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.

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

May20

Start Strong Assessment Going Statewide in New Jersey

New Meridian’s Start Strong assessment is being rolled out statewide in New Jersey, a system with hundreds of districts, thousands of schools and more than 1 million students.

May15

Lazzaro at NSTA: Science Assessment Cannot Get Left Behind

New Meridian Science Director Chris Lazzaro told educators at the National Science Teaching Association that assessment cannot get left behind as the field continues to implement Next Generation Science Standards

May11

Help Us Develop Next-Generation Science Assessments

New Meridian is looking for freelance item writers and reviewers who are familiar with Next Generation Science Standards to join the New Meridian Science Educator Cadre

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.