About Our Research

The power of insight, the promise of results

The research conducted by the Kingsbury Center is informing today’s educational system, giving researchers and educators powerful new intelligence to make crucial decisions about how policies and programs affect students. The result? A smarter, more responsive education system for everyone.

We conduct independent and collaborative research using student-level achievement and growth data from NWEA MAP® assessments in several key areas:

• No Child Left Behind — Working to inform national policy, the Center conducts ongoing research to explore how implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top reform goals impact school systems, teachers and students.
  • The Accountability Illusion
  • The Proficiency Illusion
• Achievement Gaps — We are also researching the effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Act by using growth data to more accurately portray achievement gaps and better monitor the effectiveness s of efforts to close them. Our research also analyzes the methods currently used to measure achievement gaps.
  • Achievement Gaps and the Proficiency Trap
  • Achievement Gaps: An Examination of Differences in Student Achievement and Growth
• Test Validity Research — With a goal of improving the practice and utility of student testing, the Center explores ways to better evaluate the validity of a student’s test score based on that student’s effort.
  • Individual Score Validity in a Modest-Stakes Adaptive Educational Testing Setting
• Education Research Methodology — Our research in this area is shedding light on ways to conduct educational experiments and quasi-experiments to evaluate schools and the effectiveness of educational interventions.