GL Assessment breaks US market with major new partnership

GL Assessment, the UK’s leading independent provider of tests and assessment services for education, has announced that its Progress in English Digital and Progress in Maths Digital assessments are to be used in schools across the United States in a major partnership between themselves, The American Education Corporation (AEC) and MetaMetrics™, Inc.

 

AEC is one of the most successful educational software providers in the US and the partnership ensures GL Assessment will have access to the expertise it needs to target this lucrative market. AEC will promote Progress in English (PIE) and Progress in Maths (PIM) to its established US customer base of 14,000 schools.

 

A successful pilot of PIE and PIM, which tested 15,000 US pupils, has firmly established the assessments as powerful tools for engaging pupils and encouraging them to achieve to the best of their ability. The tests are aligned with the US examinations system so that schools can easily see whether any additional learning support is needed to help a child reach the required standards. Reports also offer complex analysis that is specific to individual States.

 

The digital tests are quick and easy to administer. Detailed reports are sent directly to the teacher’s desktop, enabling them to gain an immediate and meaningful understanding of their pupils’ achievement over time, rather than relying on an end-of-year assessment alone. This will enable schools to tailor teaching and learning to meet the individual needs of their pupils as they progress and help ensure no child falls behind. It will also allow AEC to recommend specific resources to boost a child’s achievement.

 

The deal also sees GL Assessment’s PIE and PIM tests reporting pupils’ literacy and maths scores as Lexile™ and Quantile™ measures. Developed by educational measurement company MetaMetrics, Lexile and Quantile measures are already established methods of evaluating a child’s abilities in literacy and maths at school level in all 50 States. Each year, more than 28 million Lexile and Quantile measures are reported from state and national assessments, classroom assessments and reading programs, representing about half of U.S. students.

 

Graham Taylor, GL Assessment’s head of online assessment, said: “We have worked hard with our partners in the US to ensure PIE and PIM will offer schools across the country reliable pupil assessments that will transform the way teaching and learning is delivered in literacy and maths. The partnership will enable us to use AEC’s intimate knowledge of the US market and the individual needs of each State. The addition of Lexile and Quantile measures in the enhanced versions of PIE and PIM will also help ensure the success of our online tests beyond the UK.”

 

Tom Trautman, vice president of curriculum at AEC, said: “GL Assessment is well respected in the UK education industry for providing pupil assessments of the highest integrity and reliability and we have enjoyed a great working relationship from the start. The technology behind PIE and PIM is outstanding and the assessments offer accurate, timely tests for kids. Additionally, teachers using PIE and PIM don’t have to think about how to motivate their pupils because these tests are designed in a way that will engage children and inspire them to achieve more.”

 

Trilby Berger, director of strategic partnerships, MetaMetrics, said: “We are delighted that GL Assessment’s PIE and PIM tests are coming to the US. The partnership, and the inclusion of Lexile and Quantile measures in the enhanced assessments, will provide schools with meaningful and actionable information on the progress of each child. Now teachers will be able to link day-to-day teaching with pupils’ year-to-year performance on high-stakes tests.”

 

All the tests taken in the US will be run on GL Assessment’s UK-based e-assessment portal, Testwise, establishing the technology as a truly global system. A significant amount of the electronic content within Testwise has been indexed and standardised for the US market. The Testwise server is located in Newcastle and there will be no need for US schools to install any additional hardware onsite to use the assessments.

 

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Notes to the editor:

  • Both PIE and PIM are standardised pupil assessments. PIE is used to assess the reading and writing ability of 7 to 11-year-olds and PIM is designed to test the mathematical skills of pupils aged 6 to 14.
  • PIE and PIM will be marketed in the US as A+ LearningLink.
  • The tests have US voiceovers and GL Assessment has worked with AEC on a language pack so that relevant words are Americanised – i.e., ‘holiday’ has been changed to ‘vacation’.
  • Support and training for the assessments in the US will be provided by AEC.
  • The Lexile Framework™ for Reading provides a common, developmental scale for matching reader ability and text difficulty, allowing teachers and parents to match children with books and other reading materials according to their individual interests and reading ability.  
  • The Quantile Framework™ for Mathematics allows a pupil’s individual mathematical achievement to be measured alongside task difficulty. This enables teachers to easily see which mathematics skills a learner has mastered and which areas require further instruction.

 

 
 
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