The document provides guidance on how teachers can utilize assessment data from various tools to improve student learning and instruction in five key ways: 1. Plan individualized instructional interventions for struggling students based on their strengths and weaknesses. 2. Develop daily instructional strategies like grouping students based on their performance levels. 3. Set targeted goals for students and teachers to guide success. 4. Monitor student and teacher progress regularly to track improvements. 5. Discover professional development needs for teachers based on areas where students see the least growth.

1. How will I and my students utilize the results of the assessment
How to Utilize Assessment Data in the
Classroom
An assessment is characterized as the process of defining, selecting,
designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase
students’ learning and development. Through this process administers can
gather assessment data to strategically plan and deliver individualized
instruction.
Teachers use assessment data as one of the most powerful tools in their
classrooms. An important piece of teacher instruction comes from how they
utilize this data. Data needs to be collected, evaluated, and then put to use
through instruction and student interventions. Learning how to effectively use
assessment data will impact student learning in the best way possible.
How can technology help you access assessment data?
Educational technology, like Istation’s Indicators of Progress (ISIP™), allows
you to automate computer-adaptive testing (CAT) systems that automatically
assign assessments to students.
These types of assessment tools should have the following features to
promote success:
 Monthly assessments are given the first time a student logs on
during a calendar month. This is necessary to maintain a consistent
stream of assessment data showing individual benchmarks for student
progress.

2.  On-demand assessments can be given at any time during the
school year between monthly assessments. This feature provides a
continuous progress monitoring tool that you can utilize to gather
assessment data when needed.
 Assessment reports with actionable feedback. This allows your
teachers to not only analyze assessment data for an individual student
but also share the data with administrators for additional progress
monitoring. Teachers can also utilize these reports to observe
assessment data patterns and adjust instruction.
5 ways to utilize assessment data
Once you’ve implemented an assessment tool that allows you to access the
right assessment data, you can take the next steps in improving instruction in
your classrooms.
Read through our five ways to utilize assessment data to determine these
next steps.
1. Plan individual instructional intervention
Whether your school uses an MTSS or an RTI approach, the goal of
delivering instructional intervention is the same: help students improve skills
they struggle with.
Assessment data gives teachers the foundation for creating their own
individualized plan for struggling learners. Personalizing a student’s plan can
look very different each time but may include a few similar criteria, such as...
 skills that need emphasis in the classroom;
 additional support strategies for teaching the student; and
 a way to track and monitor progress for the student, teacher, and
families involved.

3. Keep in mind that a personalized instructional intervention plan remains
flexible. Real-time reporting tools, like Istation’s personalized data profiles,
provide formative assessment data and relevant statistics to guide
instructional interventions delivered in the classroom.
2. Develop daily instructional strategies
Knowing where each student is performing helps teachers see the big picture
when developing their daily instructional strategies. This allows them to move
from assessing students to grouping students based on relevant assessment
data trends.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to grouping students and you
may hear teachers ask:
 How many small groups should I teach?
 How am I going to find the time to meet with them?
 How do I manage the rest of my class while working with my small
groups?
 Where do I find resources to meet all of the instructional needs of my
students?
Assessment data will provide you with everything you need to answer these
questions and start grouping students. This data can help develop
instructional strategies to meet the group’s needs. Many online reading and
math assessments save teachers time by linking ready-to-use resources for
small- or whole-group instruction within the assessment reports.
3. Determine targeted goals for students and teachers

4. Short- and long-term goals guide success for teachers and students. District
and campus leaders can analyze assessment data and use the information to
set goals for teachers that are specific, measurable, relevant, and attainable.
In return, teachers can work to make sure that student goals are aligned.
In a recent podcast, former educator and Istation professional development
manager Julie Kalinowski said, “When students start taking ownership of their
own goals and assessment data, that’s when we see the biggest bang for our
buck.”
4. Monitor student and teacher progress
Progress monitoring provides leaders with valuable information regarding
improvements in critical reading and math skills as well as classroom
performance. This type of monitoring should take place often so that it
becomes expected and familiar for all parties involved.
When conducting progress monitoring, consider using an all-in-one
assessment tool for students. Having this type of assessment tool allows each
student to be assessed in the area of content they need to show progress.
When the tool adapts to the learner’s ability, the student becomes less
discouraged and frustration levels are lowered. This ensures that the
assessment data gathered during progress monitoring is more accurate.
5. Discover professional development gaps
While many people believe that assessment data can only be utilized to help
students improve, at Istation we are seeing another trend. Education leaders

5. are analyzing assessment data and determining where students are seeing
the least amount of improvement. This information points them to the overall
professional development gaps for teachers.
Many leaders are looking for customized professional development sessions
to fill these gaps. Educators are finding it easier to customize these
development plans when they partner with their assessment technology
provider.
An assessment provider like Istation offers customized guidance and insight
into proven educational approaches. They employ specialists with real-world
instructional experience that can help create the customized professional
development sessions your teachers need.
To learn more about how Istation’s program and assessment tools can benefit
your students and teachers click here.
https://blog.istation.com/5-ways-to-utilize-assessment-data-in-the-classroom
What teacher and student tools will be appropriate to collect such information?
The Most Popular Digital Education Tools For Teachers And Learners
Hundreds of digital education tools have been created with the purpose of giving
autonomy to the student, improving the administration of academic processes,
encouraging collaboration, and facilitating communication between teachers and
learners. Here we present 11 of the most popular.

6. 1. Edmodo
Edmodo is an educational tool that connects teachers and students, and is
assimilated into a social network. In this one, teachers can create online
collaborative groups, administer and provide educational materials, measure
student performance, and communicate with parents, among other functions.
Edmodo has more than 34 million users who connect to create a learning process
that is more enriching, personalized, and aligned with the opportunities brought
by technology and the digital environment.
2. Socrative
Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about
education, Socrative is a system that allows teachers to create exercises or
educational games which students can solve using mobile devices, whether
smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Teachers can see the results of the activities
and, depending on these, modify the subsequent lessons in order to make them
more personalized.
3. Projeqt
Projeqt is a tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations, with dynamic
slides in which you can embed interactive maps, links, online quizzes, Twitter
timelines, and videos, among other options. During a class session, teachers can
share with students academic presentations which are visually adapted to
different devices.
4. Thinglink
Thinglink allows educators to create interactive images with music, sounds, texts,
and photographs. These can be shared on other websites or on social networks,
such as Twitter and Facebook. Thinglink offers the possibility for teachers to
create learning methodologies that awaken the curiosity of students through
interactive content that can expand their knowledge.

7. 5. TED-Ed
TED-Ed is an educational platform that allows creating educational lessons with
the collaboration of teachers, students, animators—generally people who want to
expand knowledge and good ideas. This website allows democratizing access to
information, both for teachers and students. Here, people can have an active
participation in the learning process of others.
6. cK-12
cK-12 is a website that seeks to reduce the cost of academic books for the K12
market in the United States and the world. To achieve its objective, this platform
has an open source interface that allows creating and distributing educational
material through the internet, which can be modified and contain videos, audios,
and interactive exercises. It can also be printed and comply with the necessary
editorial standards in each region. The books that are created in cK-12 can be
adapted to the needs of any teacher or student.
7. ClassDojo
ClassDojo is a tool to improve student behavior: teachers provide their students
with instant feedback so that good disposition in class is 'rewarded' with points
and students have a more receptive attitude towards the learning process.
ClassDojo provides real-time notifications to students, like 'Well Done David!' and
'+1', for working collaboratively. The information that is collected about student
behavior can be shared later with parents and administrators through the web.
8. eduClipper
This platform allows teachers and students to share and explore references and
educational material. In eduClipper, you can collect information found on the
internet and then share it with the members of previously created groups, which
offers the possibility to manage more effectively the academic content found
online, improve research techniques, and have a digital record of what students
achieved during the course. Likewise, it provides the opportunity for teachers to

8. organize a virtual class with their students and create a portfolio where all the
work carried out is stored.
9. Storybird
Storybird aims to promote writing and reading skills in students through
storytelling. In this tool, teachers can create interactive and artistic books online
through a simple and easy to use interface. The stories created can be embedded
in blogs, sent by email, and printed, among other options. In Storybird, teachers
can also create projects with students, give constant feedback, and organize
classes and grades.
10. Animoto
Animoto is a digital tool that allows you to create high-quality videos in a short
time and from any mobile device, inspiring students and helping improve
academic lessons. The Animoto interface is friendly and practical, allowing
teachers to create audiovisual content that adapts to educational needs.
11. Kahoot!
Kahoot! is an educational platform that is based on games and questions.
Through this tool, teachers can create questionnaires, discussions, or surveys that
complement academic lessons. The material is projected in the classroom and
questions are answered by students while playing and learning at the same time.
Kahoot! promotes game-based learning, which increases student engagement
and creates a dynamic, social, and fun educational environment.
How will I utilize the results of the evaluation?
HOW TO USE YOUR EVALUATION
FINDINGS TO IMPROVE YOUR WORK
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9. Suggest changes to this page
Evaluating projects, programmes – or even the work of your whole organisation – can
be a transformational step in making sure the work you do is effective and of the highest
quality.
Without a focus on improvement and learning, evaluation becomes a tick-box exercise;
something that has to be done to please someone else. Used effectively, your findings
can shape the work you do in the future and focus attention on how to achieve your
intended outcomes and impact. In short, it can bring you closer to realising the change
your organisation wants to see.
1
Share your learning with others
While you may have guided the process from the beginning, this might be the first time
other people involved with your organisation hear about your evaluation. Sharing your
learning is an important part of the process – for transparency, accountability and so
you can plan how to improve.
Think about who needs to know about your evaluation. Not everyone involved with your
organisation necessarily needs to know all your evaluation findings; what is useful to
your trustees might not be what your volunteers want to hear about. Evaluations don’t
always draw big crowds, so be creative – consider a lunchtime session for staff, a blog
or short video for your supporters, or a paper summary for trustees.
What do you want people to do with the information? This will change what you share,
how you share it, and how people will respond. If you want people to engage with the
findings – and take action – a more active workshop could be most effective.
2
Celebrate the positives
If your findings show good news, celebrate! Recognise the achievements of staff,
showcase the success stories of your organisation, and emphasise the way your work is
making a difference. It could be a group email, a box of chocolates, a team pizza, or a
pay reward; celebrate in whatever way makes sense to you, your team
and organisation.
Recognising and celebrating the positive findings isn’t just about making people feel
good. Motivating your staff – and your volunteers – will make them more effective, more

10. engaged in the work, and less likely to leave your organisation. Read more about
motivation and engagement in our recruiting and managing staff section. Sharing
achievements with beneficiaries can motivate them too, and can contribute to further
improved outcomes.
3
Make improvements to your work
If your evaluation highlights areas where you can improve, don’t ignore them. Doing
what you've always done, or sticking with what is safe, isn't going to make you the best
organisation you can be – and it may not be what's most effective for your beneficiaries.
Approach these discussions openly and with care: improvement is about learning, not
blame.
Evaluation findings could be used to:
 improve your existing services to maximise the likelihood that outcomes will
occur. You might need to update the information you provide, change the
content of your training or support provision, or revise your campaigning
communications to supporters or policy makers.
 ensure you are reaching your intended beneficiaries. Consider whether the
people or organisations you have worked with are those you had anticipated,
or those who would benefit most from your work. If not, do you need to change
anything about how you publicise your work, your eligible target group, or
about the way in which you deliver your activities to make them more
accessible?
 improve work with individual beneficiaries. Outcomes data can be useful for
casework as well as looking at the effectiveness of whole services. If a
beneficiary isn't achieving their desired outcomes, what could you both do
differently?
 review your internal processes so you work effectively and in a way most likely
to achieve outcomes. For example, you might look at your methods for training
or supporting staff and volunteers, your relationships with partners or referring
organisations, or at your project’s decision-making processes.
When planning improvements to your work, make sure you consider how to make them
manageable. When should you time your changes? Who'll need to approve and
implement them? What resources are needed?
Don’t forget to evaluate your monitoring and evaluation. Refine your monitoring
processes so you are collecting useful data that will help you make future decisions and
plan your work effectively. This may include looking at what IT you need to store and
manage data.

11. 4
Use the findings in your planning processes
Robust evidence is essential to making informed decisions about the future. Use your
evaluation findings to inform your organisation’s planning.
If you have a programme or organisational theory of change, this is a good moment to
revisit it. Do your evaluation findings support the theory? Have your outputs led to the
outcomes you had intended? Did your assumptions hold true?
You may need to change the way you work. You might need to develop new ways of
working to bring about your intended outcomes, or maybe your intended outcomes were
unrealistic or not correct. If your theory turns out not to be accurate, understand why
and consider changing it.
Use your evaluation findings for organisational planning to help you.
 Prioritise activities most likely to lead to changes for your beneficiaries and
allocate – or fundraise for – resources around these.
 Identify activities which are not leading to desired outcomes so you can stop
or change them.
 Understand what level of intervention is needed to achieve the best
outcomes for the largest number of beneficiaries. Some organisations find that
they can reduce their level of intervention and still achieve their desired
outcomes, thereby allowing them to work with more people or organisations.
 Identify any unmet need in your beneficiary group or potential new
beneficiary groups. This might signal that you need to develop new services,
programmes or campaigns, or that you need to try and encourage the
development of additional services by other organisations.
 Assess context. Identify whether aspects of the environment in which you are
working are affecting the outcomes you achieve. For example, if a lack of
available rented property is hindering your ability to rehouse clients, you might
need to campaign about this locally.
 Consider scaling up. Plan which elements of an initiative should be scaled up (if
you're looking to grow) or could be replicated in other areas or by other
organisations.
 Review staff skills and your organisation’s recruitment needs.
 Develop your organisational strategy and set appropriate priorities – read
more in our strategy and planning section.
5

12. Establish an impact culture as a learning organisation
Organisations are complex and the people inside them have different priorities,
positions and perspectives. ‘We can improve’ can too easily be interpreted as ‘you’re
not doing your job well enough’. Honesty and integrity are vital – but so is being
sensitive. Building evaluation findings into your existing organisational processes, such
as through appraisals and performance management, will make this easier. Make
learning a key part of regular supervisions, collaborate with individuals from across
different teams to help solve problems, or begin your organisational planning processes
with an honest review.
An impact culture starts with a shared set of values. From the very top, your
organisation needs to commit to positively engaging with evaluation and encouraging
individuals to reflect and change based on evidence. For a helpful guide on being a
learning organisation – one that makes learning part of everyone’s daily job – see
this Harvard Business Review article. This takes long-term commitment, time and
patience.
Further information
 This how-to was produced by NCVO, as part of a UK-wide collaborative
programme supporting a focus on impact in the voluntary sector.
 NPC’s paper Data with destiny describes the Data, Information, Knowledge,
Wisdom model for organisational improvement.
o It considers how monitoring data and evaluation information can be
transformed into organisational knowledge and leadership wisdom.
o Their full paper includes a number of case studies of organisations
doing exactly this.
How will I use the results of the pre-assessment?
Pre-assessmentsare teststhatevaluate students’knowledge before instructionbegins,and,asKate
Gasaway explainsinthispost,they’re valuabletoolswhenitcomestohelpingteachersplaninstruction,
pacing,and contentneeds.
Pre-assessments are tests designed to evaluate students’ understanding of material before
teaching begins. A pre-assessment could cover content from prior grades, re-evaluate grade-
level content from earlier in the year, or preview grade-level material. Pre-assessments
generally serve two purposes:
1. To give educatorsa picture of theirstudents’needssotheycanbetterplanlessonstomeet
those needs
2. To establishabaseline forstudents’growthforthe year

13. Because there is so much prior learning that could need to be assessed, comprehensive pre-
assessments can be long and labor intensive for students and teachers. To make the pre-
assessment process more manageable, some schools give them before each unit. Another—and
I’d argue better—way to get valuable student data is to use a digital, adaptive assessment (like
the i-Ready Diagnostic) and administer it two or three times per year. Regardless of strategy,
there’s almost always a pre-assessment given at the very beginning of the school year.
A 2019 survey showed that students’ first day of school could be as early as July 23 or as late as
the day after Labor Day, which means your pre-assessment data could be more than two
months old. Does this mean that, like a beach-themed bulletin board created in August (or July,
I’m so sorry), your early data has outlived its usefulness?
Absolutely not! A high-quality pre-assessment still has a lot of valuable information for you. So
dust off that pile of tests—or whatever the digital equivalent of dusting them off is if they were
administered online—and take a look at these four things they can still tell you.
1. How your yearly pacing is going so far
Pacing was always a challenge for me in the classroom. Whether it was a fire drill, an
unexpected field trip, or a wild bird set loose in the classroom, there was always something that
threw off my lesson calendar. Over time, I got better at responding to these challenges with
flexibility instead of saltiness. My department chair and I would go over my calendar and pacing
in our mentoring meetings. We made and remade plans to fit my students’ needs while
accommodating the almost funny number of classroomhiccups and interruptions that frustrate
rookies but make veteran teachers laugh. I learned to stop worrying and love my calendar.
Pre-assessments can help you anticipate how long your students need to learn specific topics,
so you can confidently adjust your schedule no matter what wild card you’re dealt. Because
your students’ needs will vary by topic, a pre-assessment that covers a wide range of topics will
give you pertinent information when you start a unit that incorporates new prerequisite skills.
Comparing your analysis of your classes’ pre-assessments with your current lesson calendar can
eliminate some of the uncertainty in your planning and help you make strategic decisions.
If You’re an i-Ready User
Use the Yearly Pacing for Prerequisites and Alternate Pacing Guide on the Prerequisites
report to help you make informed decisions about how to adjust your timeline. The i-

14. Ready Pacing Video Series has additional resources and recommendations.
(Note: You’ll be prompted to log in to your i-Ready Central® account.)
2. What small groups to work with to address
relevant unfinished learning
One of the things that makes teaching math different from other subjects isn’t just how much
students’ success depends on their earlier learning, but how many kinds of prior learning there
are. The prerequisite skills students draw on can vary widely from unit to unit, and students’
proficiency and needs can vary just as much. For example, when I taught eighth grade, some
students who excelled at solving equations algebraically struggled with geometric
transformations, and vice versa. When we changed domains, I had to stay on my toes to make
sure that I caught students who needed support, didn’t overlook students who had done well in
earlier units, and recognized students’ new strengths.
At this point in the year, you may be well into your second unit. Because you’re teaching new
material, you’re going to have new groups of students with new kinds of unfinished learning to
address. If you haven’t already done so, review your pre-assessment data with an eye toward
the upcoming prerequisite skills students need to be successful. Make new small groups of
students based on their shared needs. If you’re an i-Ready user, the Prerequisites report has
groups like this for every unit based on the students’ Diagnostic Results.
3. Which whole class supports or interventions
to use in upcoming classes
It’s a blessing and a curse when an entire class shares the same misconception or incomplete
learning. On the one hand, it means all your students are missing an important skill, and that
probably has been frustrating for them. On the other hand, you’ve found a high-leverage
opportunity to improve outcomes for all your students at the same time. Choosing the right
time to tackle those concepts can make a dramatic difference for students—but when is that?
As you get more familiar with your school’s standards, it gets easier to identify when you should
incorporate lessons on prerequisite skills. You’ll start to see the connections between grades
and standards and—like a bestselling mystery novelist adding clues to early chapters—you can
start layering foreshadowing into your lessons. If you’re new to teaching, discuss this topic with

15. mentor teachers, coaches, and co-teachers. If you’re an i-Ready user, the Prerequisites report
has whole class support options and suggestions for when to implement them for the best
results.
4. How the topics in a unit connect to learning
from earlier grades
Some of my most eye-opening professional development experiences happened when our
entire math department taught a small part of a lesson in the same domain and strand, starting
with third grade and going through eighth grade. The perspective I gained made me see my
students’ (and coworkers’) work with new appreciation and understanding. I still find it
fascinating how early elementary school learning directly impacts students’ work years later.
If you want to explore these kinds of connections, turn to your pre-assessments. Choose a
relevant, high-leverage topic for your class, and explore its path through earlier grades and its
extension through later grades. This approach takes what could be a daunting bit of personal
professional development and breaks it into timely, bite-sized chunks. If you’re using Common
Core State Standards, the Coherence Maps are a great place to start. If you’re an i-Ready user,
check out the Learning Progression infographic on the Prerequisites report.
Conclusion
There you have it—four reasons why your beginning of year pre-assessment data is still useful.
If you like what you read here, consider setting a calendar alert or adding a note to your
planner so you remember to revisit your pre-assessments at strategic times, such as planning
meetings, small group reorganization deadlines, and the week before you start a new unit.
And if you do still have a beach-themed bulletin board up, maybe this is a good opportunity to
remind students that the beach is a coastal biome, and as such, it experiences all four seasons .
. . or maybe you just add a pumpkin to your display. Your choice.