4 Assessments You Should Be Using to Improve Literacy Outcomes

By Jan Hasbrouck, Ph.D.

Today, most schools are investing significant time and resources in assessing their students’ literacy skills. Many educators, as well as parents and members of the general public, are questioning the amount of testing that is going on in schools. Some suggest that perhaps schools are spending too much time assessing students. I would agree that this may in fact be the case, at least in some of the schools I’ve worked with. I would also agree that conducting assessments is NOT the most important thing that we, as educators, can do with our limited time and resources. I believe the majority of educators would agree that the MOST important thing we do is provide high-quality and effective instruction (and intervention as needed) to our students. So where do assessments fit in?

Academic Assessments

As professional educators, we must be certain that we have gathered sufficient, appropriate information to both plan and deliver good instruction and intervention for each child. Furthermore, once instruction has been initiated, we must continue to collect information that lets us know whether or not our instruction has been effective. Teachers can—and must—utilize their experience and their knowledge about their students to make decisions in their classrooms. However, professional educators also embrace the information provided by four different categories of academic assessments, each designed to answer a simple but important question.

Categories of Academic Assessments

1. Benchmark/Screening Assessments: These assessments are designed to help educators answer this question: Which of our students might possibly need some extra assistance to be successful academically?

Or, WHO might need help?

1. Skill Diagnostic Assessments: After schools have identified students who may need additional academic assistance using screening assessments, teachers then turn to a set of individually administered assessments that help us answer the question: What are this student’s academic strengths and instructional needs?

Or, WHAT kind of help does this student need?

1. Progress-Monitoring Assessments: Once instruction (or intervention) has started, educators rely on various progress-monitoring assessments to answer the question: Is learning happening? Probably a more accurate way of asking this question would be to ask: Is my teaching improving the targeted needs of this student?

Or, Is the WORK WORKING?

1. Outcome Assessments: The final category of assessments, called outcome assessments, is designed to answer the question:

Did our students make progress toward meeting the standards?

Learning About Assessments

Understanding the purpose of the assessments in each of these four categories is essential. Educational leaders at effective schools find ways to provide necessary professional development and learning opportunities for their teachers and administrators to equip them to understand why assessments are administered and which questions are answered by data obtained from the four types of assessments. Only with such foundational knowledge can professional educators select and use assessments in a manner beneficial to students.

Some educators may shy away from trying to understand the purpose and rationale for administering the assessments they are giving because they may mistakenly believe the topic is too complex to understand. They may have unpleasant memories of coursework taken during their teacher preparation that dealt with the complex technical issues of psychometric assessment such as reliability and validity. Some aspects of assessment are in fact very complicated. However, the good news is that it is not necessary for all educators to delve deeply into these rather heavy topics. What is important to understand is that assessments are designed to provide information that can be used to answer significant questions and guide key decisions. The next challenge is to help teachers actually use the data to inform their work.