An Introduction to Common Assessments by Wayground

Common Assessments by Wayground help you analyze student proficiency in standards at the student, class, school, demographic subgroup, and district level — all within an easy-to-use and engaging platform. Administrators or Assessment Coordinators can securely distribute standards-aligned assessments across your district to measure curriculum implementation and ensure that all students are mastering key standards.

This article provides an overview of the Common Assessments feature, its benefits, and how it works.

Common Assessments are available as an add-on to the Wayground School & District Plans. To access this feature and learn more about how it can benefit your institution, please email sales@wayground.com.

What Are Common Assessments?

The purpose of the assessment for all students in a grade-subject or course, often called a “common assessment,” is to support educational leaders by providing a solution to the most prevalent challenges in K12 schools. This includes ensuring a focus on student achievement, supporting Professional Learning Communities, delivering the intended curriculum, diagnosing systemic learning gaps, and evidencing a return on investment.

By aligning with your district’s unique curriculum, Common Assessments by Wayground enable data-driven instruction, timely instructional adjustments, and student-centered assessment, and go beyond to create an ecosystem of professional learning collaboration.

The key benefits include:

1. Focus on student achievement: Access data that shows standards proficiency and highlights groups or individuals who need support.

2. Support Professional Learning Communities: Give instructional leaders the data they need to guide PLC discussions.

3. Ensure the intended curriculum: Confirm that the curriculum is implemented consistently across classrooms and schools so every student receives high-quality instruction.

4. Diagnose systemic learning gaps: Accurately diagnose systemic learning gaps across all grade levels and content areas.

5. Evidence return on investment: Move beyond “hopeful” initiatives and see the true impact of the school district’s investments.
   
   

How Common Assessments Work

The process for using Common Assessments follows a clear, four-step lifecycle, from creation to analysis. This workflow provides a structured approach to measuring student progress effectively.

Author: First, a Common Assessment is created or selected. You can author a standards-aligned assessment in minutes with all the item types needed for your state tests, or bring your own content to Wayground using Wayground AI. The full-page creation experience lets you configure assessment settings, universal support tools, performance bands, accountability goals, and sharing — all in one streamlined flow.

Distribute: Next, share the Common Assessment with teachers across your district. You can assign via courses (using roster data from Clever or ClassLink for automatic distribution) or via teams (reusable teacher groups you define). School Admins at the selected schools automatically get access to the assessment and its reports.

Administer: A teacher then administers the Common Assessment to their class during the scheduled window. Students log in to a secure testing environment with individualized Accommodations and universal support tools (such as calculators and read-aloud) that support every learner equitably. Teachers can also record responses on behalf of students who require scribes or took the assessment offline.

Learn more about Common Assessments on Wayground:

• Roles and Permissions for Common Assessments
• Create a Common Assessment: For Admins & Coordinators
• Manage and Monitor Common Assessments: For Admins & Coordinators
• Administer & Manage Common Assessments in Your Class: For Teachers
• How to Join & Take a Common Assessment: For Students
• Installing and Using LockDown Browser by Respondus with Wayground
• Accessing and Understanding Common Assessment Reports