Standards and Assessments

Graphic: AIR Social Studies Standards Ecosystem

AIR recognizes the vital role of high-quality standards in developing assessment, evaluation, and accountability systems. A standards-based education system ensures all students are prepared for college, careers, and military service. High-quality standards and assessments are the foundation of a strong education system and inform cohesive policy decisions that support equitable teaching and learning outcomes for all students.

We work with states and districts to apply evidence-based strategies to design and develop policies and practices to create education systems centered on high-quality standards for all students. Our experts use evidence-informed technical assistance practices to support states, districts, and schools. Our researchers use rigorous methods to study the impact of standards-based education systems.

AIR’s Standards and Assessments ecosystem provides a cohesive and comprehensive structure to guide the development of standards-based systems.

Learn more about the Standards and Assessments ecosystem
 

Our Work

AIR’s approach to Standards and Assessments provides a cohesive and comprehensive structure to guide the development of standards-based systems. Each aspect of the approach supports federal, state, and district use of standards and assessments to create and implement coherent policies and practices centered on a standards-based education system.

View our Standards and Assessments work in social studies.

Using evidence-informed technical assistance practices, we work in partnership with federal, state, and local clients to support their efforts in improving learning outcomes for students across all grade and content areas. We tailor our approach to respond to federal, state, district, and local needs and remain attentive to both policy and political contexts. AIR’s experts also provide technical and analytical support for U.S. participation in international assessments such as TIMSS, PISA, and PIRLS. Our research and evaluation teams study critical questions needed to better understand how to create standards-based education systems.

 

Contact

Bobbi Newman

Principal Researcher

Key Projects and Resources

Our Standards & Assessments Ecosystem page provides more details on AIR’s approach to this work and additional projects.

AIR’s Standards and Assessments work helps our clients to create rigorous cohesive, and comprehensive standards-aligned systems. Our work is typically focused on one or more of the following core functions, all of which are embedded in research and evidence, and each connected by well-aligned policies and practices:

Planning and facilitating

Developing standards

Supporting standards implementation

  • Facilitating the development of resources that support implementation
  • Supporting the identification of high-quality instructional materials that support implementation
  • Developing tools for teachers to better access and use assessment results

Analyzing curricula and assessment

Conducting alignment studies

Building states’ and districts’ capacity to support standards-aligned teaching and learning

Related Work

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The purpose of this white paper is to consider the need for a revised NAEP science framework and its possible scope and focus including expansion to aspects of what is represented in NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy.

Comparison of NAEP Assessments With Current-Generation State Assessments

15 Nov 2020
NAEP conducts assessments and publishes reports on student achievement in a number of subject areas—including mathematics, reading, writing, and science, among others—that are widely used by federal, state, and local policymakers, educators, researchers, and the public. These studies use the judgments of expert panelists to compare 2017 NAEP assessment items ...

Center for Process Data

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Increasing Equitable Access to Quality Instruction: The Minnesota Standards Portal

09 Sep 2019
In this blog post, published as part of the work of the Midwest Comprehensive Center, Marguerite Huber discusses an effort to create a centerpiece of support for teachers and districts implementing Minnesota state standards.

Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales

21 Aug 2019
By placing a state standard onto the NAEP scale, a NAEP equivalent score of that standard is produced, which can be compared across states. The recently released report—the seventh in the series—highlights the results from the 2016–17 school year and compares them with results from two earlier years: 2007 to ...

Identifying and Applying Evidence-Based Practices: Training for State Education Staff

19 Dec 2018
How can state education agencies identify and apply effective practices to achieve their goals? Education research can point to beneficial practices, but finding relevant research can be a difficult and time-consuming process. The Midwest Comprehensive Center partnered with the Minnesota Department of Education leadership to help state education staff understand ...

National Benchmarks for State Achievement Standards

22 Feb 2016
State achievement standards represent how much the state expects their students to learn in order to reach various levels of academic proficiency. This report uses national benchmarking as a common metric to examine state achievement standards and compare how high these standards are compared to the National Assessment of Educational ...

Study of the Alignment of the 2015 NAEP Mathematics Items at Grades 4 and 8 to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics

26 Oct 2015
For more than four decades, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has provided the best available information about the academic achievement and educational progress of the nation’s students. The influence of the Common Core State Standards on instruction suggest the need to examine the alignment between the content covered by ...

New Science Standards: A Readiness Assessment for State Boards of Education

30 Apr 2015
State implementation of new standards (revising, adapting, and adopting new standards) is a significant undertaking. Many states are just beginning to consider whether to modify existing science standards, adapt standards being used in other states, or develop new ones. This document is intended to guide state boards of education through ...

New York State Curriculum Audits

As an alternative to the specified sanctions under the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, for school districts that were cited as being in corrective action, the state of New York negotiated an audit of the written, taught, and ...