This rapid review of twenty studies examines and characterizes interim assessment use. The findings show (1) that individual interim assessments are often used for multiple purposes, (2) that the most widely reported uses of interim assessment where for monitoring programmatic initiatives and to modify or improve instruction, (3) that reported instructional uses were generally unspecific, making it difficult to judge what exactly was done based on interim assessment results and (4) that few studies have investigated the efficacy of using interim assessments for instructional purposes, and the few studies that have done so have generally not found significant improvement.
