New Meridian: Montana is a Leader on Next-Generation Assessment

After piloting in 30 districts, state expands innovative MAST program  AUSTIN, TX — APRIL 21, 2023 — Leaders at New Meridian Corporation applauded a decision by the Montana Office of Public Instruction to expand the state’s successful through-course assessment pilot program.  “Montana is leading the nation in creating the next generation of assessment,” said Arthur […]

Q&A: Maria Cammack, Vice President of Assessment Design and Development

After almost a decade of experience in assessment, much of it with the State of Oklahoma where she served as Deputy Superintendent of Assessment & Accountability, Maria Cammack joined New Meridian as Vice President of Assessment Design and Development in 2022. We caught up with Maria to discuss the next generation of assessment. The interview […]

Michael Horn: New Meridian Pilot Programs are ‘Incredibly Exciting’ 

https://youtu.be/E3MiaYtHNDg New Meridian CEO Arthur VanderVeen sat down with Michael Horn, host of The Future of Education podcast, to discuss the next generation of assessment in U.S. schools. The conversation began with an observation.     “Assessments often become synonymous with an autopsy in our education system,” said Michael Horn, an author and education consultant. “It’s just […]

We Just Lost 40% of Pre-Pandemic Gains—Our Students Deserve an Urgent Response

By Arthur VanderVeen, Chief Executive Officer of New Meridian You could hear the collective gasp from American educators when the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released post-pandemic testing results. While we have all experienced first-hand the disruption wrought by COVID-19, seeing students’ learning loss quantified in the form of declining scores was nothing […]

Now is the Time to Reimagine Assessments

Whitepaper: Now is the Time to Reimagine Assessments

At New Meridian, we have spent a year studying next-generation assessments. We have codified our ideas into a whitepaper: Now is the Time to Reimagine Assessments. We invite you to read

The True Costs of Low-Quality Assessments

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

Bringing Local Agency and Voice to Design Fair Assessments

State standards

A state’s academic learning standards not only define what students should know and be able to do at each grade level, they signal a society’s values. Part tradition, part research, part social construct, and part political process, they define what we collectively believe the next generation of students must know not only to succeed personally […]

The Equity Paradox

COVID Academic recovery

How do we weigh the challenges of testing this spring against the need to initiate a years-long recovery effort that will certainly require good data?

We Need State Testing Data to Address the COVID Slide

So many of the established routines of our shared civic life have been suspended. While we wait hopefully for a vaccine that appears to be just around the corner, new COVID cases are spiking, lockdowns continue, unemployment benefits are expiring, and most of our schools remain closed to in-person learning. Our lives feel suspended. And […]