Eliminating Unnecessary District-Required Assessments
Insights From One School District’s Assessment System Review
As many of you know, the Center for Assessment has long advocated that school districts thoughtfully review the array of tests required in their schools, so they’re using just what they need—and no more. We’ve been working on a project to help two California districts do this, and we’re excited to share some of the key insights and learnings. The resources created through the project are now freely available to all districts across the nation.
In this blog post, we’ll describe the highlights of our collaboration with the Bakersfield City School District, the largest K-8 school district in California. From January through June 2024, the Bakersfield team engaged in an Assessment System Review pilot supported by the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) through their Data Research Learning Network initiative and led by the Center. Their journey offers valuable lessons for all of us who are striving to improve assessment systems.
Identifying The Problem: ‘This Isn’t Useful For Us’
At the outset, the district leaders identified a critical issue: they were hearing multiple reports that district-required assessments were consuming valuable instructional time. The district had purchased a variety of commercial interim products to gather distinct types of information that they thought would be instructionally useful, such as K-2 early literacy skills, grades 3-8 reading skills, and grades 3-8 math skills.
But they got clear signals that in addition to eating up instructional time, these tests were not serving their intended purposes. Teachers kept saying, We are doing this for you in the district office. This information is not useful for us. This disconnect prompted the Bakersfield leadership team to seek a systematic approach to evaluating and streamlining their assessment system.
Organizing The Team For The Assessment Audit
The district focused initially on English/language arts (ELA) assessments in the early grades (K-1). They formed a team that included members from the data and assessment department, school principals, academic coaches, and intervention specialists. This collaborative effort was instrumental in re-evaluating their assessment calendar, identifying redundancies, removing assessments, and aligning assessments more closely with instructional goals.
Diving Into The Assessment Audit
The team systematically worked through the online learning pathway, which includes seven modules and an accompanying tool. The resources are designed to help teams of educators evaluate all of the summative assessments (state, district, school, and classroom) a student would experience in K-1 ELA—or whatever grade level and content area a district selects as the focus for the first time it uses the resources.
The Assessments We Need: What The Team Found
One of the most profound realizations that emerged from Bakersfield’s assessment system review process centered on its requirement of both an early literacy universal screener and an interim assessment. Both were administered three times per year, but the district hadn’t been making use of the data from either of those tests.
The data weren’t being used because teachers didn’t find the results useful for guiding their instruction. Instead, after administering the district-required K-2 literacy assessments, they gave literacy tests of their own. This realization led to a strategic overhaul, in which redundant assessments were eliminated, and a new K-2 early literacy assessment was designed based on teachers’ advice.
The Bakersfield team also found that this same pattern emerged when it examined other district-required math and ELA interim assessments in grades 3-8. This, too, led to a significant reduction in their district assessment calendar in those grades and content areas.
Key Lesson: Engagement and Feedback on Proposed Changes
An inclusive approach to gathering feedback on the proposed changes to the early literacy assessments was central to the successful reduction in testing.
By actively involving teachers from various grade levels in the decision-making process, Bakersfield district leaders ensured that new assessments were not only aligned with district goals, but were also practical and manageable for teachers to implement effectively, and would yield information teachers found useful. Principals and instructional coaches were also consulted, ensuring a holistic perspective was captured in the assessment calendar revisions.
Next: Freeing Up More Instructional Time
Looking ahead, the district plans to expand its initiative to include more schools and grade levels. The leadership team aims to empower instructional coaches to lead similar efforts, with a focus on school- and teacher-required classroom assessments, thereby institutionalizing assessment system review practices across the district.
Reflecting on their journey, the Bakersfield team notes the importance of involving classroom teachers from the outset and plans to integrate this feedback loop more robustly in future assessment system reviews.
Professional Development Needed
A critical takeaway from Bakersfield’s experience was the necessity of ongoing professional development focused on formative assessment strategies. They recognize that simply reducing assessments is not enough; teachers must be equipped with the skills to effectively utilize formative practices to support instruction and improve student outcomes.
A Proactive Approach to Assessment Reform
The Bakersfield City School District’s journey exemplifies a proactive approach to assessment reform, driven by a commitment to enhancing teaching and learning experiences. By listening to teacher feedback, aligning assessments with instructional needs, and fostering a collaborative culture, they have laid a strong foundation for sustainable improvement in student achievement.
Want to hear more from Bakersfield? Watch this video, which features district team leaders discussing their reasons for conducting an assessment system review, their process, their learnings, and next steps.
The Assessment System Review materials and resources used in the pilot are now freely available for use by any school or district on CCEE’s webpage and are also in the Center’s resource library.
This blog post was drawn from an interview the Center team (Carla Evans, Laura Pinsonneault and Caroline Wylie) conducted with the Bakersfield City School District team (Brooke Smothers-Strizic, executive director of data and assessment; Rocio Muñoz, executive director of state and federal programs; and Avilene Cueto, program specialist in data and assessment).