Step 8

Create the Unit Pre-Assessment

Assessment is today’s means of understanding how to modify tomorrow’s instruction.

~Carol Ann Tomlinson

Assessment has more to do with helping students grow than with cataloging their mistakes.

~ Carol Ann Tomlinson

Five-Key Benefits

Pre-tests (formative assessments) help teachers decide where to aim early instruction.
Pre-assessments indicate what sorts of skills, knowledge, or attitudes students already have or do not have.
Pre-assessments reflect "enabling sub-skills" (skills necessary for the unit of study).
A pre-test/post-test design provides a matching set of "bookend" assessments that are either the same (or alternate forms of the same) assessment.
The improvement between the pre-test and post-test constitutes credible evidence of the teacher's instructional success.

Constructing the Pre-Assessment

Matched to the Post-Assessment
Determine whether the pre-assessment will be:
- Aligned - same concepts and skills as post-assessment, but with fewer questions
- Mirrored - exact same number and type of questions as the post-assessment

Resources

All information in the Curriculum Design Process is based on the The Leadership and Learning Center Training Manual: Planning for Rigorous Curriculum Design (2010) and from the text from Larry Ainsworth - Ainsworth, L. (2010). Rigorous curriculum design. Englewood, Colo.: Lead Learn Press.

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