Mastering Assessments: UDL Strategies for Student Success

Ah yes...standardized assessments. Regardless of their limitations, they are here to stay, and students deserve to be prepared for them. So, what can UDL educators do? They can be upfront and honest about the true purpose of testing, teach students important test-taking strategies, and scaffold coping strategies to help students avoid test anxiety during administration. Other than that, the best we can do is teach them the standards through the lens of UDL and keep our expectations high. If we teach them to think critically and help them learn the knowledge and skills outlined in the standards, they will be successful. We have to believe that.

We must be prepared to universally design our preparation for tests and assessments so our students can access them.

Many standardized assessments that students are required to take contain barriers that may prevent them from being successful. For example, many tests are now computer-based, timed, and require keyboarding skills and technological skills that may be obstacles for students. Although there are barriers, we must be prepared to universally design our preparation for these tests and other assessments so our students can access them.

One of the most effective ways to prepare students for standardized assessments is through interleaving, rather than cramming test preparation into the weeks leading up to the exam. Instead of dedicating entire lessons to practice tests, weave one or two authentic assessment questions into your instruction each week or two for 10-15 minutes.

Some weeks, students can answer the questions. Other weeks, they can play detective and identify all the ways a question could be misinterpreted. Have them debate why a student might be tricked into choosing each incorrect multiple-choice answer or explain what misconception each distractor is designed to reveal. Give them released student responses to score using the rubric, and have them defend their ratings as if they were official test scorers. Ask them to rewrite confusing questions, improve weak responses, or even design their own assessment questions based on data sets or short, profound texts. The goal is not to practice taking tests. The goal is to help students understand how assessments work in your content area/discipline while strengthening their critical thinking and metacognitive skills. Always end with reflection. Ask questions like: What strategy helped you with this mini-task?  Which academic vocabulary did you need to learn to be successful on this question? How did the flexible lessons in class prepare you to transfer your knowledge to this task? 

In short, we have to teach in an accessible way so students can succeed on an inaccessible test. Here are some more simple and quick strategies.

Strategies for Preparing Students for Test-Taking:  

• Teach the language of assessment. Words such as justify, analyze, infer, compare, evaluate, and support your claim can become barriers when students understand the content but not the vocabulary of the question. Helping students unpack these terms helps them with all academic tasks.

• Explicitly teach a variety of test-taking strategies.  For example, show students how to preview the questions before reading a passage so they have a purpose for reading. Encourage them to underline key words, circle academic vocabulary, eliminate obviously incorrect answers, annotate the text, flag questions to revisit later, estimate before calculating, and skip questions they aren't ready to answer rather than getting stuck. If permitted, students can rewrite a question in their own words on scrap paper, jot down important information before they forget it, sketch a quick visual, or create a simple graphic organizer to organize their thinking. The key is not teaching every student to use every strategy. It is helping students build a toolbox of options and providing opportunities to reflect on which strategies help them demonstrate what they know. The more strategies students have available, the more likely they are to find approaches that work for them.
  

• Teach students what to do when they get stuck. Encountering a difficult question is not a sign that they are failing. Model strategies such as skipping a question and returning later, eliminating obviously incorrect answers, annotating key words, or taking a quick regulation break (a deep breath or quick neck roll can work wonders). Students who have a plan for getting unstuck are much less likely to become overwhelmed.

• Teach students about the psychology behind multiple-choice questions. One of my favorite activities was showing students how test designers create high-quality multiple-choice questions. We talked about why there is one best answer, how distractors are intentionally written to reflect common misconceptions, and why certain wrong answers seem so tempting. Then I let students choose any text they wanted and challenge themselves to write their own multiple-choice questions. Once they finished, they swapped questions with a partner, took each other's quizzes, and then became assessment critics. Were the distractors believable? Was there more than one reasonable answer?   Students were quite engaged in the activity and became much more strategic test-takers because they understood how high-quality assessment questions are designed.

Incorporating these strategies can make standardized tests less about navigating obstacles and more about student problem-solving as they share what they know. 

Discover how to reduce barriers and meet the needs of all learners with Universal Design for Learning.