Rather, assessment ought to be an indicator of, and even a means for, mastery of the content and skills that students need to be successful in college, career, and life. Good assessment serves three primary purposes:

1. It improves instruction by giving feedback and direction to teachers and school leaders on what their students have learned and what they have not. Strong assessments give teachers a sense of their students’ progress and their needs so that they can pinpoint instructional needs for class and for individual students. It should also provide schools with a better understanding of what support and resources students and teachers need. With that information in hand, teachers and schools can target their resources and instruction. Ideally, schools would then waste fewer dollars and minutes on curriculum that is ineffective or that students are not ready to master.
2. It enhances parental involvement by giving parents feedback and guidance on how much involvement is necessary and what kind. Sharing assessment data gives parents a sense of how their students are progressing and can even point them toward ways they can support student learning. Research has found that parent engagement, informed by specific information about student goals and progress, enhances student achievement. “Parents benefit from having information about key indicators—such as student attendance, growth in learning, and achievement—on which they can have an impact,” note the Harvard Family Research Project and the National Parent-Teacher Association. “These data open the door for meaningful conversations with teachers and students.”
3. Most importantly, it increases student engagement, motivation, and ultimately learning. Assessments can and should inform not just adults but also students, whose ownership of their learning is critical to success in college and beyond. “Students who demonstrate ownership of learning can be successful in a wide range of learning environments,” note researchers David Conley and Elizabeth French. In fact, cognitive science research shows that even the act of testing itself can improve absorption and retention of information. Journalist Annie Murphy Paul calls this “affirmative testing” or “testing for learning,” citing research that shows that every time students recall knowledge, that memory becomes “stronger, more stable and more accessible” – and even improves retention for related information that wasn’t directly tested.

Redesigning our systems of assessments and creating new, better tests can be daunting – but its effects could be inspiring. Imagine how public education might look and feel different if we approached assessment in this way:

1. With assessments that relate to significant, specific learning goals — and with clearer, quicker communication of their results — schools would run on vivid student progress data, rather than on intuition. This would allow schools to make precise, well-informed decisions about staff, curriculum, and other resources.
2. With regular, meaningful feedback about the impact of their instruction on student achievement, teachers’ days — and careers — would be more rewarding. They could tailor more of their work to students’ strengths, needs, and interests. Their work would be based on tests they not only tolerate but trust. Knowing that their time and energy is contributing to student learning, teachers’ lesson planning would be more energizing and fulfilling.
3. During evenings and weekends, parents could focus their family conversations on learning, rather than pleading for information about what students did all day. Data about student progress would be paired with actionable ideas for how parents could advance that learning; these might range from extracurricular projects to local events to simply giving their students the time and space (and sleep) they need to learn.  
4. Best of all, students would have their own long-term goals and what they needed to get there. They would understand what concepts and skills they had already mastered and which they had not. They would receive regular directional feedback and the support and resources they need to correct course. Their days would feel more engaging, their work deeper and more relevant, and their stake in their own learning clearer than a distant diploma or hazy vision of ‘college readiness.’

No matter your role in schooling, it is time to move toward a vision of assessments that enhance learning. While the responsibility for shifting policies and practices rests with administrators and school leaders, individual teachers can make a difference. They can craft authentic assessments whose data capture true learning, administering only assessments whose results inform specific actions. Above all, teachers and schools can dissolve the boundaries between assessment and learning, by putting more measurement tools and transparent data directly in the hands of students; in this way, with the informed support of teachers and parents, students can guide their own learning and begin to master their own destinies.