Assessment

Holistic educational improvement starts with meaningful assessments. Cognia works with education agencies to deliver reliable assessment solutions and provide unsurpassed support.

Sound and intentional assessments to grow student learning

Large-scale impact and efficiency

Cognia’s approach to large-scale summative assessment emphasizes three key elements: principled design, purposeful collaboration, and meaningful data.

Principled design approach

Our principled design approach helps educators and administrators pinpoint understanding, determine progress, and guide systems towards improved learning. This begins with clear and consistent identification of the intended purpose and use of the assessment. Cognia prioritizes an early understanding and continuous evaluation of score interpretations and uses (SIUs) as the north star for assessment design and delivery. We open our work up to third-party review for content development and psychometrics for confirmation, evaluation, and adherence to federal peer review and high quality criteria for assessments.

Collaboration and customization

Partnership is at the heart of all Cognia services. Cognia’s commitment to developing customized assessment solutions aligned to your state standards is reinforced through continuous collaboration with a variety of local stakeholder groups as well as diverse teams within Cognia.

Meaningful data

Summative assessment scores provide an important and necessary longitudinal and systemic view of student learning across a state. With a high degree of stability and consistency, summative data provides reliable and valid information regarding learner readiness that may be used to monitor trends, inform programmatic decision-making, and facilitate research and policy development.

Timely reporting

To ensure assessment results are sound and aligned to intended purpose, Cognia’s advanced technology and rich experience drive innovation in our psychometrics and reporting teams. The Measurement Portal brings content, measurement, and data experts together to ensure quality and accuracy of the results.

Putting data to work

To maximize meaning and purpose, Cognia assessment services are bolstered by professional learning opportunities. Asynchronous learning in the Cognia Learning Community conveniently supports assessment literacy, while in-person professional learning enhances the understanding of assessment outcomes and appropriate uses.

Additionally, dynamic reports and analytics tools provide leaders and educators greater insights into learning outcomes and trends in performance.

Cognia’s multi-state alternate assessment consortium has led the way in passing federal peer review, and the program has won awards for its leading technical report design.

With forty years delivering assessment solutions, our impact is far-reaching

30+
STATE PARTNERSHIPS
8,500+
SCHOOLS
1,300,000
STUDENTS
We appreciate the excellent job in supporting our goals for continually improving student learning in the state.”
Craig Walker
Executive Director of State Assessments
State Department of Education, OK
As a professional working with administrators and teachers serving students with the most significant disabilities, I found our team helpful, resourceful, and highly effective.”
Patricia Tweedy
Regional Lead Trainer
New York State Alternate Assessment, NY
For over 30 years, we have received high-quality state-level assessments consisting of a variety of item types. Developers worked closely with our state content specialists in a collaborative process.”
Charlene Tucker
Director of Assessment & Accountability
Department of Education, ME
We use assessment from Cognia to continuously strengthen the high-quality teaching and learning that takes place.”
Mark Howard
Chief of Performance Accountability
Palm Beach County, FL

Balance and meaning

Understanding how different types of assessment work together in a balanced system helps education leaders and teams use assessment options effectively. We’ve worked with educators around the world to shed light on the sometimes mysterious world of assessment. Multiple components serve different purposes at different times. Use this infographic to establish a common understanding among your team, paving the way for productive discussions.

Assessment Success Stories

White Paper

Design for Improvement: The Case for a New Accountability System

White Paper

The Future of Educational Assessment: Expanding the impact of classroom assessment practices on student learning

Case Study

Farmington Schools: Continuous improvement practices drive a common sense of purpose

Your students deserve the best.