ATI Supports Districts and Charters Transitioning to AzMERIT

Beginning this spring, Arizona's Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching (AzMERIT) will be administered as the new statewide assessment to measure student ability in ELA and math. ATI is supporting districts and charters in the transition to AzMERIT in a number of ways including: 

• Creation of assessment items aligned to Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards (AZCCRS) and, in many instances, reflective of the technology enhanced (TE) items planned for the online testing environments by American Institutes for Research (AIR) and others.
• Development of the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform that will support districts/charters as they move toward the integration of instruction and assessment called for in current best practices approaches to education. Instructional Dialogs in the digital curriculum platform provide a place for students to respond to new TE item types and to develop expanded test taking skills. 
• • Creation of district-wide assessments aligned to published AzMERIT blueprints and to district pacing guides. In 2014-15 virtually all Galileo benchmark and instructional effectiveness assessments in ELA and math being administered are aligned to the AZCCRS. Assessments aligned to AzMERIT blueprints will be available for administration this spring. For the 2015-16 academic year, ATI will further refine the Arizona premade assessments to reflect AzMERIT assessments.

ATI is actively responding to district and charter needs related to the transition to AzMERIT. Although it is not possible at this time to determine the effect on forecasting of the transition to AzMERIT, it is likely that current forecasting estimates will continue to be of value.  Thus, ATI suggests the use of forecasting reports. For example, it may be wise to consider intervention for students at all risk-level classifications, including those classified as On Course. Using the content recommended in reports such as the Group Benchmark Profile drilldown from the Aggregate Multi-Test Report, or the Instruction Performance Tracker on the Galileo Teaching Dashboard can guide these focused interventions. Focused intervention efforts should improve the probability of student success, regardless of decisions made by the state regarding cut points for student performance level classifications on the AzMERIT assessment.

We look forward to working together to ensure successful performance by district and charter students on AzMERIT. For information on how ATI can support and help in preparing students for AzMERIT, contact ATI. For further information about AzMERIT, the Arizona Department of Education AzMERIT website has many resources.