Teacher Toolbox: Creative & Effective Measures of Academic Progress for the Classroom

There are always things we, as educators, look forward to every year: the first day of school, the last day of school, lunch on school improvement days, map testing.  Wait, scratch that last one.  Indeed, measure of academic progress is necessary–but those measures aren’t what we got into teaching for–but standardized testing (like map testing, SAT and ACT testing, AP testing, etc.) is the norm in education today. 

As educators, then, we are given a near-insurmountable task of teaching students to read, to write, to speak, to listen, to collaborate, to manage their behavior, to manage their time, to be a good person and to subtly or unsubtly, directly or indirectly teach to the test so our school report cards and our measures of academic progress earn the scrutiny of the school community as something the community can point to and herald “Good job!” or shake a fist at and say “Do better!” Phew…that’s a mouthful (and a recipe for brain-overload)!

How do we do a good job then and do better then when there’s so much to do?  So many things to teach? 

Well, as with so many things, the best work happens in the classroom and what we do with students, so read on to learn how to measure academic performance in the classroom, so you and your students don’t feel over-assessed and overworked.

Student Measure of Academic Progress–or, More Naturally, Are Our Kids Learning?

There are formal and informal ways to implement a student measure of academic progress. 

The measure of academic progress assessment can happen at the building-level, yes, with standardized tests mandated for all–but we can view assessment through the classroom lens as something not done to students but done for students and with students.  That’s where we, as classroom educators, should center the measure of academic progress norms for students and classrooms.

At the end of the day, I’m less concerned about the score a student earns on a test, paper, quiz, or assessment; I’m more interested in what that student has learned and how that student has grown.  

With my measures of academic progress writing, did the student write a better essay with a clearer line of reasoning, stronger evidence, more powerful sentences?  With my measures of academic progress reading, did the student read more effectively by picking up on subtle themes, figuring out words in context, appreciating the writer’s craft?  

With these things in mind, then, we can implement formative assessments for student learning and summative assessments of student learning to help students be prepared for life, for standardized tests, and for everything in between.  

See below for ideas for how instructional design can facilitate creative and effective measures of academic progress for the classroom. And it’s always good to remember that we’re always collecting informal formative data as teachers – a ticket out the door, a quick verbal check-in, a poll, fist of five, etc.

Creative & Effective Measures of Academic Progress for the Classroom

Escape Room Challenge

Design interactive escape room challenges where students must solve puzzles and complete tasks related to the curriculum. Assess their problem-solving abilities, collaboration, and content mastery as they work together to “escape.” 

For example, let’s say you want students to work through SAT questions.  Using the College Board’s question bank, then, you could select questions, create an Escape Room Google Form (or even put together a real-life Escape Room complete with boxes and locks), and challenge students to solve the problems to find the codes/keys to move forward and escape.

Mystery Bag Assessments

Place different objects related to the lesson in mystery bags and have students reach in without looking. They must then explain the connection between the object they’ve retrieved and the lesson content, demonstrating their comprehension in a creative and tactile way. 

For instance, you could use cards from the board game Dixit, placing a card or sets of cards in each bag.  For measures of academic progress reading, you could ask students then to look at the images and explain how the images relate to a text’s themes, conflicts, characters, etc.

Student-Led Conferences

Instead of traditional parent-teacher conferences, implement student-led conferences where students present their progress, achievements, and areas for growth to their parents or guardians (or to you). Student-led conferences encourage accountability and reflection while involving students in their own assessment process. 

Imagine this: students know they have to present their learning and growth to an audience, so they have to pay attention to what they are learning, how they are learning, and why they are learning what they are. 

They’ll need to engage in metacognition–thinking about their thinking–as they reflect on standards and feedback to determine their areas of strength and areas of growth as a student measure of academic progress.  Student reflection certainly and consequently is more powerful than students seeing a number on a test and then throwing it in the trash to be forgotten as soon as they leave the room.

Interactive Quizzes and Games

Utilize interactive quizzes and educational games to make assessment engaging and enjoyable for students. Platforms like Kahoot!, Quizizz, or interactive whiteboards can be effective tools for this purpose.  A benefit, too, of using online materials is the amount of data you can gather and how easily you can view, sort, and understand that data. 

For instance, I could have my students play in a Kahoot! at the start of a unit to gauge their current thinking and understanding, and I could use this information to lesson plan and differentiate instruction.  Or at the end of a unit students could play a Kahoot! as a measure of student progress after instruction.

Don’t Overlook the Digital

As noted in the last bullet point above, digital assessments and data go hand-and-glove together.  While it’s easy (and often appropriate, too, for the assessment situation) to have students use papers and writing utensils, it’s hard, then, to not feel the crushing weight of all that paper in our bags.  

How will we read it all in time to make the assessments and the results meaningful?  How can we fit it all in during the school day?  

That’s exactly where digital can make a difference. 

You might find that podcasting in the classroom or a blogging assignment are a breath of fresh air (for you and for students). Have students create gifs or memes as a quick ticket out the door or to show characterization for a novel they are reading. Use Canva as a tool for student-created multimedia projects.

There are so many tools at our fingertips now that didn’t exist 20 years ago, and that’s exciting as long as we use them in ways that don’t sacrifice rigor and don’t add MORE to our plates. Technology can facilitate student-led learning and allow us to provide quick feedback on academic progress, too!

Indeed, even the standardized tests students take like map testing and the SAT are in or moving to the digital realm, so as we continue to teach students and fight against teaching to the test, let’s not forget that we can use digital tools–even those AI-powered ones like ChatGPT and Magic School AI–to help us turn (seemingly) every administrator’s favorite cliche into a reality: Work smarter, not harder.  

We know that educators are smart enough and educators work hard enough–so that should be enough to help our students succeed on any student measure of academic progress.