Essential Solutions 2-MIN. READ

Why Pairing Assessment and Instruction from Different Companies Generally Doesn’t Work Well

By: Woody Paik 01/21/2025
Discover why disconnected assessment and instruction tools fall short in delivering what students need to progress and why fully integrated solutions (like i-Ready Assessment and i-Ready Personalized Instruction) more effectively support both students and the educators supporting them. 

Middle school students are using their laptops in class.

With the numerous offerings available to support assessment and instruction, it can be tempting to combine programs from different vendors and find creative ways to make them work together. However, when considering doing so, it is important to think through how that will impact student growth.

i-Ready's pairing of assessment and instruction has had considerable student learning impact. This is because of high-quality assessment and instruction content and because of three key design attributes that are absent when pairing assessments and instruction/practice content from different companies, platforms, and programs.

  1. Precise Pairing of Assessment and Instruction
    i-Ready is intentionally designed to enable the precise pairing of assessment and instruction that drives student learning impact. This precision does not exist when pairing i-Ready data with other companies' practice content, especially if there is not clarity on the root cause of a student's challenges with content.

    For example, if a fourth grader is not yet reading on grade level, educators need to understand if that is related to phonics (i.e., not being able to piece phonemes together to form words) or vocabulary (i.e., not knowing the meaning of the word). Equipped with this information, educators can offer instruction that addresses the student’s primary challenge(s).

    Consider the skill plans IXL Learning* developed for the i-Ready Diagnostic. In Curriculum Associates’ view, IXL will assign the same practice content, regardless of whether i-Ready determines a fourth grader is operating at the fifth, sixth, or seventh grade level in the Number and Operations domain. The imprecise assignment of the undifferentiated IXL practice content to a student, regardless of their placement in a particular grade level domain—is antithetical to the connected approach proven to drive learning impact (via i-Ready’s research).

  2. Mutual Accountability
    i-Ready’s national research measures the association between student assessment performance (i.e., i-Ready growth and state test results) and the fidelity of i-Ready Personalized Instruction use (defined by instructional time and pass rates on quizzes). This national research is replicated for each school district throughout the academic year, which creates ongoing, transparent, and mutual accountability—i-Ready content must demonstrate learning impact and districts must drive implementation fidelity. If fidelity and/or impact is not evident, the i-Ready team and the district must restrategize. Experience shows that mutual accountability is critical to student learning impact. However, any mutual accountability of measuring IXL practice content impact on students’ assessment performance as measured on the i-Ready assessment cannot be easily accomplished without a formal partnership between IXL, Curriculum Associates, and each district—which does not exist.

  3. Tools for Coherent Teacher-Led Instruction
    Teachers always have been and always will be the largest drivers of student learning. In i-Ready, the assessment determines both what digital instruction a student receives AND what teacher-led instructional resources are recommended and used. The i-Ready digital instruction makes the i-Ready teacher-led instruction more successful, and the i-Ready teacher-led instruction makes the i-Ready digital instruction more successful. It is a powerful, proven, and virtuous cycle, directed by the assessment results. However, the IXL Skill Plans for i-Ready do not include i-Ready teacher-led instructional resources.

A multi-vendor landscape can complicate the teaching process and force educators to spend more time navigating systems and less time focusing on student learning. Beyond inefficiencies, disconnected systems make it challenging to hold any vendor accountable if student outcomes are not realized.

Teachers need one coherent program that integrates assessment and instruction by design, so students get the exact instruction they need, teachers receive the support they require, and administrators can trust that the program is proven to work. In today’s educational landscape, we cannot afford to provide anything less.

*Curriculum Associates does not have a partnership, is not affiliated with, and does not have a data-sharing agreement in place with IXL. IXL references to i-Ready (verbally via IXL staff and via IXL’s website) were executed and are maintained without permission, consultation, or communication from Curriculum Associates. However, each partner district owns its associated i-Ready data. Upon written request, the i-Ready team will assist districts with the processes involved in exporting i-Ready data for use in external, third-party systems. Curriculum Associates believes student privacy and data protection are paramount. We invite you to explore our detailed privacy policy and reach out with any questions or concerns.