policy Analysis School Improvement Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education Teacher Quality + Learning

Press Releases

Teacher with young students
Department of Education Funds SRI’s Evaluation of Early Childhood Intervention Program in the Midwest

SRI researchers are beginning an evaluation of the Midwest Expansion of the Child-Parent Center (CPC) program, an intervention that provides comprehensive educational and family-support services to at-risk pre-kindergarten through third-grade children.

Topics: 21st Century Skills Assessment Design + Evaluation Early Childhood School + Community Partnerships School Improvement School Improvement: Student Success

Publications

Contextualized Learning and Assessment

Contextualized instruction involves developing activities that involve students in applying knowledge in real-world situations, working on teams, reflecting on what they learned through an activity, and involves teachers in coaching more, which requires more formative assessment.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction
Getting on the Same Page using Scenario-Based Learning: An Alignment of Education and Industry Goals for Technician Education

This report examines how community college and industry experts rated a problem-based learning curriculum. The report indicates that industry experts and instructors diverge in their expectations about how "real-world," problem-based learning curriculum needs to be.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning
Domain-specific Assessment: What Foundational Concepts and Reasoning Skills are Community College Students Learning?

The Domain-Specific Assessment project developed a set of tools and assessment items that measure students’ capacity to apply knowledge rather than simply memorize vast amounts of it. An overview of the approach to the methodology is presented in this paper.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning School Improvement: Student Success
The Design Pattern: A Blueprint for a New Domain-specific Assessment

This presentation focuses on a scenario-based assessment to measure how well college students learn.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Learning Technologies
The ATE Suitability Inventory: A Tool for Analyzing Features of Workforce Education Instructional Materials

This report documents the design and validation of a checklist intended to provide a consistent set of features that can be used to “tag” instructional materials so instructors can find and select them for their classrooms.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Teacher Quality + Learning
Poster: Assessment Research to Inform Community College Instructional Goals

A poster presenting the team's research on how to make visible, by means of assessment, the important, foundational knowledge in domain areas.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions
Meeting Student Challenges to Innovative Instruction with Improved Assessment Techniques

Presentation of an R&D project focused on the assessment of project-based learning involving community college instructors, and engagement in some of the reflection activities that helped instructors identify and measure the skills taught in innovative instruction.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning School Improvement: Curriculum + Instruction Teacher Quality + Learning
Using Knowledge about How People Learn to Define Learning Goals

How well are college general education classes preparing students to apply big ideas to real-world problems? What are the major steps of domain-specific assessment design?

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions
21st Century Skills in STEM Workforce Training Assessments

What skills do tech employers seek? A new vision for teaching STEM tech education is posited.

Topics: 21st Century Skills Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions Community College: Reform to Support Real-World Learning Science, Technology, Engineering + Mathematics Education Technology Opportunities
Scenario-Based Learning Assessment Reflection Toolkit

SRI developed evidence-centered assessment reflection tools (EC-AR) that help educators to broaden learning objectives to shift from content topics to student competencies.

Topics: Assessment Design + Evaluation Community College: Transitions

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