Assessment[edit]

Assessment is defined "as the process of obtaining information that is used to make educational decisions about
students, to give feedback to the student about his or her progress, strengths, and weaknesses, to judge instructional
effectiveness and curricular adequacy, and to inform policy (Buros, 1990)." There are various techniques used for
assessment: formal and informal observation, qualitative analysis of pupil performance and products, paper-and-pencil
tests, oral questioning, and analysis of student records (Buros, 1990). Teachers are left to decide how to make use of the
assessment results, and which technique will be employed.

Despite the importance of assessment in today's education, formal training in assessment design and analysis seems to
lacking. "A recent survey showed, for example, that fewer than half the states require competence in assessment for
licensure as a teacher (Guskey, 2003). Teachers who lack the specific training rely heavily on the assessment methods of
the textbook or instructional materials. "They treat assessments as evaluation devices to administer when instructional
activities are completed and to use primarily for assigning students' grades (Guskey, 2003)."

Make Assessments Useful [edit]

According to Guskey, to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their
approach to assessments.

First, make assessments useful for students. "Classroom assessments that serve as meaningful sources of information
don't surprise students. Instead, these assessments reflect the concepts and skills that the teacher emphasized in class,
along with the teacher's clear criteria for judging students' performance (Guskey, 2003)." These concepts, skills, and
criteria align with the teacher's instructional activities, which also align with state or district standards. "The students
see these assessments as fair measures of important learning goals (Guskey, 2003)." Students further their learning
when teachers provide them with important feedback on their learning progress.

Second, make assessments useful for teachers. The most useful classroom assessments also serve a purpose for
teachers: helping them identify what they taught well and what they need to work on. Retrieving this information does
not have to be painful. Teachers can simply take note which students failed to meet criteria or missed specific items.
When reviewing the results, teachers must consider the quality of the item or criteria; then determine whether these
items adequately address the knowledge, understanding, or skill that they were intended to measure (Guskey, 2003). If
no problems are found with the criteria, teachers must take their teaching into consideration. Guskey says analyzing
assessment results in this way means setting aside some powerful ego issues. Many teachers may initially say, "I taught
them. They just didn't learn it!" But on reflection, most recognize that their effectiveness is not defined on the basis of
what they do as teachers but rather on what their students are able to do. Can effective teaching take place in the
absence of learning? Certainly not. However, teachers and students share responsibility in the learning process. In some
cases, even with great teaching, some students may not learn perfectly. But, if a teacher is reaching fewer than half the
class, the teacher's method of instruction needs to improve . This kind of evidence is what teachers need to help target
their instructional improvement efforts (Guskey, 2003).

Enhancing Instruction [edit]

When teachers are better informed of the learning progress and difficulties of their students, they can make better
decisions about what a student needs to learn next and how to teach that material in a manner that will maximize the
students learning (Fuchs 1996). According to Fuchs, teachers make three types of decisions using assessment results:

1. Instructional placement decisionswhat the student knows and where he or she should be in the instructional
sequence.

2. Formative evaluation decisionsinformation to monitor a students learning while an instructional program is

underwayhow quickly progress is being made, whether the instructional program is effective, and whether a change in
instructional program is needed to promote the students learning.

3. Diagnostic decisionswhich specific difficulties account for the students inadequate progress so the teacher can
remediate learning progress and design more effective instructional plans.

WHAT CRITERIA SHOULD ASSESSMENTS MEET IF THEY ARE TO INFORM INSTRUCTIONAL DECISIONS?

These assessments should meet seven criteria:

1. Measure important learning outcomes.

2. Address all three purposes of assessment.

3. Provide clear descriptions of student performance that can be linked to instructional actions.

4. Be compatible with a variety of instructional models.

5. Be easily administered, scored, and interpreted by teachers.

6. Communicate the goals of learning to teachers and students.

7. Generate accurate, meaningful information (i.e., be reliable and valid).

(Fuchs, 1996)
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Education_and_Instructional_Assessment/Standardized_Testing/Results