Test4Me LLC doing business as (DBA) AdaptiveX

AdaptiveX takes on the achievement gap that replicates systemic inequality across generations. Virtually endless headlines and news feed notifications show us that structural racism impacts all areas of our society. Countless infuriating altercations and senseless acts of violence remind us that these headlines are not just handfuls of unsettling anomalies, rather integral parts of a system that needs criticism and revision. Conversations are not enough – real and concrete actions need to be taken at every level, especially in education.

Structural racism is still a clear predictor of quality of life, length of life, and generational wealth transmission in the US and beyond. This inequity begins before conception, throughout gestation and the pre-school years. Once children enter the school system, our society has a chance to shift these outcomes in the brief window of mandatory PK-12 education. Unfortunately, schools are too often sites of harm where historical patterns repeat. Although all children are capable of extraordinary things, schools can be the place where they learn limitations. 

Curriculum and instruction alignment to common core and state standards will always be paramount and only guided by pacing that is informed by local student performance.  Student performance, most often generated by locally developed assessments for formative instructional planning, may be misaligned if the assessments are not accurate, calibrated or adaptive.  Further, local school districts, large and small, cannot budget the routine purchase of new assessment banks at a rate to address the needs.

With the rise in standardized tests, classroom test quality has decreased. Students of color are less likely to be exposed to grade level, high quality assignments. This widens the opportunity gap.  According to a recent study by The New Teacher Project, classrooms with mostly white students are 3.6x more likely to receive on-grade level assignments than classrooms with majority students of color.

The achievement gap is the evidence of the wounds of racial harm that began centuries ago. At AdaptiveX, we know that our children are not the problem, and their scores show us where we have more work to do. Too often, adults point fingers at each other and at our young people rather than taking responsibility for changing the education system.

The most significant gap found in our founder Shayla’s work was curriculum development and assessment programs and tools that were not relevant and/or reflective of the local population. We take on the achievement gap by partnering with school systems to upgrade their human resources and technology through Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT). New tech without stakeholder buy-in is a waste of resources, and stakeholder buy-in without the tools to shift practice frustrates everyone involved. 

CAT is a well-documented solution that provides a more accurate measure of student performance, improves learning, and reduces test time. There is presently no practical and affordable method for a teacher to use CAT for giving non-standardized tests to their classroom students. Currently, AdaptiveX is designed to enable teachers of grades 9-12 to use computerized adaptive tests (CAT) for their in-class developed tests, in contrast to standardized tests. Reduced testing time allows for more instructional time. CAT is known to provide accurate scoring with fewer questions, while improved accuracy of evaluation allows teachers to better focus their efforts where they are most needed.

The use of CAT for a standardized test requires the development of a calibrated item pool by testing questions (items) on many students (up to ~1000), which allows for the use of known algorithms and considerable human expertise to develop the CAT, which is specific for that standardized test. This calibration step assigns units (values) to each question. 

Teachers presently can use a computer adaptive test, but they can not choose the specific content. We will develop a calibrated item pool that can be used by teachers, with items categorized by Bloom’s Revised Levels of Taxonomy and Common Core State Standards. These questions will then be used in a content adaptive algorithm to determine the path or order in which students take the test. 

We have developed a Learning Management System (LMS) with an assessment engine that can be used as a stand-alone or integrated with any existing LMS the district has. The use of this technology reduces the cost of customizing assessments and aggregating results into easily analyzable data. AdaptiveX simplifies the process of calibrating adaptive assessments. 

Only AdaptiveX provides this unique solution to a massive marketplace that is desperately seeking more effective and inclusive assessment methods for individual classrooms.

AdaptiveX includes all combined features of other platforms that teachers find most useful. Our team of psychometricians and software developers have over 20 years combined experience in test analysis and computer science. 

Our strength is that our software will enable us to work closely with districts to develop customizable embedded assessments aligned to learning priorities. Our intervention is uniquely efficient and humane, drawing on the power of machine learning to create assessments that reflect scholars’ actual progress and potential. By using our software to shift assessment inequities, we address the achievement gap right where it’s measured.

Our vision is an educational landscape where systems support every scholar and every educator. We work towards a world where every educator has the training and resources to support every scholar with asset-based, culturally responsive pedagogy in contexts where they are known, valued, and gently scaffolded to grow into their greatest potential. We understand that seeding this vision is essential to transform the inherited legacies of historical injustice that impact systems in other parts of our society. 

With research-based best practices, we work from the margins to the center. By centering students who fall through the cracks of the mainstream education model, we develop solutions that benefit every single learner. This includes students of color, multilingual learners, migrant students, and those experiencing housing/food insecurity. Normative curriculum and teaching practices create systematic barriers to equal opportunity through English-language only coursework that caters to white, affluent experiences. 

Our mission is to close the achievement gap through instructional and assessment equity. We empower classroom teachers, school administrators and district leadership with best practices in Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) through transformative professional development experiences. This intervention allows stakeholders to change culture as we conduct systems audits that identify equity issues in educational landscapes. Through Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT), we change the game in assessment by using generative AI to serve more students. Diverse test banks with appropriate evaluation criteria test student knowledge, not their demographics.

AdaptiveX is built around the certainty that our diversity is our strength and equity is our power. Led by a Black woman educator, our organization is empowered with the expertise of multiple Black women and allies. Shayla breaks glass ceilings for herself and “lifts as she climbs,” as Black women have across history. In addition to lived experience, our team leverages mastery and deep study in fields such as Africana Studies and critical theory. While skillfully navigating inequitable systems, we draw strength from strong working relationships grounded in radical care. Internally, our processes balance professionalism with compassion, honoring our roles as parents and humans who matter beyond our productivity. A shared vocabulary and understanding of structural power power dynamics allows us to navigate challenges with attentiveness to equity. 

Our staff are subject-matter experts in education and racial equity training, with some having over 20 years of experience in this field. Both within the company and in the work we do in the world, we work as a team that views our differences as assets and justice as our north star. In process and product, we weave wisdom from diverse perspectives and create contexts where justice can grow. AdaptiveX is a diverse company of equity-sensitive and diverse individuals.

Every member on our team passionately delivers services to communities they know intimately. The AdaptiveX team is made of 17 self-identified male, female, non-binary and LGBT individuals ranging in age from early 20 to mid 60’s. Over 60% of our team is multilingual in languages ranging from Spanish, Portuguese, French and Haitian Creole. Ethnicity wise, the team represents the following communities: Asian, African-American, Hispanic, LatinX, White, 2+ Races. Optionally, team members have shared religious preference to include: Christian, Muslim, Daoism, Buddhism, and Yoruba Faiths. We believe our diverse team, commitment to diversity and inclusion align us squarely with the Racial Equity Student Support services strategy as we are actively “engaging in community development and systemic advocacy” through our programs, workshops and coaching daily. 

In our partnerships with schools and districts, we work closely with educator and community stakeholders to tailor our offerings to the people we serve. Often, this means developing entirely new curriculum to specifically address the issues our partners face. Through qualitative and quantitative research methods, we conduct listening sessions and equity audits that surface underlying trends and narrative threads that shape our approach.

We have developed Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) software for teachers to create adaptive classroom tests, aiming to streamline question selection and provide targeted insights into student performance. The software aims to simplify the process of test creation by offering pretested question banks organized by difficulty and content standards, allowing teachers to adjust the test's cognitive level and content coverage. 

AdaptiveX has several years of experience in racial equity training for various school districts across the United States. We are currently successfully managing a contract for the Massachusetts Department of Education where we provided landscape analysis, racial equity training, coaching and other services to over 20 schools in a dozen school districts. We have implemented proven methodologies and have had our contract modified for increased service within 6 months of performance. We are also contracted in Arizona and Michigan.

We have an incredible product and team. The personalized support and networking opportunities Solve offers are essential for us to scale and iterate using best practices and feedback from peers outside our own organization. 

Our technical innovation is the development of CAT software that will allow any teacher to use CAT-chosen test questions. Currently, CAT is only used for standardized tests, since CAT requires the development of a calibrated item pool by testing questions (items) on many students (up to ~1000) and many hours of involvement of one or more psychometricians. (Thompson 2011)  It would not be practical in terms of time and money to carry out such an effort for teacher-developed classroom tests. Once established in 9-12, the program could be expanded to colleges and universities, as well as any other areas that use non-standardized tests. 

Our plan is to develop an item bank (group of questions from which to choose) that will contain questions with assigned difficulty unit values. A teacher could then select questions from a pretested item bank that have been tagged and organized e.g. Algebra I, Common Core Standard SSE.A.1.A. The software can alert teachers to how many questions they need to add to provide sufficient content coverage of both Levels of bloom’s taxonomy and content standards. 

For example, a teacher could enter the site to create a test in the subject area of Algebra 1. That teacher could then select 50 questions from the Algebra 1 question bank. The item balancing feature could have the ability to state the following: You need 4 more comprehension level questions for this test. You need 3 more questions for SSE.A.1.A. Once the questions have been selected, they could be placed in our adaptive algorithm after which students would take the test. 

Our plan is to train teachers on how to implement an adaptive classroom test and interpret student scores, e.g. students may have scored low on analysis level questions and standard A.1.A. This gives the teacher very targeted information on how to raise a student’s level of cognition and content mastery for example. 

The ability to determine the number of questions and number of units assigned to the questions is expected to mitigate the risk of our method of developing the equivalent of a calibrated item pool using conventional methods.

AdaptiveX unique value proposition success is necessarily based on quantifiable data.  With that said, participation in the New Schools Fund Program will allow AdaptiveX to complete the end to end product development of our adaptive assessment platform, edtech industry certifications and reporting capabilities for all stakeholder groups.

First, AdaptiveXs adaptive assessment tool has already proven its efficacy in numerous instructional, assessment and professional learning environments.  Examples are included within this document from MA DESE, Pendergast Elementary School District (AZ) and others.

Second, we have begun the global certification process with 1EdTech.Org, the international, independent organization recognized in K-12 public education, high education, service providers as the standards organization for all to comply.  We will complete  the process for TrustedApp, OneRoster Integration, Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), Question-Test Interoperability (QTI) and we have been asked to consider being on their advisory Board.

Combined, this part of our work will advance the importance of the use of adaptive assessment practices and tools for accessibility for instruction, professional learning programs and policy considerations. 

Third, our current AdaptiveX adaptive assessment tool and dashboard has produced informative results for the State of Massachusetts DESE, Pendergast Elementary School District, AZ and we anticipate the same in Detroit Public Schools.

AdaptiveX will provide a fair and equitable test result across multiple users. To this end, the following will be the procedures for scoring the assessment and scaling model. Rasch model a 1 parameter logistic (1PL) model using maximum likelihood estimation, will be used to generate estimates of examinee ability (theta). A scale transformation will then be conducted to convert theta into a meaningful scale. Given the population of students that will be using this software, a scale of 0-100 will be used because students are traditionally familiar with this approach to evaluating assessments. We will work with 20 teachers in classes of 25 students. The reason we chose this amount of teachers is because general CAT testing recommends the use of 500-1000 students (Way 2006). The accuracy and precision needed for a computer adaptive test is a Standard Error Measurement of .38 which is equivalent to a reliability of .85 (Hornke, 2000). This will be determined by our Psychometrician Rosalyn Bryant as detailed in Objective 1, Quantitative Milestone 4. Teachers will administer a pencil and paper test prior to the use 11 of AdaptiveX. If assessments are not as accurate at normal classroom testing, then we will disable the adaptive algorithm function, and enable the students’ scores to be measured on an equally weighted value. We will then abandon the algorithm model and adopt the IRT model and retest students.

AdaptiveX use will lead to reduced test administration time in class. Dr. Rosalyn Bryant will measure start and end times for student tests and compare results. We will conduct a pre-interview with teachers in order to time traditional tests in their classrooms and use that data to compare to the CAT testing time.

 AdaptiveX will result in higher desirability to use teacher created adaptive tests in place of classroom tests. Five point Likert surveys for usability and desire to use this testing method in the future must show an average score of three (3) for both teachers and students. Dr. Askew will create and administer these surveys to the pilot teachers. Three is chosen as the cut off because we will be using a prototype, thus we expect some challenges to occur. While teachers and students will be made aware to account for this factor, the use of a prototype is still expected to lower scores on the survey. Based on our experience, this is a normal aspect of early development of such products. Dr. Bryant will administer and collect data from such surveys. Dr.Bryant and Shayla Stafford will work to analyze results of the surveys and tests. 

AdaptiveX is bringing the product of their in-depth understanding of issues facing curriculum development, instructional and assessment design and the lack of culturally accessible assessment tools in the form of AdaptiveX Professional Services & Adaptive Assessment Software Company.

The personal/professional journey of AdaptiveX CEO Shayla Adams-Stafford brought her to bootstrap AdaptiveX as a national player in the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging professional services delivery companies but that was not enough.  The most significant gap found in their work was working behind curriculum development and assessment programs and tools that were not relevant and/or reflective of the local population.

With that, Shayla set out to develop AdaptiveX’s proprietary software and platform that allows local school district teams to audit, evaluate and calibrate/recalibrate locally developed assessments for greater efficacy.

Simply stated, this is ground-breaking.  The implications are vast for every level of the curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional learning in the K-12 ecosystem. 

We use AWS, Django and Python to power our solution. 

5 people work with our team, Founder, Psychometrician, Software Developer, Program Manager, Admin assistant. AdaptiveX is led by Ms.Shayla Adams-Stafford, Founder and CEO.  While founded as a solo-preneuer, Shayla has surrounded herself with additional industry professionals to complement the business organizational management, operations and delivery.  Her professional journey has moved her from classroom teacher, department chair, instructional design coach, global facilitator, Founder/Executive Director (Remix Education) and on AdaptiveX CEO and software designer.  

2014, 10 years

AdaptiveX is built around the certainty that our diversity is our strength and equity is our power. Led by a Black woman educator, our organization is empowered with the expertise of multiple Black women and allies. Shayla breaks glass ceilings for herself and “lifts as she climbs,” as Black women have across history. In addition to lived experience, our team leverages mastery and deep study in fields such as Africana Studies and critical theory. While skillfully navigating inequitable systems, we draw strength from strong working relationships grounded in radical care. Internally, our processes balance professionalism with compassion, honoring our roles as parents and humans who matter beyond our productivity. A shared vocabulary and understanding of structural power power dynamics allows us to navigate challenges with attentiveness to equity. 

AdaptiveX has several years of experience in racial equity training for various school districts across the United States. We are currently successfully managing a contract for the Massachusetts Department of Education to provide landscape analysis, racial equity training, coaching and other services to over 20 schools in a dozen school districts. We have implemented proven methodologies and have had out contract modified for increased service within 6 months of performance. Our staff are subject-matter experts in education and racial equity training, with some having over 20 years of experience in this field.

Both within the company and in the work we do in the world, we work as a team that views our differences as assets and justice as our north star. We deliver world-class results because the children we serve deserve it, and we honor each other in a radical refusal to replicate exploitative workplace dynamics. In process and product, we weave wisdom from diverse perspectives and create contexts where justice can grow.

We provide a wide variety of services to our customers ( which are primarily state education organizations, school districts and education non-profits and/or companies.) 

AdaptiveX provides a range of services focused on literacy-focused Culturally Responsive Teaching best practices including:

• Leadership Training & Retreats
• Instructional Coaches/Teachers PLCs
• Support, Guidance, Demonstration, 1:1 Training
• Program management, audits
• Curriculum and assessment development
• Adaptive Assessment Training & Evaluation*

AdaptiveX is a solo venture founded by Ms. Shayla Adams-Stafford. In August, 2015, AdaptiveX won the Venture DC Pitch Challenge; a $2000 award.  We continued bootstrapping and raised $40K to develop the adaptive assessment prototype as a by-product of the professional development work delivered over the proceeding years. 

In 2020, AdaptiveX was awarded a statewide contract with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in which we increased our revenue to over $362,000.  Over the past four years we have grown that amount to over $1.5M dollars in total revenue. 

Our model is to partner with state education agencies, school districts and education companies. This has been successful for us this far as we have worked with over 20 school districts across 7 states and 2 countries.