Solutions
Our authentic assessments engage students in real-world scenarios, allowing them to demonstrate the essential college and career readiness skills of critical thinking, problem solving and effective written communication.
Performance-Based Assessment of Essential College and Career Skills
CAE goes beyond multiple choice. Our assessments diagnose student strengths and opportunities for improvement, providing reliable insights to students, educators, and institutions.
To assess students’ readiness for their next step, CAE’s performance-based assessments situate students in real-world scenarios that require purposeful written responses.
Students are asked to address issues, propose solutions to problems, and recommend courses of action appropriate to resolving conflicts. They are instructed to support their responses by utilizing information provided within the assessment, which may include reference materials such as technical reports, data tables, newspaper articles, office memoranda, and emails.
There is no single “correct” answer, and scores reflect a range of plausible and effective response strategies – a process that, by design, mimics real-world, complex decision environments.
Students are challenged to:
- Analyze and understand data;
- Evaluate the credibility of various documents;
- Identify questionable or critical assumptions;
- Deal with inadequate, ambiguous, and conflicting information;
- Identify additional information that would help resolve issues;
- Construct an organized and logically cohesive argument by providing elaboration on facts or ideas (e.g., explaining how evidence bears on the problem, providing examples, and emphasizing especially convincing evidence);
- Organize and synthesize information from several sources; and
- Marshal evidence from different sources in a written response.
Authentic Assessments
Our assessments are comprised of a performance task and a selected response section delivered online through our integrated Next Step platform. The assessments can be used in class, with remote proctoring, or any combination. Results can be analyzed at multiple levels to answer your critical questions.
Real Life Scenarios
Commuter Rail Repair Plan
You are the business manager for Bayville, a sprawling city on the west bank of the Eagle River. Recently, a severe storm hit Bayville and flooded the Blue Line commuter rail tunnel, which connects Bayville to the neighboring city of Carston. The flooding caused severe damage to the tracks and electrical systems, resulting in greatly reduced operations.
Your task is to analyze the information in the supporting documents, answer a set of questions, and write a memo recommending a repair plan. You need to use evidence from the documents to support your decision.
Growth Strategy
You are the strategic adviser to the CEO of a real estate corporation called Global Investment Properties (GIP) and are faced with the challenge of assessing the company’s approach to expanding its business in the coming year.
GIP is a Chicago-based company that invests in low-cost real estate in underperforming markets. After several successful years of operating with larger-than-expected profit by focusing on property acquisitions in Greater Chicago, GIP is considering further expansion either domestically or internationally.
Using the information provided, your task is to make a recommendation to the CEO of GIP and present an analysis of each option, evaluating the likelihood of GIP succeeding. Support your recommendation with information from the documents.
Student Diagnostic
Measure students’ readiness for their next step and identify approaches to improve readiness.
Assessment Details:
- Formative, student-centric assessment for Grades 6-12 (CCRA+) and Higher Education (CLA+ or SSA+)
- Census-based
- Includes:
- Setup, training, administration and customer support
- Student Diagnostic and Institution reports including Mastery Level distribution and Performance Task and Selected Response sub-score averages
- Comparison to CAE’s U.S. data set
- Preliminary reports in 1-2 weeks, final reports in 4-6 weeks
- Professional Development: One (1) hour review of Institution report
- Full student data set
- Micro-credentials (optional)
Student Diagnostic Report
Institution Report
Institution Assessment
Measure value-added and/or effect size by comparing the performance of two student cohorts.
Study Details:
- Value-added model and/or effect size analysis
- Sample of 100 entering and exiting students for value-added analysis or of any two groups of any size for effect size analysis
- Includes:
- Setup, training, administration and customer support
- Institution reports including Mastery Level distribution and Performance Task and Selected Response sub-score averages
- Comparison to CAE’s U.S. data set and between cohorts
- Professional Development: One (1) hour review of Institution report
- Full student data set
- Student reports (optional)
- Micro-credentials (optional)
Institution Report
Sub-score Analysis
Efficacy Study
Measure the effectiveness of specific educational interventions and programs.
Study Details:
- Assess impact of intervention versus control group
- Pre-/post-intervention, within institution, across institution(s), and/or against CAE’s U.S. data set
- Study design assistance from CAE psychometricians
- Includes:
- Setup, training, administration and customer support
- Institution report including Mastery Level distribution and Performance Task and Selected Response sub-score averages
- Comparison to control group (if available) and/or CAE’s U.S. data set
- Professional Development: One (1) hour review of Institution report
- Full student data set
- Student reports (optional)
- Micro-credentials (optional)
Institution Report
Statistical Analysis
Custom Assessments
Measure the knowledge, skills and abilities most important to your students, educators, and institutions through innovative, performance-based assessments.
Options:
- Subject-specific or agnostic
- Any level (K-12, Higher Education, Professional and Career)
- Any number of participants
- Sample or census
- A variety of psychometric services, analyses, and reporting options are available
Projects:
- CAE is currently developing performance-based assessments for one of the largest US school districts for grades 3-12. Subject areas include Math, Science, Social Studies, ELA, and Visual Arts.
- CAE is currently developing ELA items for one of the largest states for grades 3-8.
- CAE has developed items and assessments for Parcc, Smarter Balance and several states under subcontract to firms such as Pearson, New Meridian and Cognia.
