Developing assessments
Effective assessments: the key ingredients
Pearson develops and delivers large-scale assessments to provide key data on student readiness that can point the way to personalized instruction for next-generation learners.
Click each step to learn more:
Developing content
We share a common goal with our customers and partners: increase student achievement. To that end, we collaborate with you to build assessment content tailored to your unique curriculum standards, instructional challenges, and learning goals.
Wanted: 21st century skills
As college and career readiness standards are implemented across the country, large-scale assessments need to evolve to measure them. Pearson doesn’t take this challenge lightly. We’re collaborating with teachers and education experts to develop performance tasks and innovative, computer-enhanced items that measure higher-order thinking skills.
A typical standardized test requires nearly three years of development and involves thousands of educators in the process. Yet, all this work would be in vain if we didn’t work closely with our partners to develop test specifications corresponding to their curriculum standards. We’ve collaborated with several states to align assessment content to new college and career standards, including Common Core State Standards.
Delivery
Our unified approach ensures the organized, timely delivery of assessments on any scale.
Today’s test environment
“Today’s students have never known a world without the internet, video games, or cell phones. Our online test delivery system—TestNav™—has a student-friendly interface and navigation tools familiar to today’s learners. Proven in numerous states, TestNav has successfully and safely delivered millions of tests on laptops, desktops, and tablets during large-scale testing.
Making the transition
While online testing may be the goal, budgetary and infrastructure challenges might be keeping it from being your reality. Our proven processes for paper-based assessments focus on maintaining test security, providing accurate handling of test materials, and delivering these materials on schedule—all to ensure that your test administration runs smoothly.
When you’re ready, we can also help you chart a transition to online testing.
Scoring & reporting
Scoring and reporting make your assessment management system a useful tool for teachers, parents, and students.
Calculating student scores
We can help you choose between a variety of scoring methods to optimize efficiencies while still being reliable, accurate, effective, and affordable.
- Machine scoring: We score billions of multiple-choice tests each year and can help you securely transport completed bubble sheet forms and scan them for accurate results.
- Teachers as scorers: For interim assessments, we can offer a Hand Scoring System that teachers can use to score student constructed responses. By scoring student responses, teachers can identify and implement instructional changes to help students prepare for summative assessments.
- Intelligent technology: Our visionary automated scoring technologies can accurately evaluate spoken and written student responses. This translates into rapid feedback for teachers and students.
Using reports to personalize instruction
Innovative reporting solutions shorten the feedback loop and enhance the ability to make instructional decisions based on timely, accurate, and relevant data. Pearson’s cloud-based assessment management system, Pearson Access, allows you to access student results and share reports with educators and parents all in one location.
Data & analytics
We’ll help ensure you’re getting valid assessment results and know how to analyze them to make the big decisions.
Grounded in research
Our experienced researchers offer a full range of psychometric support both before and after an assessment administration to ensure you receive usable, reliable results.
- Equating and scaling analysis
- Reviewing and approving items and analyzing test data (traditional and item-response theory)
- Equating (linking) test forms
- Performing standard-setting activities as needed in support of establishing a cutscore
- Authoring award-winning technical reports and reviews
The big picture view
With so many moving parts generating so much data, it's tough to turn it all into actionable information. On the one hand, you need to know everything about one specific student's entire history and progress. On the other, aggregate real-time statistics and historic trends. Students and staff are always moving, and your funding is directly contingent upon accurate reports. We get it, and we're here to help you.