New Information Makes ND Assessment More Valuable to Students, Parents

State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said the results of North Dakota’s annual exams for English and mathematics will include new information to help students improve their learning, and assist parents in evaluating the academic progress of their children.

The information is called Lexile and Quantile Frameworks. Presenting this data as part of the North Dakota State Assessment will give parents valuable data on their childrens’ reading and math skills, Baesler said. It will aid students in setting advancement goals in reading and math, and help parents and teachers identify students who may need extra instruction.

The information will add value to the State Assessment, because it will supply parents and teachers with an easily understood measurement of a student’s English and math skills, and show students’ growth in those skills and knowledge over time, the superintendent said.

The Lexile framework measures the complexity of written text and a student’s ability to read and understand it. Quantile measures the difficulty of math skills and concepts, and each student’s ability to comprehend them.

The Quantile framework assigns values to more than 500 math skills and concepts, and forecasts a student’s ability to use and understand them. For example, identifying and naming a hexagon, trapezoid, parallelogram and rhombus has a quantile measurement of 250. Dividing a fraction and a whole number has a value of 870, which indicates the task is more complex.

These tools give teachers and parents the information they need to evaluate whether a student’s reading and math assignments are in line with his or her skills, Baesler said. Lexile and Quantile information is used to provide students with reading and math work that is challenging, without being so difficult that they may be discouraged.