ND Career Technical Education’s new RUReady.ND experience bridges academic readiness to real-world career pathways using students’ existing assessment data
MetaMetrics®, developer of the Lexile® Framework for Reading and the Quantile® Framework for Mathematics, and the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) today announced a new partnership to connect students’ reading and math progress to the demands of over 600 careers, including those in high-demand fields within the state and nationally.
Effective January 22, the enhanced RUReady.ND.gov experience integrates MetaMetrics’ bundle of career readiness tools, bringing Lexile and Quantile-powered career exploration and growth planning together in one place. The RUReady.ND.gov platform is provided to North Dakota students through funding from the North Dakota Department of Career and Technical Education. The platform is powered by XAP Corporation’s online solutions to help students explore careers and plan for college or trade school.
“Students don’t need more assessments; they need more value from the assessment information they already have. By extending Lexile and Quantile measures into career exploration and growth planning, North Dakota is helping students translate academic readiness into actionable next steps toward the careers they’re considering.”
-Chris Minnich, CEO, MetaMetrics
Bridging Academic Readiness To Career Pathways, At Scale
The jobs of tomorrow are evolving more quickly than ever before, leading to students asking important questions earlier in their schooling: What are my career options, and will I be ready? When I graduate, will I have the academic skills to go to college or into a trade and ultimately succeed in the career I want? This partnership helps answer these questions by combining two complementary capabilities: career exploration informed by measurable literacy and numeracy demands, and growth planning that projects whether students are on track for college and career readiness.
Key components now available through RUReady.ND.gov include MetaMetrics’ career readiness bundle of tools that extend the use of Lexile and Quantile measures by linking career data and forecasting tools, and XAP’s Career and Postsecondary Platform.
Connecting “Where I Am” To “Where I Want To Go”
Through the integration of MetaMetrics and XAP, North Dakota students can explore careers, including those in high demand nationally and locally, and the related skills, knowledge, tasks, and preparation required for these fields. Students can compare careers to entry-level reading and math demands using Lexile and Quantile ranges. Students can also use their ND A-PLUS Lexile and Quantile measures, powered by MetaMetrics, to forecast reading and math progress through grade 12 and gauge readiness against college and career-readiness targets.
With the Growth Planner forecasting tool, students and educators can view forward-looking projections that use a student’s reading and/or math performance data reported as Lexile and Quantile summative measures from the ND A+ Summative Assessment, which reports measures in grades 3-8 and 10. Lexile and Quantile Growth Planner, supported by MetaMetrics, projects growth toward college and career readiness through grade 12.
Together, these tools provide data-driven insights that identify the critical, in-demand job openings and careers in North Dakota, if students are graduating with the skills to enter college or technical education programs to fill those career openings, and whether schools are adequately preparing students to meet their future goals.
Benefits For Educators, Students, And Families
By showing the connection between foundational skills and real careers, the new RUReady.ND experience is designed to:
- Make instruction more relevant by linking reading and math growth to real job pathways.
- Reduce skill gaps through earlier awareness and clearer targets.
- Boost motivation by helping students connect effort today to goals tomorrow.
- Improve goal setting with a realistic picture of current skills and projected growth.
“Our vision is that all students will graduate choice ready with the knowledge and skills to be successful. This partnership strengthens that commitment by helping students connect academic growth to real opportunities in our state earlier, more clearly, and with better data to guide the journey.”
-Levi Bachmeier, State School Superintendent, North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
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