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Assessment in education generally refers to the methods used to measure students' knowledge and skills. Assessment can take many forms, from traditional forced-choice or fill-in-the-blank assessments to essay questions, performance tasks, and portfolios. Assessment in all its forms provides critical feedback to teachers, students, and parents about students' academic progress. With the growing prevalence of high-stakes assessments, student achievement data are increasingly being used to provide feedback to policymakers. But regardless of the audience or the stakes, assessment results can provide guidance for improving classroom instruction and the impetus for aligning standards, curriculum, and instruction. As Mitchell (1988) points out: Retooling the system includes changing assessment - not so much because we need to know how we are doing (although we certainly do) but because assessment drives instruction. This is a bald statement of truth that is unpalatable if the assessments or "tests" drive teaching and learning in the wrong direction. But if the assessments are models of what students should know and be able to do, then they provide a lever for lifting the system to a new plane of achievement. (p. 2) The topic of assessment covers a wide range of issues, each of which presents particular challenges to school and districts working toward the most important goal: enhancing the learning of all students. Challenges related to assessment range from helping students prepare for external or large-scale assessments to using data to inform decision making about future assessments. Here are some resources to help school leaders tackle these issues. Resources Improving Classroom Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Developers, Toolkit98 Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students: Considerations for the 21st Century by Aida Walqui, Ph.D. 1Mitchell, R. (1988). Testing for learning: How new approaches to evaluation can improve American schools. New York: The Free Press.
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