It’s Time to Rethink Educational Assessments

Flexible Assessment Systems Enable Educators to Respond to Students’ Needs and Expand Educational Equity

Standard approaches to assessment are rigid, expensive, and inadequate to assess a student’s true learning needs. Poor assessment techniques often end up hurting our most vulnerable students.

By maintaining and growing large banks of premium assessment content for our state partners, New Meridian is able to develop innovative new assessment solutions to meet changing needs. These include statewide, beginning-of-year, end-of-year, and standards- and curriculum-aligned interim assessments.

When combined into a coherent system of assessments, these solutions enable educators to respond to students’ needs, while ensuring all students have the opportunity to master critical grade-level learning standards.

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 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.

Jan12

Lazzaro to Speak at Education Week Virtual Science Summit

New Meridian Science Director Chris Lazzaro will speak at the Education Week virtual K-12 Essentials Forum, Teaching Science Today: Challenges and Solutions on January 19

Oct28

Q&A: Terran Brown, VP of Assessment Design and Development

Terran Brown joined New Meridian as Vice President of Assessment Design and Development earlier this year. We caught up with him to discuss his background, goals and the future of assessment

Oct14

Meet Our Technical Advisory Committee

New Meridian’s Technical Advisory Committee helps ensure our assessment solutions meet the highest professional standards in the industry

May27

The True Costs of Low-Quality Assessments

The difference between high-quality and low-quality assessment is both dramatic and consequential, and educators need to understand the systemic impact of quality—especially in today’s environment

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.