Building a Comprehensive Assessment System: Overcoming Key Challenges

Now, uh, I'm not gonna spend much time on this slide, but I did wanna highlight something here.

As Seth said, Renaissance has been around for forty years.

Uh, so our Star assessments were, were created thirty years ago, so that was nineteen ninety-six.

And if you move from left to right, you're seeing the history of our company, and I wanna highlight a few things.

Star, uh, one of the most widely used computer adaptive assessments in the world.

If you make your way over to, uh, Star Phonics, uh, another powerful diagnostic assessment, uh, for early grades reading skills.

Illuminate Education, uh, had FastBridge, uh, and their assessments, so that's a lot of assessments.

And for those of you outside the US, you may also know the name GL Education, which is a large provider, uh, in the UK market and in many schools globally.

That is also part of the Renaissance family.

The whole reason I merely show this slide is to say, if you consider that we are the family that has Star assessments, FastBridge assessments, and assessments from GL Education, what that means is our company is probably the largest provider of interim and formative assessment tools in the English-speaking market worldwide, period, bar none.

So we've got a lot of resources, and I will admit, I am an assessment nerd.

Uh, from an undergraduate, uh, or excuse me, from a graduate self-study on assessment, I have been fascinated by assessment.

I've been blessed to work with Dr. Rick Stiggins, Dr. Dylan William, uh, Paul LeMahieu at the University of Delaware was an interview thing when I did a, a, a self-study class.

I'm just an assessment person, and it interests me.

So I wanna talk with you about some ideas that I've learned that hopefully will, um, give you some insights.

Now, as Seth said, we're gonna talk about like what's appropriate, what's not appropriate, what should you do, and what should you not do.

And the first thing you shouldn't do is stop looking for the Holy Grail of assessment.

It's not out there.

It's like Ponce de León looking for the Fountain of Youth.

It's a myth.

It's a, a mirage.

It's, it's, it's not there.

Now, I fully accept the Holy Grail may exist, but we're probably not gonna find it.

Uh, but the whole point is people spend time trying to find a single tool that will do everything, and I'm telling you right now, that doesn't exist.

It's imp-- If you understand, and I think by the time you finish your time with us, you will understand how it would be impossible for one tool to do it all.

Now, uh, I'm not gonna spend much time on this slide, but I did wanna highlight something here.

As Seth said, Renaissance has been around for forty years.

Uh, so our Star assessments were, were created thirty years ago, so that was nineteen ninety-six.

And if you move from left to right, you're seeing the history of our company, and I wanna highlight a few things.

Star, uh, one of the most widely used computer adaptive assessments in the world.

If you make your way over to, uh, Star Phonics, uh, another powerful diagnostic assessment, uh, for early grades reading skills.

Illuminate Education, uh, had FastBridge, uh, and their assessments, so that's a lot of assessments.

And for those of you outside the US, you may also know the name GL Education, which is a large provider, uh, in the UK market and in many schools globally.

That is also part of the Renaissance family.

The whole reason I merely show this slide is to say, if you consider that we are the family that has Star assessments, FastBridge assessments, and assessments from GL Education, what that means is our company is probably the largest provider of interim and formative assessment tools in the English-speaking market worldwide, period, bar none.

So we've got a lot of resources, and I will admit, I am an assessment nerd.

Uh, from an undergraduate, uh, or excuse me, from a graduate self-study on assessment, I have been fascinated by assessment.

I've been blessed to work with Dr. Rick Stiggins, Dr. Dylan William, uh, Paul LeMahieu at the University of Delaware was an interview thing when I did a, a, a self-study class.

I'm just an assessment person, and it interests me.

So I wanna talk with you about some ideas that I've learned that hopefully will, um, give you some insights.

Now, as Seth said, we're gonna talk about like what's appropriate, what's not appropriate, what should you do, and what should you not do.

And the first thing you shouldn't do is stop looking for the Holy Grail of assessment.

It's not out there.

It's like Ponce de León looking for the Fountain of Youth.

It's a myth.

It's a, a mirage.

It's, it's, it's not there.

Now, I fully accept the Holy Grail may exist, but we're probably not gonna find it.

Uh, but the whole point is people spend time trying to find a single tool that will do everything, and I'm telling you right now, that doesn't exist.

It's imp-- If you understand, and I think by the time you finish your time with us, you will understand how it would be impossible for one tool to do it all.