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

Comparability of Assessment Results Across Years (Paper)

This paper outlines issues to consider when comparing results across years.
June 18, 2007

Comparability of Assessment Results Across Years (Slide Deck)

This presentation on issues to consider when comparing results across years was delivered at the Council of Chief State School […]
June 18, 2007

A Guide to Understanding and Developing Performance Level Descriptors

This paper describes how performance level descriptors should be developed, contrasts that with current state practice, and discusses the implication […]
April 27, 2007

Designing Content Targets for Alternate Assessments in Science

This PowerPoint presentation, part of a web seminar sponsored by the National Center on Educational Outcomes on Best Practices in […]
March 12, 2007

A Framework for Considering Interim Assessments

Many commercially-available products are being marketed as formative assessments this paper distinguishes between true classroom formative assessment and interim assessments […]
February 13, 2007

Convening an Articulation Panel After a Standard-Setting Meeting: A How-To Guide

The final technical phase in many large-scale assessment standard setting projects, when multiple grades are tested, is the articulation meeting, […]
November 2, 2006

2006 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

Comprehensive Assessment Systems to Improve Student Learning October 4th-6th Agenda Session I Comprehensive Assessment SystemsStanley Rabinowitz, WestEd Session II Establishing […]
October 6, 2006

Measuring Growth With the MCAS Tests: A Consideration of Vertical Scales and Standards

This paper, prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Education, describes three conceptions of student growth and examines the appropriateness of […]
October 1, 2006

Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

This presentation, from the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2006 conference on large-scale assessment, is an overview of the […]
June 26, 2006

I’m a Psychometrician and I’m Here to Help (and Learn)

This presentation, from the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2006 conference on large-scale assessment, includes a summary of the […]
June 25, 2006