Formative Assessment Tools & Strategies

Assessments FOR Learning

We know educators have concerns about assessments. We do, too.
That’s why we design ours to make teaching easier. We make assessments for learning, not of learning.

Formative Assessment Strategies

ANet Assessments

We know how educators often feel about assessments. They result in over-testing and lost instructional time. They’re used as blunt tools for evaluation and accountability. They raise artificial stakes—and so high that they create panic. That’s the opposite of what our assessments are about. Ours are tools for instruction that help you see your students more clearly. 

Improved Outcomes

An analysis of ANet assessment data shows our assessments lead to action and powerful results for student outcomes, even more powerful when combined with coaching.

Actionable Data

The data reports available to ANet teachers yield strong instructional actions. Our assessment data provides detailed information for decision-making.

Reflective of Students

Our students are represented and affirmed in assessment content. Identity-affirming passages allow students to read about and see themselves.

ANet Testing

Why Focus on Assessments?

If we give educators the resources they need to meet the evolving needs of the education landscape, we can rise to this moment of change. Assessments are the way to do it—if we honor and reexamine their purpose and their power. Our CEO Michelle Odemwingie shares how formative, flexible, reflective assessments can help uproot systemic inequities.

Formative assessment tools

Understanding ANet Assessments

ANet assessments are carefully crafted to meet the grade-level demands of your standards and to provide teachers with timely, actionable information to inform instruction. This approach gives assessments a quality-control check without using your school’s valuable time to field-test.

Teacher-Focused

Teachers can use the actual assessment materials themselves - like the schedule of assessed standards (SAS) and assessment forms - to inform their planning ahead of instruction.

Student-Centered

The data from the assessments can help illuminate where students are successful or are still developing an understanding of grade-level concepts in an independent setting. Our assessments with tools like myANet give you real-time data, not end-of-the-year summaries.

Materials-Aligned

We have assessments compatible with over 20 high-quality curricula so you know your students will have experience with the standards before they are assessed.

Diagnostic Assessments

Diagnostic assessments are available in literacy and math, enabling you to gauge student needs and identify content that may not have been learned or taught.

Interim Assessments

Our interim assessments (traditional and abbreviated versions) ensure you can identify content students have learned or mastered as instruction progresses.

ELA Interims

We design our ELA assessments starting from texts that are authentic, grade-level appropriate, and worth reading, including a balance of literature, informational, and linked texts.

Math Interims

In math, our items are designed to strongly align to and reflect the demands of the standards. Item types are chosen carefully to elicit the most appropriate type of evidence for each standard.

Trans-Adapted Interims

To improve schools’ support for English language learners, ANet offers trans-adapted Spanish language interim assessments.

  • Teacher-Focused

    Teachers can use the actual assessment materials themselves - like the schedule of assessed standards (SAS) and assessment forms - to inform their planning ahead of instruction.

    Student-Centered

    The data from the assessments can help illuminate where students are successful or are still developing an understanding of grade-level concepts in an independent setting. Our assessments with tools like myANet give you real-time data, not end-of-the-year summaries.

    Materials-Aligned

    We have assessments compatible with over 20 high-quality curricula so you know your students will have experience with the standards before they are assessed.

Formative Assessment Strategies

Cohesive and Clear Assessment Strategies

With ANet’s partnership, school leaders successfully developed comprehensive assessment strategies. They reported feeling extraordinary clarity about district priorities, were supportive of the district vision, and felt confident in the use of data. Explore our results with the Madison, WI, school district after ANet partnership.

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Agree that the district had clearly-stated instructional priorities
Before an ANet partnership, 56% of school leaders agreed the district had clearly stated instructional priorities.
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Support the district's vision for the role of assessments
Before an ANet partnership, 44% of school leaders supported the district's vision for the role assessments should play, increasing by 53%.
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Support the district's vision for use of data
67% of school leaders supported the district's vision for the use of data in decision making before an ANet partnership.

Formative Assessment Tools & Strategies

Explore a Partnership

We align best practices with your practices. We’re here to support what you already do well and improve what you want to do better. And we embrace your state’s requirements to ensure that our work helps you hit your marks and meet standards—and exceed them.