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Success in today’s world requires more. PLTW students are ready for more. PLTW assesses more.

See how PLTW is re-shaping student assessment.
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First-of-its-Kind High School Assessment Prepares Students to Thrive in College, Career, and Beyond.

In a rapidly changing economy, students with in-demand, transportable skills – including problem solving, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and ethical reasoning – are most likely to thrive throughout their education and careers.

PLTW offers a first-of-its-kind summative assessment that measures both subject-matter knowledge and mastery of in-demand, transportable skills.

Assessments Designed to Mirror PLTW’s Transformative Learning Experience.

PLTW’s End-of-Course Assessments replace outdated approaches that only measure students’ knowledge through memorization and solving problems without real-world context. Using innovative, inquiry-based items, PLTW’s redesigned Assessments measure a broader range of knowledge, skills, and cognitive abilities, and deliver a dynamic experience that is authentic to the learning environment of the PLTW classroom.

These design decisions are making a difference. PLTW’s first year of scoring data – from the 2018-19 school year – have shown that measuring transportable skills at the same time as subject-specific skills can mitigate the gender and racial bias that has been present in standardized testing for decades.

Results that Impact Your Future.

The PLTW End-of-Course Assessments were designed with insights and validation from more than 450 PLTW educators, higher education representatives, and industry experts. Students who take the assessments receive detailed score reports that include a scale score ranging from 100 to 600, a corresponding Achievement Level Descriptor – either Novice, Practiced, Accomplished, or Distinguished – and the level of student knowledge within specific skill clusters, including transportable skills, assessed on a scale of one to six.

Students use their test results to qualify for internships and apprenticeships, earn college credit, or bolster college applications or resumes.

My engineering students need to know that everything they do technical is not in a vacuum. The ethical issues they encounter will be multifaceted. They need to be aware that the world is going to be messy.

- Dr. Susannah Howe, Design Clinic Director, Picker Engineering Program Smith College

The new PLTW Assessment marks a turning point in student recruitment for businesses across the country. For years, we’ve sought graduates who have mastered the types of skills PLTW students gain through their coursework, but have faced increased challenges in identifying those who are ready to hit the ground running in the workplace. By giving businesses a tool to validate these skills, PLTW is making it possible for employers like Toyota to recognize and hire the top talent we need to drive our business forward.

- Brian Krinock, Senior Vice President Toyota Motor North America

My favorite thing about the new PLTW Assessments is that they engage students in the problem-solving process, connecting to the concepts that they learned throughout the course and the skills employers seek! The students appreciate that the assessment questions involve real world situations in which they can apply their learning.

- Ethan Hodge, PLTW Teacher Russellville High School

I would like to see more tests like [the PLTW Assessment] that situate us in real world problems. This test give us an idea of how we can and will use coding in the real world.

- PLTW Student

We have millions of students in schools across the U.S. working to develop transportable, in-demand skills. Until now, they haven’t had a meaningful way to demonstrate to employers or college admissions officers what they can do. This assessment is one of many ways we are working to close the skills gap and help students achieve lifelong success on any career path they choose.