[Edmentum’s Commitment] Our Alignment to the Future Ready PA Index

At Edmentum, we strongly believe in the quality partnerships we establish with each district. That said, we only consider ourselves beneficial partners when we are doing all we can to meet each district’s individual and state-specific needs. As a demonstration of our commitment, we have completed rubrics that address each section of the Future Ready PA Index for two of our assessment solutions, Study Island and Edmentum Assessments Test Packs.

Per the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), “The Future Ready PA Index is designed to provide clarity around specific indicators, including a subset of indicators that will be used in federal accountability determinations under Pennsylvania’s newly approved ESSA consolidated state plan. Each Future Ready PA Index indicator was selected based on extensive feedback from education stakeholders from across the commonwealth, along with careful evaluation of the practices and systems that tie to continuous school improvement.”

The index and its indicators were created by the PDE to serve as valuable tools for Pennsylvania districts so that they can move forward with their own evaluation of vendor assessments that they are considering for utilization as an alternative assessment. Our Edmentum rubrics can help Pennsylvania districts take advantage of the Future Ready option in selecting and evaluating alternative assessments for their district that are in compliance with PDE guidelines.

Edmentum’s Study Island Benchmarks rubrics (grade 3 reading and grade 7 math) provide high-stakes assessment preparation for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments (PSSAs) and Keystone Exams and are compliant with the Future Ready PA Index. In addition to the four comparable assessments provided per grade level/subject, our Study Island solution also offers collaborative classroom practice tools to support formative strategies. Additionally, data-rich analytics are incorporated to help educators quickly track progress toward standards mastery and monitor learning outcomes. Study Island Benchmark assessments also include reports that revolve around the current cut scores utilized within the PSSAs for educator convenience and relevance.

Edmentum has also recently completed Future Ready PA Index rubrics for our Test Packs assessments (grade 3 reading and grade 7 math). These rubrics prove that our Test Packs solution is a viable alternative assessment for Pennsylvania districts to utilize which are compliant with the Future Ready PA Index. An additional feature that Test Packs provide when needed is an automatic prescription, or learning path, that is assigned to each student based on individual strengths and weaknesses. More specifically, a custom learning path is available to students in grade 3 reading and grade 7 math upon their completion of any of the four comparable benchmark assessments provided throughout the school year.

Because the Future Ready option offers each district the ability to review and approve alternative assessments for students, there are a few steps that districts need to take to initiate the adoption of a vendor offering assessment(s). Per the Future Ready PA Index, each Pennsylvania district or co-op organization needs to take steps toward the following:

• Identifying a review committee
• Creating a committee to review vendor completed rubrics
• Determining a decision on whether to approve reviewed assessment(s)
• Signing completed rubrics by committee members within given fields
• Retaining copies for safekeeping and verification, if nessesary

Edmentum also recommends that test windows are discussed when an alternative assessment is being considered, in order to maximize the benefits of assessments given leading up to the actual administration of the PSSAs each spring.

To get started, please reach out to your local Edmentum Pennsylvania representative or email us, and we would be glad to provide you with the completed rubrics and help with any outstanding questions.