Assessing with Primary Sources | Educating with Evidence | SIU

An Introduction to Building Assessment Systems

This site offers educators assessments that use primary sources from the Library of Congress and other resources to assess the literacy skills found in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the C3 Framework. Educators can pick and use an individual assessment or select several assessments to take the steps to create an assessment system focused on skill acquisition across several topics or units of study.

Step 1: Search Over 100 Primary Source Assessments

Select from over 100 multiple-choice assessments with primary sources by topic. Focus on specific Common Core standards to give you consistent information about your students’ skill acquisition across several units of study.  

Step 2: Document Student Progress 

Document all of your students’ scores related to the standard(s) you have targeted. Teachers have used Google Forms, Excel, and other digital formats for ease of collection and documentation. In the example to the left, 0s and 1s represent incorrect and correct responses, respectively.

Step 3: Target Students' Strengths and Weaknesses

Use the open-ended assessments with primary sources to collect additional information about why students are struggling or excelling with the standards you targeted.