Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced that two assessments from its Riverside division have been selected as state-approved formative assessments for English/Language Arts and Mathematics in the state of New Mexico. The Riverside® Interim Assessments and the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) District Benchmark Assessment, the latter of which employs Riverside’s DataDirector™ platform and Assess2Know® item banks, were two of the three assessments selected by the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) for use in the 2012-2013 academic year. This mandate will affect more than 325,000 students in grades 4-10 across the state.
In choosing the assessments that would make up the state-mandated list, the New Mexico PED underwent a rigorous vetting process to identify tools steeped in research and with strong alignment with the Common Core State Standards. The group also wanted strong internal consistency, plus fair and accessible items for English Language Learners and students with disabilities. Riverside’s assessments more than satisfied these requirements.
The Riverside Interim Assessments provide an independent referent to help educators determine the effectiveness of their Common Core curriculum and make adjustments based on data received. These assessments offer three forms per grade to monitor growth and achievement, plus online reporting tools to allow educators to understand and communicate individual and group results and guide instructional decisions. The cognitive level performance reporting also reflects students' mastery of standards at three levels of complexity.
In January, HMH announced a partnership with Albuquerque Public Schools that produced a systematic approach to implementing the Common Core Standards. The partnership resulted in the APS District Benchmark Assessment, a tool that implements DataDirector, HMH’s Web-based data and assessment management system, and the Assess2Know item banks, which include thousands of high-quality measures. The item bank enables educators to create their own assessments according to their district’s pacing guide by using an online test generator, and also allows them to construct tests aligned to individual state standards.
