NEW YORK, July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council for Aid to Education, Inc. (CAE), a nonprofit developer of performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential academic and career readiness skills, today introduced expanded offerings, improved reporting, and a strengthened customer service function, enabling educators to more quickly and effectively apply actionable insights that support students’ academic and career success.
“There is widespread agreement that critical thinking, problem solving and written communication skills are essential to academic and career success,” said Bob Yayac, president and chief executive officer of CAE. “However, based on conversations with clients, it is clear that educators need to explicitly incorporate instruction, practice and assessment of these skills to increase success and better position students for their next step. The improvements we are introducing reflect that focus.”
CAE’s secondary and higher education performance-based assessments – College and Career Readiness Assessment (CCRA+), the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+), and Success Skills Assessment (SSA+) – already offer the most authentic approach to assessing the skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and effective written communication.
CAE’s expanded offerings increase the tools educators, institutions, districts, and states can use to improve these essential success skills in their students from grades 6-12 through higher education. CAE is the only organization offering instruction, practice, and performance-based assessment for critical thinking, problem solving and written communication:
- A new 60-minute SSA+ performance task utilizing technology enhanced items for higher education institutions
- New 30-minute classroom-based critical thinking assessments with selected response questions that focus on the skills of data literacy, critical reading and evaluation, and critiquing an argument
- Supplemental curriculum materials for improving critical thinking skills, including practice performance tasks
The improved reporting capabilities reduce the time it takes educators and students to receive assessment results, allowing educators to refine and adjust their programs:
- Automated reporting that utilizes a cloud-based data warehouse, integrating data from multiple sources with a modern dashboard capability to allow for complex statistical calculations and built-in quality assurance. The resulting reports are more quickly available to students, educators and institutions, and the simple report layout delivers the most important information at a glance.
Enhanced customer service and Next Step platform enhancements reduce the time and effort for institutions to administer assessments and access the information most important to them:
- New and expanded help desk with how-to videos to assist proctors and educational institutions
- Improved onboarding process with additional documentation for students, proctors, and educators
- Easier access to information about client accounts, administration, and reports
“Performance feedback is vital, whether for an employee or a student,” said Yayac. “The quicker we can give educators feedback on student performance, the faster they can assess which students need additional help to improve the skills most in demand by higher-education institutions and employers. By offering instruction and practice performance-tasks with our assessments, we continue to fulfill our mission of improving student outcomes.”
For more information about CAE’s new offerings and product updates, visit www.cae.org.
About CAE
A nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve student outcomes, CAE develops performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential college and career readiness skills and identify opportunities for student growth. CAE’s Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) for higher education, College and Career Readiness Assessment (CCRA+) for secondary education, and the Success Skills Assessment (SSA+) for any level, evaluate the skills educational institutions and employers demand most: critical thinking, problem solving and effective written communication. Based on CAE’s research, these skills are predictive of positive academic and career outcomes. CAE also partners with its clients to design innovative performance assessments that measure the constructs vital to students, educators, and institutions, including subject area and grade specific assessments. Since 2002, more than 800,000 students at over 1,300 secondary and higher education institutions globally have completed CAE’s assessments. To learn more, please visit www.cae.org.
