Student Assessments: Testing and Evaluation

Formal student assessment had been a huge national debate over the past decade. Expecting student assessment to meet national student standards has forced public schools to focus on specific curricular content in order for student performance to meet expectations.

This is not all good nor is it all bad. In this author's opinion, public schools ought to be held accountable for student performance. Billions of tax dollars go into the education of America's children so they are prepared to be functioning, contributing citizens when they reach adulthood. The fact that there are so many students who are not prepared to be contributing citizens after 12 to 13 years of education, says something. Scholars, politicians, educators and tax payers all have different opinions about why America's public schools are not preparing students for success in life. This issue has been debated for years and it will continue to be debated for many more.

The fact that the education industry in this country has moved into the age of accountability, feels like a positive step forward. Maybe the way accountability is being measured needs to continue to be refined, but teaching without accountability is unethical and results in students being less than they could be with standards of accountability being in place. Some research-based ways to assess student performance includes: formative and summative assessment.

Student Assessments: Testing and Evaluation - Formative Assessments

Many educators use the assessment process called formative assessment. This means ongoing assessment as students progress through the curriculum unit by unit or section by section. Some kinds of formative assessment processes include: 1) evaluating learning by reading student journals, 2) giving and grading quizzes, 3) using checklists and 4) conferencing with students to gain a sense of what they have learned on a topic.

When this kind of information (data) is gathered, teachers can use the information to develop a plan for how to modify their instruction to meet the needs of the students who are struggling. A teacher can also use this formative assessment data to change course and develop new instructional strategies for those students who are bored and not challenged by the level of instruction.

Many times formative assessment data is shared with students so they can set goals with the teacher for their learning. The website, www1.kent.k12.wa.us, has been designed to support teachers in using formative assessment in their classroom. It includes information on a variety of formative assessment techniques. These techniques are targeted toward elementary students.

Student Assessments: Testing and Evaluation - Summative Assessments

Another form of assessment is called summative. Summative assessment takes on the goal of measuring student performance at the end of a learning unit, rather than at points along the way (as in formative assessment). Summative assessments are completed when the bulk of the curriculum information has been delivered. Summative assessments have the same ultimate goal as formative assessments only the teacher is interested in the end product of learning, not the progression of learning. Summative assessment is geared to assess student knowledge and retention of information.

Some summative assessment are: matching, multiple choice and process explanation tests. Summative assessment is very common to measure math and science performance because it is more difficult to measure these concepts through other non-traditional assessment techniques. If you are interested in learning more about summative assessment techniques, check out the website, blog.learningtoday.com. This site has good information on summative assessment and provides useful strategies for knowing when and how to use this form of assessment.

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