Coherent Assessment Systems

“[A] collection of assessments does not entail a system any more than a pile of bricks constitutes a house.”

— Theodore Coladarci*

The Challenge

Each assessment is created for a specific purpose and use, but no one tool or strategy can meet all needs in an educational system. What’s needed is a coherent, equitable, and high-quality assessment system that uses the right tools to give decision-makers valuable information relevant to their context and reflects shared values about teaching and learning.

What We Do

We collaborate with state and district assessment leaders to thoughtfully improve their assessment systems, aligning systems to instructional visions to ensure they provide meaningful data that can be used to enhance student learning outcomes over time.

Project

Santa Ana Unified School District

We evaluated Santa Ana Unified‘s assessment system – surveying schools and holding focus groups to understand assessment use and frequency – to create a coherent approach to improve its assessment literacy and instructional practices.

Brief

Assessment Leadership: Leading a Balanced, Comprehensive Assessment System to Improve Teaching and Learning

While state assessments monitor how well schools and districts meet the needs of all students, local assessments can provide meaningful information to support classroom learning and local improvement goals. This brief outlines eight elements of a fair and effective local assessment system that helps students take charge of their own learning.

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Brief

Key Elements of a Coherent and Equitable Local Assessment Systems

Effective leadership is crucial for building a balanced assessment system and using data at all levels, from classrooms to districts. This brief explains how to create a vision and culture that supports sound assessment practices.

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“Collaborating with the professional staff from WestEd as part of our state assessment audit process allowed us to more clearly understand district needs as the first step in designing assessment literacy supports in Oregon. They helped us to design a district self-assessment survey and hosted several focus groups that helped us develop our understanding of current teacher and administrator assessment decision-making practices. While we realize that more research is needed, we would not have been able to conduct this research without their support. It was critical for us to engage them as independent research partners and they were engaged, competent, and thoughtful partners.”

— Dr. Dan Farley, Director of Assessment, Oregon Department of Education

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*Coladarci, T. (2002, June). Is it a house… or a pile of bricks? Important features of a local assessment system. The Phi Delta Kappan, 83(10), 772–774.