Publications

This report provide a descriptive look at patterns of “summer learning loss” (SLL) in reading and mathematics for elementary and middle school students who use the i-Ready Diagnostic assessment system produced by Curriculum Associates. SLL in math amounts toabout 30 to 40% of school year growth depending on the grade in question. The score decreases are smaller in reading, ranging from about 10 to 20% of school year growth.

In this report, CADRE researchers share results from conducting a qualitative multi-site case study at three former low performing schools located in one school district that adopted locally motivated turnaround strategies and practices to maintain higher levels of student achievement over time. Two schools are former turnaround schools that participated in the Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) Turnaround Network (TN), and one school did not participate in the network but used many of the tools and strategies provided to TN schools. The purpose of this multi-site case study was to identify the practices, and conditions supporting those practices, that these schools learned through partnership with the TN and continue to sustain through present day.

This is an addendum to a report prepared for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) by the Center for Assessment, Design, Research & Evaluation (CADRE) at CU Boulder (Shear et al., 2021). CDE requested an addendum to the 2021 CADRE report presenting similar descriptive analyses for schools that participated in the Connect for Success (CFS) program and providing initial descriptive analyses of academic outcomes for schools participating in two other Empowering Action for School Improvement (EASI) programs: The Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) and Accountability Pathways Planning and Implementation (Pathways).

In this new book by Derek Briggs, Director of CADRE and current President of NCME, Briggs explores how and on what basis we have come to use the terminology of measurement in support of inferences about learning and academic achievement.