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

Balanced Assessment Systems, Reimagined as a Relay Race

School districts play a powerful role in creating balanced assessment systems.
October 8, 2025

Evaluating Generative AI Feedback in Classroom Assessment: A Meta-Synthesis

Generative AI is increasingly used to provide feedback in classrooms, but how effective is that feedback? Our study answers that question.
October 1, 2025

Building on a Strong Foundation: A New Chapter of Leadership at the Center

As three new leaders take the helm at the Center for Assessment, they share their vision for the future and the commitments that will guide them.
September 24, 2025

2025 Reidy Interactive Learning Series

A collection of presentations on what it takes to implement balanced assessment systems, from the Center’s 2025 conference.
September 24, 2025

Our Assessment Systems Should Reflect the Purposes of Public Education

Americans have long recognized the broad mission of public education, but haven't had good ways to measure our progress toward it.
August 27, 2025

Eight Key Threats to Balanced Assessment Systems

A new guide, to be shared at RILS next month, outlines features that make assessment systems more or less balanced.
August 20, 2025

Designing for Coherence

True coherence exists when standards, curricula, instruction, assessment and professional learning are all grounded in a shared vision of student learning.
August 13, 2025

Changing State Assessments Won’t Improve Student Learning

If we want students to learn more, we must engage them with good teaching and meaningful content.
August 6, 2025

Rethinking Assessment on a Shrinking, Shifting Landscape

We need systems that acknowledge the demographic shifts and data blind spots that make it harder to tell the story of student learning.
July 30, 2025

Statewide Assessments Are Critical for Informed Public School Choice

As public school choice expands, state tests play an increasingly important role: providing a common benchmark to help families evaluate their options.
July 9, 2025