Assessment

Assessment

Assessment provides crucial insight into student learning. In a well-balanced system of large-scale summative, interim/curriculum-embedded and formative assessments, leaders at each level-state, district, school and classroom-can use assessment results to support learning. We help leaders identify their highest-priority assessment uses and design systems to meet their needs.


Recent Assessment Projects

National leadership on state assessment practice

We facilitate ongoing conversations with 40-plus states on the technical and policy issues that support good practice in statewide assessment. The collaborative is based at the Council of Chief State School Officers; our facilitation is part of our longstanding partnership with CCSSO.

Through-year design

Montana wanted to make its assessments more useful for instruction. We are supporting the state in building a through-year system that yields results several times a year, with the intent to provide information for classroom teachers to gain insight into student learning before the end of the year.

21st century competencies

The International Baccalaureate explored ways to define and assess hard-to-measure competencies like creativity and ethical thinking. To support IB, we produced a series of literature reviews defining these complex skills and providing recommendations for assessing these skills.


Recent Assessment Blog Posts and Papers

Teacher Engagement With Embedded Classroom Assessments

We studied how Chicago teachers use the district’s curriculum-embedded assessments, patterns that point to the kinds of support they need.
December 17, 2025

Leveraging All State Education Data at a Crucial Time

More than ever, states need to be able to leverage their data to maximize insight into student performance. Our framework paper can help.
December 3, 2025

Understanding Student Performance on State Assessments: Leveraging Multiple Sources of State Data for Strategic Guidance 

A conceptual framework and implementation guidance that can help states examine and understand student performance data.
December 2, 2025

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.
November 24, 2025

Fair and Justice-Oriented Assessment

Caroline Wylie and Margaret Heritage discuss their new book, which explores teaching and learning practices that can address opportunity gaps.
November 19, 2025

Safeguarding State Assessment

States should consider key safeguards to maintain strong assessment systems, in case the U.S. Department of Education can no longer enforce ESSA.
November 12, 2025

To Adapt or Not to Adapt? That Is the Question

Deciding whether to use adaptive or fixed-form assessments depends not on what technology can do, but on what you want the system to achieve.
November 5, 2025

Assessment Culture and Assessment Systems

Assessment culture can shape how schools approach student assessment. Improving both culture and systems can strengthen student outcomes.
October 29, 2025

Don’t Start With Assessment: Navigating State Involvement in 21st Century Competencies

Before states jump into assessing 21st century competencies, they need to step back to consider some key tradeoffs and questions.
October 22, 2025

Assessment Must Follow Curriculum and Instruction

We talk a lot about—and aim for—balanced assessment systems. But we’re still not paying enough attention to the instructional core.
October 15, 2025