The Impact We're Building with BLAST

At BLAST, we understand that bilingualism is a powerful advantage, not a barrier to success. And we think that for way too long, the tools used to assess bilingual and multilingual students have failed to honor this fact.

Traditional monolingual assessments overlook the full spectrum of abilities that bilingual children bring into the classroom. As a result, bilingual and multilingual students are often inaccurately placed, misunderstood, or under-supported. And the programs designed to serve them are left without the data they need to demonstrate their effectiveness.

We’re here to change that.

Reimagining Assessments

BLAST is a research-based and standard-aligned bilingual literacy assessment platform designed specifically to measure the strengths and needs of bilingual and multilingual learners. Our goal is clear: to empower children to thrive academically through culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and data-driven assessments.

We align our work with global priorities focused on improving educational outcomes and reducing inequalities, offering innovative tools to measure student performance and providing meaningful, data-driven recommendations that support students, teachers, parents, and administrators alike.

What We Do

Our assessments are bilingual by design, evaluating listening, speaking, and literacy skills in both English and Spanish. We generate personalized data reports for every student and deliver actionable instructional recommendations to teachers and school leaders. Most importantly, we use proprietary language and literacy benchmarks that allow us to compare student performance to bilingual and multilingual peers rather than using outdated monolingual norms.

We provide:

• Beginning-of-Year (BOY) screening assessments

• Middle-of-Year (MOY) progress monitoring assessments

• End-of-Year (EOY) achievement assessments and reports

And we don’t stop at assessment. We support educators and parents in understanding the results and using them to guide instruction and advocacy, and measure program effectiveness.

Where We Are and Where We’re Going

BLAST currently supports charter and public schools across New York City and State, Virginia, California, and Puerto Rico, partnering with educators and school and district leaders who are deeply committed to bilingual and multilingual learners.

In these communities, we help teachers make informed instructional decisions, equip administrators with actionable insights, and help elevate the strengths of students who have long been underserved and misrepresented by traditional monolingual assessment tools.

As we look ahead, our goal is to expand our reach nationwide, supporting more schools and programs that center the assets and needs of bilingual and multilingual (English) learners. We’re here to serve the educators, administrators, and communities shaping the future of education with the tools they need to nurture, measure, and celebrate every child’s academic journey.

How We Know It’s Working

We measure impact through clear, data-backed outcomes. On average, students using BLAST show a 15% improvement in all assessed skills and subskills, between assessment periods, and a 30% improvement over the course of the school year. And these gains are reflected in all areas assessed, from listening comprehension and oral communication to reading and writing in both English and Spanish.

As we continue to grow, we’re expanding our evaluation efforts to track additional outcomes. Here are the targets we’re aiming for:

Outcome	Target
Teachers using BLAST data to plan instruction	85%
Students showing measurable biliteracy growth	100%
Districts using BLAST to expand DL programs	80%
Parents receiving understandable reports	90%
Assessments using bilingual benchmarks	100%

These outcomes will guide how we grow our platform and refine our tools, always with a focus on data-driven insights and child-friendly interactive assessments to boost learners’ outcomes.

Our Long-Term Vision

We envision a future where:

• Bilingual and multilingual students achieve greater academic success, with strengthened literacy and math outcomes, higher graduation rates, and expanded academic and financial opportunities.

• Dual language programs are validated through measurable growth, not only in student performance, but also in educator capacity and parental engagement.

• Assessment practices shift toward asset-based models that recognize and build on the full linguistic capabilities of bilingual and multilingual learners.

• Fewer children are underserved or misplaced in costly interventions due to outdated, monolingual assessments that underestimate their potential.

BLAST is more than an assessment platform. It’s an engine for social innovation, educational impact, linguistic justice, and systems-level transformation.

Join Us!

If you’re a district leader, educator, funder, or advocate, we invite you to be part of our movement. Together, we can ensure that every bilingual and multilingual child is seen, supported, and celebrated not just for what they know, but for who they are.

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