Back to basics: Why assess?
Assessment results provide insights about what students know and can do. Parents and educators need meaningful, objective information about whether students are ready for college and beyond. And different types of assessments address different types of questions.
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Students’ Questions
Formative Assessment
- What are my strengths and weaknesses?
Standardized Assessment
- How do I compare to others in my class or school?
- Am I on track for college or a career?
Teachers’ Questions
Formative Assessment
- What should I teach next?
- How should I group my students?
- What do individual students need in order to grow?
- How can I reinforce learning with assessment?
- What sub-skills are challenging my students?
Standardized Assessment
- How do my students compare to others inside or outside our district?
- Do my students meet the expected standards?
- Are the results consistent with what I see in the classroom?
Parents’ Questions
Formative Assessment
- Is my child’s learning on track?
- Are my child’s learning goals being met?
Standardized Assessment
- Does my child meet expectations?
- How does my child compare to other students in his or her class, school, and district?
- How does my school or district compare to others?
Policy Makers’ and School Leaders’ Questions
Formative Assessment
- Do the formative classroom assessments show evidence of student learning?
- Are these assessments identifying students who need extra help?
Standardized Assessment
- How are our students performing in comparison to other districts and states?
- Are there any populations with significant achievement gaps?
- What does the data tell me about professional development needs?
Formative Assessments
Teachers give formative assessments throughout the year to measure how students are learning. Some have features of standardization, but most are are made by teachers.
- What they look like varies. They can be similar to standardized assessments, or they can be based more on teacher observations of student performance and activities.
- Teachers use quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and even their own observations to understand how their students are performing.
Standardized Assessments
Standardized assessments require all or most students in a grade or content area to participate in the assessment in the same way. Summative assessments given at the end of the year are an example of standardized assessments that help address inequities in education.
- Students typically answer the same questions, or questions from the same question bank, and educators administer them all the same way.
- The test forms are designed to be the same in difficulty and in what they measure. In addition, scoring methods are applied consistently.
- Certain accommodations for some learners — students with disabilities or English learners — may be provided. This allows for comparisons across schools, districts, and subgroups.
By applying standardized assessment development, we can help to ensure the questions are fair — valid and free from test bias.
- Teachers and experts validate questions by creating and reviewing them to ensure that they are assessing the content standards appropriately.
- They are also reviewed to prevent any potential bias for factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, primary language, and geographic region.
Educators need many indicators of student learning
A test score is just one piece of the whole picture. Multiple indicators of student learning lead to better academic decisions. For K–12 students, this could include grades as well as factors like class participation.
By going back to basics and looking at the different types of assessment and the evidence they provide, the way educators gather insights can change.
Pearson is actively working on research and innovative solutions that balance challenges in the classroom with ways to gather insights about student learning.
Preparing for a Renaissance in Assessment, written by Pearson’s Chief Education Advisor Sir Michael Barber and Assessment Expert Dr. Peter Hill, is a policy paper that lays out the future path for assessments at a high level.
