New technology-enabled assessments offer the potential to understand more than just whether a student answered a test question right or wrong. Using multiple forms of media that enable both visual and graphical representations, these assessments present complex, multistep problems for students to solve and collect detailed information about an…

When an Idaho school district initiated computerized adaptive testing, it discovered that all the growth occurring in the district was limited to the lowest-achieving students. The more proficient students, which included both gifted and above-average learners, showed little or no growth. The assessment data showed a weak curriculum that tended to…