"Assessment. Test. Evaluation." What's the difference? The purpose.
Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they are not synonymous:
- Assessments are a collection of multi-dimensional data that give you feedback on what your students are learning or what they already know. Teachers use assessment results to adjust or improve their instruction; students use them to refocus their efforts.
- Tests are tools used to measure knowledge, skills, or abilities (and often memory). We tend to think of tests as objective and with true/false and multiple-choice questions.
- Evaluations are statements about quality based on values. Evaluations are used for making a judgment or stating a value usually resulting in a decision about quality: we evaluate a program so we can decide whether to improve, maintain, or discontinue it; we evaluate students' work when we need to assign a grade or determine whether they pass or fail a course.