ASSESSMENT

Both formative and summative assessments are vital instruments in the tool belt of every instructional leader. Whether assessing formally or informally, assessment allows teachers and leaders a glimpse of where students fall in relation to mastery of standards along the progression of learning. Below you'll find links to helpful resources to help deepen your knowledge and broaden your impact.

Formative Assessments

Creating instruction that pushes students to actively participate and engage with the content, and using that participation to formatively assess student learning, go hand-in-hand. Formative assessment is a process that involves assessing student progress before or during the lesson with the intent of using the information gleaned to modify instruction (Gibbons, Brown, Niebling, 2018). Opportunities to respond are "purposeful and intentional moments that make student thinking visible and allow both the teacher and the learner to observe learning progress," (Almarode & Vandas, 2019). By intentionally incorporating opportunities for student thinking to become visible, practitioners can shift learning to ensure all students are making adequate progress towards mastery.

Sources:Gibbons, K., Brown, S., Niebling, B.C. (2019). Effective Universal Instruction. Guilford Press, London.Almarode, J. & Vandas, K. (2019). Clarity for Learning: Five Essential Practices that Empower Students and Teachers. Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Formatively Assess Students by Providing Ample Opportunities to Respond (OTRs)

"In general, research has shown that increasing the rates of OTRs in a classroom leads to positive outcomes for students, including increases in desired social behavior and increases in academic performance" (Haydon, MacSuga-Gage, Simonsen & Hawkins, 2020). The origins of OTR lie within the premise that when one optimizes instructional pacing, while at the same time maximizing student engagement, students are less likely to be off-task or misbehave (Lane, Menzies, Ennis & Oakes, 2015). Several examples of OTRs are below. For a more in-depth look at the role of Opportunities to Respond within formative assessment, check out our Kansas MTSS & Alignment Behavioral Social Emotional Learning (BSEL) repository page on the subject.

Haydon, MacSuga-Gage, Simonsen & Hawkins (2020). Opportunities to Respond: A Key Component of Effective Instruction. DOI: 10.1177/107429561202200105Lane Menzies, Ennis & Oakes (2015). Supporting Behavior for School Success. Guildford Press, New York.

Summative Assessments

"Summative assessments are typically administered at the end of an instructional unit to verify that students are proficient in the essential standards the unit addressed. The intent is to evaluate overall student mastery of the more inclusive standard.(Bailey, 2023) Forexample, a teacher may administer a chapter or unit test to see how well thier students have learned the content. Other examples include, final exams, end of course or end of year assessments, and norm-referenced tests such as the State Assessments (KAP, DLM, KELPA).

Source: Bailey, K., & Jakicic, C. (2023). Common formative assessment: A toolkit for professional learning communities at work(2nd ed.). Solution Tree.

dynamiclearningmaps.org

ksassessments.org

From the book Common Formative Assessments by Kim Bailey & Chris Jakicic, the above graphic represents how common formative assessment and common end-of-unit assessment or summative assessments work in concert over the course of an instructional unit so teachers can monitor student learning and respond to the evidence with support. Throughout instruction, teachers use common formative assessments to gather evidence of student understanding. Based on the results, teachers respond by adjusting instruction, providing feedback, reteaching concepts, extending learning, or offering intervention and enrichment. This cycle repeats multiple times during the unit, creating continuous opportunities to monitor progress and support student learning. At the end of the instructional unit, a common summative assessment measures overall mastery of the learning targets. Together, formative and summative assessments provide a comprehensive picture of student learning and ensure instructional decisions are driven by evidence.

Source: Bailey, K., & Jakicic, C. (2023). Common formative assessment: A toolkit for professional learning communities at work(2nd ed.). Solution Tree.

Screening Assessments

According to Drs. Bradley Witzel and Paul C. Riccomini (Response to Intervention in Math, 2010), screening assessments are given to all students three times per year to help teachers identify those students who are at risk or already struggling in math, so that teachers can intensify instruction. These assessments also provide a means for monitoring students who may not have struggled at the beginning of the year, but begin struggling mid-year. Screening data also evaluates the impact of core instruction, leading collaborative teams to analyze data to improve that level of instruction (Gibbons, Brown, Niebling, 2019).

Universal screening assessments must be reliable, valid, and efficient. Specific recommendations for criteria for these features can be found in the IES Math RtI Practice Guide (Gersten et al., 2009a). It is recommended that a universal screening assessment take less than 20 minutes to administer. Universal screening in MTSS addresses basic critical skills/concepts, not every concept taught in the classroom. Universal screeners are formative and their purpose is to identify students at risk of not meeting current and future benchmarks. When selecting a screening tool, look for measures that are valid, reliable, simple and quick.

Source: Riccomini, P. J., & Witzel, B. S. (2010). Response to Intervention Math. Corwin Press.

Gibbons, K., Brown, S., Niebling, B, (2019). Effective Universal Instruction An Action-Oriented Approach to Improving Tier 1. The Guilford Press.

Universal Screening for Grades K-1 -- Administered to ALL students

Universal screening for kindergarten and first grade assesses the skills and concepts related to number sense. Measures typically include constructs of numeral recognition (number identification), magnitude comparison (quantity discrimination), and strategic counting (missing numbers). In some assessments, strategic counting and magnitude comparison have been identified as key predictive variables (Gersten, Clarke, & Jordan, 2007). All students in kindergarten and first grade should also be screened on early numeracy skills three times a year.

The early numeracy assessments are often administered individually and typically take one minute per subtest. Students who fail to reach the benchmark on one or more of the early numeracy subtests are grouped for instruction during the MTSS Implementation process and sorted into groups for intervention for early numeracy skills.

Universal Screening for Grades 2-12 -- Administered to ALL students

All students in grades 2-12 should be screened three times per year. Universal screening measures for math can be given to an entire classroom and do not require individual administration. The screening data will identify students who are at, above, or below benchmark. Students who are below benchmark will be further grouped for intervention.

Sources:Gersten, R., Beckmann, S., Clarke, B., Foegen, A., Marsh, L., Star, J. R., & Witzel, B. (2009a). Assisting students struggling with mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for elementary and middle schools (NCEE 2009-4060). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies. ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/
Gibbons, K., Brown, S., & Niebling, B. C. (2019). Effective Universal Instruction. Guildford Press. London.
Kansas MTSS & Alignment Structuring & Implementation Guides (2025)
Witzel, B. & Riccomini, P. C. (2010). Response to Intervention in Math. Corwin. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Fastbridge Data-Based Decision Making Quick Video Tutorials

Diagnostic Assessments

Diagnostic assessment measures are given in order to guide instructional grouping and pinpoint skills that require reteaching or further practice. These measures require more time, but yield valuable information that helps teachers learn more about a specific student's level of need for more explicit instruction on targeted skills (Gibbons, Brown, Niebling, 2019). Diagnostic measures can be both formal and informal, and can be found in an existing curricular resource, through a one-on-one conversation, or other creative means. Check out several resources listed below that will assist you in homing in at the student-level to identify specific areas of need. What should teams consider when selecting a math diagnostic? Check out several articles from national research organizations that specialize in the area of math intervention.

Source: Source: Gibbons, K., Brown, S., Niebling, B, (2019). Effective Universal Instruction An Action-Oriented Approach to Improving Tier 1. The Guilford Press.

Example Diagnostic Tools, National Center on Intensive Intervention

Informal Academic Diagnostic Assessment: Using Data to Guide Intensive Instruction, National Center on Intensive Intervention

What Should We Consider When Teaching Students with Math Difficulty? National Center on Intensive Intervention

Using Data-Based Individualization to Intensify Instruction (Intensive Intervention, Part 1), IRIS Center

DIAGNOSTIC CONSIDERATIONS

FORMAL DIAGNOSTICS

Formal diagnostics are designed to be used with students who are not progressing as intended and need to be assessed for specific misconceptions that might not have been evident in previous measures. Formal diagnostic assessments for mathematics provide a more in-depth analysis of a student’s strengths and weaknesses and are used to further guide instruction. Most diagnostic assessments will provide either age-based or grade-based norms or rubric scoring, used to determine whether a student has significant problems in specific skill domains. This information can then be used to design instruction specific to the student’s individual learning needs. It is important that formal diagnostic assessments be given to students when additional information is needed for more customized instructional planning, but it is also important not to overuse these assessments. Formal diagnostic assessments require numerous building resources and should not be given as a matter of course to all students. Instead, they should only be given when their progress monitoring data indicates further information is necessary to adequately plan instruction.

SINGLE-SKILL CBM PROBES & ERROR ANALYSIS

Whenever students fail to make adequate growth in intervention, it might be an indication that further analysis is needed. The school may decide to gather additional diagnostic information by conducting error analysis and examining error patterns (Ashlock, 2006; Riccomini, 2005), especially at the student’s instructional level. When error analysis indicates possible skill deficits, verification of these deficits can be conducted by using single-skill CBM probes (Hosp, Hosp, and Howell, 2007). Each single-skill probe assesses only one type of skill at a time, enabling a more reliable and valid assessment of specific deficits for a given computational skill. Single-skill CBM probes for mathematics are available from Intervention Central. One source for error analysis are Marilyn Burns’ Listening to Learn math interviews.

COMPREHENSIVE FORMAL DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS

The school might also choose to administer a formal diagnostic assessment to determine underlying mathematics issues. This assessment is not necessarily for special education referral, but rather for the purposes of planning instruction. Understand that these types of assessments are dense in nature and will take training and larger amounts of instructional time to complete. It is important that these assessments only be used with students who truly need them. Less invasive diagnostic information including, but not limited to, suggestions listed previously, as well as an integrated look across reading, behavior, and social needs should be considered prior to administering a formal diagnostic. The team should also ensure that initial grouping was appropriate.

Formal diagnostic assessments for mathematics include, but are not limited to:

DECISION RULES FOR FORMAL DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS K-12

All buildings should establish decision rules to address when additional diagnostic assessments will be given, which students will receive tiered support, and how students will be assigned to skill groups. There could be different decision rules established for the use of brief, criterion-referenced diagnostic assessments as compared to more formal, norm-referenced diagnostic assessments that are more resource-intensive to administer. The leadership team needs to review each selected diagnostic assessment to determine the skills/concepts assessed and time to administer.

MATH SKILL INVENTORIES (Free)

Before delivering instruction and intervention, educators need to ascertain a student's current instructional level. How can one effectively and efficiently go about this work? Our team has gathered several resources below, that will help make your job easier.

Prior to jumping into a new diagnostic tool, consider that your district may already have existing resources:

Create 10-15 question assessments based on focus standards for each grade-level; determine specific skill gaps and provide intervention within a data-based intervention framework
Conduct 1:1 interviews with students to observe and probe deeper at the student-level to determine instructional levels and specific gaps
Use items from core curriculum, such as a beginning or end-of-year assessments to determine instructional levels and identify gaps

All Learners Network

Curricular CBM ( paper pencil)

Delta RTI

EasyCBM

Error Analysis of math progress monitoring data | National Center on Intensive Intervention

Georgia Numeracy Project's Global Strategy Stage Assessment (GloSS)

Math Assessment Supplement | National Center on Intensive Intervention

Math to Mastery Placement Test

MATH SKILL INVENTORIES (Paid)

Beyond the free resources listed above, there are many diagnostic systems available for purchase. Please note, Kansas MTSS & Alignment does not endorse any particular product listed below. Click on the links below for more information:

DOMA - Diagnostic Online Math Assessment | Let's Go Learn

Listening to Learn (Marilyn Burns)

Taking the Next Step: Digging into the Data

Leading Collaborative Data Conversations

Collaborative teams are a vital part of a district's infrastructure. Armed with screening data, collaborative teams can engage in meaningful conversations that help move the needle on student achievement by reflectively analyzing the data, identifying specific areas for instructional improvement, setting forth a means for measuring progress within a specific area, and committing to make time for ongoing collaboration around improvement (Gibbons, Brown, Niebling, 2019). In order to get the conversation started, Kansas MTSS & Alignment recommends using the following Objective, Reflective, Interpretive and Decisional framework that allows participants to meaningfully analyze and process the data.

ORID Focused Conversation for Academic Screening Data: Adapted from Orchestration Template for Virtual Meetings, Ester Mae Cox, & The Art of Focused Conversations for Schools, Jo Nelson.

Process Flowcharts

The following guides were developed to assist collaborative teams in analyzing next steps for specific groups of students following universal screening. Don't see your system here? Contact one of our team members, and we can help assist your team in taking next steps following screening.

Aimsweb Plus Kansas MTSS Process Flowchart

Aimsweb Plus Kansas MTSS Process Narrative (508 Compliant)

FastBridge Kansas MTSS Process Flowchart

Fastbridge Kansas MTSS Process Narrative (508 Compliant)

NWEA MAP Kansas MTSS Process Flowchart

NWEA MAP Kansas MTSS Process Narrative (508 Compliant)