Performance Assessment
Learn more about testing where students apply their knowledge to authentic problems and create a deliverable graded against specific criteria
What Is Performance Assessment?
Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.
Assessment
Technology Fed Growth in Formative Assessment
Education-technology tools have made it easier for teachers to keep tabs on students' understanding.
College & Workforce Readiness
New Tools Help Track Common-Core Learning
PARCC and Smarter Balanced have formative assessments that enable teachers to see if students 'get it' long before the tests.
Assessment
Students 'Self-Assess' Their Way to Learning
In a growing number of schools, student self-assessments are just another part of the learning process.
Teaching
Learning Progressions: Maps to Personalized Teaching
In Denver and elsewhere, learning progressions offer one tool teachers can use in the formative-assessment process.
Assessment
Searching for Clarity on Formative Assessment
Ask five teachers what formative assessment is and you're likely to get five different definitions.
Assessment
Q&A
Q&A: Misconceptions About Formative Assessment
Richard J. Stiggins, an advocate of classroom assessments in the service of learning, identifies misconceptions about formative assessment.
Assessment
Should Formative Assessments Be Graded?
Experts warn against grading formative assessments, but teachers sometimes worry that students won't take the tasks seriously any other way.
Standards & Accountability
Opinion
We Aren't Using Assessments Correctly
Testing data should be used as a tool to enhance instruction and learning for teachers and students, writes John Hattie.
College & Workforce Readiness
'Authentic' Assessment Shapes Learning at a New York City High School
We profile a high school where students have to explain and defend their ideas in major year-long projects in order to earn their diplomas.
Assessment
Opinion
We're Racing Through K-12 Education
Learning takes time, so rushing children to finish assignments is not the answer, writes speech-language pathologist Rebecca Givens Rolland.
Assessment
Photo Essay
A Lens on PARCC Field-Testing
Boston-based photographer Gretchen Ertl documented how the Burlington, Mass., school district was preparing for PARCC field-testing.
Standards & Accountability
Vision, Reality Collide in Common-Core Tests
Political, technical, and financial factors have constrained some of the original, and more ambitious, plans for the assessments being developed by two state coalitions.
Teaching
Teachers Learn to Judge Formative-Testing Tools
Educators gathered recently for training on how to size up instructional resources for possible inclusion in a digital library that a common-core testing consortium is developing.
Special Report
New Directions in Assessment
Addressing an area of both frustration and possibility for many teachers, this online story package explores new developments and trends in the practice of testing and assessment in schools. The stories focus on initiatives designed to link assessment more closely with classroom learning and instruction and thus provide integral solutions for teachers.
