Assessment

Northwest Evaluation Association Debuts College Explorer Tool

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 02/29/16

The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) has launched College Explorer, a new tool designed to help middle and early high school students see what colleges and universities they're on track to enter based on their Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) scores.

The tool correlates MAP scores with those from the ACT assessment, then uses median admission scores to produce a list of institutions that may be a good fit. College Explorer also provides data from the Department of Education's College Scorecard to give students and their families information about cost of attendance and the typical earnings of graduates for particular institutions.

"By helping younger students to see how their academic performance can impact their options when it comes to choosing a college, our hope is that the College Explorer tool can be a valuable conversation-starter for students, parents and educators," said Matt Chapman, CEO of NWEA, in a prepared statement. "We want to empower students to not only find the college that is right for them, but also to understand what changes they need to make, academically, in order to be admitted at their preferred institution."

"NWEA's assessments are designed to support each student’s academic growth," said John Cronin, senior director of research at NWEA, in a prepared statement. "We built this tool to give students, teachers and parents early insight into how that growth can translate into access to higher education. NWEA is dedicated to fostering a college-going culture that enables students to make informed decisions and to choose an educational path that meets their individual needs."