The Use for Assessments in the Classroom

Improved Assessment Literacy: Unlike the current education system that treats assessment more separated from teaching, the core teaching standards recognize that teachers need to have greater knowledge and skill on how to develop a number of assessments, how to balance use of formative and summative assessment as

Assessment is a valuable tool to measure students learning and achievement. It is an essential element for teacher to reflect on what and how they teach. To assess students is to collect evidence of their learning. Teachers use the information to modify their lesson plans and adjust their instructional methods; students need feedback on their performance to concentrate on their vulnerable areas. Assessment is necessary for parents to reinforce their children strength and assist them where extra attention is required. The data collected will inform school

Assessment and data driven instruction are a vital part of teaching. Assessments are used frequently to guide the proceeding lessons. I am interested in learning more about the different types of assessments and the appropriate uses of each. I think it is critical as a future teacher to have many resources to back up my techniques, especially with the growing interest in data and tracking students’ progress. Gathering information about assessments will allow me to broaden my own techniques and strategies that I use in the classroom, more specifically the ways in which I grade and provide feedback on assessments so that students can use that feedback in a positive way. In my past experiences I have noticed my cooperating teachers providing grades on all assessments with no feedback because they want the students to correct their own mistakes. This may work on summative assessments but I think that there needs to be comments on formative assessments so that students know how to correct their mistakes for the end of the unit tests.

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

Efficient educators know and understand the importance of selecting, planning, and implementing effective assessment tools and strategies that measure student’s levels of understanding. Different types of assessments are used for a broad range of purposes that include formative, placement, diagnostic, and summative assessments. However, the main purpose is to “foster learning in all its forms” (Lefrancois, 2013, Ch. 6.1). Teachers use pre, formative, and summative assessments to determine what students know before, during, and after instruction. Each measurement is used to plan, modify, and adjust instruction to meet the needs of all learners. Although each form of assessment plays a critical role in ensuring all students succeed, educators

Assessments are vital to the educational process. They provide feedback about what the students know and what they may need to learn in order to obtain the content within a given curriculum. It provides teachers with a glimpse into the student’s readiness on a particular topic or subject. One of the six key principles of having an effective differentiated classroom is having a formative assessment that informs teachers on the effectiveness of their teaching. It also provides teachers with the readiness levels of their students and shows them exactly where the students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile needs really are (Tomlinson, 2014).

Classroom assessment involves the professional decision of the teacher to determine how to implement assessment, what should be assessed, and when should assessment occur. Teachers must be able to interpret each students’ unique learning abilities in ways that are credible, fair, and free from bias. Possible factors to consider when creating these multiple formats for assessments include gender, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic backgrounds, and special needs. Each and every student in the classroom should be give the same opportunity to display their strengths. And it is important for teachers to properly manage an assessment plan that will benefit students, as well as the teachers, in the classroom. Eventually, a well-constructed assessment plan will be able to contribute to the development of lifelong learners within the teacher and the students.

The article from Angelo and Cross, while dated, is a valuable lesson and read for educators (and myself). Many of the concepts covered in this article highlight the ways that assessment can help college teachers gain useful feedback and analyze student learning. The article encourages educators to review the central aim of college which is to help students become more effective and efficient learners. Additionally, by focusing on the characteristics of classroom assessment (learner-centered, teacher-directed, mutually beneficial, formative, context-specific, ongoing, and firmly rooted in good practice) educators can see what students are learning. Learning is a collaborative effort, both the educator and student need to work together.

Assessment has drawn much attention, especially since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESES). It is not that assessment is new to education but that the stakes of assessment has risen to a new level. It is apparent that testing is now viewed in a much different way by the public, schools and all stakeholders of schools than in the past. Over time, testing has developed roles of providing a grade to mark student progress, diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses so that instruction can be planned for student improvement and indicate teacher effectiveness (Popham, 2014). In recent years, it has become common practice for the general public to use testing to form judgement of the effectiveness of schools. Tests are now included in teacher performance evaluations, and used to improve the teaching process.

Classroom assessment practices are instrumental in preparing students to become autonomous, critical thinkers (Green & Johnson, 2010), and this portfolio documents my personal growth and development (Kuh et al., 2001) in the content area of classroom assessment. Unfortunately, I have been utilizing assessments to pass judgment on my students and only focusing my attention on the students who I believe have the intellectual ability to succeed in the STEM field. However, I am, now, enlightened on the practice of using assessments as an avenue to promote mastery goals for my students, and I am prepared to implement these new discoveries into my courses. Thus, as I reflect on my collection of artifacts and reflections in this portfolio, I discuss

The use of assessments in school is always creating controversy due to the fact that many people believe that quizzes and tests do not define a student’s learning. While I agree that tests should not be the only defining factor of a student’s grade, assessments can be a valuable tool in understanding what a student has learned. Personally, I struggle with assessments because I went to a Waldorf school, which is an institution that does not believe in test taking. I believe that there are pros and cons to this approach, one of the cons being that when I reached high school I was bombarded with many multiple choice assessments. Multiple choice assessments became my enemy in high school as well as college because I wasn’t taught the test taking strategies my peers had learned and practiced. As a middle school math teacher, I quickly learned that multiple choice assessments fail to tell an accurate story about a student’s skills. My department head explained this to me by reminding me that although a student may have gotten the incorrect answer their process might have been accurate. In my classroom, their is a culture that celebrates the correct process because often times students make little mistakes, however it should not define them as not understanding a problem or concept. In other words, the process that my students take to answering a math problem matters.

Guideline 3 stands out to me personally due to the experience I had in my placement last semester. Teaching students to acquire the skills and knowledge to be better in their academic endeavor definitely requires considerable time of instructional planning; including what types of assessment techniques to use in measuring the students' performances on how much and how well they are learning the material being taught.

The trainer demonstrates the preference assessments, now he does it along with mom, then Mom does it alone immediate corrective feedback, on how well she did or how she could improve on her present level is told via the video conference.

Educators are faced with many challenges in accurately assessing and evaluating students, and although these two codes are closely related, their effective completion requires different actions. Assessment is a systematic process of collecting and interpreting information about students’ achievements, while evaluation refers to a value judgement that attaches meaning to the data obtained through assessment (Mc Donald, 2007). Educators are called upon to assess and evaluate students who they instruct based on the students’ learning outcomes and course objectives.

In many cases student assessment results have been used to threaten to judge their performance as a teacher. In this case many teachers have become distrustful of the process and its outcomes. The teachers need to be reassured that the purpose of using student assessments in evaluations should be for feedback and to help teachers develop their skills.