INTERIM ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS AND COGNITIVE MEASURES OF DEEPER LEARNING: AN EVALUATION OF THE USA TESTPREP® PROGRAM

Abstract

Recent federal and state policy has placed increasing focus on college and career readiness. As a result, many states and local districts respond by implementing interim assessment systems to help them facilitate instruction and monitor progress towards college and career readiness. Yet, there is little evidence to support the efficacy of these programs in influencing student outcomes (Perie, et al., 2009). Thus, the purpose of this study is to consider to what extent one interim assessment program, USA TestPrep®, as implemented in a suburban Oklahoma middle school met the goals of college and career readiness as examined through a lens of deeper learning. Through a mixed methods approach, the researcher concluded that while the interim assessments, as created by teachers in the district, were predictive of the standardized assessments, they did not align with the measures of deeper learning. As a tool for data driven decision making, teachers’ primary perception of the program was one of predictive purpose and to a lesser extent the instructional purposes to inform teaching and learning.