Why A Wide Range of Assessment Options is Crucial for Measuring Student Progress

Academic progress is an important goal in the educational process. The value of finding the right tools to measure academic progress is paramount when planning for next instructional steps and in evaluating the educational process. What are your assessments telling you? Are they giving you the information you need to make decisions? 

All assessments provide direction. However, it is the combination of standards-based assessments crucial to defining a comprehensive assessment system that provides the data needed for student progress, instructional improvement, and goal attainment. Each type of assessment serves a different central purpose. ATI’s Galileo comprehensive assessment system includes a wide range of assessment options including benchmark, formative, screening and placement tests, plus interim and final course examinations, pretests and posttests, and instruments documenting instructional effectiveness. The results from the variety of assessments can be placed on a common scale. The use of a common scale makes it possible to directly compare results from different assessments. The availability of information from multiple measurement sources provides the most complete picture of academic accomplishments which in turn is crucial in sound next-step decision making. 

Each type of assessment serves a different purpose, for instance:

• benchmark and formative assessments are designed to inform instruction
• pretests and posttests are useful for measuring academic progress 
• analyses of instructional effectiveness assessments can identify classes and schools that are highly successful as well as those needing additional assistance 
• screening instruments are useful in identifying students at risk for learning problems 
• placement tests inform grade level placements, and advanced course placements 
• computerized adaptive tests provide efficient measures of academic proficiency
• automated construction of computerized adaptive tests increases testing options and enhances the capability to meet unique local needs 
• observational and rating-scale assessments provide authentic measures of competencies in the environment in which those competencies are used and they provide immediate information that can be used to guide instruction

The Galileo Comprehensive Assessment System

Just as there are multiple types of assessments that can be administered, there are often a variety of testing environments. In order to provide a consistent testing experience and ensure that students are not searching the internet, accessing other applications, or do anything else that might undermine the integrity of your assessment, ATI is introducing the Galileo Student Secure Browser.  The secure browser “locks” students into the browser until the assessment is completed. There are several ways to set up and manage the Galileo Student Secure Browser application, we recommend reviewing the guide “Set-up Assistance for the Galileo Student Secure Browser” to select which is best for your district or school. 

Learn first-hand about the Galileo complete comprehensive assessment system: 

• watch a brief video: Seeing the Big Picture with Galileo's Comprehensive Assessment System
• schedule a personal demo
• visit the ATI website