Wiggins and McTighe draw a difference between "assessment" and "evaluation." Assessment is the receipt and application of feedback against one’s work to enable improvement and the meeting of goals. Evaluation by contrast is more summative and credential-related.
Assessment is a more learning-focused term than evaluation and the two should not be viewed as synonymous. Understanding can be developed and evoked only through multiple methods of ongoing assessment. The authors posit that we don’t need to tie a grade— an evaluation—to everything we receive feedback on and that far greater attention should be paid to formative (and performance) assessment than evaluation. The challenge is to know which method to use when and why and to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of assessment.
Teachers can ask themselves: What would count as evidence of achievement? What does it look like to meet these goals? What then are the implied performances that should make up an assessment toward which all teaching and learning should point? What should students walk out the door able to understand regardless of what activities or texts we use? What is evidence of such ability? What texts activities and methods will best enable such a result?
By answering these questions teachers can then better articulate and justify their grading system providing students with more fair assessments improved feedback and greater clarity about what grades mean.