assessments in similar ways in their classrooms and schools. These assessments are used as tools in the teaching and learning
process, guiding teachers’ instruction, indicating when concepts need to be retaught, and helping all stakeholders in a school
to look at how best to meet individual student needs. A high school teacher in one of our focus groups stated:
“I believe in the years that I’ve been in education, we moved in the right direction with having interim
assessments drive instruction. I think before teachers would say, ‘Here are the standards. I’m going to teach
this. If you get it, you get it. If don’t, you don’t.’ But my job isn’t just to teach these standards, really, our job
is to teach these students each standard and see mastery. And I feel like that the interim assessment helps
us to see mastery.”
District leaders and principals often discussed using data from interim assessments to inform professional learning
opportunities for teachers, to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention or instructional strategy, to inform teacher
placement decisions, and to identify schools in need of additional support. A district leader in one of our interviews said:
“We make every decision based on that data. That’s just the nature of the current superintendent. I move
people. We move people from, say, a kindergarten classroom to a fourth-grade classroom because we see
where those students are excelling in that room. So teacher placement decisions are made based on that
data. The time that each child spends in intervention or enrichment is based on that data. I think the good
thing about that is we really individualize instruction.”
Another district leader stated:
“It also drives our professional learning, in conjunction with several other pieces of data related to
TEAM and teacher evaluation. We also do quarterly lunch and learns and gather data from teachers,
paraprofessionals, and administrators about what they need in terms of professional learning. So testing
data is used to tell us a bit of a story and to help us to determine what resources we need to put in place.”
The frequency of this theme indicates strong agreement among teachers, principals, and district leaders on the value of
interim assessments to the teaching and learning process. This finding increases the importance of ensuring teachers and
schools have access to high-quality interim assessments that provide them with accurate measures of student learning.
Challenges with Interim Assessments
Challenges with interim assessments were a common theme throughout surveys, focus groups, and interviews. While
educators indicated they find great value in the information gleaned from interim assessments, they also acknowledged
several common challenges faced with interim assessments. Figures 16 and 17 summarize findings from teacher surveys
related to time spent on interim assessments. Most teachers that responded to the survey feel their students spend too much
time taking interim assessments and do not feel the time spent taking interim assessments is worth the time and effort.
Teacher Survey: My students spend too much time taking benchmark assessments.
Strongly Disagree - 2%
Agree
40%
Disagree
27%
Strongly
Agree
31%
Figure 16
18