MBLC Unit & Assessment Design Tools

Section One: MBLC Unit & Assessment Design Tools

These tools are intended to help MBLC educators design assessments that will deliver deep understanding of student knowledge and skills, while also valuing students’ cultural backgrounds, identities, and goals. The core principles listed below shape our tools.

Core Principles of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining, Mastery-Based Assessment & Unit Design:

• Ground all assessments in clear learning outcomes 

• As students practice skills and prepare for an assessment or develop a project, give them power to track and direct their learning 

• Enable students to practice, get feedback, and access support and re-teaching when needed 

• Create tasks or projects that are connected with students’ lives and include meaningful student input

• Enable students to engage with rigorous material and practice the habits of independent learners

• Affirm students’ racial, linguistic and cultural identities and empower them as agents of change

As you use these tools to design or revise assessments or units for your classroom, remember these important points:

• Teacher Collaboration: Whenever possible, work together with colleagues to design assessments that reflect the curriculum and consider student backgrounds. What we tell our students is also true for us; feedback and suggestions from others will help us see our work differently & make our work better!

• Ongoing Improvement: Our assessments and units should not be static. Refine them based on student feedback and data.

• Equity and Inclusivity: Ensure assessments are accessible to students with diverse learning styles and backgrounds, and work collaboratively with special educators and multilingual language teachers to design accessible features.

An essential step on the journey to building a mastery-based educational program is collaborative design of common assessments by educators who share classes or grade levels. These common assessments enable teachers to engage in collaborative scoring and examining student work together, and to share strategies for helping students attain mastery. We recommend that schools use the following tools to guide collaborative assessment design: