Inclusive assessment design: writing fair tests for diverse classrooms

Teachers, have you ever been told you’re an “out-of-the-box” thinker? I know I have. As a former advanced placement student who struggled disproportionately on math tests, my methods of thinking and problem solving often caused me more harm than good in rigid testing environments.

On open-ended History essay tests and assessments with constructed responses, I excelled. I was able to weave my knowledge together in interesting and nuanced ways, applying that higher-level thinking that teachers hope to see in their students at the end of a unit. However, those simple formulas–those if, then questions common on math tests–to this day, they’re the bane of my existence. Even after tutoring. Even after home visits with a friend of a friend who used to be a math teacher.

I struggled.

While I had excellent teachers, none of them spoke with me personally about where I was struggling or needed help. Just as students who are struggling across the board should be receiving support that’s tailored to their individual hang-ups, students who excel in other courses should receive individual support for their problem areas.

Katy Haycock, president of the Education Trust puts it like this, “We will…never close the achievement gaps that many are so committed to closing if we focus only on bringing the bottom students up. Simple mathematics makes that clear. If we are going to get these gaps behind us, once and for all, we have to bring our middle-achieving low income students and students of color higher, and move our higher-end students higher still. In fact, if full racial equality is our goal, getting more black, Latino, and American-Indian students into the highest reaches of achievement — the top 25 percent or top 10 percent — is especially important.”

Teachers need to know the individual strengths and areas of growth in their students enough to understand where and why they’re going wrong, to uplift every student to achieve at their maximum potential. Oftentimes, teachers familiar with inclusive assessment design can help these students to excel according to their strengths while still stretching them in their weaknesses. At the very least, they can prevent themselves from accidentally limiting these students based on the design of the test.

So, today let’s dive into what an inclusive assessment looks like and how teachers can tie all aspects of inclusive learning into their curriculum to support a truly individualized learning environment.

Table of Contents

The problem with one-size-fits-all assessments

Inclusive curriculum must happen first

Culturally responsive teaching won’t add to your workload

You can increase the inclusivity of your curricula over time

Data-informed practices are the ultimate means of inclusion

The basics of inclusive assessment design

Tips for assessment writing based on Universal Design

Software can facilitate inclusive curriculum and assessment design

Remember that caring about your students goes a long way

Standardized assessments have a long, storied history going back thousands of years to the Han Dynasty. In ancient times and in Imperial China, these exams were used to “standardize” the country’s education of Confucianism. Strong testers were rewarded with government positions (Columbia).

In the United States, standardized tests have also shifted significantly in the last 100 years. In the not so distant past, they were used to actively discriminate against people of color (NEAToday). However, in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (and later, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015) standardized testing became more about program analysis and accountability for schools than separating students into achievement groups. 

While standardized assessments are necessary to establish a baseline and measure progress of large groups, especially in regards to the success of teaching initiatives, local assessments need to be more than that.

What is the purpose of assessment at the local level?

While assessment creators are well-intentioned, sometimes assessments become a means of dividing the “hard-working” students from the rest. It’s a means to an end, the end being “the grade.”

However, assessments are…at their core…a means of measurement. Anything before a final assessment should be a way of determining where students are strong and where they need help.

A final assessment? That should be the flag in the ground that marks the progress you and your student made in the uphill battle known as student growth.

If assessments are more like data collection and less like challenging assignments meant to help students earn their GPA, that changes the form and function of the assessment.

The form and function of the assessment should adapt to each student, so they can show their growth and knowledge in the way that suits them best. Otherwise, the data collected may be inaccurate.

Certain students struggle disproportionately with traditional assessments

There are so many reasons why certain student groups struggle with traditional assessments. We couldn’t possibly discuss the entirety of the history and research surrounding this issue, but it’s important to mention a few things.

Traditional assessments are more objective tests, typically with True/False, multiple-choice, or fill-in-the-blank questions. While these are useful measures of memorization, especially for vocabulary and facts-based standards, they do not demonstrate a higher-level understanding of the subject matter.

Furthermore, research shows that students of color, multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and impoverished individuals all struggle disproportionately with these kinds of assessments.

In their article, “Dividing the Pie More Fairly: Improving the Achievement of Students of Color,” author Geneva Gay discusses these performance differences:

…Equating achievement and intellectuality with test scores…is far less appropriate now than ever before as students become more culturally, racially, socially, and linguistically diversified, and the variance in their testing skill magnifies. These students bring factors to educational testing situations that are not accommodated in regular content and administration procedures, and thus can negatively affect their performance levels.

It has been demonstrated over and over again that students learn better, retain and apply information better, when their learning is relevant and tailored to them. Relevant content and test questions not only increase engagement, which correlates with higher achievement (University of Connecticut), it foundationally improves the ability of the student to recognize and apply their knowledge and get the question right. 

When students are more engaged with the content, their recall during exams and after the conclusion of the course is better (Wiley). Plus, students who have context perform better across the board. Teachers can provide context through content clarifiers on the assessment itself, and they can build a baseline of context through engaging, memorable lessons that are relevant to the individual (Journal of Practical Studies in Education).

Even more important than content acquisition, student agency is an integral part of their long-term academic success. Research shows that students perform better when they’ve had some agency within the learning environment (“Impact of student agency on learning performance and learning experience in a flipped classroom”).

So, how can we make our assessments less of a measure of intellectuality, as Geneva Gay describes? How can we account for variances in testing skills, improve the achievement gap, and accommodate for each student’s background in the testing procedure?

Before we can start crafting assessments that uplift students and help them achieve at their potential, we must know the student personally and teach in a way that supports them where they are. We must give them agency in the classroom, and it starts with the curriculum.

For a while, assessment creators have attempted to eliminate variables that could affect student performance by creating test questions that completely lack cultural context. 

Shayna Levitan and Nicholas Munyan-Penney created a resource on the current state of assessment dictating that certain kinds of assessment items need to be excluded from exams, including these stipulations from various assessment companies:

• Avoid commercial brands
• Avoid biographical information on living celebrities
• Avoid content related to the human-related causes of climate change

While part of inclusive assessment design is avoiding questions that could isolate a student due to bias in the test question or assumed knowledge, tests are often “white-leaning” because of the absence of other cultural information which could require contextual explanation on an exam.

It seems obvious that if context and bias are the determining factors in excluding interesting, culturally-relevant test questions, then we should create an inclusive curriculum that teaches that context and supports multi-cultural mindsets.

Not to mention, research shows that students who are exposed to a range of cultural contexts on an exam aren’t bothered or excluded by it (Levitan & Munyan-Penney).

Our students are receptive to multicultural lessons and content! We just have to be willing to provide it, individualize it, and assess their application of those lessons appropriately.

In the words of Dr. Allison Ross, our culturally responsive teaching expert, “Diverse curriculum creates a fortified learning experience. Multiple perspectives create multiple lenses to acquire knowledge.”

What does an inclusive curriculum look like?

There are many, many schools of thought on this. However, we would argue that it isn’t as hard as many available resources are making it out to be.

To be fully inclusive in your lesson design would be a gargantuan task. As a teacher, curriculum designer, or assessment specialist, you already have a lot on your plate; however, there are multiple ways to make students feel included in a classroom that don’t require hours and hours of additional research and resource creation.

Here is a brief overview of a few of these types of inclusion:

Cultural inclusion is more than considering a student’s heritage

Culture is a big word. Culture isn’t just where we come from geographically, it’s how we’re raised; it’s family dynamics; it’s technology, celebrities, memes, humor, and important issues.

The culture in which our students are raised can’t be nailed down to the cuisine they eat in their homes or the traditions of their parents’ or grandparents’ country of origin. This is not to discount the significant impact a student’s culture has on their perspective and on others’ perspectives of them.

Their culture shapes them as individuals. Their culture, while often shared between individuals with similar backgrounds, is still unique to their experience.

So, while cultural inclusion is both accounting for and educating your class on the widespread, shared experiences of certain groups of people, it’s also individualized teaching that shows an understanding of the world in which our students live.

We’ll discuss more about how teachers can weave cultural context into their lessons and assessments, but for now, let’s discuss some other forms of inclusion we can provide.

Linguistic inclusion can increase student versatility, engagement, and multiculturalism

Each subject has its own technical vocabulary, which a student must learn before they can form a deeper understanding of the subject matter. This is the kind of contextual language that will help them build a firm foundation of knowledge and skill.

As teachers, we can provide additional, widespread linguistic foundations by teaching and acknowledging common languages other than English in our lessons.

Not only will students who speak several languages be more engaged if they hear their native language in a lesson, but students who do not know other languages will be learning wider applications for their knowledge which will help them to apply subject-matter knowledge in broader contexts.

Inclusion of each student’s differences creates a safer learning environment

Each student needs to be seen and accommodated in the classroom; however, for some students, a one-size-fits-all learning environment is personally and socially oppressive. Marginalized students come into these classrooms at a disadvantage, often feeling that they have no place, no agency, and no safety in a community that was not built for them nor welcoming of their differences.

While all students should be seen and given a place to belong in our schools, it’s especially important that we actively and consciously build a place for marginalized students to belong.

That being said, culturally responsive teaching enables the educator to see each student and acknowledge their traits, characteristics, and histories in a way that they do not feel punished or excluded. This is a win for all students.

Students are comprised of many different traits and identities that don’t always align them with identifiable demographic groups.

Many students will struggle with verbal instructions, despite not having a documented disability or accommodation.

Many students will have strong negative reactions to group work or oral presentations.

Many students will be bored and understimulated by traditional curriculum and assignments.

While we should be cognizant and accommodating of those differences in our students with documented differences, we should be able and willing to recognize that each student comes with weaknesses and hang-ups that are holding them back.

Some students may have a disability that has not yet been documented.

They may even be dealing with social and emotional problems that they couldn’t possibly confide in you about.

We must meet them where they are, regardless of whether they can provide proof of that need.

Trust first. Accommodate first.

This is where I get to tell you the good news. Accommodating for each student’s differences doesn’t have to overburden you with individualized instruction and personalized assessment items. There’s only so much you can do in a day.

Culturally responsive teaching is a way for teachers to create an inclusive learning environment simply by paying attention.

So much of teaching is building relationships. To be a culturally responsive teacher is to build relationships intentionally in a way that gives a student safety in and ownership of the classroom and the learning process.

For example, a culturally responsive classroom:

• Allows students to direct their own learning journey based on their strengths, passions, and goals
• Acknowledges and accommodates for each student’s differences
• Doesn’t require students to leave their identities or upbringing at the door, but encourages them to incorporate who they are and their backgrounds into their learning

Classrooms like this bring students into the planning and curriculum process, so they can make the choices that are most interesting to them.

For example, rather than the teacher having to do the research and plan a lesson based on an interesting, culturally-appropriate piece of media, the teacher can provide the basic concepts of a lesson and ask the students to do the rest.

An example lesson that uses culturally responsive teaching practices

Bellringer

Do a quick Google search on the element of Helium. Write down the most interesting fact you can find and the source for that information.

Lesson

1. Gather and write down some of the most interesting facts about Helium via class discussion or sticky notes.
2. Fill in the gaps, so students have all of the factual information they need about this element. Provide written notes and encourage students to add information as it comes up in the lesson, including their questions and curiosities.
3. Give students about 5 minutes to do additional research on how Helium is used in everyday life. They can write down what they know, or you can initiate a class discussion to activate their prior knowledge, then do an internet search.
4. Take down a list of ways Helium can be used, then encourage students to select the ones they find most interesting.
5. Allow them to pair up or work individually. Encourage them to choose a unique way to teach the class about the use for Helium that they chose to research.
6. Provide some examples of projects they could choose, including a drawing, a slideshow, a Tiktok, an Instagram carousel, a short written paragraph, a poem, or even a verbal presentation.
7. Check in with students at the end of class with an exit ticket. Ask them how they plan to tackle their projects tomorrow including the first thing they’ll do to kickstart their projects.
8. Have a list on-hand of kid-friendly resources for the most common uses of Helium, in case they need help finding information on their level.

Takeaways from this lesson

There are several levels of accommodations in this lesson, but there are also several opportunities for students to take on a leadership role and follow their curiosities. When students lead the journey toward knowledge acquisition, they’re not only more engaged, but their retention and application of this knowledge will be more long term and nuanced.

Plus, you’re gathering a great deal of data about your students and their needs during your bell ringer and exit ticket.

Let’s say you get bell ringer answers that are incorrect or are copied straight from the first search result. These students may need a group or one-on-one intervention in which you check in with them about their search skills and how to vet whether a source is trustworthy.

If your exit tickets are concerning, then you may want to work with students to develop a game plan for their project. Help them create goals and guideposts, so they develop a sense of direction and confidence for this project.

It’s okay to provide scaffolded levels of assistance with some students needing more support than others. Not every student will be willing and able to jump into the deep end without direction; that’s why these assessments are helpful.

We recognize that providing individualized assistance in a classroom with 30 students per teacher may not be possible at the level you’re envisioning. However, teachers may be able to provide and pre-plan levels of assistance and accommodations so that students can direct their learning journey based on which “tier” of support they choose.

In this sense, students can receive some support from you while still utilizing their peers, resources, and knowledge to take agency in the project planning and learning process.

You don’t have to hit it out of the park every day, every lesson. We know that, for the most part, your curricula and resources stay the same from year-to-year. You don’t have to overhaul it from start to finish to make it more inclusive. You can do this little by little.

For example, let’s say you teach about our Democratic Republic every year. You know when it will come up and which resources you will use to teach it.

When it comes time to teach this lesson again, one way you can modify this curricula for the current year is to search for current, accurate, and interesting resources that students may find more accessible.

Are there YouTubers or Tiktokers who discuss civics and history in engaging ways? Maybe you can swap that new resource in. In districts with firewalls that can prevent streaming of these resources, it may be worth pre-recording them to avoid technological hitches in the lesson.

Perhaps you can develop a new project for this unit that wasn’t available in previous years. If you want to be more culturally inclusive, you can allow students to research the democratic processes of a country they’re interested in to compare and contrast with our own.

You can search for translations of common vocabulary words which may have interesting connotations in cultures and countries speaking that language. Simply add a discussion or a bellringer with this information before moving onto the main content of the lesson.

One modification at a time can make your lessons more and more inclusive for the students to come. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach.

10 Examples of inclusive practices to include in your lesson planning

Now that you have been given permission to undertake this practice of inclusion one small step at a time, we’re going to provide some examples of ways you can do this.

Each of these falls into one of the three types of inclusion mentioned earlier in the article, and we consider them culturally responsive and individualized.

1. Provide multiple means of communicating information, including through media, written notes, verbal instruction, and discussion.
2. Write in opportunities for students to sync with you about their questions and setbacks so you can get them back on track as soon as possible.
3. Give students opportunities to do their own research before your lesson, so they have some context with which to ground their new knowledge.
4. Ask students to bring their own cultural and linguistic knowledge to the discussion, so you’re getting verifiable, culturally-inclusive information straight from the source. Use the information they provide to bolster future lessons.
5. Allow students choice as often as possible, including when selecting projects, seating, groups, and personal accommodations such as headphones during work time.
6. Let students draw their own connections with subjects that interest them, and allow them to develop their own research projects based on those points of connection.
7. Map in time to visit with each student at least once during the week to talk about them. Make sure to hit on their confidence, their wellbeing, what they’re interested in at the moment, and what they need from you.
8. Use student data to modify future lessons and activities. If a student is struggling with subject matter that is considered a level one or two depth of knowledge, help them develop goals and goalposts to move past those points before diving deeper into the subject matter.
9. Build in time to connect with your students outside of the subject matter. Learn about the common culture, including celebrities, songs, technology, and memes.
10. Use what you learn to gain a better understanding of who your students are. If the majority of your students know of a certain singer or rapper, or if they seem to use and understand a slang word that conveys a unique meaning, see how you can use these details to connect your lessons with their prior knowledge. Don’t be afraid of being cringey. They’ll remember the lesson whether you came across as cool or not.

Individualized teaching is inclusion. The best way to teach to each individual is to use their data to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and needs.

This is called Data-Informed Instruction (DII). As Moreland University describes, DII requires holistic, comprehensive data collection to diversify “content, process, product and learning environment” for the individual student.

Culturally responsive teaching can include data-informed instruction as a means and method of observing and responding to student needs, but data must be a part of this process for it to be DII.

Data needs to be a constant reference to ensure that we’re providing the level and types of accessibility each student needs. Ensuring that we don’t over accommodate is also a concern (National Center on Education Outcomes).

The Moreland resource uses a case study from Stephenville ISD in which teachers were making well-intentioned decisions about the learning needs of a student while accidentally disregarding heaps of formative assessment data. Ultimately, this meant that students were being retaught and enriched in areas that they ultimately didn’t need the help anymore.

So, not only do we need to use data to create a data-informed curriculum that includes and accommodates the needs of the individual, we need to have enough data to ensure that we’re working off of an accurate understanding of the students' needs.

Now, we finally circle back to the assessment itself.

We need inclusive assessments to develop inclusive curricula, but without inclusive curricula, our assessments can only be so inclusive.

If this makes you nervous about the potential lift of a program-wide initiative, hang on. Don’t get nervous just yet.

While it would be beneficial to have the support and backing of a district leader or administrator who can help pilot program-wide changes that take the burden off of the teacher or assessment writer, the individual can make changes in their own practices that result in small but significant benefits for their students.

And we’re going to tell you how.

Assessment design is a very specialized area of expertise. While teachers may develop these skills over the course of their time as a teacher, it’s ultimately a long road to become an expert assessment writer.

We won’t pretend to be able to make you into assessment experts by the end of this article, but we can give you some basic skills and concepts to take into your own classroom and practices.

#1 Universal assessment design

The National Center on Education Outcomes defines universal assessment design as a means of improving access to assessments for all students.

They list the seven elements of the universal design of assessments as:

• Inclusive assessment population (everyone in need of assessment participates in the assessment)
• Precisely defined constructs (clearly and specifically outlining the desired outcomes of an assessment, such as learning objectives or skills)
• Accessible, non-biased items (that don’t assume knowledge or skill nor exclude a student based off of their background)
• Amenable to accommodations (easily modified to accommodate students with documented disabilities and individuals with unique needs)
• Simple, clear, and intuitive instructions and procedures
• Maximum readability and comprehensibility (does not assume the reading level or word-level understanding of the student)
• Maximum legibility (the physical appearance of the text doesn’t interfere with its readability)

The great thing about a test that follows Universal Assessment Design is that it won’t just accommodate students with documented needs and disabilities, it will be accessible to all students, even high-achieving and “bubble” students.

#2 Multiple opportunities to demonstrate Mastery

In the Moreland resource, they mentioned that teachers were making instructional decisions based on outdated, insufficient data. Say a student misses a question and that question happens to be the only assessment item for that learning standard. Then, according to the data, that student has not mastered that learning standard.

In reality, the student may have missed the question because of the design of the question itself, or that question happened to laser in on a single gap they have about that learning standard, even though they’ve come close to mastering it.

By giving students multiple unique ways to demonstrate mastery for a learning standard, you’re not only giving yourself more data to work with about that student’s weaknesses, but you’re also accommodating for their unique learning style and assessment skills.

You’re giving them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their mastery according to their innate strengths (and not their assumed strengths, such as reading level or familiarity with certain culture-specific language). 

#3 Consistency of accommodations

In order for accommodations to be successful, they need to be applied consistently. If a student is receiving a calculator during lessons and activities, they need to also receive that accommodation on assessments.

If students will not be able to use the accommodations they’re accustomed to on certain assessments, such as state testing, then they will need special practice and instruction on completing assessments without them.

It’s worth stating that in order for students to receive maximum benefit from their accommodations and from culturally responsive practices, teachers need to work together to make sure that students are receiving consistency from classroom to classroom, not just from classroom to test. It might be worth initiating a cross-subject planning meeting, or starting an email chain in which teachers can discuss and strategize a way to create consistent attitudes and atmospheres across departments.

Of course, administrators would be crucial in creating a culture change that could facilitate this kind of consistency.

#4 A variety of assessment types

Your means of gathering student data isn’t limited to traditional assessments. If you’ve noticed that a student participates in discussion and often offers unique insights about the subject matter, but they perform poorly on assessments, perhaps this student needs individualized interventions and an opportunity to assess in a unique way.

This is where knowing your students can come in handy. Perhaps this student’s reading level isn’t reflective of their content mastery. Allow them to answer questions verbally. Ask them to create a multimedia project. Give them the leeway and trust to demonstrate their knowledge in a way that will help you assess their understanding of the standard and not their reading level.

Writing assessments isn’t easy, but it’s a skill that every teacher needs to develop if they want to accurately gather data about their students.

However, it may be helpful to know that you don’t have to develop assessments in isolation. Not only can you lean on your fellow teachers to vet assessment items, but your students themselves can help you hone your skills for writing accessible tests!

Here are some examples of ways to develop tests that pass the Universal Design criteria:

• Write multiple versions of a single test question and give it out as a non-graded bell ringer or exit question. Was there a substantial difference in the way students performed? Ask them for their input. Have them analyze or rephrase the question. Did they reword or analyze each question differently? This can help you perfect your test question writing formula.
• Use legible fonts. Did you know that some fonts are recognized as more accessible than others? Here is a list of the most legible fonts.
• Write and verbalize what you expect each student to be able to do for each assessment. This could be a simple blurb at the top stating which skills, learning standards, and outcomes you’re measuring. These will help to ground the student and direct their skills appropriately.
• Provide content clarifiers. It may be best to take polls in advance of an assessment to see what students know. If you’re using names, brands, cultural practices, or specialized language in the assessment, it may be best to proceed with caution and provide content clarifiers for the relevant assessment items.
• Practice non-graded assessments with the test instructions beforehand. It’s important to test and iterate on instructions to see if they’re standing in the way of a student’s success on that assessment.
• Students have practice with the assessment item types and software before the official assessment. The technology cannot be a factor that limits their ability to demonstrate Mastery.
• Your assessment item questions are at or below grade level in reading. You can easily check the reading level of your assessment items with free software such as the Hemingway app. If you have too many difficult words, long sentences, or convoluted sentence types, the reading level of the content goes up.

We recognize that a lot goes into universal assessment design. If you want to do more research for yourself, this resource from scholars at the University of Minnesota goes into depth about each of the characteristics of an accessible assessment.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in favor of using technology for inclusive assessment. For example, just a few years ago Technology Enhanced Items (TEIs) became a requirement for online testing in order to ensure the accessibility of these assessments.

Well-written online assessments are the best method of ensuring inclusive, Universal Design because they are modifiable per student, per classroom, and per community. Ideally, each student can modify the font and contrast on their screens, so brightness and legibility do not impede them.

Ideally, each student with specific learning accommodations has immediate and easy access to them. That’s why any reputable assessment software will have these accommodations, (e.g. text-to-speech, spelling assistance) built into the interface.

These are common features in online assessment software now.

While these are the bare minimum in accessibility, good software will help teachers to individualize their curriculum, their data collection practices, and assessment creation.

If you’re an Eduphoria customer, you’ll be familiar with the features we’re about to discuss. If you’re not a current customer, we hope this information will be useful to you in advocating for ed tech adoption that’s right for you and your inclusive classroom goals.

Curriculum-writing software should meet a few criteria

So far in this article, we’ve discussed that the best way to write inclusive curriculum is to use data to inform instruction but also to understand the needs of the individual student such that you can teach to their interests and skill levels.

Curriculum writing software, then, should allow teachers to individualize their lessons per classroom and per student.

Eduphoria offers a curriculum planner and resource creation tool that allows teachers to easily access scope and sequence, (anchoring their lessons in the required learning standards and objectives) while also creating unique planners for each planning period.

Teachers can create resources for each classroom within the software; however, they can also invite teaching assistants and tutors to collaborate with them, so individuals who need extra assistance can receive individualized, small group instruction with their teachers. They can also align broader teaching and curriculum initiatives with their Professional Learning Community by inviting collaborators to add their own lessons and resources.

Forethought is a complete and comprehensive tool for individualized instruction practices; however, we’re happy to announce that it will soon be replaced with a curriculum planning tool that easily integrates with Aware, our assessment software, to facilitate data-informed instruction that is as live and up-to-date as your most recent assessment measure.

Creating inclusive assessments with item banks

Earlier, we mentioned that students should have multiple ways of demonstrating subject mastery in order to collect reliable data. With Aware, it’s easy to make sure you’re building in these opportunities for students.

If you subscribe to an item bank, you can use our test builder to easily add assessment items that have been created and vetted by assessment experts. See which depth of knowledge and learning standard each question is measuring, so you know exactly what kind of data you’ll be able to gather through each question.

We also have a Retest function, which allows teachers to instantly assemble a retest that mirrors the original assessment. It draws from item banks to make sure that the retest measures the same learning standards and depth of knowledge.

These features aren’t just time-saving for teachers and assessment writers. They allow students to experience assessment items in multiple ways, so they have their best shot at demonstrating Mastery. If teachers don’t have access to an assessment item that measures exactly what they’re hoping to measure, they can use technology-enhanced items or other varied assessment types to create that individualized measure of success.

Allow students to demonstrate unique displays of Mastery with Mastery Tracker

Teachers have access to a wealth of data when making decisions about each student’s learning needs. It doesn’t all come down to the tests that they take.

In reality, teachers are having discussions with their students. They’re working out learning gaps over activities, bell-ringers, and after school tutoring. These are all valid and worthwhile means of data collection, so teachers should have a place to recognize student progress that isn’t necessarily represented in the assessment results.

As Geneva Gay states, “Equating achievement and intellectuality with test scores…is far more inappropriate now than ever before…”

Each student is bringing a lot with them into the classroom. Their cultural upbringing, their language differences, their test skills and subject matter knowledge, as well as their home life and social-emotional wellness.

We can make achievement more accessible to them by meeting them where they are, in the vein of culturally responsive teaching.

If you’ve grouped a student into a monitor group based on a learning gap you’ve observed, you can use Mastery Tracker to track their progress in that learning domain.

This is a means of assessment that acknowledges the unique skills and abilities of the student. If they perform poorly on tests or activities but seem to have no problem with high-level discussions, you can note this in their tracker.

This information can also help you individualize their assessments. Allow them opportunities to demonstrate what they know verbally, if that seems to be their best method of communication.

Allow them unique activities and projects.

And develop them in our curriculum software. 

Use student perceptions to individualize your approach

Finally, you can work with students to strengthen your tests and gather data about their individual learning needs.

With the student confidence tool, students can quickly and easily rate their level of confidence about an assessment question.

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With this data, teachers can not only cross-reference each student’s success on a question with their confidence in order to develop individualized interventions, but they can improve the questions themselves. 

If a question generates a lot of low confidence scores, then it may need to return to the drafting table for a revision.

You can gather even more specific information about your students with Reflection.

Let’s say you want to gather information about your student’s problem-solving skills. Assign them a reflection after an assessment that asks them to talk about how they decided on their answers.

If you want information about the readability and inclusivity of assessment items, write a reflection question for that purpose!

When you’re gathering feedback straight from the students, it’s easier to improve your test design and modify your curriculum and assessment practices per student.

We recognize that all of this information can add up to a rather large and overwhelming feeling that you’ve got a lot to do to get your students and your practices where you’d like them to be.

We hope this doesn’t give you that feeling. In actuality, caring about your students is more than half the battle.

Do you care about your students’ welfare?

We know that you answered yes to that question.

Because we know you answered yes to that question, we’re confident that you have what it takes and that you’re already making a massive positive difference in their lives. The only thing that’s left is to use that care and knowledge to make data-informed decisions.

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