"Formative assessment is--or should be--the bridge or causeway between today's lesson and tomorrow's." Carol Ann Tomlinson

It's the time of year when students around the country are taking high stakes tests. More times than not, those tests are tied to a percentage of teacher and administrator evaluation. That percentage varies by state, and can range anywhere from 20% to 50%. Unfortunately, in our test-based accountability system, teachers and students have very little knowledge of what will appear on the tests, and often receive no effective feedback on where the students did well, and where they need to improve.

Test-based accountability has helped to create a deficit mindset among educators and students. There was a level of deficit thinking before testing came into our lives. Some teachers and school leaders sometimes focused on what students couldn't do, rather than on what they could do. However, that deficit way of thinking was magnified by high stakes testing, and now it runs rampant in our schools. Being recycled into our professional conversations are the topics of retention, increased Academic Intervention Services (AIS) and special education classifications. These are all byproducts of test-based accountability tied to teacher and administrator evaluation.

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