Building Systems of Assessment

Abstract

This chapter presents a number of important Common Core standards that cannot be directly measured by consortia assessments. A system of assessment may include large-scale assessments that offer information to policymakers along with much richer school or classroom assessments that offer more detailed information to guide teachers as they develop curriculum and instruction and students as they revise their work and set learning goals. Students can learn a great deal from assessments beyond where they stand in comparison to other students or the teacher's expectations as expressed in a grade or a test score. A system-of-assessments approach opens the door to a much wider array of measurement instruments and approaches. Accountability for education is achieved when the policies and practices of a school, district, and state work both to provide quality education and to correct problems as they occur.