Integration of testing with what you’re teaching makes success possible

Your teachers may be lighting up their students’ minds, but if the tests you give them are not tightly matched to the curriculum they’ve taught, you can’t measure progress.

When teachers who prize their independence are told by your district leaders to start using common assessments, you may find teachers who prefer to go their own way. If you hand them benchmark assessments and tell them to give those tests three times a year, you may have a rebellion on your hands. How can you be sure your well–planned pacing guides and benchmark assessments are really guiding instruction?

These riddles require the combined talents of a forensic statistician and the emotional intelligence of a diplomat. They require the technical knowledge of a psychometrician. They need the diagnostic skill of a doctor. And they may require a messenger with the voice of a field sergeant. They require a team like the Owl Corps.