ASSESSMENTS · VISIBILITY
Assessment that helps you know each student
True Progress assessments contribute evidence about students' ELA and math learning: their strengths, where they encounter difficulty, and how learning develops over time. This evidence is one part of Visibility, the first driver of the Student Success System. Educators interpret it alongside classroom work, observation, and their knowledge of each student's learning and experience.
Assessment depth should match the question educators are trying to answer. For most students, a brief periodic Screener provides the True Progress assessment evidence needed. The Diagnostic and Inventory add greater detail only when a specific question calls for a closer look.
Three assessments. Different depths of understanding.
The Screener, Diagnostic, and Inventory answer different questions about learning. Educators choose the depth of assessment that matches the question they are trying to resolve, using assessment findings alongside what they already know about the student.
Screener
PERIODIC CHECK
A brief, approximately 25-minute adaptive assessment for following ELA and math learning and progress. Questions adjust to the student’s responses, reaching below or above the enrolled grade. Educators can review overall and domain results and examine the questions and responses behind them. For most students, periodic screening alongside classroom evidence provides sufficient True Progress assessment information.
Explore the ScreenerDiagnostic
FOCUSED LOOK
A focused assessment of skills at a level selected by the educator, below, at, or above the student’s enrolled grade. Results show percent correct by assessed skill and provide access to individual responses. Educators use this evidence to plan teaching, intervention, or greater challenge. Classroom work or Screener results can prompt its use.
Explore the DiagnosticInventory
DETAILED LEARNING PROFILE
A deeper assessment of twelve dimensions within ELA or math, adapting across learning levels within each dimension. The resulting learning profile helps educators examine uneven patterns of strengths and needs when a broad result or assessment at one level leaves important questions unanswered. Specialists and teachers use the findings to inform planning.
Explore the InventoryINTERPRETING A RESULT
A score is evidence, not always the explanation
A concerning score can indicate a learning need, but educators should examine what sits behind the result before deciding how to respond.
A student may have moved rapidly through the assessment, skipped substantial parts of it, or spent very little time engaging with the questions. In that case, the immediate question may concern engagement, attention, stamina, or assessment conditions rather than a foundational skill gap.
Item responses, timing, skipped questions, classroom work, and the student’s experience can all change the interpretation. Looking behind the score helps educators avoid designing an intervention for the wrong problem.
A closer look when it will help
A student does not need to take all three assessments. Teachers may already have enough evidence to act, or they may need to investigate a question more closely. The choice depends on what remains to be understood.
| What educators are finding | How assessment can help |
|---|---|
| Classroom work and Screener results indicate that a student is thriving and progressing. | Continue periodic screening alongside classroom observation. Additional assessment may not be necessary. |
| A student is having difficulty with particular skills or work at a particular level. | Use a Diagnostic to examine understanding at that level and inform teaching or intervention. |
| A student's strengths and difficulties span several levels or vary substantially across dimensions. | Use an Inventory to develop a more detailed learning profile and inform planning. |
| A student is ready for greater challenge. | Consider what classroom work and Screener results already show. Use a Diagnostic or Inventory if more detail would help determine the appropriate challenge. |
Schools establish shared criteria for taking a closer look, informed by their own students and context. Educators use those criteria alongside their knowledge of the individual student. A teacher's concern can warrant further assessment without waiting for the next screening window.
Understanding develops over time
Periodic screening helps educators consider both current learning and progress. A student learning at a high level may be making little progress. Another working below expectations may be advancing substantially. Considering both alongside classroom work helps educators judge whether intervention and challenge are appropriate.
A Diagnostic can be revisited after a period of instruction to examine what has changed at the assessed level. Assessment needs can also change: a student who previously needed a closer look may later need only the Screener.
Within the Student Success System, Visibility gives educators a fuller understanding to draw on when shaping curriculum, instruction, intervention, and challenge. Returning to the student’s experience, work, and progress helps the school judge whether its response is helping and what may need to change.
Shared understanding across the school
The same evidence can inform different questions across the school. Reports bring learning levels, areas of strength and need, item-level evidence, and progress over time into conversations among educators, students, and families.
Each role contributes a different perspective. The value comes from bringing those questions together around a shared understanding of the student.
Parent
Where is my child growing, where is learning difficult, and what can the school and family learn from what happens next?
Teacher
What does this student understand, and what change in instruction, intervention, or challenge would help me learn more?
Student Support Director
What do we still need to understand about this student’s strengths and needs, and what evidence will tell us whether our response is helping?
Curriculum Director
What do patterns across students suggest we should investigate about curriculum, foundations, depth, or opportunities to learn?
Head of School
Are students across the full range of learning continuing to move, and where does the school need a closer look?
Admissions Director
What does this evidence add to what we already know about the applicant, and what would we need to understand more fully?
Student
What am I getting better at, what is still difficult, and what should I try next?
Assessment in your school's context
Bring us a question your school is trying to answer about student learning. It may concern a student whose needs remain unclear, an uneven learning profile, whether intervention is helping, a student ready for greater challenge, or how progress is developing across a grade or school.
We can consider which evidence would actually help, whether the Screener, Diagnostic, or Inventory is appropriate, and how assessment can add to what your educators already know without requiring more testing than the question demands.
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