It’s Time to Rethink
Educational Assessments
We envision a world of curious and engaged thinkers who are ready to solve the problems of tomorrow. To do that, we innovate. New Meridian leads the way in new high-quality assessment solutions that focus on the skills that matter, so you can modernize without compromise and create generations of life-ready students.
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High Quality Assessment that Measures the Skills that Matter: Welcome to the New Meridian Way
Statewide assessments help stakeholders determine how the educational system is serving students by gaining an understanding of what students know and can do. They ensure all students receive a quality education by evaluating what students have learned through the measurement of student achievement of common state academic standards.
Assessment should reinforce, support, and improve teaching and learning. It should drive meaningful learning experiences and interactions in the classroom and serve as a critical driver of equity by ensuring all students have acquired the knowledge, skills, and abilities to prepare them for success in college, career, and life. Yet, many systems fall short of these basic tenets. In order to realize the ideals of a high-quality education, we must begin with high-quality assessment. Welcome to the New Meridian Way.
New Meridian’s innovative, high-quality assessment solutions measure the skills that matter, like the ability to think critically, solve problems, and communicate effectively. This approach evaluates deeper learning and reinforces quality throughout the system with rich, more meaningful data that better informs teaching, learning, and allocation of student support.
The New Meridian Way puts equity first by going beyond a fair academic foundation to inspire and motivate students in their learning journey. We believe that when we equip the students of today with the skills that matter, they become the life-long learners of tomorrow. If you feel the same, let’s talk.

High-Quality Content Created by Educators for Educators
Accomplished math, English language arts, social studies, and science educators from across our partner states develop New Meridian’s assessment content for use in their respective state assessment programs. Our signature focus on critical thinking, deep understanding, and the ability to communicate effectively help educators better prepare students to succeed in today’s complex world.
Several independent evaluations—including two critical reviews conducted by the U.S. Department of Education—have determined our tests provide industry-leading alignment to state standards, including the breadth of cognitive complexity demanded by today’s model learning standards.
Better Assessment Systems =
Better Data
A single end-of-year measure provides only a snapshot of student learning. By combining multiple measures throughout the year, educators develop a richer profile of students’ learning that informs instruction and provides comparable data, which identifies where additional resources are needed. A better assessment system ensures districts and schools are serving all students equitably.
Our Content
New Meridian’s high-quality assessment content eliminates bias, promotes educational equity, and focuses on what matters most for students’ postsecondary and career success.

Start Strong Assessment
The Start Strong Assessment accelerates student learning and offers support at the most critical time of the year. The assessment is available for grades 3 to 8 in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.

Science Exchange
The Science Exchange provides states the quickest, most cost-effective way to develop NGSS-aligned assessments. States receive a trusted partnership, science expertise, and shared content that has undergone rigorous quality assurance review.

The New Meridian
A meridian is a longitudinal line used in navigation. In education, longitudinal data analysis is the study of student growth over time. Our logo shows a shift in the meridian, a New Meridian, which represents our work to shift the future of assessments and create a new way of thinking.
New Meridian is a nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the quality of public education for all students by designing assessments that focus on skills that matter: critical thinking, understanding, and communication. Since 2016, our diverse team of experts have been advocating for a new system of assessments and developing a better way to evaluate student readiness.
We work closely with stakeholders to fully understand the challenges and goals in your state; to produce innovative solutions with your needs in mind; and to deliver assessments that are cost-effective, turnkey, and can be implemented quickly—often within a matter of months.
Partner with New Meridian for better assessment solutions and start improving student performance for success.
It All Starts at The Prime
The Prime Meridian is the origin of all meridians. It is where they all begin. At New Meridian, The Prime Learning Library gives you access to all of our resources, blog articles, and news discussing the future of assessment solutions. Connect with The Prime and learn how states, districts, and educators use quality assessments and data-informed instruction to help students improve every day.

Mar24
New Meridian Creates ‘Enhanced Item Release Program’ in Illinois
When assessment scores are reported, test items are often released with them to give teachers, administrators and parents a better sense of the test and what it measures. At New Meridian, we are taking that idea further. The Enhanced Item Release Program is a project launched in Illinois that aims to augment released test items […]

Mar28
Subcontracting Opportunity with New Meridian Corporation
New Meridian is searching for organizations interested in a subcontracting opportunity for an active procurement from the Illinois State Board of Education. This opportunity pertains to the Illinois Science Assessment, 23-586SBE-CHFED-B-31689. Interested organizations must be certified in the State of Illinois as a Business Enterprise Program (BEP) vendor and/or a Veteran Small Business (VSB) vendor. […]

Mar13
New Meridian Names Eileen Shihadeh as Chief Operating Officer
“Quality assessment has the power to transform a student’s future. When assessment is done well, educators can get the data and information they need to ensure each child in their classroom has the opportunity not only to succeed, but to thrive.” New COO brings over two decades of marketing, sales, product and strategic experience in […]

Mar10
New Meridian Completes First ‘Enhanced Reporting’ Assessment Workshop
Illinois educators gather to review and improve new assessment reporting tools ELGIN, ILLINOIS MARCH 10, 2023 — Two dozen math and English teachers from districts in and around the city participated in a workshop to improve how state assessment scores are reported to educators, parents and other stakeholders. The workshop was part of New Meridian’s […]

Innovation Through
Collaboration
We’re proud to work with a wide range of professional organizations to help states develop high-quality assessment programs quickly and cost-effectively. New Meridian collaborates with The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. (Center for Assessment) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), as well as the test administration companies that support our partner states.






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