D184: Standards-Based Assessment

D184 teaches teachers to start assessment from the standard, not from the test. It follows Differentiated Instruction in WGU's MS Curriculum and Instruction.

WGU's program guide describes the course as teaching candidates to unpack academic standards to find the essential learning, use proficiency statements to create and score standards-based assessments, analyze assessment data and develop a holistic assessment system for a specific subject and grade level.

Teachers write tests constantly. The difficulty here is alignment: every item and every score must trace back to a specific skill in the standard.

What D184 Covers

1. Unpack standards to determine the knowledge and skills that must be assessed for a subject and grade.
2. Design assessments that measure mastery of skills in local, state or national standards.
3. Analyze assessment data to judge progress and address learning gaps.
4. Develop an assessment system setting out when and how progress will be measured.

Key Concepts Explained

Unpacking a Standard

Unpacking means breaking a standard into its nouns (what students must know) and verbs (what they must do), then judging the level of thinking required. The result is a short list of learning targets you can teach and assess.

Proficiency Scales

A proficiency scale describes levels of mastery for one target, often from beginning to exceeding. Unlike a points total, it reports what a student can do on each skill, which makes feedback and reteaching specific.

Formative and Summative Assessment

Formative checks happen during learning and shape the next lesson; summative assessments judge mastery at the end. An assessment system plans both, with timing and purpose for each.

Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them

Analyzing Assessment Data by Target

The third competency asks you to analyze assessment data to judge progress and close gaps. The most useful analysis looks at each learning target separately rather than at total scores.

After the target view, look at groups and individuals. Are particular students below proficiency on every target? Do English learners or students with IEPs show a different pattern? Each finding should lead to an action: reteach, regroup, extend or adjust the assessment itself if an item proved confusing.

Finally, plan when you will reassess. Standards-based systems allow students to show improved mastery later.

Where Students Get Stuck

• Items that test something else. A reading-heavy maths item may measure reading, not maths.
• Vague scale levels. Each level should describe observable performance.
• Analyzing totals only. Break results down by target to find real gaps.
• Systems without timing. Say when each assessment happens and what decision it informs.

Where D184 Fits in the MSCIN Program

In WGU's standard path, Standards-Based Assessment is a second-term course with Differentiated Instruction as its prerequisite. The link is direct: once you know how to vary content, process and product, you need assessments that measure the same standard fairly across those routes.

The assessment data skills you practice here also prepare you for the research courses in the next term, where you will collect and analyze data to answer a question about your own practice.

Study Tips for D184

• Choose one standard you teach and use it throughout the course.
• Write the proficiency scale before writing any items.
• Reuse your D187 thinking on differentiation for assessment accommodations.
• Check every item against its target out loud: does it really measure that?

How We Help with D184

Send the task, rubric, standards, subject and grade. An education writer prepares a model unpacking and assessment, helps you analyze de-identified class data, or edits your draft for alignment and clarity.

GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Use our work as a reference and submit your own tasks, based on your own classroom, under WGU's academic integrity rules.