Assessment is defined by the Webster dictionary as the evaluation or estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone or something. In other words, assessment is what we do when we want to know, and it is what we should to do before taking a decision.

Assessment is an act of reasoning. If we want to know, we have to get to know. We cannot get knowledge implanted into our head. Well, at least not yet. For now, if we want to know, we have to learn. We have to gather the facts, understand their structure and relationships, and interpret them from the point of view of the problem at hand.

An important challenge is posed by large amounts of data. When we cannot grasp all details in a short amount of time, we tend to perceive the problem to be primarily a tool issue: all will be solved if we buy the perfect reporting tool. This is a rather false perception.

We can indeed externalize parts of the number crunching and learn indirectly from the summary of the analysis. If we know what the problem at hand is, and how to solve it, we can have tools that automate the tedious parts. However, we cannot treat a tool as a magic black box that analyzes the system and tells us whether to go left or right.

Any indirect learning involves risks, because a summary presents by definition a reduced set of details that are typically obtained through an interpretation. The risks can come from the possibility of the set of details being incomplete (relevant details were not taken into account) or from the interpretation being incorrect.

To properly grasp the output of a tool, we need to know what details it looks at and what interpretations are involved in the analysis process. For example, let’s suppose we can have a tool to measure some characteristics of our system. We have to know what parts of the system were measured and how are they measured. Only afterwards can we interpret the result.

It is not always feasible to control and know everything. Due to practical reasons, such as time constraints, we sometimes do have to rely on summaries provided either by tools or by other people. We just have to make sure that we do not pretend we know when we actually do not.

For example, suppose we need to find the best resource for assessment. One solution is to spawn Google and search for assessment. We can be happy with the first result we get (probably the wikipedia article that talks about educational assessment). However, we cannot claim that this is the best article because we have not much of an idea about what the decisions taken by the Google algorithm and we can certainly have not much of an idea of the quality the input data. We can say that we trust the result, but we cannot claim that we know.

The difference might look small, but it is critical. Knowledge implies control, trust implies acceptance of risks. Assessment is, in the end, all about making the situation as explicit as possible so that the decision is as informed as possible.