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The History and Policy Foundations of Through-Year Assessment

The Evolution of Through-Year Assessment

Through-year assessment
has emerged as one of the most significant innovations in U.S. education policy since the No Child Left Behind era. It represents a philosophical shift away from single, high-stakes summative testing toward measuring student progress throughout the academic year.

This new approach reflects both state-level creativity and federal flexibility. It’s a movement rooted in the recognition that once-a-year tests do not provide teachers with enough actionable information to improve instruction during the year.

Through-Year Assessment

Federal DOE Waivers and the ESSA Foundation

The turning point came with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Section 1204 of ESSA created the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA), giving the U.S. Department of Education authority to approve up to seven state pilots testing new forms of accountability and assessment.

Under IADA, states could experiment with assessments that:

  • Replace the traditional end-of-year summative exam,

     

  • Administer multiple tests throughout the year, and

     

  • Aggregate those results into a valid annual score for accountability.

     

These federal waivers opened the door to innovation, allowing states to rethink how to measure learning over time.

Florida FAST: The First Fully Implemented Model

Florida became the first state to operationalize the through-year concept statewide. The Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST), launched in 2022–23, measures reading and math progress across three checkpoints per year.

  • The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) develops the tests and manages psychometric scaling.

  • Cambium Assessments provides the delivery platform.

Teachers receive results quickly, allowing them to track student progress more continuously.

Early research suggests improved engagement and reduced end-of-year test anxiety. Yet, challenges remain: maintaining psychometric comparability across administrations and preventing test fatigue among students.

Other State Pilots

Florida’s bold move accelerated interest nationwide. Several states—including Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, and Nebraska—are piloting or developing through-year systems of their own.

  • Texas is testing its Through-Year Assessment Pilot (TTAP) under ESSA flexibility.

     

  • Indiana has launched a multi-year ILEARN Through-Year Pilot.

     

  • North Carolina is studying longitudinal growth models.

     

  • Nebraska is implementing its Through-Year Assessment and Reporting System (TARS).

     

Each state’s approach differs, but all share the goal of making assessment more instructionally supportive and less disruptive.

Pros and Cons of Through-Year Testing

Advantages:

  • Provides multiple data points to estimate growth.

  • Reduces pressure on a single test.

  • Increases teacher engagement with data.

  • Improves student familiarity with testing formats.

Challenges:

  • Requires complex psychometric scaling.

  • Demands technical infrastructure and training.

  • Raises questions about instructional time balance.

What the Research Says

Studies from the RAND Corporation (2023) and the Center for Assessment (2024) find that through-year testing improves instructional alignment but depends heavily on data quality and teacher readiness.

The evidence also shows that systems work best when paired with daily classroom data—something that state systems alone cannot provide.

Platforms like Classwork.com fill that gap by connecting daily instructional evidence with the broader assessment cycle.

Conclusion

Through-year assessment represents a new era in accountability—one focused on growth rather than compliance.

Florida led the way; other states are refining the model. The next challenge is integrating through-year testing with classroom-level systems so data becomes not just a score, but a continuous learning feedback loop.

Classwork.com was built for that integration—bridging formative and summative, daily and quarterly, classroom and state.

References

  • Center for Assessment. (2024). Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority: State Lessons Learned.

  • RAND Corporation. (2023). Evaluating Through-Year Assessment Systems.

  • U.S. Department of Education. (2024). Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority Guidance. https://www.ed.gov

  • Florida Department of Education. (2023). Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) Overview. https://www.fldoe.org

 This article is part of The Future of Instructionally Supportive Assessment white paper. Read the full series here.