Authentic Assessment Vs Standardized Assessment Essay

Authentic Assessments vs. Standardized Assessment Tests It is important to assess the development of young children. Assessments provide a plethora of valuable information. First, assessments can indicate a child’s progress. Assessments can be used to indicate perceptions of how a child feels about others as well as their selves. Assessments can also identify a child’s weaknesses, strengths, and their behavior patterns (Beaty, 2014, p. 2-9). There are numerous ways to assess a young child’s development. One method that can be used to assess the development of a child includes using what is known as authentic assessments. Another method of assessing a child’s development is called standardized assessment tests. What exactly is authentic
Authentic assessments are informal assessing tools while standardized assessment tests are formal (Beaty, 2024, p. 2-9). Authentic assessments are different from most standardized assessment tests, such as DIBELS and the Woodcock-Johnson assessment tests, because they are done in a child’s normal settings. Authentic assessments also allow the child to do what comes natural to them (Beaty, 2014, p. 2). When using standardized assessment tests, children are not in normal settings and they are not doing what comes naturally to them. The results from these assessments are also used differently. Authentic assessments are not compared to other test takers; whereas standardized assessment tests are compared to other children who has taken the same test or to a set of specific standards for the given assessment (Bredekamp, 2014, p.
I already knew about the yearly standardized assessment tests that the students in my school take each year. These tests are conducted to measure what they have learned during the school year and the results are used to make adjustments when teaching the state standards in the classroom. What I did not know before this research is that standardized assessment tests can actually provide the students with benefits. Before, I did not see any benefits that the students were gaining from standardized assessment tests. However, after learning how DIBLES can be used to assess students in order to provide them with the appropriate reading level materials, I see how beneficial standardized assessment tests can be to