How can I build effective summative assessments that are equitable for all students in mathematics?

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.” – William Paul Thurston

​This page focuses on how to design mathematics assessments to help guide the lessons of a unit in order to prepare students to be successful on high school high stakes tests like the SAT, ACT and CAASPP with a focus on including real-world problems in mathematics assessments.  

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Designing Mathematics Assessments

Assessment design is an important topic to students, especially the honors students in this study.  Assessments have a large impact on student grades which is the main motivation for many honors students.  Many mathematics teachers redesign and update assessments each year without prior training on how to effectively build assessments.  I have built assessments up from scratch with no prior training.  This research focuses on how to effectively build assessments in order to be equitable for all students and help them to be successful in their current class, be prepared for the next mathematics course, and beyond the classroom.  Students need help in order to be successful on high stakes tests like the CAASPP, SAT and ACT, and in order to apply mathematics concepts in the real-world.