The U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced Missouri is one of 10 states to win grant funding to redesign the statewide assessment system through the 2022 Competitive Grants for State Assessments (CGSA) program. Missouri will receive $2,544,344 in federal funding for its Pathways for Instructionally Embedded Assessment (PIE) project.

The PIE project team will develop and evaluate prototype assessments that include multiple measures of student achievement, using both instructionally embedded and end-of-year assessments. The four-year project focuses on grade 5 mathematics and has potential to expand to other content areas and to inform DESE’s work in support of competency-based education. PIE will use research-based learning paths as the basis for assessments that are aligned to the state’s grade 5 mathematics priority standards, and expand from there.

“This grant funding provides DESE the opportunity to accelerate our plans to redesign the state’s assessment system,” said Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven. “The PIE project will give us a chance to advance our goal to better see where and when students need more academic support in order to become success-ready. We are very excited to get to work on this project.”

The new assessment model will yield diagnostic information during the year, will be designed to be accessible to all test takers, and will allow students to demonstrate competencies as they learn while producing results that may be used for statewide summative assessment purposes. PIE will serve approximately 1,500 grade 5 students and their teachers in Missouri, with potential to serve thousands more if developed for full-scale use.

USED’s full news release is here. For more information about CGSA, visit the Office of Elementary and Secondary website.