School Leadership 2.0

No More Tests? How One Teacher Is Rethinking Assessment Without Sacrificing Rigor

Summary for Educators

Based on:

Edutopia, October 20, 2026

Source: Podcast: I Stopped Giving Tests. Here’s What I Do Instead — Featuring high school science teacher Jodie Deinhammer, interviewed by Kristin Leong.

THE BIG IDEA

What would happen if a teacher eliminated traditional tests but continued to hold students to high academic standards?

Five years ago, high school science teacher Jodie Deinhammer decided to find out. Inspired by a student's playful request for a year without tests, she replaced high-stakes examinations with projects, laboratory investigations, open-note knowledge checks, and daily formative assessments.

Her objective wasn't to make school easier. It was to make learning more meaningful, reduce unnecessary anxiety, and create better opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding.

According to the Edutopia podcast, Deinhammer reports that students continue to learn and retain important scientific concepts without traditional high-stakes tests.

Her experience challenges an enduring assumption in education: that rigorous assessment necessarily requires formal examinations. Instead, she demonstrates how ongoing evidence of learning can help teachers maintain expectations while changing how achievement is measured.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Assessment doesn't have to mean testing.

Deinhammer replaces major examinations with a combination of laboratory work, projects, and shorter assessments. Students demonstrate understanding in multiple ways rather than relying primarily on performance during a single examination.

2. Formative assessment becomes a daily responsibility.

Instead of waiting until the end of a unit to discover what students know, teachers gather evidence throughout instruction. Exit tickets, questioning, discussions, and short checks can help identify misconceptions before they become entrenched.

3. Open-note assessments can emphasize application.

Allowing students to consult notes can shift attention from memorizing isolated facts toward applying knowledge, explaining scientific principles, and solving unfamiliar problems. However, students still need opportunities to practice recalling essential information independently.

4. Student feedback matters.

Deinhammer emphasizes listening carefully to students about their learning experiences. Their feedback helps teachers determine which activities support understanding and which may produce unnecessary frustration or anxiety.

5. Parents need to understand the change.

Eliminating traditional tests can understandably raise concerns about accountability and college preparation. Teachers need to communicate how alternative assessments measure knowledge, skills, and progress.

6. Less testing does not automatically mean less rigor.

Rigor comes from the complexity of the work, the quality of student thinking, and the standards students must meet—not simply the difficulty or frequency of examinations.

WHY IT MATTERS FOR SCHOOL LEADERS

The implications extend beyond one science classroom.

Many schools devote substantial instructional time to test preparation, examinations, grading, and reviewing results. Yet principals rarely ask whether all these practices provide useful evidence of learning.

Deinhammer's experiment suggests that principals should distinguish between assessment that improves learning and assessment that merely records performance.

Importantly, this is one teacher's experience, not conclusive evidence that abandoning tests improves achievement in every setting. Research on retrieval practice also demonstrates important learning benefits from low-stakes quizzes. The strongest lesson may therefore be to reconsider the purpose and stakes of testing rather than eliminating every form of test.

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS

Principals interested in exploring this approach might:

• Conduct an assessment audit. Ask departments to identify how much instructional time is devoted to formal testing and what information those tests actually provide.

• Encourage controlled experimentation. Invite interested teachers to replace one traditional unit test with a performance-based assessment while maintaining the same learning standards.

• Promote frequent feedback. Support professional development in formative assessment, student conferencing, and actionable feedback.

• Evaluate actual learning. Compare student work, retention of knowledge, and mastery of standards before and after changing assessment methods.

• Engage families. Explain the purpose, expectations, and safeguards associated with alternative approaches.

LEADER REFLECTION

A provocative question for faculty discussion:

If teachers were prohibited from giving traditional unit tests for one semester, how would they demonstrate that students were learning—and might the resulting evidence be more useful than the tests themselves?

The larger issue isn't whether schools should eliminate examinations. It's whether current assessment practices are the most effective way to help students learn.

Deinhammer reminds us that meaningful assessment should illuminate student understanding, guide instruction, and encourage growth—not simply generate another number in the grade book.

Original source: Edutopia podcast — I Stopped Giving Tests. Here’s What I Do Instead (October 20, 2026).