Addressing Overtesting: The Student Assessment Inventory in Action

Across the country, education leaders are adding their voices to the call to address the issue of overtesting in schools. To assist districts in ensuring they have a coherent assessment strategy in place and only administer tests that are useful and of high quality, Achieve developed the Student Assessment Inventory for School Districts in 2014. Designed from a student perspective, the process can be used by education leaders to make decisions about what amount of testing is appropriate and to be more transparent with parents about the testing in schools.

In 2015, Achieve provided targeted support to districts and support organizations in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee to complete the inventory process, make recommendations, and take action to streamline assessment systems and ensure that they are coherent and high quality. This report tells their stories, which we hope will show that districts around the country can proactively and effectively address the overtesting issue. These districts have taken real, concrete steps to reduce the testing burden on students while ensuring that educators have the valuable information they need to improve student performance.