ABSTRACT
Assessments in schools are performed for a wide variety of reasons. A school district wishing to decide whether to continue a rather costly remedial reading program may ask for an assessment of student progress and overall cost effectiveness before deciding the fate of the program. A district may set specific priorities for improving instruction based on the results of district-wide achievement tests. A teacher determines a students’ grade in spelling from accumulated scores across tests. Each of these are examples where an assessment is conducted to make decisions. Clearly, the assessment process can have a significant impact on a large portion of the school population.
