The Common Core State Standards Initiative offers an unprecedented opportunity for states to collaborate to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness and comparability of their assessment systems. States who adopt the Standards are being encouraged to employ only one or two summative assessments that could be administered across all states.

The U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top Fund Assessment Program will make up to $350 million available for state consortia to develop the "next generation" of assessments. A key component of these next-generation assessments is to produce the data necessary to: 1) support decision making at all levels, including indicators as to whether students are ready or "on track" to be ready for college and careers; 2) measure student growth over time in addition to annual performance against standards; and 3) determine how students perform compared with their international peers.

The Quantile^® Framework for Mathematics provides a common, developmental scale and measure of mathematics achievement. It measures mathematics achievement and the difficulty of mathematical skills and concepts in a manner similar to the structure of The Lexile^® Framework for Reading, which measures reading ability and text complexity. To follow are some examples of how Quantile^® measures support the Race to the Top Fund Assessment Program:

• (A(3) Assessment System Design
• (B)(3) Course Assessment Program Design and Development 
• (A)(5) Research and Evaluation 
• (B)(4) Research and Evaluation

Monitor student growth in relation to college and career readiness

The Standards focus on students' attainment of college and career readiness; students graduating from high school must be ready to enter into postsecondary environments with the mathematical skills needed to perform successfully. A key feature of the Common Core State Assessments will be measuring students’ mathematics achievement to ensure that they are on a trajectory to graduate with these requisite skills.

Research conducted using the Quantile scale has measured the mathematics demands of materials students will likely encounter in their postsecondary and career pursuits. The Quantile scale expands traditional K-12 educational systems to P-20 systems, and helps educators and policymakers assess that students are graduating college and career ready.

Target instruction for all learners and connect students with appropriate learning materials

The Quantile Framework empowers educators to make actionable decisions regarding mathematics instruction when the student's readiness to learn and the instructional resources are matched. Through resource measurement, Quantile measures are assigned to textbook lessons and other materials using the Quantile calibration process. More than 30,000 mathematics textbook lessons have Quantile measures, and this number continues to grow.

To make the use of the Quantile measures seamless for educators, state and national curricular frameworks (e.g., Common Core Standards, NCTM Curriculum Focal Points) are aligned with the Quantile Framework.

The Quantile Teacher Assistant, for example, supports differentiated instruction with the many resources aligned with the Quantile Framework. The free utility allows teachers to identify their specific state objective at the appropriate grade level and determine its required knowledge base. Teachers can then use the ranges of Quantile measures of their students in order to differentiate a common topic in mathematics instruction. As a result, mathematics instruction targets each student's level of readiness to promote growth, rather than frustration.

Enhance (and possibly change) classroom instructional practices

With Quantile measures for students, classroom resources and the curriculum, educators can better differentiate mathematics instruction for all levels of students. For example, for students who are not ready for the daily lesson, teachers can focus small-group instruction on the prerequisite skills related to the daily lesson in the pacing guide. Rather than having students pulled out of instruction for general mathematics intervention, students can stay on target for the skills and concepts needed for the summative assessment, while also learning those prerequisite skills that may have been missed.

Extend learning beyond the classroom

States that report Quantile measures today do so to make assessments more "actionable." Quantile measures are embedded in instructional tools that can be used by parents as well as teachers. Math@Home provides parents with practical activities that reinforce the mathematical skills covered in the previous school year and lay the groundwork for what will be taught the following school year. By incorporating fun family games into everyday activities, students can practice mathematical skills year-round and parents can feel more confident about helping their children with mathematics.

Monitor student growth in relation to college and career readiness

The Standards focus on students' attainment of college and career readiness; students graduating from high school must be ready to enter into postsecondary environments with the mathematics skills needed to be perform successfully. A key feature of the Common Core State Assessments is measuring student mathematics achievement to ensure that they are on a trajectory to graduate with these requisite skills.

When grade‐level performance standards are established and validated using external frames of reference (e.g., briefing book or modified briefing book method), then the assessment results can be interpreted within the broader context of student achievement. One such piece of information that could be used in a briefing book is a Quantile measure. Quantile measures provide educators with a way to communicate about assessment results using "real world" examples to describe performance.

Benchmark student results in terms of national and international standard

By linking assessments with a common supplemental scale, interim or benchmark assessments can be connected to summative assessments. Consequently, the results from both types of assessments can become actionable in the classroom—the results of interim or benchmark assessments can be used to forecast how likely the student is to meet the performance standards of the summative assessment. Educators can connect day‐to‐day instructional needs over time with year‐to‐year state‐ and national‐level accountability system requirements. Quantile measures are reported on a growing number of classroom assessments. Quantile measures enable educators to effectively differentiate classroom instruction based on student ability; discuss learning goals; identify paths to progress with students and parents; and forecast a student’s achievement based upon the structure of the Standards using a P-20 developmental perspective.

Provide continuity within and comparability across assessment programs

The Quantile Framework is used by a number of states as part of their accountability testing programs. When developed, MetaMetrics can link the Common Core State Assessments with the Quantile scale. Since these state assessments and the Common Core State Assessments will have a common scale—the Quantile scale—states reporting Quantile measures today will be able to monitor and track growth continuously when the new assessments come online. Additionally, linking the assessments developed by the consortia will provide a way to determine the comparability between the new assessments.

Please contact us at webinfo@Quantiles.com or 1-888-539-4537 with questions.

Click here to learn how Lexile^® measures support the Common Core Standards’ goal of preparing students for the text demands of college and careers.