ABSTRACT
The importance of assessment to proper instruction has been recognized, and appropriate assessment is necessary in order to expand learning opportunities to all students. National standards are being updated to include information on assessment. For example, the Next Generation Science Standards published an entire document dedicated to effective standard-based assessment. Assessment is usually briefly discussed within preservice classes, such as Curriculum, Instruction, and Development. Teachers are thrown into the classroom and expected to do assessment perfectly. With little to no formal training in assessment, teachers are struggling to keep up with the growing demands of the education system. The biggest problems that teachers may face when using classroom assessment include: lack of alignment between assessment and the learning goals or standards, failure to distinguish between various purposes of assessment, failure to distinguish between various evaluation tools, overreliance on lower level thinking tasks, and failure to recognize that assessment must inform instruction daily.
