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From https://www.edutopia.org/article/eliminate-assessment-fog-john-mccarthy

Eliminate Assessment Fog
To get a clear picture of student achievement from assessments, don’t give or take away points for things that aren’t related to the core content.
By John McCarthy
January 10, 2017

Lorna Earl, author of Assessment as Learning, says differentiation is “making sure that the right students get the right learning tasks at the right time. Once you have a sense of what each student holds as ‘given’ or ‘known’ and what he or she needs in order to learn, differentiation is no longer an option. It’s an obvious response.”

This definition reflects how important assessment is. At a fundamental level, we are differentiating when we act on accurate data to adapt instructional plans for a large group or to personalize for individuals and small groups. Because such planning takes time, it becomes critical that the assessments used in planning be free of logistical factors that create a fog around what learners truly know and do not know.

The alternative is a growing feeling of frustration and helplessness about our impact on learners’ academic growth when we focus on data that may not provide an accurate view of those learners. Here are some common examples of assessment fog and their solutions.

Read the full article, which deals with issues such as points off for mechanics, extra credit for non-academic activities, and penalizing late work, at https://www.edutopia.org/article/eliminate-assessment-fog-john-mccarthy