Assessing Education As An Educator

Ch. 2 – Who are the various users of assessment and its results? What specific instructional decisions can be made based on assessment results? Why must we build balanced assessment systems to support the instructional programs we offer students? This chapter nails down the purpose of assessing, which is gathering information to inform teachers of students of their instruction and learning, respectively. In this way, assessment is individualized to each student and classroom, and because all students/classes are different, it should inform the teachers of what is working or not working in the classroom, which should then influence some sort of change to instruction. This chapter also talks about the different levels of assessment – from the individuals

The question of assessment in the "school system, individual schools, and teachers has evoked strong and sometimes violent emotions from the educational community, the general public and their legislative representatives"(Brown & Knight, 1994). Assessment based on standardized tests has been looked at very closely over the recent years, and some people have even mentioned that they be eliminated completely. Those who feel traditional methods should be replaced by alternative methods. These people feel that demonstration, exhibition, investigation, oral response, portfolio, and written response's are all examples of

As a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I have found that assessments are a daily part of our job. Everything that my students do in the classroom ultimately ends up being assessed in some sort of way. I must admit that it can at times be overwhelming for assessments to be such a huge part of our curriculum; I understand the necessity of each one. I haven’t always been focused as intently on assessments. I really didn’t consider the importance of assessments as much. As I gained experience and knowledge I realized that assessing my students provides me with information that makes my job more successful. I believe to effectively teach my students, I must understand and implement the right assessments properly. My assessment philosophy is that to be able to ensure our students are learning and that we are teaching the right way we must include proper assessment for validation. With that being said it is very important to use different forms of assessments to gauge student performance. One of the outstanding features of studies of assessment in recent years has been the shift in the focus of attention, towards greater interest In the interactions between assessment and classroom learning and away from concentration on the properties of restricted forms of test which are only weakly linked to the learning experiences of students (Black 2015) This research supports the idea that assessments

Therefore teachers’ knowledge, skills and competencies in classroom assessment practices are very important (Koloi-Keaikitse, 2012). As teachers play a major role in student achievements and preparing them for future, it is essential for them to understand how to assess and evaluate students’ learning outcomes (Koloi-Keaikitse, 2012). For this reason, Reynolds, Livingston, & Willson, (2009); McMillan, (2008); Nitko, (2001) maintain the common argument that because AFL plays a vital role in teaching and learning related activities teachers should master basic assessment competencies. Without this ability the type of assessment will be useless for the future learning of the students. For example, most common type of assessment provided in the classrooms are pen and paper tests taken at the end of a unit, the result from this is never used to improved student learning as teachers perceive the topic as completed and done with. Vandeyar and Killen (2003) argued that regardless of educational setting, high-quality assessment practices should satisfy essential principles such as validity, reliability, fairness, discrimination, and meaningfulness. For Vandeyar and Killen (2003), if teachers have a clear understanding of these principles; they can have an informed framework of using assessment results to make better-informed decisions from assessment results. When teachers misunderstand these principles, their assessment practices are more likely to generate worthless information and this might hinder them applying various classroom assessment strategies and form to assess and evaluate the students. Therefore in order to be more competent and knowledgeable in AFL; teachers are in need of professional development in order to foster effective AFL in in their classrooms. In addition, another factor that will increase an awareness of classroom assessment

Assessments have been used in the classroom throughout the years as feedback to educators on how effective they are at teaching and how well students are learning. Since school’s decision-making is being predicated off assessment scores, they are increasingly becoming more important. “Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding” (Edutopia, 2008, para. 1). With more and more reliance on assessments, it forces educators to take a step back and reflect on their lessons in order to ensure that all accommodations and strategies are in place to promote student success. Among those strategies, teachers must be able to “demonstrate skills at selecting, developing, applying, using, communicating, and evaluating student assessment information and student assessment practices”(Buros, 2014, pg.1). While reflecting on my own skills or competencies involving student’s assessment, I have found that my strengths lie in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessments; and choosing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions. On the other side, my weaknesses lie in developing valid grading procedures that incorporate assessment information. This paper will analyze these strengths and weaknesses and examine how they impact the development of assessment inside the classroom.

After reading chapter 11 of our textbook, there were three important topics that stood out to me. The first topic that I thought was interesting was the purposes of assessments. According to Carjuzaa and Kellough, the purposes of assessments are for assisting student learning, identify students’ strengths and weaknesses, assess the effectiveness of a particular instruction strategy, assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum programs, assess and improve teaching effectiveness, to provide data in order to communicate with parents and guardians and to involve them in their children’s learning, and to provide data that assist in decision making about a student’s future (Carjuzaa & Kellough, 2017, pg. 337-338). Assessing to identify strengths

As an educator it is very important that a teacher uses different methods to teach the variety of different learning styles, and it is also important that the teacher uses a variety of assessment procedures. People don’t learn the same, and people don’t test the same either. I personally, am horrible when it comes to taking multiple choice and problem solving type assessments. I do better with essay and writing assessments, presentations, and teaching back what I have learned. With the understanding of how I can best be assessed myself, it will be important when I am the teacher that I use many methods to assess and grade my students work.

The practice of summative assessment is something which has been prominent for a long while in mainstream education and teachers, students and the school as a whole are judged upon this achievement (Black et al, 2003). Whilst my initial perception of assessment tied into this idea of summative assessment, being the testing, ranking and grouping of students accordingly, it was this process which to begin with was invaluable in my planning as I could not gather understanding of ability from many other sources(Steinberg and Kincheloe, 2006). Trotter (2006) views correlate to my experience in that he suggests previous assessment results serve as a substantial benchmark for “student’s performance” and can be valuable to planning lessons accordingly.

Looking at the assessment system we have at present; we have two summative assessments (a case study and the other is multiple choice questions-MCQ).Both the

On the other hand, Summative assessments are an assessments OF student learning. When I say OF student learning I mean, an assessment over a unit, particular skill or standard a teacher needs to assess AFTER her teaching is completed. For example, tests, projects, EOCT, GMAS and other standardized tests are summative assessments. Tomlinson (2013) explains that, “summative assessment suggests that a grade will be given and a student 's performance will be evaluated based, to some degree, on the information elicited.” As stated previously, summative assessments are taken for a grade to assess a student’s knowledge OF the standards. These assessments also help us see which students got where we needed them to be. Although both assessments are different in many ways, they both have a purpose in a classroom especially when differentiating. According to Teaching Tolerance (2016) Differentiated Instruction (DI) is an approach where teachers proactively plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it and how they express what they 've learned. Assessments are a way to help teachers differentiate by flexible grouping to focus on a particular skill or group students who are on the same level. In relation to the previous statement, Tomlinson and Moon (2013) state that,” Understanding the mutuality that excellent teachers strive to achieve among the elements also establishes a clear context for an extended discussion of

Summative assessments usually occur at the end of a lesson and are used to evaluate student’s understanding of the skills and concepts that were taught. These assessments are seen as a “digital snapshot” because they provide insight of a student’s knowledge at a single period of time, (pg 78, Van de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2013). Tests and quizzes are a popular type of summative assessments.

Assessments are important and stand to be a useful tool for multiple reasons. Primarily, it helps educators make decisions about what to teach students. Tests provide information about what

I believe that assessments are used to guide instruction in the classroom and also to improve student achievement. Teachers can use assessments to determine how much prior knowledge students have and how much time they need to spend on each subject matter. Conderman and Hedin (2012) suggested, always waiting till the end of instruction to assess tends to allow the teacher to miss out on reflecting on the effectiveness of their instructional strategies (Conderman, 2012). Therefore, it is beneficial for teachers to assess students throughout their lessons, at various times, in order to get an adequate representation of their students’ knowledge. This approach also allows teachers to make revisions to their instructional practices that will enhance student achievements. However, while I strongly agree with this aspect; I also think there can be other ways to guide instruction without having to formally assess students.

Assessments provide learners opportunities to develop mastery of their ideas, skills and competencies, whilst educators use assessment tasks as both teaching and learning tools (Spiller, 2009:6 & 7).

Assessments focus on the outcome of a specific teaching goal, and it clearly defines some knowledge students are receiving from teaching instructions. Newman argues that "the most important element of assessment is how it guides the learner and teacher in the next steps of the learning process (Newman, 2013). Assessments are the best way to measure student 's weaknesses, and growth so that students receive the highest quality of education possible. Its vitality in schools takes priority in the teaching and learning the process. Newman reminds us that the validity of the assessment is the extent to which it measures what it was designed to measure (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010). Therefore, to gauge the quality of education students are receiving teachers must efficiently and consistently assess students, as well as create individualize lessons to meet their need.