Culminating Views on Assessment

For over 20 years, I have seen the highs and lows of student learning. I have seen students beam with pride answering questions in the classroom, showcasing their knowledge, skills, and understanding. I have also seen students crumble to the depths of despair when not receiving the desired outcome they were hoping for after a test or project score. The jump from feeling ecstatic and on top of the world, gaining high assessment scores, to then lower with low assessment scores is a roller coaster ride for not only the student but the teacher and parents as well. Does it have to be this way?

In recent years, school assessments have been changing to better suit the wellness and well-being of today's students. No more are black and white worksheet pop quizzes the norm to understanding if a student is going to make or break the grade. Through research, scholars have found that a balanced assessment system of various assessment elements best assesses students' skills and genuinely helps students succeed. Proper educational assessments are tools to measure a student's learning (Stiggins, 1999). When assessments are made, students, educators and school professionals can monitor and measure the quality and affectivity of the school's lessons. When assessments are age-appropriate, relate to a student's daily lives and are used appropriately, a student's learning can increase dramatically (Stiggins, 2014)

Objectives

Before a school year commences, it is critical for school management staff to dictate which learning objectives will be targeted for the school year and by which grade-level teams. Using quality, well-written learning objectives delegated to all learning staff can help plan a hearty school year with objective-driven learning experiences. Many pre-packaged curriculum guides can offer a sturdy scope and sequence for teaching staff where a school's subjects are broken down and learning objectives (along with goals and outcomes) are connected. Once teachers know the order and depth of the learning objectives, backward planning can proceed with staff preplanning what the termly assessment projects may look like. Perhaps some assessments will be a compilation group project with theater and dance, an innovative science experiment showing the parts of a rainforest, or a poster competition to persuade students to read a favorite book! Ideas can be creative, motivating and open-ended to allow students to have freedom in showcasing their skills with objectives.

Quality Assessments

Scholars have found five needed elements for quality assessments (Stiggins, 2014). These are:

1. Assessments should have a clear purpose.

2. Assessments should have clear learning targets.

3. Assessments should have an age-appropriate design (which could include selected responses, written responses, performance assessments or a personal communication assessment with interviews, questions etc.).

4. Assessments should communicate effectively (with formative and summative purposes).

5. Lastly, assessments should involve the student in the assessment process (using self-assessment and self-reflection).

When academic staff assesses students, students must be evaluated accurately. With an accurate assessment of student skills, students can have a justified emotional response to the scored grade. Healthy emotional responses regarding grades can support students in moving forward in their future learning outcomes. Teachers can uphold healthy assessment guidelines by ensuring students understand the assessment, what they need to do next on the evaluations and that the student feels comfortable and confident taking the assessment piece to analyze their knowledge.

Balanced Assessments

In the work Assessment Manifesto: A Call for the Development of Balanced Assessment Systems (2008), Rick Stiggins shares advice for giving a balanced assessment system to schools. Stiggins believes assessments have a great responsibility to motivate students. Assessments also help teachers make informed decisions about curriculum planning and lesson practices. Students need to be self-confident in their efforts for learning and how it can tie to a bright future.

Effort and Participation

Effort and participation are integral parts of the assessment process. Both essential factors should tie into a student's overall assessment score. The effort is noted as the determination students give when undertaking tasks. Participation is the initiative and action students make to be a part of the learning process. Both effort and participation can measure a student's active learning. Stit and Pula (2014) have declared in their research that subjectivity and objectivity are crucial in assessing students. Effort, participation and attitude are part of a subjective assessment. Skills, knowledge and understanding support an objective viewpoint to be evaluated.

The Best Kind of Assessment

I believe the best kind of assessment is an online learning journal. An online learning journal is a compilation of a student's learning over a school year. This can consist of assessment pieces with open-ended tasks (such as writing journals), select responses (such as a multiple-choice math test) or individual, paired, or group performance assessments (such as a student's participation in a shadow puppet theater show). When work is brought together using a student growth portfolio, the student and parents can be a part of the reflection process by being able to comment on each piece given in the online learning journal. Not only the teacher but the student and parents can click 'like' buttons, add comments with emojis or record audio or video of themselves about the learning pieces, which can help build self-confidence and self-assessment. The only shortcoming of using an online learning journal may be strict parents' views on data protection and the photos and videos made of their children. This can be resolved by having the teacher speak with the parents about the security measures of the online learning journal.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures are also a substantial portion of the assessment process. Pie charts, bar graphs, and excel sheets can be an intelligent resource for tracking a student's skills and abilities with themselves as an individual, their class peers, their cohorts peers or with other students in their school state or country. The following are examples of tables and figures which showcase assessment data supports.

Table 1: Individual Student Score Results on a Table

(American College of Education, 2022)

Figure 1: Individual Student Demographics on a Bar Graph

(American College of Education, 2022)

Figure 2: Individual Student Score Results on a Bar Graph

(American College of Education, 2022)

Assessments- An Opportunity for Improvement

Standardized testing, behavior assessments, parent-teacher conferences and more all support observing a student's growth and progress and sharing ways to which the student can become their best self as a learner. In essence, assessments may seem scary; however, they are genuine opportunities for improvement if handled professionally and politely. Assessments should be scrutinized to ensure the assessment tool will honestly assess what needs to be examined. Transparent and fair implementation of the assessment for the student matters- to ensure the student understands what is required of them. A balance of assessment measures should be used with a variety of learner styles where students can have the opportunity to express their knowledge with a method that showcases their strengths. Also, having students be a part of the assessment process with student/teacher reflections and future targets can make the grade! This can be done using rubrics, practice tests and product examples of what a teacher may be looking for.

References

American College of Education (2022) Module 6 Assignment Using Assessment Results to Improve Lesson Planning. C16123 Assessment Strategies

Stiggins, R. J. (1999). Assessment, student confidence, and school success. The Phi Delta Kappan, 81(3), 191-198.

Stiggins, R. I. C. K. (2008). A call for the development of balanced assessment systems. Assessment Manifesto). Portland, OR: ETS Assessment Training Institute.

Stiggins, Rick (2014) A New Vision of Assessment Excellence. Youtube. A New Vision of Excellence in Assessment - YouTube

Stitt, J. L., & Pula, J. J. (2014). Voting for subjectivity: Adding some gray areas to black-and-white, objective grading practices. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 80(3), 24.