Balancing Autonomy and Comparability: State Approaches to Assessment Selection for Student Learning Objectives

States take a wide range of approaches to SLO assessment selection. This Ask the Team brief helps states consider the trade-offs between approaches that offer more teacher choice and those that offer better comparability across SLOs. The brief identifies four common approaches to selecting SLO assessments:

  1. The teacher or teacher team chooses the assessment(s) to use in SLOs.
  2. The state or district provides assessment criteria or a bank of available assessment options.
  3. The state or district provides a list of required assessments.
  4. The state or district requires that SLOs be based on common assessments.

In addition to the benefits and challenges of each approach, you will read about state and district examples from the field. 

PDF icon Balancing Agency and Comparability: State Approaches to Assessment Selection for Student Learning Objectives