Delivering Equity in Reading Assessment with Amira

This technical report reviews the evidence supporting the equity of Amira’s Reading Assessment Tests, focusing on its performance with diverse student populations, including English learners and students with various accents and dialects. The report outlines five lines of evidence demonstrating that Amira is designed, trained, and validated for equity. It details how Amira’s training methodology ensures that reading skill gaps are detected without bias towards accents or dialects. The report presents empirical data showing high reliability scores across student subgroups and improvements in English learner proficiency in New Mexico. Additionally, it discusses the continuous evaluation of Amira’s scoring decisions through Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis to detect and remove bias. The findings indicate that Amira’s design philosophy translates into measurable equity outcomes, ensuring fair assessment for all students, regardless of their linguistic background or pronunciation patterns.