The belief of the Lewis Central learning community is that assessment is for student learning, is student-centered, and involves a commitment by all stakeholders.  Student-centered assessment motivates, encourages, and inspires students’ passion for learning when it is delivered in a timely and reasonable manner and includes purposeful feedback. Assessment is standards-based, and includes a variety of methods that guide instruction and inform instructional decisions.

Meaningful assessments serve clear and appropriate purposes, reflect valued student learning targets, and are designed to yield accurate results about the learning targets.

• Purpose: The assessment purpose must be clear for both designers and users. Before assessing, the appropriate purpose will be determined by asking the questions, “Who will use the results, how will they be used, and how will results be communicated?”

• Targets: All assessments (for and of learning, informal and formal) must be aligned to learning targets informed by the adopted standards. Targets must be clearly communicated to the students.

• Design: It is important to match the intended learning targets to the appropriate assessment method. No one design choice is superior to the other; the selection is dependent upon the learning target and the purpose of the assessment.