Our Work Reflects National Report Themes
The summer months have been full steam ahead across the Central Comprehensive Center region. As our teams continue supporting state education agencies (SEAs) in our region, we took special note of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trends report released in mid-June.
In a cause for celebration, average scores for 9-year-olds increased in both reading and math between 2022 and 2025, bringing them back in line with pre-pandemic scores. Notably, scores increased among the lower performers at the 10th and 25th percentiles.
Reading the subsequent new stories about the results, we couldn’t help but see parallels between the report’s themes and the work our state partners are focusing on, including:
- Early literacy and mathematic instruction matters. The 9-year-olds were not yet in kindergarten when pandemic-related shutdowns disrupted learning for students.
- Being present is critical. Student absenteeism continues to be a challenge, especially for the 13-year-old cohort, whose test scores remained stagnant.
- Targeted support can make an impact. Additional federal education funding from the pandemic often went to student subgroups that saw some of the biggest improvements in test results.
While the results tell us there’s still more work to be done for academic recovery, it also tells us the work our SEAs are doing is making a difference.
Resource Recap
Over the past quarter, we launched our blog. We started with a few posts exploring a question many SEAs are asking: Is it time to rethink how we test our students? Check out our first posts and follow along as we explore this complex and evolving topic.
| Innovating State Assessments: Getting It All Right | Recipes for Success: Crafting an Effective State Assessment System |
Highlighting Our Work
As part of our work on comprehensive assessment systems, we’ve created a carousel exploring elements of four common within-year assessments: interim, through-course, focused, and diagnostic. Below is a sneak peek at one of the slides.
Check out the carousel and more news on our LinkedIn page!
We are grateful for your time and support. Please stay in touch and be part of the conversation. We’ll also be sharing updates regularly here on the blog and on our LinkedIn page. If there’s a topic you’d like to hear more about, reach out and let us know!