"Understanding and clarifying the purposes for assessing are critical and should be the first step in developing an assessment system. To clarify assessment purpose, it is most important to understand how the information generated will be used and by whom.

Assessment is used to provide information. Who is using the information and how it is used determine the 'stakes' in assessment.

Common uses for assessment information include determining the efficacy of a new computer lab, diagnosing a students' reading miscues so a teacher can individualize instructional strategies, reporting mathematics gains to the school board, describing overall trends in U.S. education, and so forth. Other examples, considered by many as 'misuses,' include using assessment data to label students in ways that exclude them from certain educational opportunities. The 'stakes' in each one of these examples depends on what consequences are incurred by assessing and for whom they are incurred.

Because alternative assessments often have their roots in classroom assessment practice, they are considered low-stakes assessments--assessments that help inform the teaching and learning process with classrooms. However, because they provide more direct measures of student performance, alternative assessments are increasingly being used as part of high-stakes evaluation systems. In fact, many high-stakes alternative assessment systems are being designed to assist in improving instruction and to ensure student and system accountability, thereby blurring the distinction between high-stakes and low-stakes assessment." (pp. 5-6)