Assessment is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and development (Palomba & Banta, 1999). Educational assessments are carried out to measure the efficiency of the program, the quality of instruction and progress of a child’s learning. The purpose is to determine the growth and development.
There are several kinds of assessment carried out during a student’s learning. These include the placement assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. Learners coming into the kindergarten class are often given a pre test or a placement assessment to evaluate what the learner may already know or think about content that is to be learned. Formative assessment is usually carried out while an instructional sequence is occurring. Summative assessment takes place at the end of the end of an instructional unit. These assessments help the educator to understand, what the students have learnt, how much they have learnt in their units and whether they need assistance or not.
Literacy assessment
Assessment is an integral part of instruction. I am using a mid year and an end of the year assessment information from Bloomington Public School website to explain their literacy skill assessment. The objectives and skills layed out in this assessment are aligned to the state standards. A sample of their assessment is shown on page 7and 8. The kindergarten literacy assessment in the table includes: Prints first name correctly, prints last name correctly, prints uppercase and lowercase letters, names uppercase letters, names lowercase letters, produce letter sounds, identifies beginning and ending sounds in words, recognizing and producing...
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...kills and improve over a period of time. This gives the educator and student an opportunity to be successful.
Assessments should be free of cultural, ethnic and gender stereotypes; fair in content and age appropriate; tap into knowledge and skills that all students have had enough time to master. Achievement tests determine a student’s depth of knowledge and proficiency in the subject. A fair assessment helps the learner and the educator to grow and embrace learning
Works Cited
http://www.education.com/reference/article/why-assessment-important
http://uat.okstate.edu/assessment/what_is_assessment/index.html
http://www.bloomington.k12.mn.us/departments/curriculum/assessments/KindergartenLiteracyandMathrubrics.htm
Armstrong, D.G., Henson, K. T & Savage, T.V. (2009), Teaching Today; An Introduction to Education, 8th Edition]. New Jersey: Education Inc.
Marzano, R. J., & Brown, J. L. (2009). A handbook for the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
For more than 20 years, formative assessment has been highly researched and even accredited as a critical part of a teacher’s pedagogy. In the last decade it (formative assessment has become something of a buzzword and in some cases a mandate in k-12 schools across the country. Formative assessment can be defined as a part of the instructional process intended to gather information and provide feedback for both students and teachers that allow for needed
Standardized tests are exams that are supposed to measure a child’s academic knowledge but have long been a controversial subject of discussion. Although it is one method to see how a child is performing, is it the best method? Standardized testing can be biased or unfair, inhibit both the teacher’s and the children’s creativity and flexibility, affect funding for schools, cause untested subjects to be eliminated from the curriculum, and cause anxiety for children and teachers.
In the society of today, there are various educators who believe in assessment as proper method to measure the performance of a child in school as well as the overall achievement of a specific school system. The assessment may be presented in the form of verbal, written, or multiple choice, and it usually pertains to certain academic subjects in the school curriculum. Recently, many educators began to issue standardized tests to measure the intelligence of a common student body. (Rudner, 1989) These standardized tests were initially created to reveal the success in institutional school programs, and exhibit the abilities of students today. The standardized tests can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a student as well as the admission into certain programs. The test results also assist various schools in determining the proper curriculum, evaluate a specific school system, or a particular school related program.
Standardized aptitude tests measure students’ abilities to learn in school, how well they are likely to succeed in future education. Rather than measuring knowledge of subjects taught in school, these tests measure a broad range of abilities or skills that are considered important to succeed in school. The classroom setting and teacher are the key to assessment. “Pressure to produce higher scores leads teachers to focus on material that will be covered by the tests and to exclude everything else. The curriculum is thereby narrowed, which means that some subjects are ignored. Within those that are taught, lower order thinking skills are emphasized. As a result, test scores get inflated while real learning suffers” (Phelps). Performance based assessment guarantees an increased understanding of the growth of individual child. Such understanding reduces the need for currently used standardized tests.
There are actually a two main forms of assessments that Mr. Bossley can chose from. He can choose to use formative assessments, which are assessments designed for learning. Formative assessments check what the student has learned and how to proceed with expanded that student’s knowledge. Also formative assessments help improve a teacher’s ongoing instruction and focuses mainly on improvement. The other type of assessment that Mr. Bossley can use, is summative assessment, which are the assessments of learning. Summative assessments are assessments that usually happen at the end of a unit or lesson. Summative assessments are often reported using grades,
Marzano, R.J. (2007). The art and science of teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Formative assessment takes place during teaching. Teachers can use formative assessments to plan questions to ask a specific group of students. Formative assessment can be used to determine which students are getting it and which students need individual instruction. In Hillsborough county, we use a term “catch and release”, formative assessment is used to help teachers know when all students are lost and need to be “caught” for some step by step teaching and then they can be “released” to try to the problem or question
...e done well then advise learner on how they can improve, because good news about learners' work highly motivates them (Reed, 2006).
In their 1998(a) paper, Black and Wiliam refer to assessment as any activity undertaken by teachers or students to provide evidence of the progress in learning. There are two types of assessment, summative and formative. Summative assessment is a clear method in which to record a pupil’s progress. This form of assessment is usually carried out after a certain period of time, usually in the form of an exam, to determine how well a pupil has understood the required information and they are then assigned a grade. Formative assessment, on the other hand, focuses on assessing pupils throughout the learning process so that teachers can make any possible changes to the teaching methods being used and can provide pupils with the necessary feedback
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.
Assessments allow for teachers to monitor the progress and growth of his/her students, help engage students and help guide teachers as well as students in their decision making. Teachers should know that tests are not the only way to assess students in the classroom. It is important for educators constantly assess their students on comprehension and progression.Teachers can take use of both formal and informal assessments so that they can engage students in their own learning, as well as monitor their comprehension and progress.
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
The purposes of assessment can be divided into three levels, namely: classroom level (students and teachers), school level, and system level. Firstly, at classroom level, assessment aims to provide the students with appropriate learning based on their needs, provide the students feedback that they can use to identify their next steps of learning, to develop good partnership with parents, help the teachers to plan next teaching, and guarantee continuity of education for the students (Te Kete Ipurangi, 2007).
Assessment is a tool used in the classroom every day. It is used to measure a student’s mastery of a skill or knowledge of a given subject. It is also what demonstrates to the teacher what the students have learned. Educators use that information to determine if they need to re-teach to a specific student, group, or the entire class. They can also use that information to determine the rate of their teaching. Assessments are important because, as teachers, we need to know what difficulties our students have and what needs to be refined for them. While I do believe in assessment and feel that it is one of the key components of teaching, I am more concerned with a child’s process of learning rather than the overall product that comes from it. This is where grades come in for me. Grades determine the students’ level of mastery on a subject, nothing more. Grades should not be the exclusive indicators that a student has learned the information that is presented to them. It is the things a student learns along the way that truly matter and sometimes cannot be measured.