Ultimately, assessments help us know if students have learned.  Formative assessment is a planned process in which evidence of students’ understanding of key concepts is used by teachers to adjust their ongoing instructional procedures or by students to adjust their current learning tactics.  (Popham, Transformative Assessment).

Assessments should be thought of as a collection of evidence over time instead of an event. (Fisher and Frey, Checking for Understanding).

Quality Assessments Are:
Clear and unambiguous.
Directions: easy to understand
Expectations: clearly laid out
Layout: clear and not distracting
Graphics:  clear and with a purpose
Rigorous:  No give away answers.
Comprehensive without being cumbersome.  Focus on the most important information.
Valid and reliable.
“Less is more”  Quality vs. quantitty.
Require students to demonstrate that they have learned the material, not just memorized it.

Discussion Question:  What do you view as a quality assessment?  What do you do to use these midterms to help inform you about student learning?  What happens when they showed that they did not learn?