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.
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.
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.
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.
Aug22
Approved Montana Field-Testing Flexibility Waiver Empowers Students and Educators
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has approved a Field-Testing Flexibility Waiver for the new Montana Alternative Student Testing (MAST) pilot program, an innovative through-year assessment design championed by Montana State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen.
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 […]
Aug2
Discussing Through-Year Assessment at NCSA
Nearly a thousand educators and experts convened at the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) in New Orleans this June to discuss through-year testing, community engagement, and other vital components of next-generation assessment as states continue to revise their systems in the wake of the pandemic.
Jul31
New Meridian CEO Arthur VanderVeen on Assessments
Ever since No Child Left Behind was signed into law in 2002, assessments have been a fixture of the education landscape—a very divisive one. But assessments have changed a lot over the last twenty years and are still changing to better meet the needs of students, teachers, schools, districts, and states. On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses the future of assessments and more with New Meridian CEO and founderArthur VanderVeen.
Jun26
We need a new approach to student assessment.
Ashley Eden, Senior Vice President for State Partnerships, explores how adopting a more holistic assessment approach moves education closer to achieving the decades-old promise that assessment can directly impact classroom learning.
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.
Stay Current with New Meridian
Subscribe to The Prime, our monthly newsletter that explores how states, districts and educators use quality assessments and data-informed instruction to help students improve every day.
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