Established by the State Board of Education in 1996, the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment System (CAS) uses Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities to evaluate student performance in the state’s schools, with the goal of improving teaching and learning. Statewide assessments include:

• Vermont Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), administered in grade 2
  
• New Standards Reference Exams (NSRE) in English/language arts and mathematics, administered in grades 4, 8 and 10
  
• VT-PASS (science assessment), administered in grades 5, 9 and 11

Schools also assess student performance in additional subject areas and at additional grade levels using portfolios (collections of student work), norm-referenced standardized tests, and locally developed assessments.

Beginning in fall 2005, the Vermont Department of Education will introduce a new state testing program for students in grades 3 through 8. The New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), a series of custom-designed tests developed in collaboration with the Rhode Island and New Hampshire departments of education, will measure students’ proficiency in reading, math and writing grade level expectations (GLEs). Reading and math will be assessed annually in grades 3 through 8, and writing will be assessed in grades 5 and 8.

Merit’s language arts and math software programs correlate to Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities and can help students prepare for State assessments. The content and format of Merit’s programs can help students develop and strengthen their test-taking skills as well as their reading, writing and math skills.

Merit reading software has been proven -- through rigorous, scientifically based research -- to increase both student reading comprehension and standardized test scores. Merit research study findings reveal that education software is an effective tool to improve test scores and academic performance.



Published: March 2005