Educational assessments provide data that give policymakers a "snapshot" of how students are performing and serve as a means of holding teachers, schools, and districts accountable. Many contend, however, that assessments could do more to promote deeper learning in K-12 environments. One interesting possibility is the use of…

General outcome measurement, a specific type of formative evaluation, can be used to assess progress toward long-term academic goals. Curriculum-based measurement is a widely used type of general outcome measurement. When used to develop local norms, curriculum-based measurement data are helpful in making individual student and systems-level…