Assessment should change circumstances, not just measure learning

Last week I had the pleasure of opening the School Leaders Innovation Forum in Amsterdam. Around seventy school leaders from international schools across Europe had gathered to explore one central question: how do we design assessment that truly supports learning?

When people ask me about assessment, I usually start with something that sounds almost too simple.

Assessment is not about telling students a score.
It is about assessing how we can change their circumstances to facilitate their growth.

If yesterday a learner’s dog passed away, their test score today will probably be lower. But that score does not tell us anything we did not already know. The circumstances simply were not right for learning.

Real assessment therefore starts with a different question: what circumstances does this learner need in order to grow?

During the conference, Taurin Eimermacher and Megan DeKort from the Berlin Cosmopolitan School shared several beautiful examples of how their teachers create those circumstances.

What stood out to me was how naturally inquiry-based learning creates engaged learners.

And when learners are genuinely engaged, something interesting happens for teachers as well.

You suddenly create space to observe.

Teachers, allow yourself the time to observe.

The more time you spend observing learners, the more growth you begin to notice. And when you notice growth, something powerful happens. When you name it, the learner becomes aware of it.

A simple comment like, “I noticed how patiently you worked through that problem,” suddenly turns invisible progress into something visible.

And once learners become aware of a strength, they tend to use it more often.

Growth accelerates.

Inquiry-based learning creates these moments naturally. Taurin and Megan shared how a simple walk into the forest once led to a full day of learning after students discovered a dead bird. Their questions guided the entire exploration.

In another example, Grade 2 students explored trade by receiving five one-euro coins and visiting a local market. They practised recognising coins and calculating combinations to make one euro, while at the same time reflecting on questions like: Do I really need this? Do I want this? Why am I buying it?

Assessment in these situations looks very different.

Teachers observe how learners think, decide, collaborate and reflect.

Another practice they shared was called “Explain Your Thinking.” Students record short videos explaining what they have learned. These explanations are not always perfect, but that is precisely why they are valuable.

If a student simply writes 126 : 3 = …, I only see the final number.

But when a learner explains why they arrived at that answer, I hear their thinking. That is where learning becomes visible.

And those videos become powerful over time. When parents and students place several of them next to each other, they can literally see how thinking evolves. A child explaining fractions today sounds very different from that same child explaining fractions months later. Growth becomes visible—not only for the teacher, but for the learner and their parents as well.

One phrase that stayed with me that day was the importance of human data.

Not only numerical indicators on dashboards, but the signals we pick up as educators. The feeling you get when you walk into a classroom. The moment you hear a colleague enthusiastically talking about their learners near the coffee machine.

In those moments you often know immediately that something good is happening. You sense that this teacher is doing everything possible to help their students grow.

But designing these kinds of learning experiences raises another important question.

How do you create a school culture where teachers feel safe to work this way? How do you build a community in which colleagues, students and parents trust this kind of learning?

In the next Update, I will share a few examples of schools that are deliberately building that culture of trust.