Pearson Assessment for Learning Suite: Accelerating learning by supporting the whole child
As a parent of three kiddos under 10, I know firsthand that kids are complex. To meet them where they are and support their development is a fluid process that must take into account their unique needs, goals, and personalities. In talking to teachers across the country, I hear the difficulty they face in personalizing instruction to support every learner. Not because of lack of effort and certainly not because they aren’t passionate about their roles in students' lives. It's in part due to the management of multiple technology platforms and systems-technology aimed at helping teachers, but often leading to more work. When multiple tech platforms don't talk to each other, that means teachers must track student results in different systems, reconcile them with each other and then, what they actually know about their students.
In a recent Pearson survey, teachers identified their number one pain point when assessing students was, “lack of time to analyze results”. If teachers don’t have the time to look at the data, then how can they possibly make data-driven instructional decisions. As providers of educational products, we must continue to keep this need in sharp focus. Providing access to tools and data that are easy to find, interpret, and act on, so teachers are in the best position to make the most efficient and effective decisions for students.
That’s why I’m so excited to introduce the Pearson Assessment for Learning Suite (PALS), that provides a comprehensive assessment solution for educators. Our team of leading measurement experts have decades of experience creating valid, reliable, and fair assessments that are purposeful and informative. This suite is modular so that districts can select individual assessment products or package them in a way that best meets their needs. What makes it powerful is that the information from the assessments (ours or yours) comes together through our powerful data and analytics tool that facilitate educators and caregivers supporting the whole child.
Let’s take a 4rd grade student Michael, who needs support with reading. Michael is quiet and generally gets good grades. He’s been screened for dyslexia but didn’t qualify. He did not pass his 3rd grade reading summative assessment, though he did well on the district benchmark assessments. Per the district’s policy he is required to attend summer school, which has been communicated to his parents. When we look at this bit of information, this seems like a logical decision to improve his reading skills. However, if we had more insights in a single place where all of this information comes together, we’d be able to see that Michael scored high for not feeling safe at school on his SEL survey. We’d see instantly that he has a high number of tardies, and that reading is his first period class. By looking at Michael through the lens of the whole child, we can see that there may be other interventions that would better support Michael, such as being part of a group of students that enjoys lunch with the school counselor once a week and a reward program for getting to school on time. And, that unless we address his concerns with feeling safe at school and being able to arrive on time, adding more school in the summer is unlikely to be successful.
PALS provides a complete set of measures that focus on the whole child while prioritizing being modular and coherent. Key to implementation of PALS is a simplified method of integrating through simple rostering and single sign on protocols and effective data handling that allows us to bring together your existing data – like attendance, behavior, and local assessment – with our reliable and trusted assessment data.
Pearson Assessment for Learning Suite (PALS)
- Our classroom assessment system, Navvy, goes deeply into understanding student mastery of each academic standard, specifically aligned to the state where it’s being used. At the click of a button, teachers can rely on our data to group students based on the standards of which they need support, with high quality instructional materials embedded for each standard.
- aimswebPlus has been a market leader for screening and progress monitoring students in support of MTSS implementations. We have screeners for dyslexia, dysgraphia, behavioral issues, among others, so that no learner’s needs are left behind.
- We’ve launched our new interim assessment, the Pearson Review of Progress & Learning (PRoPL), that has a unique design for a more accurate picture of student growth and trajectory towards meeting end-of-year proficiency goals.
- Finally, we bring together the best analytics, personalized data, and communication tools. These enable administrators and teachers to have the data they need, when they need it. Any stakeholder engaged in a student’s learning journey can receive the communication they need to understand and act on. Facilitating engagement of a learner's family and community effectively to provide support for the unique and complex needs of every learner.
All of these tools work together to create a powerful assessment system to paint a reliable picture that informs and empowers so that educators have what they need in real time to support student learning.
About the Author
Trent Workman, Senior Vice President, School Assessment, is a senior leader at Pearson with 16 years of experience in executive leadership, strategy and business development, program management, and product development. For over a decade, he served as the delivery leader responsible for Pearson’s operational work for more than 22 states. During this time, Mr. Workman gained valuable foundational knowledge helping states move their assessment programs from paper to online testing; from traditional item types to next-generation, technology-enhanced content; from human scoring to an innovative human-automated scoring model; and from a conventional approach to a ground-breaking, evidence-based model for standard setting. Mr. Workman’s experience has helped establish Pearson’s delivery as setting a high bar for accessibility and accommodation, ease of use for all stakeholders, and putting focus on students, educators, and clients at the forefront.
Mr. Workman earned his both his MBA and BA in Business Administration in Management and Organizations from the University of Iowa.