We exist to support a learning revolution.

At Lectica, we've developed a sophisticated new technology that's built around a powerful evidence-based learning model. This technology allows us to accurately diagnose people's learning needs, then provide personalized learning recommendations that support robust learning—a kind of learning that is not only efficient and immediately useful but also helps build the skills and dispositions required for a lifetime of learning and development.

Lectica, Inc. is a 501(c)(3)nonprofit corporation registered in the state of Massachusetts. Lectica owns and operates the Developmental Testing Service, LLC, which donates all of its profits to Lectica's nonprofit mission.

Origins & accomplishments timeline

1890-2010

• Baldwin discovered that the way we think develops.
• Piaget provided a theoretical framework, model, and mechanisms.
• The neo-Piagetians tested and critiquesd Piaget’s ideas.
• Several tireless research teams (Kohlberg, Selman, Kitchener & King, Kegan, Armon, Case, etc.) conducted longitudinal studies of development in specific domains.
• Fischer pulled it all together in a model of bio-psycho-social development called skill theory and pioneered new methods for studying developmental dynamics.
• Commons developed the first content-independent developmental assessment system—the Hierarchical Complexity Scoring System.

1994-1998

• Developmental sequences (authority, contract, self-understanding, education as play, learning, teaching, )
• Psychometrics (modeling development)
• Developmental Maieutics

1998–2002

• Sons of lesbians: A comparison of the content of the interviews of 30 lesbian and 30 traditional parents.
• Lectical Dictionary
• The beginning of CLAS: $500,000 Spencer Foundation Grant to explaore the development of a computerized developmental assessment System  (The LAAS: A computerized developmental scoring system for small- and large-scale assessments.)
• Lectical Assessment System
• Concept maps
• New kind of developmental science
• The Good life

2002–2006 National Leadership Study

• LDMA
• LLRA
• LSUA
• LRJA
• VUCA
• Leader development
• Role complexity analysis
• Role descriptions (skill descriptions)
• Perspective taking, seeking, & coordination
• Physics assessments
• Scoring rubrics

2007–2010

• Lectical Assessments
• Metacognition and learning in adulthood
• History of the LAS
• DiscoTest
• Relativism
• Energy
• Redesigning education
• Redesigning testing
• Clarity
• Reboot Lectical Dictionary & CLAS (formerly LAAS)

2011–2015

• Lectica, Inc. (Iterate everything)
• CCDD Literacy Study (Reflective Judgment scores predict literacy. Clarity predicts Lectical growth.)
• Glastonbury Schools (Grade, GPA, and Second Language learning predict Lectical Growth.)
• Glastonbury Schools perform as well as a conventional private school.
• VCoL+7 skills
• Taking Lectical Assessments supports development (Later reported by Thornton).
• Formative (high VCoL) adult educational programs promote development more effectively than conventional educational programs (Later reported by Thornton).

2016–2019

• VCoL-rich curricula support optimal mental development in childhood an adolescence (Are your children learning robustly?)
• Readymade VCoLs (VCoL collection used in assessment reports and articles and distributed through our website & Dawson's blog)
• CLAS demo launch
• Micro-skills

 2020–2023

• A skill is anything that develops through practice
• A micro-skill is any skill that can be practiced in real-time
• VUCA and CAOS skill maps (see Articles page)
• Skill maps (see Articles page)
• VCoLing skills (see Articles page)
• Micro-VCoL Maker

2024–

• CLAS diagnostics
• AI, open-book, and ESL detection
• Developmental wellness indicators
• Fully prescriptive CLAS scoring system