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ERB Insights Blog

Education is changing daily and ERB strives to keep our members up to date on what is happening that may impact your school and your students today, tomorrow, and in the future.

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educators

The latest news and updates for our ERB Member Schools.

Featured News

How to Interpret the New Milestones Norms

New Updates to Milestones Norms for Fall 2022 Milestones is an interim assessment of reading and mathematics that complements the CTP.  When it was first launched in the fall of 2020, ERB used CTP data to construct Milestones norms. This was appropriate given that Milestones and CTP share the same score […] read more

All About the Data – Understanding CTP Norms

CTP Norms Fall 2022 As the 2022-2023 school year gets underway, we want to update you on the latest with CTP norms and explain how we developed the current CTP norms in relation to pre and post-pandemic data. CTP norms for the fall 2021 test administrations were frozen due to […] read more

Ahead of the Curve: How PEG™ has Led Automated Scoring for Years

What is PEG™? PEG, or Project Essay Grade, is the automated scoring system at the core of ERB Writing Practice.  It was invented in the 1960s by Ellis Batten Page, a former high school English teacher, who spent “many long weekends sifting through stacks of papers wishing for some help.” […] read more

Fall 2022 Mini Webinar Series

August 10, 2022
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Join ERB’s Member Services Directors for a series of mini webinars to help you learn and maximize your use of ERB’s products and services.  Each mini webinar will last 15-20 minutes and introduce you to one of ERB’s products or services. Sessions will be recorded for future reference. Tues., August 30 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT MSD Mini: SEL This mini webinar focused on ERB’s SEL Insights program! Wed., August 31 11:00 am ET / 8:00 am PT MSD Mini: ERB Writing This mini webinar focused on ERB’s Writing Practice (formerly known as WPP)! Thurs., September 1 12:00 […] read more

An image of the new 360 Access for Comprehensives Group feature.

New Group Creation Tool for 360 Access for Comprehensives

June 6, 2022
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Introduction ERB is excited to announce a new feature in 360 Access for CTP and Milestones reporting. Schools now have the ability to create Groups of students for reporting purposes directly in 360 Access instead of creating Groups in the original Group Management feature in Member Profile. Any existing Groups you created in Member Profile will automatically migrate to the new 360 Access feature. Going forward, you will manage all Groups in 360 Access. The Group Management functionality in Member Profile will be turned off at the end of this school year, on June 30, 2022. Groups can be created […] read more

Virtual Office Hours: Understanding ERB’s Updated CTP Norms

April 8, 2022
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On March 22, 2022 Glenn Milewski, Chief Program Officer at ERB, and Jason Lasnetski, Senior Member Services Director, discussed the newly updated Independent School and Association Norms that have been released for Spring. Glenn and Jason discussed which norms were updated, changes to how norms are calculated, and the impact we saw from Covid. Read the full blog post… Read Glenn Milewski and Adrienne Hu’s full explanation of the updated CTP norms. […] read more

ISEE At-Home Testing Platform Enhancements

April 8, 2022
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New enhancements will allow proctors to more easily manage and monitor sessions. As many of you know, we have been successfully administering ISEE At-Home since 2020.  Many families have taken advantage of ERB-proctored at-home testing, and many of our member schools have been administering ISEE At-Home in both open and closed testing sessions.   Based on feedback from both ERB and school proctors, we are pleased to announce a variety of enhancements to the ISEE At-Home testing platform launched on April 4, 2022. These updates allow proctors to: Communicate with students at certain stages of the check-in process  Better locate […] read more

Leveraging Data from ERB’s Suite of Assessments Educator Roundtable

March 15, 2022
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Webinar Recap Last month we sat down for a roundtable discussion with fellow educators discussing how they are using assessment data to inform curriculum and instruction. ERB’s Member Services Directors and guest speakers from Member Schools discussed how they are accessing and leveraging data from ERB’s tools to meet their school’s needs. Watch the full webinar recording here or below. […] read more

erb + test innovators

Students, parents, schools, and access organizations will benefit from ERB’s new offering, which focuses on test familiarization, anxiety reduction, confidence building, and learning resources.

families

The latest news and updates for our families.

How to Interpret the New Milestones Norms

September 14, 2022
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New Updates to Milestones Norms for Fall 2022 Milestones is an interim assessment of reading and mathematics that complements the CTP.  When it was first launched in the fall of 2020, ERB used CTP data to construct Milestones norms. This was appropriate given that Milestones and CTP share the same score scale and use very similar test specifications.   After two years of administration, ERB determined that it collected sufficient data to construct norms based on actual Milestones test-takers. These norms better reflect students’ performance on Milestones and are more useful to members interpreting results. ERB will keep adding years to the Milestones norm […] read more

All About the Data – Understanding CTP Norms

September 13, 2022
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CTP Norms Fall 2022 As the 2022-2023 school year gets underway, we want to update you on the latest with CTP norms and explain how we developed the current CTP norms in relation to pre and post-pandemic data. CTP norms for the fall 2021 test administrations were frozen due to anomalies in the fall 2020 data (e.g., low volume, non-representative samples, and COVID disruptions). Norms were unfrozen in the fall of 2022 given: the desire for members to understand performance in relation to the pandemic context, and a rebound in test taking that occurred as members adapted to schooling during […] read more

Ahead of the Curve: How PEG™ has Led Automated Scoring for Years

August 29, 2022
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What is PEG™? PEG, or Project Essay Grade, is the automated scoring system at the core of ERB Writing Practice.  It was invented in the 1960s by Ellis Batten Page, a former high school English teacher, who spent “many long weekends sifting through stacks of papers wishing for some help.” His guiding principles? 1) the more we write, the better writer we become, and 2) computers can grade as reliably as their human counterparts (Page, 2003).  The state of computers at the time of Page’s invention did not leave much room for automation, so PEG lay dormant until the mid-1980s.  […] read more

What is the PEG automated scoring algorithm?

August 12, 2022
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An award-winning automated scoring algorithm. Project Essay Grade® (PEG®) software is an automated essay scoring solution based on more than 40 years of research by Dr. Ellis Batten Page, whose pioneering work in the field of computational linguistics has distinguished him as the leader of computer-based essay scoring. Using advanced, proven statistical techniques, PEG analyzes written prose, calculates measures that reflect the intrinsic characteristics of writing (fluency, diction, grammar, construction, etc.), and models the decisions of professional readers to produce scores that deliver unparalleled accuracy and reliability. PEG’s scoring results have been validated in more independent studies than all other […] read more

ERB Launches Writing Practice

August 12, 2022
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ERB Launches Writing Practice with new design, functionality, and enhanced features to help students improve their writing skills with instant, actionable feedback. A robust library of prompts and lessons saves educators time while providing students unlimited opportunities to practice writing. ERB announced today the availability of ERB Writing Practice, an online program designed to help students improve their writing skills through practice, feedback, and guided support backed by the industry’s most accurate automated scoring algorithm. ERB Writing Practice helps educators and families save valuable time while giving students immediate and individualized feedback and opportunities for growth. Why ERB Writing Practice? […] read more

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Please note that 360 Access will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on Friday, April 21, from 9:00 pm ET until 10:30 pm ET.