The biggest roadblocks K-12 schools face in assessing students
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K-12 leaders and educators need help with assessments, according to findings from a new survey we conducted with K-12 Dive’s studioID.
The survey respondents identify several major challenges with assessments:
- The class time administering assessments takes up.
- Difficulty accessing and interpreting data results.
- Difficulty gauging how well students are progressing toward specific learning targets.
- Knowing whether data is valid and reliable enough to inform instruction.
These findings arrive as K-12’s focus on assessment intensifies. As math and reading scores have reached historic lows, states are adding more and more assessments. But this doubling down on assessment overlooks a fundamental problem: assessments don’t reveal what students have learned or allow teachers to tailor instruction accordingly.
The roadblocks to better assessments
Classroom assessments are — or should be — a powerful tool for teaching and learning. Assessment expert Dr. Laine Bradshaw, Vice President of Classroom Solutions at Pearson explains:
“Personalized learning isn’t an event; it’s a process during which a student is provided instruction, their understanding is assessed, their needs are identified, additional instruction is given according to their needs, and their understanding is assessed again.”
But as the survey shows, educators face a lot of roadblocks in trying to personalize learning.
In fact, just 37% percent of respondents strongly agree that assessment results let them personalize instruction.
And only a minority strongly agrees that their assessments give them the following capabilities:
- Pinpoint student needs: 38%
- Measure students’ progress toward specific learning targets: 44%
- Flexibility to assess at the right point in a student’s learning journey: 46%
It’s not as if the challenges are confined to certain assessment types. A minority of respondents across assessment type said their assessments very effectively measure students’ understanding of key academic concepts:
- Classroom assessments for formative use: 46%
- Teacher-created assessments: 45%
- Progress-monitoring assessments: 39%
- Interim/benchmarking assessments: 38%
- State-mandated summative assessments: 29%
Stress on teachers
The other roadblocks to effective assessment have to do with inefficiency. The biggest problem educators encounter? Assessment takes too much time.
This extends beyond the class time that assessments eat up. Teachers also need to prepare the assessments and then analyze the results. And just 42% of survey respondents strongly agree that assessment data is easy to understand.
Many teachers struggle even to access assessment results. They must pull data from different platforms that don’t talk to one another.
Even if the results could help pinpoint student needs, teachers are less likely to use data that is difficult to access and interpret.
How to overcome the roadblocks
The survey shows that three-quarters of educators are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help with assessments. While AI can increase efficiency, it holds less promise for making assessment more effective.
Here are three ways to ensure your assessments support instruction and learning:
- Understand the purpose of each assessment tool: Each tool is designed with a specific purpose in mind. Once you know what each assessment was designed for, you can have confidence in the results and use them to guide instruction.
- Make sure assessments give you granular data: Some assessments give you only high-level scores aligned to grade-level expectations. Those tools will do little to guide targeted instruction.
- Have high-quality assessment content: AI-created assessment content may not produce valid and reliable results. The same problem pops up when teachers pull questions from large item banks. Your assessment tools need to follow principled assessment design practices and be built on data as well as a sound measurement model.
Doubling down on assessment can be a path to improved learning outcomes — as long as schools strengthen the connection between assessment and instruction. To learn more about how educators can make the most of assessment, download the full survey findings.