The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a set of standards that were developed to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the 21st century. One of the critical components necessary to measuring progress on NGSS is assessment. NGSS Assessments serve to gather information to help teachers better support their learners and gauge student understanding at the end of lessons, units, and courses. There are many different types of NGSS assessments and each has its benefits. Here is a brief overview of 3 different assessment strategies and how InnerOrbit can help you implement them in your classroom.
Curriculum Benchmarks
A curriculum benchmark assessment formally evaluates student learning progress. This assessment is usually given at the end of a unit or semester and is an excellent way to summatively measure student understanding of the material that has been covered. These assessments are not often used to inform teaching, but can be powerful tools in evaluating PD opportunities or gaps in the curriculum that need to be addressed across a district. InnerOrbit can help you easily create and administer curriculum benchmark assessments to provide high level data on SEPs, DCIs, or CCCs where students and teachers are being successful or need further support.
Common Formative Assessments (CFAs)
A common formative assessment (CFA) is an assessment that is used to improve learning outcomes by providing feedback to teachers and students within a lesson or unit. CFAs are usually given on a regular basis, such as weekly or monthly. This type of assessment is a great way to leverage student understanding to make instructional decisions that best support student progress. InnerOrbit can help you create and administer common formative assessments from our database of over 9,000 questions. We can also provide you with data analysis and reporting so that you can see how your students are doing and whether your interventions were successful.
Suite of Assessments (Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative)
A suite of assessments is a collection of various types of data that are used to measure student learning progress over a unit of study. This provides the most comprehensive view of student understanding, but also takes the most time to build and administer the 3 different assessment types: Diagnostic, Formative and Summative. InnerOrbit can help you quickly create and administer these suites of assessments, using our vast database of 9,000+ phenomena and questions. Building a suite of assessments can provide districts, schools, and teachers with clear NGSS data and reporting to see how to best support students and teachers, through these 3 assessment types:
Diagnostic assessments provide data inform the beginning of units or courses, so teachers know where to start supporting students or have a baseline to refer back to at the end of a unit, lesson or course.
Formative assessments provide immediate feedback for teachers and students, to measure where students are being successful and where they need more support.
Summative assessments provide a final opportunity for students to show what they know at the end of a lesson, unit, or course.
There are many different types of NGSS assessments, each with its own benefits. Curriculum benchmarking assesses formal student learning progress, common formative assessments improve learning outcomes, and suites of assessments collect various types of data to measure student learning progress over a unit of study. If you’d like to start creating a plan that fits your school or district’s needs, and discover how InnerOrbit helps educators accomplish their assessment strategy with assessments, reports, and helpful features, find a time on our calendar to meet with our team!
