The Utah Aspire Plus is an annual assessment of reading, English language arts, math, and science administered to Utah public school students in grades 9 and 10. The Utah State Board of Education contracted with the Utah Education Policy Center to study possible causes of the decline in Utah Aspire Plus participation, including causes related to the “perceived and realized value” of the assessment to students, parents, and educators, and to recommend changes that might improve participation.

The USBE annually administers the Utah Indicator 14 Post School Outcome Survey Questionnaire as part of their reporting to the public and to the Office of Special Education Programs. The PSO survey is administered to students who had an Individualized Education Plan and who are no longer in school.

The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) partnered with the Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC) to evaluate the predictive validity of the Acadience Reading assessment’s four subscores (Oral Reading Fluency, Accuracy, Retelling, and MAZE), measured in first through third grade, in reference to two subscores on Utah’s third grade RISE Reading assessment: Informational Text and Literature.

The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTS Arts) provides arts-integrated instruction to elementary students across the state of Utah. The BTS Arts goal is to improve student outcomes, including in language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science (BTS Handbook, 2023). In September 2023, the University of Utah was awarded grant funding from the Utah State Board of Education to study the implementation practices, outcomes, and barriers to participation in BTS Arts.

In collaboration with the Utah State Board of Education and Ed Direction, a part of MGT of America, LLC, the Utah Education Policy Center evaluated the relationship between schools’ level of participation in the Assessment to Achievement (A2A) project and the end-of-year state achievement test scores of their students.