Student achievement of the Theatre TEKS can be demonstrated in a variety of ways, including paper/pen format, presentation/performance, and audio or video logs of works-in-progress. Though educators have traditionally thought of assessment as a means of grading, assessment can facilitate learning in the following ways.

• Assessment provides teachers with information about student achievement, aiding teachers in planning by pointing to what needs to be retaught, when reteaching is needed, which students need remediation, and which students are ready to advance.
• Assessment also develops a body of evidence documenting student growth over time.
• Through effective assessments, students learn to self-assess, a part of the fourth strand of the Theatre TEKS.
• Looking across the assessments of many students or particular classes provides teachers with information to evaluate effectiveness of teaching practices.

The pages in this section will discuss internal assessment, which is developed within the school, and external assessment, developed outside the school but often required, and how they can be combined to help students and teachers better assess learning