Assessment Truths

but also the development of assessment practices. This increases teachers’ capacity to learn about their students and allows assessment to be an invitation to a collaborative conversation of learning.

Research through the years has found that frequent formative assessments have a greater impact on student learning than infrequent assessments (Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991; Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986; Lee, 2006; Marzano, 2017). When teachers infuse formative assessment into everyday instruction and students consistently get feedback on their progress, assessment becomes essential to the learning process and fuels growth.

For the teacher, assessment is a chance to get to know the needs, strengths, and learning styles of all students in order to create a more differentiated and impactful classroom. For students, assessment is a chance to show what they have learned so that the teacher can design learning pathways to coach each individual forward.

Assessment Truths

All educators must understand and be able to apply sound assessment practices if they hope to maximize learning. Meaningful assessment is not possible unless educators understand how to use it to positively impact student learning. The following are five truths and non-negotiables when it comes to implementing sound assessment practices, whether at the classroom, school, or district level.

1. Assessment drives learning and instruction.

2. Assessment informs learning and instruction.

3. Assessment informs students of their progress.

4. Assessment informs teachers of what comes next.

5. Assessment informs teachers of immediate needs.

We’ll discuss each of these in more detail in the following sections.

Assessment Drives Learning and Instruction

Learning is not a straight path but a messy and tangled journey, especially when considering all the different readiness levels and learning styles present within the walls of one classroom. Teachers must carefully consider both students’ readiness levels and their diverse learning styles before embarking on new learning. When approaching a new unit, teachers need to collect evidence and data (whether formal or informal) on what learners know or do not know to determine their own entry point

with new instruction. Teachers can use assessment to ensure that they are meeting their students’ needs and readiness for new learning. Through assessment, teachers have the ability to see where learning journeys begin and can adjust accordingly.

Consider a high school algebra class starting a new unit of study. This unit will require some prerequisite skills for students to successfully engage with their new learning. The new skill in this unit has students solving systems of linear equations. To begin, students need to have a good understanding of slope and graphing lines in slope-intercept form. If the teacher assumes that this prerequisite knowledge is present when it is not, students could be attempting to learn a new skill while at the same time filling in gaps with prior skills that they have not yet mastered.

As the teacher begins this unit of study, he recognizes that students will come in at various levels and wants to spend time intervening where necessary. On the first day of the unit, he brings in graphing marker boards. The class begins with a studentdriven discussion about what they remember about graphing linear equations. Students talk about the slope formula, slope-intercept form of a line, and rise over run as well as intercepts of a graph. The teacher then transitions and asks students to use the marker boards to graph different lines. During these formative activities, the teacher actively notices students who are struggling or resistant to engage. The teacher uses the observations to form strategic groupings for the next day to reach students who do not possess the prerequisite skills. Throughout this lesson, the teacher is using assessment to drive learning and instruction.

Assessment Informs Learning and Instruction

While this truth might sound similar to the first assessment truth, this one is about adapting within the learning process of acquiring a new skill. While being able to teach in a logical progression with a new topic every day sounds ideal, it is far from the reality of 21st century classrooms. Learners’ needs vary from day to day; thus, instruction needs to follow suit. Teachers’ response to assessment data in the form of feedback, coaching, and responsive and targeted instruction informs the student of future learning (Hillman & Stalets, 2019).

As an example, think of a middle school team of four language arts teachers who have created a common formative assessment to address whether students can identify a theme. They have planned to administer this assessment after three days of instruction and practice. After giving the assessment, the collaborative team analyzes its data and notices that there are twenty students across the four teachers who are not yet proficient with this skill. Because of this, the teachers collaboratively discuss strategic interventions for those students as well as enrichment opportunities for the rest of the learners. They then share resources that they can use the following day

to meet the needs of all their students. Assessment within the process of learning informs student-centered decisions about next steps.

Assessment Informs Students of Their Progress

Learning should never be a guessing game for students. Once teachers have deconstructed standards and put them in students’ hands, students should be able to map and measure their own progress through learning. Students’ ownership of their own learning is key; “student investment occurs when assessment and self-regulation have a symbiotic relationship” (Erkens, Schimmer, & Dimich, 2017, p. 112). Whether they are kindergarten students or high school seniors, learners should be able to measure and see their own progress.

Consider a scenario in which a kindergarten student is sharing her learning with her parents. The student comes home, opens her reading folder, and is excited to show off several pieces of paper that display letters of the alphabet. She grabs the paper at the top of the pile, which has a few letters highlighted in blue, and says, “These were the letters I knew on the first day of school.” She then flips to the next page; this one has quite a few more letters highlighted, this time in green, and she explains that after a couple of weeks of school, she had learned so many more letters! She flips through a couple more pages until she gets to the last one, where all the letters are colored, and she says, “I did it! I learned them all! I got to take these papers out of my data notebook and bring them home so that I can show you!” Her excitement is contagious as she shows and communicates her progress. When her parents ask if she is also able to identify the capital letters, she says, “Almost. I only have five left!” and names what those letters are. Even at a young age, this learner knows what she knows, what she does not know, and what comes next. She is even excited to show and celebrate her growth.

Assessment Informs Teachers of What Comes Next

Teachers must pair effective assessment practices with meaningful feedback meant to coach all learners forward and make them active participants in the learning process. John Hattie and Helen Timperley (2007) explain that feedback should answer three questions: (1) Where am I going? (2) How am I going? and (3) Where to next? These questions align with D. Royce Sadler’s (1989) three questions: (1) Where am I going? (2) Where am I now? and (3) How do I close the gap? Keeping focus on these questions allows teachers to meet students where they are and lead them to what comes next while reaching for student self-awareness and ownership. It is essential that effective assessment stimulates thinking (Wiliam, 2013) and, as Hattie and Timperley (2007) outline, answers the question, What next? Feedback that looks forward keeps both teacher and learner focused on growth and next steps.