Effects of Interim Assessments on Student Achievement: Evidence From a Large-Scale Experiment

ABSTRACT

We use data from a large-scale, school-level randomized experiment conducted in 2010–2011 in public schools in Indiana. Our sample includes more than 30,000 students in 70 schools. We examine the impact of two interim assessment programs (i.e., mCLASS in Grades K–2 and Acuity in Grades 3–8) on mathematics and reading achievement. Two-level models were used to capture the nesting in the data. Results indicate that the treatment effect is insignificant in Grades 3–8, and thus students in treatment schools perform as well as students in control schools. In contrast, the treatment effect is negative and significant in Grades K–2 (i.e., kindergarten and second grade), indicating that students in control schools perform higher than students in treatment schools.

KEYWORDS:

• field experiment
• interim assessments
• student achievement
• IV estimation
• multilevel models

EDITORS

This article was reviewed and accepted under the editorship of Carol McDonald Connor and Spyros Konstantopoulos.

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (R305E090005).