Knowledgeable practitioners of classroom assessment understand its place within the overall context of assessment. As such, they are able to determine the purposes of assessment, understand what they want their students to know and be able to do, and choose instruments to help accomplish their objectives. Universal screening, diagnostic testing, progress monitoring, and formative assessment are forms of assessment tools available to the teacher. They are defined as follows:

Universal Screening is a quick and simple assessment of key indicators of performance in a particular domain considered to be predictive of more complex performance in that domain. The purposes of screening are to identify students quickly who may not be meeting benchmarks (risk factors) and to provide information to help analyze the overall effectiveness of core curriculum.

Diagnostic testing is an in-depth study of individual student strengths and weaknesses to identify areas where additional assistance is needed. Diagnostic measures can be administered any time over the course of the school year and may be administered by someone other than the teacher.

Progress monitoring is a frequent comparison of current to desired performance over a specified period of time and is designed to estimate rates of student improvement; identify students who are not demonstrating adequate progress; compare the efficacy of different forms of instruction; and design more effective, individualized instructional programs for students experiencing learning problems.

Formative assessment is a less formal tool for teachers to guide their instruction on a daily and weekly basis. The ongoing feedback provided to students enables them to comprehend more fully their grasp of the subject matter being taught. In turn, teachers and students are able to make adjustments, as necessary, in their part of the instructional process.

As a set of teacher tools, screening, progress monitoring, diagnostics, and formative assessment work together as follows:

• Universal Screening assessments usually occur at the beginning of a school year or instructional cycle. Like a health assessment at the beginning of the school year, they provide a quick look at key instructional factors.
• Diagnostics are applied to identify what is happening if the student is not progressing as expected.
• Progress monitoring gauges a student's growth in understanding the subject matter over a period of time.
• Formative assessment enables teachers to determine if what they are doing is helping students be successful in their classes.