The Student Assessment Inventory for School Districts is a tool district leaders can use to take stock of their assessments and assessment strategy, and do so from a student perspective. The tool supports a process by which districts evaluate the assessments students are taking, determine the minimum testing necessary to serve essential diagnostic, instructional and accountability purposes, and work to ensure that every district-mandated test is of high quality, is providing the information needed for specific school and district purposes, and is supported by structures and routines so that assessment results are actually used and action steps taken that will help students. Visit http://www.achieve.org/publications/student-assessment-inventory-school-districts

1. Student Assessment
Inventory for School
Districts
Training Guide

2. Sections of the Training Guide
 Background and Context
 Downloading the Assessment Inventory
 Components of the Assessment Inventory
 Reflect and Plan
 Conduct the Inventory
 Analyze the Inventory
 Make Recommendations
 Inventory Table
 Next Steps
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3. Background and Context

4. What is the Student Assessment Inventory for
School Districts?
It is a tool district leaders can use to take stock of their assessments and
assessment strategy, and do so from a student perspective. It supports a
process by which districts evaluate the assessments students are taking
and determine the minimum testing necessary to serve essential
diagnostic, instructional and accountability purposes.
 Taking stock and then taking action requires significant district commitment.
 The inventory tool is only one element of a thoughtful longer process that
both engages productively with concerns about testing and leads to real changes
in testing time.
 The inventory tool is a suggested template, but districts are encouraged to
modify the tool to better meet their needs.
 The inventory is not a one-time event. Districts should regularly re-examine their
assessments in light of changing district needs and improvements in available
assessments.
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5. Why is it needed and what is it designed to do?
 Achieve has long recommended that
districts take stock of the tests
students are required to take.
 Educators, parents, and students
across the country have expressed
concerns about the amount of time
that testing is taking away from
teaching and learning.
 The assessment inventory is
designed to spur action to address
these valid concerns.
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6. Broad-based concerns with “testing burden”
 Tests can play a critical role in improving teaching and learning by
providing consistent measures to monitor progress, identify strengths
and set learning goals for students.
 However, in too many districts, there is simply too much testing.
 Parents, educators, policymakers and students themselves have raised
concerns about the volume of testing, but to date, there hasn’t been a
clear process for looking at the array of assessments and
considering their intended purpose, actual use as well as critical
characteristics such as alignment and quality.
 There are multiple layers of testing that go well beyond the “NCLB” tests
required by states, with additional tests required by districts and some
tests required by schools. The layers do not always add up to a
cohesive and aligned set of tests during a school year.
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7. How was the Assessment Inventory developed?
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Achieve has developed the assessment inventory to support a
voluntary, district-led process:
 Achieve developed an initial draft of the inventory tool and shared with a
broad network of state and district leaders and experts for feedback.
 In partnership with the Connecticut State Department of Education, Achieve
piloted a revised version of the tool with a group of eight districts across
Connecticut. Achieve finalized the tool based on feedback from these
districts.
 Based on district feedback, Achieve designed the inventory to be openly
licensed and modifiable based on district needs. Users should feel free
to modify any components of the tool to best suit their needs.
 This resource was developed for Adobe Reader XI as a writable pdf. Adobe
Reader is XI is free and can be downloaded here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html

8. Downloading the Assessment
Inventory

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Step 1: Access the Student Assessment Inventory
for School Districts
www.achieve.org/assessmentinventory

10. Step 2: Access the assessment inventory
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11. Step 3: Complete the registration form
Note: Achieve will keep all users’ information private. With permission, we may contact
you to get feedback on the inventory’s utility and impact.
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12. Step 4: Download the Student Assessment
Inventory
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13. Step 5: Open Writable PDF of Student
Assessment Inventory
Note: Adobe Reader XI is required to use this resource as a “writable pdf.” Adobe Reader
is XI is free and can be downloaded here: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html
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14. Components of the Assessment
Inventory

15. Reflect and plan
Conduct the
inventory
Analyze the
inventory
Make
recommendations
The process includes four major stages
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16. Reflect and Plan: Building a strong team
District leaders should ensure that they have the necessary district and school staff
involved in an inventory leadership team. These roles are highly recommended:
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 District Assessment Director/Coordinator
 Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction
 District financial staff
 School board member
 Data Coach or other role that works with school-based staff around data
 School leaders including principals, instructional coaches, and lead teachers
 Teachers
 School counselors
 Parents
Given that assessment
decisions have often been made
in silos, it is particularly
important that the team crosses
offices and responsibilities to
ensure a holistic approach

17. Reflect and Plan: Building a strong team
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It is also critical that the team have the support they need to meet the
goals of the inventory process.
 Team members will need access to assessment information, including
practice tests, sample items, specifications, test windows.
 Team members will also need access to contract, vendor, budget
information.
 The team needs to have the authority to make recommendations to the
right decision-makers.
 District leaders, including the superintendent and school board, should
communicate internal to the district and to the community about the
purpose and importance of the inventory process.

18. Reflect and Plan: Guiding Questions
Districts use a set of guiding questions to initiate the planning process.
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 What is the district context in which the inventory is being considered?
 What are the objectives of the student assessment inventory?
 Who will collect the information needed for the inventory table? How will
they access that information?
 What is the scope of the inventory? Which assessments should be included
and excluded from the inventory table?
 What individual or entity has the authority to act on the results of the
inventory? Who will be making the recommendations?
Note: Answers to guiding questions can be typed directly in the document
(writable pdf format requires Abode Reader XI).

19. Conduct the Inventory
The Inventory Table is designed to capture information the district
collects about the assessments. It is openly licensed, which allows for
modifications as needed to suit the district’s goals and context.
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20. Analyze the Inventory
In analyzing the inventory, it is critical to do several levels of analysis.
 Developing a student-level perspective by looking across all
assessments students take at a particular grade level or grade band, and
then by particular student needs and characteristics.
 Identifying assessments that district will continue to administer, and clarify
if any need changes to ensure they are helpful for intended uses.
 Identifying the assessments that seem to be on the table for elimination
or significant changes.
 Helping districts build toward recommendations while reengaging with
key stakeholders to review potential options and decision points.
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21. Make Recommendations
Based on the inventory analysis, what recommendations will the district
make to streamline and/or strengthen its assessment program?
Note: This table can also be filled out using the document’s writable .pdf format.
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22. Inventory Table

23. Inventory Table Overview
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 The inventory table is a chart that guides districts in compiling
information about assessments.
 Like the guiding questions and “make recommendations” table, the
inventory table is in a ‘writable PDF’ format, meaning that users can
type directly onto the table and save changes (note: Adobe Acrobat
Reader XI is required to save changes).
 The inventory table (as well as the entire assessment inventory tool)
is openly licensed, allowing for modifications to be made as needed to
suit the district’s goals and context. Districts are free to modify the tool
to better meet their needs. Districts can translate the table into
different electronic formats, including online survey tools. Users can
transpose columns and rows, or create additional “snapshots” of the
information – such as a calendar view.

24. Inventory Table Overview
 There are three types of questions being asked in the table:
 Basic information questions
 Use/purpose questions
 Operational questions
 Some information to complete the table will not be directly available from test
specifications and will require communicating with users of the assessment,
especially with respect to issues of assessment use. A short survey or set of
focus groups is strongly recommended to better understand how
assessments are being used by multiple audiences.
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25. General guidelines
 Initially focus on summative, interim, and benchmark assessments
given across multiple classrooms or schools rather than individual
classroom-based formative assessments (e.g., quizzes)
 It is more important to provide key details of each assessment than to
spend significant time classifying an assessment as, for example,
“benchmark” or “interim.” For more discussion on the research base on such
assessments, please see this framework by the National Center for the
Improvement of Educational Assessment.
 Several inventory use questions are addressed in the FAQ on p. 9 of the
assessment inventory tool.
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26. Inventory Table: Basic information questions
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27. Inventory Table: Basic Information Questions
 Information on most basic information questions should be available from
test specification booklets and other information provided by vendors, or
from state and district policy documents (e.g., contracts and/or budgets).
 For the question, “To which content standards is the assessment aligned?,”
basic information may be available from the vendor or state (if commonly
used across districts), or districts may undertake an independent alignment
process.
 Your district might also want to consider taking a deeper dive on alignment,
to better understand how multiple related assessments can build (or hinder)
understanding of student achievement and needs, or how assessments can
better support alignment to instruction. Resources such as the Student
Achievement Partners Assessment Evaluation Tool may be helpful for this
task.
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28. Inventory Table: Use/purpose questions
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29. Inventory use/purpose questions
 What is the difference between the assessment’s intended purposes
and uses? The purpose of the assessment is what it was designed to
measure, while the intended use of the assessment reflects the kinds of
decisions that the assessment is designed to inform. For example, the
purpose of an assessment may be to measure students’ reading
comprehension while the intended use is to identify students in need of extra
support/intervention.
 In understanding whether users find assessment results useful or not, we
strongly encourage districts to ask teachers, parents, students, and
community members through a short survey or set of focus groups.
This information will provide critical support for any recommendations that
emerge from the process.
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30. Inventory use/purpose questions
 Closely examining assessment use will help districts better understand why
particular assessments are seen as useful or not by stakeholders
(parents, teachers, principals, central office staff, school board members,
etc). Questions about assessment use districts can ask of stakeholders
might include:
 How well are assessment purpose and assessment use aligned?
 How are assessment results used to inform instruction (or not)?
 How timely are assessment results?
 Are assessment results reported transparently so that stakeholders find
them useful?
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31. Inventory Table: Operational questions
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32. Inventory Table: Operational questions
 Information to address operational questions will typically be found in
vendor’s assessment descriptions and technical guides, as well as in the
contract between district and vendor.
 Test administration frequency and time are critical questions to address
through the inventory table. Aggregating that information across grades and
subjects will help give districts a better sense of the overall ‘testing burden’
faced by administrators, teachers, and students.
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33. Next Steps

34. Next steps and potential extensions of the tool
 Your district may want to partner with other similar districts (e.g.,
demographics, location, size, instructional focus) to share outcomes of the
inventory and strategies for streamlining the number of assessments. In
collaboration with other districts, your district might also want to consider
taking a deeper dive on alignment, to better understand how multiple related
assessments can build (or hinder) understanding of student achievement
and needs, or how assessments can better support alignment to instruction.
 Note: If the district is interested in evaluating alignment and quality of
assessments, they can use resources such as the Student Achievement
Partners Assessment Evaluation Tool individually or in partnership with other
districts. If these are “off-the-shelf” assessments, districts may wish to work
with other districts that use the same assessments to determine if alignment
and quality evaluations have already been conducted, and to work with
vendors in concert to demand improvements.
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35. Final points
 Throughout this process, districts should stress to stakeholders several key
points:
 There are legitimate concerns from parents and the public about the
volume of testing.
 The volume of testing goes well beyond those required by states,
and the layers of state, district, and school assessment do not always
add up to a cohesive, aligned, informative whole.
 The transition to new, high-quality state assessments is a critical
window of opportunity for districts to take stock of the assessments
students are required to take.
 This work is a priority, worthy of the time it takes to plan and complete
the process successfully, and requires strong input and buy-in from
stakeholders.
 The district will emerge from the process with recommendations that
have impact. If not, the district will need to explain to parents and policy
leaders why not.
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36. Thank you!
For more information: www.achieve.org/assessmentinventory
 Alissa Peltzman, Vice President, State Policy and Implementation Support
apeltzman@achieve.org
 Cory Curl, Senior Fellow, Assessment and Accountability
ccurl@achieve.org
 Jacob Mishook, Associate Director, Assessment and Accountability
jmishook@achieve.org
We are very interested in continuing to hear your feedback
on the assessment inventory. If you represent a district or state and
would like an individualized training, please contact any of us.
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