Assessments

There are three main types of assessments: summative, formative, and performance-based.  Summative assessments measure a student's cummulative knowledge and are usually given at the end of a grading period (semester or year).  They include state-assessments, end-of-unit tests, and benchmark tests given by a school district.  Formative assessments occur throughout the year every day and inform instruction.  Examples of formative assessments include observation, asking questions geared toward a variety of multiple inteliigences, and miscue analysis and running records in reading.  Performance-based assessments must fairly evaluate tasks that the teacher has prepared for students to complete.  Students must be able to synthesize their knowledge and apply it to the task.  Examples of tasks are projects and presentations, science experiements, technology-based projects like creating a powerpoint or glogs, and using rulers, scales, graphs and charts to solve problems.  Rubrics can measure performance-based assessments.  Portfolios are another way to document a student's growth (working portfolio), or show the student's best work (showcase portfolio). 
Progress monitoring is important because it is proof of whether a student is learning or not.  The teacher can look at a student's collected data (tests, assignments, portfolios) and determine what areas need imporvement.  Then, the teacher and student work together to create specific goals to help the student learn what he/she needs to improve upon.  Progress monitoring is the only way to know if what you are teaching is connecting with the student and if the student can demonstrate knowledge of the subject or if he/she needs intervention.  The tiered system of intervention is a support system built into the schools to help students who are struggling in a certain area get extra help.  This is a preventative system, and it catches students who might otherwise slip through the cracks.