More than a dozen states are exploring or piloting through-year assessments to replace their current end-of-year summative test for accountability. Although moving to a through-year assessment program may provide a number of benefits, it also requires considering significant tradeoffs. States that develop or adopt a through-year assessment program will have to make even tougher choices among competing priorities than they do with current assessments, since through-year poses many conceptual, technical and practical challenges.
This webinar features discussion with Center President Scott Marion and Senior Associates Nathan Dadey, Carla Evans and Will Lorié. It highlights key points from our paper, “Through-Year Assessment: Ten Key Considerations.”
The paper explores three clusters of challenges with through-year assessment and provides practical recommendations for each: (1) their conceptualization and design; (2) their relationship to curriculum and instruction; and (3) their logistical and technical challenges. The paper urges states to carefully interrogate the trade-offs inherent in any through-year assessment program, bearing in mind their state’s vision and goals. The paper also includes an appendix of through-year programs states are using or considering, organized into common models.
Watch the webinar here.
View the webinar slides here.
Related resources:
Papers:
- An Introduction to Considerations for Through-Year Assessment Programs: Purposes, Design, Development, Evaluation
- Content Progressions & Clustering Across Instructional Materials: Viability for Supporting the Design of a Through-Year Assessment Model
- Using Interim Assessments in Place of Summative Assessments? Consideration of an ESSA Option
Blog posts:
- Face It: Tests Have Consequences: Evaluating the Validity of Through-Year Assessments
- Through-Year Assessment: A Radical Renegotiation of the School Accountability Contract
- Can a State Test Inform Instruction? The Typical, the Improbable, and the Possibilities in the Messy Middle
- All I Wanted for Christmas Was a Through Year Assessment System that Promotes Deeper Learning
- But Will It Work in Practice? Practical Challenges to the Use of Through-Year Assessment for Accountability
- Collaboratively Learning About Through Year Assessments: It Will Take a Village to Fulfill the Opportunities of Through Year Assessment Systems
- Educating Pablo: A Play About Through Course Assessment Systems
- Could Two Through Year Assessment Designs Provide Both Summative and Instructional Information?
- Why Has it Been So Difficult to Develop a Viable Through Year Assessment System?
Presentations from The Center’s convening on through-year assessment
