An assessment system includes interim tests administered at predetermined intervals. Each assessment is designed to test specific concepts, and includes multiple-choice test items, each having an item stem, a correct answer, and several distractors. Preferably at least two of the distractors are directed to disparate cognitive levels. Any distractors selected are automatically correlated for each student, in order to determine a presence of a possible problem in a particular concept. Then an individual focus can be applied to correcting any problems. Any distractors selected by any of the students are automatically correlated for the teacher, to determine the presence of a possible problem for a number of students, for applying focus to improving the understanding of some or all of a class for any problem identified by the correlation. A benchmark assessment is also administered that has a format substantially identical to that of an upcoming high-stakes test.