Do Interim Assessments Reduce Race and Socioeconomic Status Achievement Gaps?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Data Use in Education Policy and Practice

Abstract

We examined differential effects of interim assessments on minority and low-SES students’ achievement in grades K-6. We conducted a randomized experiment in 2009-2010 to evaluate the impact of Indiana’s policy initiative introducing interim assessments statewide. We used two-level models to analyze data and determine whether interim assessments interacted with student ethnicity, SES, gender, or school composition (i.e., percent of minority or disadvantaged students). Results indicated little evidence about differential effects. Overall, interaction estimates were insignificant. There is some indication that in grades K-2 Indiana’s interim assessment may have closed the Hispanic-white gap in reading. In kindergarten and third grade mathematics the treatment may have reduced the gap between schools with higher and lower percentages of economically disadvantaged students.

Authors

• Spyros Konstantopoulos, Michigan State University

• Wei Li, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Shazia R. Miller, American Institutes for Research

• Arie J. van der Ploeg