Assessment’s role in K-12 teaching and learning cannot be overstated. At the individual level, assessment is how educators understand, personalize, and accelerate students’ progress. Collectively, assessment drives the sector forward, supporting policymakers and state and local education agency leaders in identifying and scaling effective practices and high-quality models. Yet, as education evolves, so too must our approach to assessment. Many current systems, designed for traditional learning models, struggle to align with the demands of today (and the future) where learning happens anytime and anywhere. To meet these demands, we must reimagine assessment for a dynamic, student-centered education system.
The Need: Adapting Assessments for a Changing Educational Landscape
As education becomes more flexible, assessments must be adaptable, comprehensive, and comparable across different learning models. Today’s assessments are not there, but aligning assessments with the sector’s changing needs begins with acknowledging three key challenges: why, how, and what we assess.
We must start with why we administer assessments: to compare outcomes across different models, determine quality, and scale effective practice. Today’s assessments, designed for traditional school models, struggle to evaluate the impact of innovations like micro-schools and project-based learning programs that prioritize mastery, flexibility, and student agency. To identify and scale the most promising innovations, assessment must adapt to comparably and comprehensively measure and report on the impact of these forward-thinking approaches.
Next, we must consider how we assess students. Most assessments today are in-person and standardized, creating barriers for flexible learners. Designed for traditional brick-and-mortar schools, this approach forces students in innovative learning environments to operate under artificial testing conditions. While reliability remains important, unlocking anytime and anywhere learning requires the development of reliable assessment models that accurately measure learning in different settings.
Finally, we must examine what we assess to measure student learning. Current assessments emphasize essential academic benchmarks like English Language Arts and math but capture only part of the picture. As learning models and our understanding of the skills students need to thrive evolve, assessments must capture a more holistic view of student learning, including skills like creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and self-direction, in addition to mastery of academic standards. By broadening what we assess, we ensure a more complete view of student learning and better prepare them for the future.
By addressing these interconnected challenges, we can develop assessment systems that truly support and enhance a dynamic, student-centered education for the future.
Case Study: Assessment in Virtual Learning
Virtual learners, with their personalized pathways and flexible schedules, offer a glimpse into the future of K-12 education, where learning happens anytime and anywhere. However, their experiences also highlight the challenges with today’s assessment systems described above. Required to travel long distances to unfamiliar testing environments, these students face logistical hurdles that increase stress and diminish performance. At the same time, traditional assessments fail to measure the critical skills developed in virtual settings — such as self-direction, time management, and adaptability — or reflect the project- and competency-based approaches these programs prioritize. These challenges not only undervalue virtual learners’ achievements but also hinder our ability to validly and reliably compare this innovative model with traditional ones. Addressing these gaps provides a vital starting point for building better assessments that serve all learners in tomorrow’s education systems.
Our white paper, “Assessing Learning Anytime, Anywhere: Virtual Learning as a Launchpad Into the Future,” delves deeper into this opportunity. It highlights how transforming assessments can catalyze innovation, offering practical pathways to create systems that reflect the diverse ways students learn and succeed.
Recommendations for Reimagining Assessment
The challenges faced by learners, particularly those in virtual settings, underscore the urgent need to reimagine assessment. Policymakers, and state and local education agency leaders have critical opportunities to address these gaps and pave the way for better assessments today and tomorrow. Together, these leaders must address the urgent challenges with how, what, and why we assess by:
- Securing Virtual Assessment Systems (How We Assess): Establishing guidelines and incentives to ensure virtual assessments are accessible, equitable, and valid, allowing every child to demonstrate knowledge where they choose to learn.
- Redefining Success Metrics (What We Assess): Adopting frameworks like “Portraits of a Graduate” to expand success metrics beyond core academic standards, reflecting skills like collaboration and creativity that provide more comprehensive pictures of student learning.
- Design Innovative Assessment Models (Why We Assess): Exploring pilot programs for adaptable models like performance-based assessments and digital portfolios through initiatives such as the U.S. Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for State Assessments creates opportunities to design and implement more comparable assessment practices that provide valid, reliable data across learning models and innovations.
A Timely Opportunity
Reimagining assessment is more than addressing a pressing challenge for today’s virtual students — it’s a transformative opportunity to unlock the future of teaching and learning.
By aligning assessment systems with the personalized, flexible approaches driving education forward, we can move closer to creating learning environments that foster deeper, more meaningful outcomes.
This moment invites us to embrace a broader vision for education — one where assessments measure and support the full spectrum of student growth, from traditional academic benchmarks to critical skills like creativity, self-direction, and collaboration, regardless of where, when, and how students choose to learn based on their unique needs.
