Assessment Support
Assessment should do more than report whether students got an answer right. It should provide meaningful evidence of how students are thinking, where their reasoning is strong, and where they need support to move forward. At STAC, we help partners design assessment systems that are aligned to standards, connected to instruction, and built to surface student thinking in ways that teachers can actually use. Our work bridges classroom assessment, interim assessment, and large-scale assessment design so that evidence of learning is coherent across the system.
What We Do
STAC’s assessment support helps districts, schools, and organizations design systems that generate meaningful evidence of student thinking. Our modular approach gives partners the flexibility to focus on a specific assessment need or build a more coherent approach across classroom, interim, and large-scale assessment. We develop tasks and items that elicit reasoning, explanation, modeling, and evidence use. We help teams create evidence statements, performance level descriptors, and rubrics that clarify what student understanding looks like in practice. We support the interpretation and use of assessment results so data can inform instruction rather than simply report outcomes. And we help partners strengthen alignment so standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment work together as part of a coherent system.
- Task & Item Development
- Evidence Statements, PLDs & Rubrics
- Scoring & Interpretation
- Alignment Reviews
- Leadership & System Support
How We’re Different
Many assessment efforts focus primarily on coverage, compliance, or item production. STAC starts with a different question: what evidence would show that students are making sense of the content in meaningful ways? That shift changes the design. We focus on assessments that elicit reasoning, explanation, modeling, and evidence use rather than relying only on recall or isolated correctness. Because our team brings deep experience across curriculum, instruction, and large-scale assessment, we help partners create stronger alignment between what is taught, what is valued, and what is measured. The result is assessment work that is not separate from learning, but in service of it.
At STAC, we don’t just develop assessments, we design assessment as part of a larger system that supports sensemaking, coherence, and deeper understanding.
1. Designing for Sensemaking
We create tasks that require students to explain, model, and use evidence so assessment captures how they are making sense of the content, not just what they know.
2. Focusing on Evidence of Thinking
We define what student understanding looks like through evidence statements, PLDs, and rubrics that make reasoning visible and interpretable.
3. Building Coherence Across the System
We align assessment with standards, curriculum, and instruction so what is taught, practiced, and measured reinforces the same learning goals.
4. Supporting Instructional Use of Assessment
We help educators interpret student responses and use that evidence to guide next steps in teaching and learning.
5. Connecting Classroom, Interim, and Large-Scale Assessment
Our work ensures that assessment functions as a connected system, providing meaningful and consistent evidence across contexts.
When assessment is aligned to thinking, it becomes a tool for learning, not just measurement.
Start with the evidence of sensemaking, and the design follows.
Assessment should reveal how students are making sense of the content.
What Partners Experience
Districts and organizations that partner with STAC see tangible improvements in how assessment supports teaching and learning:
- Stronger alignment between standards, instruction, and assessment
- More frequent use of tasks that support sensemaking through explanation, modeling, and evidence use
- Greater clarity in what student responses say about understanding
- More effective use of assessment data to guide instructional decisions
- Increased use of tasks that require explanation, modeling, and evidence
Design Assessments That Support Real Learning
Move beyond isolated measures. Build coherence across standards, instruction, curriculum, and assessment.
Let’s design assessments that go beyond measurement and support sensemaking.