Key Considerations for Assessments in the New Year

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The postponement of summative assessments will continue to impact the K–12 assessment landscape in 2021, making formative and frequent checks for understanding an educators’ main line of sight into what students know and don’t know. Though formative assessments have proven to be instrumental in addressing learning gaps, there are a few essential assessment management system (AMS) functionalities that are needed to capture learning that happens outside of the classroom.

Educators should start by asking the following three questions to properly evaluate an assessment:

Is it accessible?

An accessible assessment experience provides students with multiple ways to demonstrate understanding of a concept or mastery of a standard specific to their learning needs. Using MasteryConnect’s tools and accommodations such as flagging, strikethrough, highlight, and line-reader functionalities, students can communicate their understanding of a subject using digital tools that are often available on state assessments. Using these new functionalities intermittently throughout the year will provide a seamless transition for students between formative, benchmark, and state-assessment experiences.  

Is it flexible?

Knowing that learning will likely continue to fluctuate between in-person, online, and blended, an AMS must provide multiple modalities to assess students wherever they are learning. With the Mastery Tracker, teachers can input raw scores from performance-based assessments such as projects and oral presentations, quickly scan multiple-choice bubble sheets via web or document cam, or upload their own rubrics to assess performance against any set of standards. 

To assist teachers in building their own assessments, MasteryConnect recently launched a simplified assessment modal—a cohesive hub where teachers can easily administer assessments, link assessments to Canvas LMS, and add or view different tools and accommodations to meet individual student needs.

Is it actionable?

An AMS should integrate with other tools in your learning ecosystem, making it easier to evaluate student assessment data and use it to inform instruction in the moment, when it can have the greatest impact on student achievement.

MasteryConnect continues to deepen its integration with Canvas LMS to provide a more seamless navigation between the two platforms. With enhancements to the user interface and design, Item Analysis improvements, and a digestible data dashboard via the Mastery Tracker, it’s even easier for teachers to make data-driven decisions in their classrooms and share valuable insights in a timely fashion.

Want to see these features in action?

If you’re a MasteryConnect customer interested in learning more about these new features, reach out to your customer success manager for more information and support. If you’re a Canvas customer interested in learning more about how MasteryConnect can help you streamline data analysis, inform instructional decisions, and personalize student learning, call us at (801) 736-0258 or request a live demo.

ICYMI: Read more about how MasteryConnect kicked off the 2020/21 school year with new features to improve the student assessment experience and simplify school and district functionalities. 

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