What is the Purpose of Assessment?

An assessment manifesto for K-12 learning communities.

1. We recognize that our assessment beliefs and practices fundamentally shape every other aspect of learning that occurs in the school environment.

As such, we engage in constant professional learning and seek to apply evidence-based thinking to our practices.

2. As a community of learners, we don’t learn to earn grades, marks, points, or other validating labels.

Instead, we embrace learning as a lifelong pursuit of growth. Journeys of learning lead us to self-actualization: the truest realization and expression of the passions, interests, and talents inspired by our Creator, which in turn allows us to be of greater service and contribution to our world.

3. Within this sacred perspective, we reject traditional assessment practices that have been used to rank and sort, label and limit, promote competition or demand compliance.

We avoid applications of assessment that value quantity over quality or amount to compensation for work completed. Instead, we embrace assessment practices that illuminate next steps, include all learners, celebrate diversity, appreciate unique strengths, foster relationships, and support collaboration. We learn in community.

4. As educators, we emphasize formative over summative, process over product, journey over destination.

We frame learning as an ongoing journey that continues from year to year and goes beyond the boundaries of courses, programs, grade levels, or formal studies. We promote multiple iterations of work and repeated attempts at mastery, noting that failure is feedback and must rarely be a final verdict. We use the language of learning and proficiency as a natural part of our daily practice.

5. We use formative assessment to inform our practice and guide our instructional decisions.

We provide learners with feedback that is kind, specific, and helpful. We use assessment of, as, and for learning that encourages students and helps them take their next steps toward mastery. We remember that “assessment” comes from the Latin verb “assidere,” meaning “to sit with.” Assessment activities should not be done by a teacher to a student but as collaboration and partnership. We adjust our instructional decisions and learning activities based on the needs of our learners.

6. Assessment is powered by clarity.

Teachers use curricular standards to set clear learning targets which in turn shape strategic learning activities. With student input, teachers co-create criteria that define proficiency using age-appropriate language. Assessments tell students how they’re currently doing and what they can do next. Assessment processes should empower.

7. Knowing that learning is amplified by investment, we select assessment tools and practices that promote student agency and ownership of the learning process.

We give students voice and choice in their learning and assessment activities. We model metacognition and regular routines of goal-setting and self-reflection. We collect, curate, and annotate artifacts and evidence of learning in journals and portfolios. We equip students with the tools, strategies, and vocabulary to discuss their learning journeys with parents and others. Students write to learn as much as they learn to write.

8. Peer assessment is an expected norm.

Instead of secrecy, isolation, and vertical exchanges of teacher-to-student and student-to-teacher, we make our learning horizontal and visible whenever possible. Students support the learning of others with feedback that is kind, specific, and helpful. We foster safe cultures of learning and celebrate the growth of others.

9. Communication of student learning comes in different forms throughout the school year and may include report cards, parent conferences, student-led conferences, self-reflections, and digital portfolios of learning.

These snapshots of academic growth inform students, parents, teachers, and administrators about what is working, what needs improvement, which supports to put in place, and which directions to take next. They are holistic in focus and expansive in scope, including emotional health, spiritual growth, self-regulation, and social relationships. Although curricular competencies vary from term to term and evolve from grade to grade, core competencies (or the 5 Cs) provide constant pathways for growth that students walk from K-12. We are committed to the development of the whole child and our assessment practices reflect this value.

10. We embrace an indigenous understanding of learning as holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational.

This is the context for our shared learning journeys.

Assessment provides the navigation.

With special thanks to education colleagues Vince Bustamante, Josh Ogilvie, Maureen Wicken, Sarah Parker, Alison Levine, Shannon Schinkel, Phil Stringer, Jason Kennedy, Paul Grady, and others on Twitter who inspired and shaped my thoughts here.