Mte 559 Beliefs About Assessment Paper

Beliefs About Assessment
Janeen Jackson
MTE/559
September 1, 2014
Richard Mather
Abstract

Assessments are designed to measure how students are learning, measure academic targets and how to plan lessons. This paper will explain my beliefs about assessments. I feel assessments have their place in academia, but it should be used to define a student’s (or a teacher’s) potential ability.
Beliefs About Assessment
How must assessment be carried out?
Assessment must be carried out by the following means. The educator should gather dependable information and use it to:
1. To make sure teacher is using the best materials for student success
2. For local and state boards to make adjustments in curricula.
The assessments must be valid and reliable. An educator’s job when it comes to assessment is to “gather appropriate information about student achievement and utilize that information into instructional decision making.” (Stiggins &
Chappuis,2012”Chapter 3: Clear Achievement Expectation: The Foundation of Sound Assessment”) I feel assessments have their place, for example finding any education gaps when the student is transitioning to the next grade, building a defense for new lesson materials and building student self-efficacy.
From the text assessments there are four ways to deliver assessments: select response, essays, performance and personal assessment. Whenever possible, I would like to give my students essay assessments because I want them to be able to communicate effectively.
What is its purpose?
Assessments are used to make sure academic targets are being met, why they are not being met and how to rectify the learning deficiencies.
Assessments can be used to track academic achievement among students. Assessments take the whole picture of how schools are doing across cultural, socioeconomic grade levels and school subject lines. I belief the purpose of assessments is to take a survey of what is working and what is not working in certain subject areas, cultural groups, teacher and school district competency. “Assessment is used in educational settings for a variety of purposes, such as keeping track of learning, diagnosing reading and writing difficulties, determining eligibility for programs, evaluating programs, evaluating teaching, and reporting to others.” (International Reading Association, 2014). Assessments are not just to see where a student stands academically, it also shows if teacher are lacking in their job. Assessments can show where they can improve to make them more effective
teachers.
I believe assessments should not be a tool to embarrass a student or a teacher. Assessments should be used for the assessor to make a student or teacher better in where they are lacking. As I stated earlier, I belief assessments have their place, however I do not believe assessment should define a person’s future. Why can’t a high-achieving, well-rounded student not get into Yale or Harvard because of a low SAT score? It could be possible that the student is a poor test taker but the score only shows that he is not Yale or Harvard material. Assessments should be used to build and adjust deficiencies, not define a student’s abilities.
Is one type of assessment better than another?
According to According to Stiggins and Chappuis (2012), one type of assessment is not better than the other. Different assessments are used for different purposes. ("Chapter 4: Designing Quality Classroom Assessments"). A teacher must be able to select the appropriate assessment for each academic target. For example, an educator would not use s multiple choice assessment if they want to hear if a student is using the correct pronunciation of a foreign word. The assessment must fit the target. The educator’s …“job is to choose the method for any particular form of achievement that permits you to draw the most valid (defensible) inference about student learning. For this reason, we reiterate yet again, you must be a master of the targets your students are expected to hit if you are to select, develop, and use sound assessments of those targets.” (Stiggins & Chappuis, 2012, " Chapter 4: Designing Quality Classroom Assessments"). Like I stated earlier, I would like to give my students essay assessment as much as possible, I would like my students to possess well-developed writing skills.
Is standardized assessment overused or underused?
I believe standardized assessments are overused. Standardized assessments should be used to find out gaps in education in major transitional grades.
Conclusion
Until someone develops another way to make sure targets are being met, standard assessments will continue to be used. I feel assessments are useful for grade transition, planning lessons and teacher accountability, but not to define a learner’s ability.

Reference
International Reading Association. (2014). The primary purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://www.reading.org/General/CurrentResearch/Standards/AssessmentStandards/Assessment_standards_3.aspx
Stiggins, R., & Chappuis, J. (2012). An introduction to student-involved assessment for learning (6th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database