How to leverage digital assessments for maximized student outcomes
by Kara Canale M.Ed., NCSP, Clinical Assessment Consultant at Pearson
Digital assessments have emerged as a powerful tool for measuring student learning and understanding. They promote equity through fair and unbiased results while offering real-time feedback that allows educators to track student achievement and make timely adjustments for personalized assessment.
I would say that digital assessments — along with their robust scoring and interpretation capabilities — are the biggest game changers in the educational assessment industry to date. They’ve revolutionized how practitioners can gather data and engage with their students, all while reducing human error.
As a former school psychologist, digital assessment was a powerful tool that would give me accurate and insightful results, allowing me to better collaborate with educators and families to support the overall well-being of the children I was working with. The time savings I gained from digital assessment enabled me to employ other extremely valuable skill sets, such as direct interventions with students and ongoing consultation with staff, parents, and administration.
Yet, as educators embrace the shift to these resources, facing the many choices available, the logistics involved in administration, and the best ways to analyze data for individual support can feel overwhelming. In my current role as a member of the K-12 education team for Pearson Clinical Assessments, I often work with educators to help them select the right digital assessment tools for their district’s unique needs. I also offer strategies for effective administration and results interpretation.
Here are some of the digital assessment benefits and best practices I regularly share in those discussions.
Benefits of digital assessments
Once districts go digital, they often wonder, “Why did we wait so long?”
Some of the benefits these tools offer to a school community include:
- Increased administrative efficiency: hours of time saved compared with paper-and-pencil scoring and report writing
- Real-time decision making: immediate results enable practitioners to alter assessment batteries and tailor instruction as needed in real time
- Enhanced student engagement: a digital option often increases participation and interest
- Broader assessment offerings: school customers benefit from a wider variety of assessment offerings when using digital assessments versus paper-and-pencil test kits
Best practices for administering digital assessments
Effectively administering a digital assessment ensures its validity, reliability and fairness. Three elements to consider are:
1. Creating the right environment.
For students to perform their best, ensure testing takes place in a quiet place with minimal distractions.
2. Maintaining test standardization.
To maintain test standardization, all iPad settings should be consistent as indicated. This can sometimes be overlooked if the iPads are also being used for other activities.
3. Minimizing student stress.
High stress can negatively impact student performance. Provide clear directions to avoid confusion and uncertainty and encourage them to ask questions. Remind them that their best effort is all that matters.
Best practices for interpreting digital assessments
After the assessment is complete, educators can use the results to spark new insights and understandings. Some tips for interpreting digital assessment results include:
1. Contextualize results.
Make sure you’re looking beyond the scores and considering the child’s entire student profile (e.g., family background, culture, academic exposure, psychological history, socio-economic factors and clinical judgment) to understand the story behind the data. You also need to consider each student’s progress over time.
2. Identify patterns and trends.
You always want to consider all the data points and investigate further if warranted. For example, if results from a particular subtest seem askew, consider offering a substitute or comparable subtest as well.
3. Use results to inform future learning.
Analyzing student performance allows educators to use a data-driven approach to identifying areas where students may need additional personalized support or enrichment.
4. Communicate with caregivers.
Keeping families informed about their child’s progress and involving them in the learning journey reinforces that it’s a partnership. By sharing results and context with caregivers, educators can ensure students receive consistent support and guidance both in and out of the classroom. This collaboration enables caregivers to reinforce learning at home and helps create a cohesive and supportive learning environment that extends beyond the school community.
Leveraging digital assessments to maximize student outcomes
Digital assessments can be a transformative tool in modern education with their ability to provide immediate feedback and inform instruction aligned to learning goals. At Pearson, we understand that the many options can be daunting, and our professional team is here to help you prioritize the tools that will help boost student achievement and provide the best return on your investment. Check out our Digital Assessment Library for Schools for more information on our catalog of offerings.