George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Assessment

Look beyond high-stakes testing to learn about different ways of assessing the full range of student ability -- social, emotional, and academic achievement.

  • Assessing Literacy Skills With One-on-One Conferencing

    Brief, frequent chats with students help teachers assess their reading and writing skills while building strong relationships.
    Kyleen Gray

  • Making (Low-Stakes) Practice Tests More Effective

    Practice tests not only help surface gaps in knowledge—they also strengthen memory.

  • How Teachers Can Learn Through Action Research

    A look at one school’s action research project provides a blueprint for using this model of collaborative teacher learning.
    Suzie Boss

  • The Case for Not Allowing Test Retakes

    As more educators drop penalties for late work and allow students to redo tests, a high school teacher says that traditional policies are better for the majority of students.
    Anthony Palma

  • 60-Second Strategy: Respond, Reflect, and Review

    This simple activity helps students practice giving and receiving peer feedback—and gets them out of their desks.

  • Bringing Student Choice to Assessment in Science Classes

    What happens when students can opt to skip tests and instead give oral presentations or create art to show what they know?
    John Dorroh

  • 7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

    Within these methods you’ll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they’re still learning.
    Laura Thomas

  • Helping Students Track Their Learning

    A strategy that uses Google Forms and Sheets can guide students to accurately assess what they learn in the course of a unit.
    Bethany Petty

  • Allowing Test Retakes—Without Getting Gamed

    Hundreds of teachers discussed the best ways to guide students toward mastery—without being taken advantage of.
    Stephen Merrill

  • 6 Teacher-Approved Tips for Faster, More Effective Feedback

    More is not always better (and other life-saving tips).

  • Tools for Creating Digital Student Portfolios

    Portfolios are a good way for high school students to see and share their learning growth over time, and digital tools make it easy to set them up.
    Mary Beth Hertz

  • 60-Second Strategy: Interview Assessments

    A face-to-face chat provides an alternative for students who struggle to show what they know on tests.

  • What Does the Research Say About Testing?

    There’s too much testing in schools, most teachers agree, but well-designed classroom tests and quizzes can improve student recall and retention.
    Carly Berwick

  • Do No-Zero Policies Help or Hurt Students?

    No-zero policies spur serious—and productive—debate among teachers. We look at the big insights on both sides of the argument. 
    Emelina Minero

  • Tips for Allowing Test Retakes

    Allowing students a chance to redo tests and assignments can help them keep striving for mastery, if the process is well managed.
    David Cutler