We define common assessments as teacher-developed assessments, designed around courses where the same standards are assessed, questions are asked, and scoring rubrics are used by each course teacher. (We say this: if you cannot score another teacher's assessments, then your assessments are not common.)
This document poses a process with questions for content teachers to discuss, so that they can identify the standards they want to build common assessments around, and begin the work of creating together. In addition to content standards, the assessment needs to include a writing task based on standard W9: citing textual evidence when analyzing, reflecting, or researching.

In the fall and spring of each school year, students in the Baraboo School District are assessed on their academic writing skills. We pre-assess to determine skill-level as students come into the year, and we post-assess to determine growth. See the attached presentation to see our process along with examples of the writing assessments, rubrics, and student writing samples from K-8.