However, yearly standardized testing, with its focus on how
many students are at or above proficiency, poses a number of challenges to educators—including the basic fact
that once-a-year, “summative” testing does little measure student achievement or growth during the school year,
and thus does not afford the opportunity to inform instructional decisions. New assessments, and the technologies
that enable their use, provide formative opportunities to assess and compare student performance over time.
Whereas typical standardized test results aren’t made available until weeks or even months later, digital tools allow
a rapid turnaround of results to schools and teachers, providing timely data that can inform teaching. As the use of
formative assessment increases, and the tools for assessing student performance become more robust, we must
reconsider our definition, and uses, of assessment.