Standard assessments give you (the economics instructor) an objective, repeatable measure of what your students know about a particular subject. You can use this information to:

• Look at performance on specific learning goals to identify strengths (to build on) and weaknesses (to address).
• Evaluate teaching changes by comparing student performance in the current term to previous terms that were taught differently.
• Test students on prerequisite skills at the beginning of the term so you can meet them where they are instead of where they should be.
• Start doing publishable research on teaching and learning. Standard assessments have enabled tremendous strides in other STEM disciplines (e.g., Freeman et al., 2014).