Dive Brief:

• “Make Assessments Matter,” a new report published by the Northwest Evaluation Association, indicates many students are unaware of the massive debates, discussions, and changes currently shaping education.  
• The online survey was given nationally to a total of 2,000 teachers and students in grades 4 through 12, chosen through an online panel, as well as 200 administrators selected via a commercial database
• A mere 29% of the students had heard of the Common Core, and fewer had heard of changes to assessments. However, an 89% majority said it's "very" or "somewhat" important to know about these changes and debates. 

Dive Insight:

As one might gather from the highlighted discrepancy between the low number of students who knew about changes and the high number who wanted to be informed, the purpose of this study was to say teachers and administrators must do a better job of informing students about the tests.

Specifically the report points out a gaps in understanding, saying administrators fully understand the changes, teachers sort of get the changes, and students really don't at all. One startling statistic from the report shows only 1 in 3 teachers (29%) capable of correctly identifying the definition of formative assessment practice.  

Ultimately, however, it is important to remember who has created the report and to consider if they may have any bias or hoped outcome of this report. The study was created by the non-profit Northwest Evaluation Association, which actually creates an assessment test to track reading and math growth: The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP test).