What type of assessments are highlighted in DIDEA for measuring long-term understanding?

The highlighted type of assessments for measuring long-term understanding in the context of DIDEA is summative assessments. These assessments are designed to evaluate the overall learning and comprehension of students at the end of an instructional unit, providing a comprehensive overview of what students have retained over a significant period of time. By focusing on the summation of learning outcomes, these assessments can effectively measure how well students have grasped the material and can apply their knowledge in a broader context.

Summative assessments are typically comprehensive and often include a variety of question types that assess different levels of understanding. They play a crucial role in determining a student's overall proficiency in a subject and are often utilized to inform future teaching strategies and curricular improvements.

In contrast, other assessment types such as formative assessments, short quizzes, and daily check-ins are designed to gather ongoing feedback and monitor progress rather than evaluate cumulative knowledge at the end of a learning period. While these methods are valuable for adjusting instruction and providing immediate insights into student understanding, they do not provide the comprehensive evaluation that summative assessments do. Thus, they serve different purposes in the learning and assessment cycle.