Classroom Assessment Program to Benefit Students and Parents, as Teachers Will Receive Real-Time Evaluations During the School Year Showing Where Students Need to Focus to Increase Level of Achievement; NWEA’s Industry-Leading Program to Measure Longitudinal Growth of PLTW Students From Middle School To College


Clifton Park, NY – Project Lead The Way (PLTW), the nation’s leading provider of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, announced today that Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a global not-for-profit educational services organization, is its new assessment partner.  NWEA’s real-time reports and evaluations will provide teachers with important and timely performance data that will allow them to make adjustments during the school year to help individual students reach their achievement goals.  In addition to the easy-to-use classroom assessment tools for teachers, NWEA’s program will allow PLTW to evaluate:

  • Student outcomes and longitudinal growth in math, science and English language literacy standards as well as in PLTW engineering and biomedical courses through pre and post assessments
  • How PLTW students compare to non-PLTW students within the same school as well as with students across the country
  • The development of students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • National graduation rates of PLTW students
  • PLTW’s success in preparing students to pursue post-secondary education with emphasis on STEM


“NWEA is the industry leader in providing longitudinal growth assessment and we are very excited about the depth of research that this partnership brings to PLTW classrooms,” said John Lock, CEO of Project Lead The Way.  “The platform is very simple to use and it provides teachers with the hard data they need during the school year to ensure that each student has the opportunity to develop the skills they are going to need to be successful.”

Assessment has always been a major priority for PLTW, as the organization continuously strives to improve its pre-engineering and biomedical sciences curriculums for middle school and high school students. The new assessment system will provide PLTW with important information about how the curriculum is performing and it will also enable PLTW to efficiently maintain data on student demographics and participation, student and teacher perceptions, and students’ postsecondary plans.  PLTW announced a new assessment management team that will assist schools in administering the program and provide ongoing customer support.  The team includes Eric Weiss, Program Manager; Krista Poch, Project Manager; Kristin Donlon, Coordinator; and Mukta Pandit, Advisor. 

Lock added, “In addition to the tools NWEA offers teachers in the classroom, the program also provides PLTW with unprecedented research opportunities that will allow us as well as external researchers to constantly evaluate and improve the effectiveness of our program.  We want every student in every classroom in America to have the opportunity to graduate college and be career-ready in STEM-related fields.  With NWEA as a partner, we are going to be armed with the most up to date research and information to help us accomplish our goals.”

PLTW’s curriculum engages middle-school and high-school students through hands-on activities while providing a proven path to academic and professional success in STEM fields. Students can apply what they learn in math and science classes to real-world problems, showing them the relevancy of what they are learning.  The organization’s project-based learning program emphasizes critical thinking, creativity and innovative reasoning, while fostering a love of learning.

“NWEA is committed to helping every student reach their potential through the use of highly accurate, reliable data,” said Matt Chapman, President and CEO of NWEA.  “Project Lead the Way is engaging hundreds of thousands of students every year in STEM education through its rigorous, project-based program.  Data and research from our MAP assessments can only help PLTW become an even stronger program and we are proud to be able to provide the organization with the information it needs to help students reach their potential in STEM fields.” 


About Northwest Evaluation Association

NWEA is a global not-for-profit educational services organization with home offices in Portland, Oregon. NWEA partners with educational organizations worldwide to provide computer-based assessment suites, professional development, and research services. The organization is passionate about its mission: Partnering to help all kids learn.

NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) adaptive assessments leverage over 30 years of research into student growth and yield unparalleled data that informs decision making at every level, from classroom to boardroom. NWEA continues to expand curriculum, instruction, and assessment offerings all in a unified system with our vertical scale providing stability and alignment throughout.  The Kingsbury Center at NWEA, our research arm, uses our Growth Research Database to drive original research with universities, foundations and policy makers. Learn more at www.nwea.org.


About Project Lead The Way

Project Lead The Way, Inc., is a national, non-profit organization that is the leading provider of rigorous and innovative STEM education curricular programs used in K-12 schools. The PLTW comprehensive curriculum, which is collaboratively developed by PLTW teachers, university educators, engineering and biomedical professionals, and school administrators, emphasizes critical thinking, creativity, innovation and real-world problem solving. The hands-on, project-based program engages students on multiple levels, exposes them to areas of study that they typically do not pursue, and provides them with a foundation and proven path to college and career success. PLTW began in 1998 in 12 high schools in upstate New York as a program designed to address the shortage of engineering students at the college level and has grown to a network of approximately 4,000 middle and high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 350,000 students are expected to take a PLTW course during the coming school year. For more information, visit www.pltw.org.

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