The materials contain many opportunities and tools for both formative and summative assessment. Some things are purely formative, but the tools that can be used for summative assessment can also be used formatively.

Formative Assessment Opportunities

• The practice problems for Section A in each unit, for grades 1 to 5, have several items designated as pre-unit. These target concepts and skills that are prerequisite to the unit. While many of them are based on earlier grade-level material, later units often include problems addressing important work of the grade.  
• Each instructional task is accompanied by commentary about expected student responses and opportunities to advance student thinking so that teachers can adjust their instruction depending on what students are doing in response to the task. Often there are suggested questions to help teachers better understand students’ thinking.
• Each lesson in grades 2–5 includes a cool-down (analogous to an exit slip or exit ticket) to assess whether students understood the work of that day’s lesson. In grade 1, cool-downs are included frequently, but not in every lesson. In kindergarten, cool-downs are included rarely.
• One or more practice problems are provided for each lesson (starting in Kindergarten, Unit 2). These can be used for in-class practice, homework, or as a means to assess certain learning on a particular concept. Each section contains two or more explorations, designed to engage students in thinking creatively about the mathematics of the unit at school or at home. 
• Each section in grades 2–5 has a 3–4 problem checkpoint to assess the section learning goals. These can be used for extra practice or  to check student understanding before the end of the unit. Each section also has a monitoring sheet that can be used to indicate that students are meeting the section goals. 
• Each section in kindergarten and grade 1 has a checklist to indicate that students are meeting the section goals.

Summative Assessment Opportunity

• Each unit (starting in Kindergarten, Unit 2) includes an end-of-unit written assessment that is intended for students to complete individually to assess what they have learned at the conclusion of the unit. In K–2, the assessment may be read aloud to students, as needed.