Differentiating Instruction

Assessment for instructional decision-making focuses on obtaining information for deciding what will be taught and how it will be taught. Such information is used to select objectives, settings, groupings, materials, and specific instructional strategies. When teachers make informed decisions and implement them effectively, student performance improves. Enhanced student performance is the result of teachers using assessment to guide instructional decision-making in order to differentiate lessons.

Ongoing assessment and adjustment is one principle of differentiated instruction. Everything a student does is a potential source of information for the teacher. Assessment entails much more than what is done after the learning ends. Although assessment has many purposes, in a differentiated environment, ongoing assessment and adjustment has more to do with helping students grow than it does with recording student mistakes or comparing students with one another. Assessment is used to ensure that on a daily basis there is an instructional match between what is being taught and the student's readiness for the material.