Assessment for Educational Leaders: An Analysis
Das 1
Lipika Das
Professor XYZ
English 123
17 December 2010
Analysis
W. James Popham in the book “Assessment for Educational Leaders” unabashedly addresses particularly the portfolio assessment practices in the field of educational administration. The idea behind portfolio assessment is to map students performance, initiatives and experience and to figure out their areas of strength and areas of development. It is used to appraise students performance over time. Hence it has great potential for preparing future educational leaders. Nevertheless, a portfolio can be extraneous and overwhelming for an employer for it is extensive and qualitative. Employers would rather go for a quantitative representation of students caliber and performance as a determinant of a candidate’s skills. On carefully examining and reviewing the data of the vocabulary quiz, I believe that there are two major reasons attributing for the scores to average out to 71.3. Primarily because the time limit given was not adequate for the students to complete the quiz. Many students’ marks suffered because they were allotted only 90 minutes to answer 50 multiple choice questions. Students generally tend to panic if they are not given sufficient time to finish the quiz and revise it. The students nervousness caused due to running short of time can be so strong that it interferes with their concentration and performance. Extending the time limit of the quiz would help improve students’ performance and grades, thereby boosting up their confidence. Das 2
Secondly, it is also a result of students’ inability to relate to Popham’s concept and notion. It is easier for students to analyze a given situation or a task from their point of view rather than examining something from somebody else’s perspective. I personally was not in concurrence with most of Popham’s ideas and analysis stated in the book which made it very difficult for me
Lipika Das
Professor XYZ
English 123
17 December 2010
Analysis
W. James Popham in the book “Assessment for Educational Leaders” unabashedly addresses particularly the portfolio assessment practices in the field of educational administration. The idea behind portfolio assessment is to map students performance, initiatives and experience and to figure out their areas of strength and areas of development. It is used to appraise students performance over time. Hence it has great potential for preparing future educational leaders. Nevertheless, a portfolio can be extraneous and overwhelming for an employer for it is extensive and qualitative. Employers would rather go for a quantitative representation of students caliber and performance as a determinant of a candidate’s skills. On carefully examining and reviewing the data of the vocabulary quiz, I believe that there are two major reasons attributing for the scores to average out to 71.3. Primarily because the time limit given was not adequate for the students to complete the quiz. Many students’ marks suffered because they were allotted only 90 minutes to answer 50 multiple choice questions. Students generally tend to panic if they are not given sufficient time to finish the quiz and revise it. The students nervousness caused due to running short of time can be so strong that it interferes with their concentration and performance. Extending the time limit of the quiz would help improve students’ performance and grades, thereby boosting up their confidence. Das 2
Secondly, it is also a result of students’ inability to relate to Popham’s concept and notion. It is easier for students to analyze a given situation or a task from their point of view rather than examining something from somebody else’s perspective. I personally was not in concurrence with most of Popham’s ideas and analysis stated in the book which made it very difficult for me
Cited: "Accord" Def. 5b. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed.2005. Print. A study of anxiety and learning. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 166-173. Popham, W James “Assessment For Educational Leaders”.