Our students must be assessed relative to what their skills are. It could be done by doing formal assessments or informal assessments or combination of both. The purpose of assessments is to describe a student's present understanding and provide useful feedback to the teacher on what's working and what's not (Fisher & Frey, 2010, pg. 94). One measure alone could never do justice to a student so multiple assessments need to be considered to determine which one best reflects students' weaknesses and strengths.
Purposes of Assessment (Lapp, Fisher, Flood, & Cabello, 2000:
- Progress monitoring: the same assessment may be used to screen students throughout the year to monitor student progress to determine if additional interventions are needed.
- Diagnosis: determining areas of weakness for students and potential interventions.
- Program Evaluation: to determine RTi.
- Accountability: state/federal
I realized that beyond giving formal assessments (i.e. Quizzes, exams, etc.), our main role as teachers is determined by how we recognize our students’ progress through informal assessments (i.e. formative assessments: port folios, role play, record tracking, etc.) These methods allow the teacher to easily maneuver where and how his/her instruction is going.
Assessing students is not monopolized by just doing it formally (e.g. giving out tests, quizzes, summative exams, etc.), but rather depends on the other informal assessments (e.g. observation, reflective logs, summary writing, stem questions and answers, etc.) that reinforce formal ones.
There are many factors why a student could fail from a test (e.g. lack of sleep, emotional and family distress, etc.), but there would only be few factors why he/she would not be able to provide a reflective insight on the lesson.
What does the Assessment Process involve?
- Identifying what to assess in as specific terms as possible. For reading, this may include pinpointing good behaviors and ties to the standards.
- Collecting evidence throughout observation from response answers, essay questions and/or student projects.
- Analyzing the data.
- Making decisions about each student's literacy performance and the effectiveness of your instruction. It is important to note that literacy achievement should be separated from effort and behavior.
Caldwell, J.S. (2008). Reading assessment: A primer for teachers and coaches (2nd ed). NY: The Guilford Press.
Standards of Assessments
- Validity: does the assessment measure what it is intended to measure.
- Reliability: consistency in administering assessment.
- Test Development
- Fairness in Testing: equitable treatment of all test takers.
- Scales, Norms and Comparability.
- Administration, Scoring and Reporting.
- Testing Individuals of Diverse Linguistic Backgrounds.
- Responsibility of Policy Decision Makers.
Invernizzc, et al. (2005). Toward the peaceful co-existence of test developers, policymakers and teachers in a era of accountability.
