Why is fall testing so important, wouldn't spring-to-spring testing be okay?

Fall testing assures that teachers have assessment information for students that are new to the system. Many school systems that do testing once a year don’t do intake testing to compensate for this loss of data.

It provides an extra point of data every year that provides a more complete and stable picture of student performance. For example, assume that Maria is tested in mathematics every spring and produces this pattern of results.

In this case the data would suggest that the 5th grade teacher failed to produce any growth with this student and that she took a step backward. Now add a fall test to the mix.

The extra data point makes it clear that Maria had an off day during spring testing. The pattern of extra tests helps everyone involved in her learning get a much clearer and more stable view of her actual growth over time. 7 data points is much more useful than 3 in this case. They give you much greater confidence in her actual progress in school. The use of fall-spring testing also gives the district 3 ways to measure growth rather than 1 (fall spring, fall fall, spring spring) which is far more robust than 1.

It assures that every teachers reviews and uses student data at the beginning of instruction each year. If fall testing isn’t conducted, it greatly reduces the probability that teachers will see and use data from the prior spring. Spring test data may well be stale by the beginning of fall. For example, if spring testing starts in late March, students may have as much as 10 weeks of instruction and a summer interim between spring testing and the fall test. A lot could be learned and unlearned in that length of time.