Teachers have a range of assessments to measure student mastery in all subjects. These include formative assessments given alongside lessons to better determine if students are developing skills and understanding. Summative assessments are administered to determine the level of mastery. Students have a voice in which assessments they complete (essays, projects, presentations, tests), with teachers guiding them to ensure a variety of assessments measure various skills. Students can re-take assessments to demonstrate mastery.

Schools are held accountable for student learning over time.

Assessments are designed so that the difficulty of the questions adapts to the student’s ability to answer questions. The adaptive assessments include items appropriate to the student’s state of readiness. If a student correctly answers questions at his or her grade level, the assessment offers more challenging questions.

Technology-based classroom assessments provide quicker, if not immediate, feedback on learning. Technology helps students self-monitor learning and with teacher guidance, recognize and respond to their strengths and weaknesses. It also provides teachers with ongoing data for immediate and targeted adjustments to instruction.

Teachers know how to create and implement a variety of assessments and are provided the time to work with colleagues to calibrate common understandings of measuring mastery.