The best classroom assessment is designed to fulfill your performance data needs.

Desired information equals valuable and useful data.

• What thinking do we want to see?
• How will we know the thinking matches our needs?
• What evidence of thinking are we going to evaluate?
  

Complexity and rigor should be beneficial to learning

Higher order assessments don’t have to be hard.

An appropriate level of complexity and rigor best measures student thinking, including the assessment’s required reading. It is often difficult or easy passages that devalue data.

If the assessment is designed to stretch student thinking, and incorporates appropriate modifications, the use of data supports learning and instruction.

• What scaffolding or modifications do we anticipate?
• Who will need additional support?
• What kind of feedback will students need from the results?
  

Create an HO classroom assessment

1. Select skills or knowledge from current instruction that would provide useful performance data.
2. Identify the appropriate rigor and complexity of the standards.
3. Look for standards that will work together or complement each other to focus the assessment or task.
4. Select items, passages, or prompts appropriate to rigor and complexity of the skills within the standards.
   

Classroom assessments are valuable if the data helps instruction and the student.

Source: How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom – Brookhart