Adopt through-year assessments that combine interim and summative functions to increase instructional relevance¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The report describes through-year assessments as an innovation many states and vendors are developing and field-testing: students take short assessments over the course of the year, typically 3-5 times, whose results are either compiled into a single summative score or inform the content of a shorter year-end assessment. Educators and school leaders quickly receive during-year results that can inform instructional adjustments or identify students for additional supports. The report states "Through-year assessments, in effect, combine interim and summative assessments into a single, coherent set of assessments" and encourages further development so they serve instructional use while producing valid, reliable data.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Results must reach educators quickly enough to adjust instruction during the year
• Assessments must produce valid and reliable data for state and district leaders while serving instructional use

Constraints¶

• As currently designed, statewide summative assessments are not intended for real-time instructional adjustments; the report says it seems worth exploring if or how they might be used in the ways educators seek

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students in states adopting through-year designs

Target Learning Goals¶

• grade-level content mastery
• timely instructional adjustment

Affordances¶

• Four Assessment Types Typology

Related Strategies¶

• Summative Assessment to Measure Learning Over Time
• Balanced Assessment System

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Nicholas Munyan-Penney and Sarah Mehrotra. (2023). Future of Assessments: Centering Equity and the Lived Experiences of Students, Families, and Educators. Ed Trust. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED628034