Interim Assessments: Useful Enough?
Are interim assessments instructionally useful enough to warrant districts’ time and money? Our study found a nuanced answer to that question.
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Zero-based Assessment System Design
How an idea from budget management can help school districts break the logjams they face when they try to get rid of unnecessary tests.
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The Challenges of Assessing 21st Century Competencies
A new report from the Center explores the challenges of assessing 21st century competencies and offers practical advice.
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“This Test Is Instructionally Useful.” Where’s the Evidence?
Companies often say their assessments are instructionally useful, but they rarely provide evidence to support those claims.
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Instructionally Useful Assessments: Don’t Tell Us—Show Us
Education leaders and vendors claim that many assessments are “instructionally useful.” Such claims must be highly specific, and supported by evidence.
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Assessment Data Masquerading as Instructionally Useful Information
Which kinds of tests provide information that helps teachers adjust their instruction? We outline 10 key features of instructionally useful assessments
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Stop Trying to Use Commercial Interim Tests for Instructional Purposes
The concept of “strategic abandonment” sheds light on the appropriate uses of commercial interim assessments. Instructional utility isn’t one of them.
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How to Choose Local Assessments
Choosing local assessments can be tricky. A new guide walks district leaders through the questions they should ask and the evidence they should request.
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Through-Year Assessment: Are We Asking Too Much?
The Center’s latest paper provides sound advice for the states exploring through-year assessment right now, cautioning that this approach comes with serious challenges and tradeoffs.
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All I Wanted for Christmas Was a Through Year Assessment System That Promotes Deeper Learning
A Focus on Creativity In my recent post, I promised to reveal the type of through year assessment design I’d like to see. After providing some background and context, I provide […]
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Why Have Many (All?) Approaches to Improve K-12 Educator Assessment Literacy Failed to Produce Significant Changes in Teacher Practices at Scale?
Making Teachers Active Agents in Improving Assessment Literacy Most of us would agree that if the problem of improving K-12 educator assessment literacy has not been solved, it is not […]
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Ensuring Assessment Systems Meet the Needs of Students with Disabilities
Designing an Assessment Solution that Fits for All Students is Different than Fitting All Students into an Assessment Solution In 2019-2020, the requirement to administer state summative assessments was waived […]
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It Might Be Just a Pile of Bricks!
The Challenges of Creating Balanced Assessment Systems “…a collection of assessments does not entail a system any more than a pile of bricks entails a house.” Coladarci (2002). In the first […]
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Including Missing Data in the Estimate of the Impact of the Pandemic on Student Learning
Part 3: The Practical Implications of COVID-19 Learning Loss Studies It has been a year since COVID-19 made it impossible for states to administer state assessment programs last spring. Since […]
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Making Sense of Recent COVID-19 Impact Studies by Interim Assessment Vendors
Part 1: The Practical Implications of COVID-19 “Learning Loss” Studies It has been a year since COVID-19 made it impossible for states to administer state assessment programs last spring. Since […]
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Could Two Through Year Assessment Designs Provide Both Summative and Instructional Information?
An Exploration of Feasibility for a Through Year Assessment System In a past post, I showed the logical conflict that exists for an assessment to claim to provide both end-of-the-year summative […]
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Why Has it Been So Difficult to Develop a Viable Through Year Assessment System?
A Through Year Assessment System Cannot Both Portray Summative Student Performance and Purport to be Used to Improve Student Performance in the Short-Term There has been a buzz that “through […]
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Do Interim Assessments Have A Role in Balanced Systems of Assessment?
Evaluating Interim Assessments Against the Criteria for Balanced Assessment Systems Interim assessments may have a role in balanced assessment systems, but that role is not conferred by title. It is […]
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