i-Ready Personalized Instruction and State Assessment Performance for Economically Disadvantaged Students
Overview
Published: December 2025
How is using i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity associated with state test performance for economically disadvantaged students?
Curriculum Associates evaluated state assessment scores for more than 430,000 economically disadvantaged students in Grades 3–8. These analyses examined the difference in state scores between students who used i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity and students using the program less consistently, accounting for fall performance and school context.
Across all grades in both reading and mathematics, economically disadvantaged students using i-Ready Personalized Instruction with fidelity scored higher on state tests compared to peers using less consistently. According to Kraft’s benchmarks for education research, these score differences are considered medium to large. On a common metric, fidelity users score anywhere from five to 14 points higher.
- Program:i-Ready Personalized Instruction for Mathematics, i-Ready Personalized Instruction for Reading
- ESSA Level:3—Promising
- Subject:Mathematics, Literacy
- Demographic:Economically Disadvantaged
- Grades:3–8
- Topic:Academic Achievement
- Study Year:2021–2022, 2022–2023, 2023–2024
- State:Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida
- Test Alignment:Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR), Arizona’s Academic Standards Assessment (AASA), California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS), Florida Assessment of Student Thinking Progress Monitoring 3 (FAST PM3), Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS), Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP), Kentucky Summative Assessment (KSA), Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP 2025), Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP), Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), New York State Testing Program (NYSTP), North Carolina End-of-Grade Tests (NC EOG), Ohio’s State Tests (OST), Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA), South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Assessments (SC READY), Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP), State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL), West Virginia General Summative Assessment WVGSA), Wisconsin Forward Exam
STAAR is a federally registered trademark owned by the Texas Education Agency and is used pursuant to license.
About the Authors
Ethan Young
Ethan Young, Ph.D., is a research scientist at Curriculum Associates. He specializes in analyzing longitudinal data to uncover national trends in student learning. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental and Cognitive Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Before Curriculum Associates, Young was a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, examining how people develop cognitive skills in the face of childhood adversity.
Kelsey Young
Kelsey Young, Ph.D., leads the Research Insights and Analytics team at Curriculum Associates, evaluating national trends in student achievement. Previously, Young served as a consultant for the Colorado Department of Education and as a researcher at two other edtech companies. Young graduated with a B.S. in Child Psychology and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, both from the University of Minnesota. While there, Young's research focused on identifying and supporting students with disabilities.