PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

Personal Beliefs on Assessment Sara Gwin CUR/578 March 19, 2011 Kenneth Nielsen, Certified Advanced Facilitator

PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

Personal Feelings of Assessments The elements of curriculum development, which are based on standards imposed from a variety of sources, work in tandem with the final component of the learning process known as assessment. Without the ability to test or assess their students, there would no measure or accountability for educators, faculty, and staff. There would be no mechanism for concerned stakeholders, including federal, state, and local educational boards, to determine if their students are actually learning the material being taught or delivered in the classroom. There would be no accountability for school systems, administrators, teachers, parents, and students themselves when no learning occurs. A number of factors regarding assessment will be discussed by the writer of this paper. These include: the purposes and value of assessment, the manner in which assessments are administered in schools today, and her personal experiences with the assessment process. Before curriculum can be developed in a school system, the educational team must understand the standards that are to be the basis of the intended curriculum. Standards can help educators form a systematic and coherent assessment system from start to finish, including a variety of assessments that measure the full range of standards school administrators must implement in their classrooms. Though many respond negatively when they hear the word standards, it is vital that required standards be implemented. Unfortunately, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which was signed into legislation during former President George W. Bushs administration, has caused many to decide that these standards mandated by the federal government are too harsh. With the stipulations of the Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP, which determines the level of assessments of schools, many schools now teach in fear and only teach material they know will be on these standardized tests. This is known in educational circles as

PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

teaching to the test. In addition, many educators, parents, and other concerned stakeholders are dismayed that the special education student population and English Language Learners are required to test at certain levels or benchmarks. If they do not, their school is apt to lose federal funding and be placed on a probation watch. In September 2011, President Barack Obama relaxed some of the requirements of NCLB and now allows individual states to receive waivers from these federal mandates with stipulated assessment levels. However, it is vital that some type of standards and corresponding assessments remain in todays schools because standards help match assessments to what students are learning and provide ways for educators to focus classroom assessment on important skills and knowledge, not isolated facts (Ashtabula County Educational Service Center, 2012). Standards can help educators ensure that they emphasize both process and product within their classroom assessments and provide useful information to guide classroom instruction. Assessments are vital and essential to the learning process. This writer has had only limited experience with assessments as understood in the public school system. As a teacher at a technical college, she had no experience with the entrance tests or assessments the students were required to take for entrance into the college. However, she was involved in administering weekly tests as assessment tools to determine if her students were comprehending and learning the subject matter she was delivering daily. She was giving them old-fashioned writing assignments, vocabulary tests, and Speech assignment, as her types of assessments. In regard to her second son, however, this writer has had a number of negative experiences with assessments. Rhett was diagnosed with ADHD at age four and was subsequently placed on medication to control his hyperactivity. It was later discovered that he had some mild learning

PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

disabilities, which continually caused him to test below average in most of his subjects. In other words, his assessment scores were always substandard. As a result, the writer remembers one specific incident when Rhetts summer reading instructor said to her, Ms. Gwin, I am sorry Rhett did not meet his benchmarks and assessments this summer in Reading. We really tried. To which she responded, I am sorry, too, that this is the only way Mobile County Public School System chooses to assess their students. Rhett is only six-years-old, but he has recently asked me if he could design his own website. So, there is some learning going on somewhere in his little brain. I concur with those who feel that special education students are discriminated against because of their failure to meet regular and systematic assessments. Though I know assessments are a necessary evil, there are a number of cases where the assessments cause great harm to the learning processes of many students. For the majority of students, however, it is vital for regular assessments to be conducted. Assessments are used as a tool to promote learning, to determine if learning has occurred, and to measure if specific benchmarks have occurred (Stiggins, Arter, Chappius, & Chappius, 2004). Without these measurements of assessments, it would be impossible for educators and teachers to determine if particular content has been learned or mastered, specific goals have been achieved, and if the students are ready to move on to the next phase of the curriculum and instruction. Standards, curriculum, and assessments are all vital components of the educational process.

PERSONAL BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

References Ashtabula County Educational Service Center. (2012). How does classroom assessment help teachers and students? Retrieved from http://www.acesc.k12.oh.us/standards%20based%20ed%20materials/How%20does%20 classroom%20assessment%20help%20teachers%20and%20students.pdf Stiggins, R., Arter, J., Chappius, J., & Chappius, S. (2004). Assessment Methods. Taken from Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right - Using It Well. Portland, Oregon: Assessment Training Institute. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/inst325/docs/inst325_stiggins.pdf