Current trends in educational assessment

¶ … Student Assessment: The Superiority of Student-Based Assessment and the Role of Teacher-Based Assessment

It would be difficult to find a piece of legislation that has impacted schools with the magnitude of the No Child Left Behind Act. From those teaching Head Start programs and other forms of early childhood education to those teaching at the high school and college level, teachers are talking about No Child Left Behind -- they're discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Although No Child Left Behind has implemented many practices, one of the most addressed, and one of the most controversial, is the assessment practice. With the introduction of high stakes testing, No Child Left Behind has created a host of trends in educational assessment for all grade levels. Some have balked at this requirement, suggesting that this kind of assessment does not adequately capture a student's ability to grasp important tasks. Others have argued that standardized assessments such as these are the only way that teachers can really evaluate students. Regardless, the No Child Left Behind Act has certainly brought assessment into focus in the educational realm. Currently, many trends in educational assessment have been cited. The University College of Dublin listed several trends in educational assessment that have been surfacing across the globe in the last twenty years. These include such items as the replacement of written exams by more frequent assessment and coursework, student choice, group assessment, assessing a process rather than a product, and student focused assessment ("UCD Centre," n.d.). What these trends suggest is that assessment is moving from focusing on the teacher and instruction to focusing on the student and the quality of learning ("UCD Centre," n.d.). Thus, it is clear that trends in assessment imply the prominence of certain educational philosophies and schools of education. Through an examination of student-based assessment and teacher-based assessment, this paper will argue that the rising trend of student-based assessment is superior to the trend of teacher-based assessment, allowing for the fact that teacher-based assessment has a specific role.

Student-centered assessment focuses more on what the student has learned than on what the teacher has taught. According to LaLopa (2005-2006), "To be considered student-centered, the assessment technique should directly involve students examining their own cognitive developments by having them focus on learning first and the grade second" (para. 2). Some of the ways in which a teacher might evaluate what a student has learned rather than what a teacher has taught include group assessments, assessments of a process rather than a product, student choice in assessment, and assessing the competencies of students ("UCD Centre," n.d.). LaLopa (2005-2006) gives an excellent example of student-centered assessment in higher education by citing the organization of a class for students in the tourism and hospitality management discipline. Students worked as teams throughout the year "to comprehend, synthesize, apply, and evaluate the course content while developing a tool to help establish their own grades" (para. 3). After they developed their own assessment tool, the students were excited and encouraged by the role they had plaid in the challenge and actually asked if they could develop a new test (LaLopa, 2005, 2006, para. 4).

This example brings up one of the underpinning theoretical implications of student-centered assessment. These methods follow a progressive theory of education, focusing on student-centered learning and the importance of instructing a child to engage in lifelong learning. By choosing student-centered methods of assessment, teachers allow students to have a degree of freedom to work in their ability areas or with their strengths. An example of this from a writing classroom may be multi-genre writing and the use of portfolios, teachers grade the process in the portfolios, and in the multi-genre writing they grade not whether or not they liked the story that the student wrote, but whether or not they are able to bring their thoughts to paper.

There are three very direct benefits to implementing a student-centered assessment technique in the classroom. The first is the one that LaLopa (2005-2006) makes clear. Student-centered assessment does just that, places the focus on the student and student learning. This encourages students to continue in the process of learning and to se learning and the ability to work their way through challenges as important and crucial. This has several long-term implications. Students who have been subject to student-centered assessment may have a better grasp of how to apply their skills to challenges in real-world scenarios. Rarely outside of academia are children subjected to something in the form of the standardized test. While students may be able to excel at such tests, this is not necessarily a measure of their ability to really succeed in real-world scenarios, which require a great-deal more critical thinking, planning, analyzing, and team work than do standardized tests.

The second benefit of student-centered assessment is the fact that it is the natural assessment method for teachers who use student-centered instruction. Chall and Adams (2002) note that math, science, and social studies subjects have followed similar trends when it comes to the style in which they have been taught. The authors state that, "these subject areas moved from a more traditional, teacher-centered emphasis on knowledge and skills during the early 1900s to a more progressive, student-centered emphasis with concern for student interests and needs from the 1920s to the 1950s" (Chall and Adams, 2002, p.69). While the authors go on to note that the teacher-centered method of teaching these subjects has slowly been coming back, ironically due to teacher-centered methods of assessment, they state that the "shift is not complete" (Chall and Adams, 2002, p. 69). Indeed, many teachers even in these subject areas continue to use student-centered instruction. In fact, the Access Center, a branch of the American Institutes for Research, cites scholarship that argues in favor of using both student-centered and teacher-centered methods in the teaching of mathematics. This scholarship suggests that students are best prepared when a combination of methods are given. Because one of the most important trends in mathematics instruction, strategy or implicit instruction, is a student centered method needed for teaching students how to actually use mathematical information (The Access Center, n.d.), it is clear that student-centered instruction is not only necessary but a trend in educational theory and practice. In many other liberal arts subjects, such as languages, philosophy, and literature, the student-centered method is nearly wholly used. Because teachers are using student-centered methods of instruction, then, it is imperative that they have some kind of student-centered assessment tool. LaLopa (2005-2006) states that teachers have used methods of student-centered instruction for years, but they have failed to pair that instruction with student-centered assessment tools. This imbalance does not really encourage students to reflect on their overall learning. In fact, LaLopa (2005-2006) that research supports student-centered methods of assessment as the natural conclusion of student-centered instruction. He writes that student-centered assessment allows teachers to expect better performance from students (para. 1).

A third and final benefit of student-centered assessment and the implementation of student-centered assessment in grades K-8 is preparation for the higher levels. LaLopa (2005-2006), who is affiliated with Purdue University, writes about the inclusion of student-centered assessment in the college course. Thus, it becomes clear that colleges are using methods of student-centered instruction and student-centered assessment. Although the purpose of the lower levels of education is multi-faceted, one can argue that of pressing importance in the lower grades is preparation for college. Thus, lower grades can best prepare the students for college by using the same types of instruction and assessments used in those grades. Thus, through student-centered assessment, students are being prepared not only for their future life of decision making, but also for higher education, which will further prepare them for that life.

But while the implications for student-centered assessment are noble and the benefits are grand, some have argued in favor of teacher or subject-centered assessment. Flood et al. (2003) define teacher-based assessment as "a necessary element in determining future instruction" (p.609). One overarching example of teacher-based assessment can be seen through the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. The act was implemented due to an educational crisis in the United States. Students were failing to meet minimum expectations, there were teacher shortages, and schools were under funded. Former President George W. Bush championed the No Child Left Behind Act as an answer to these problems. The act, which was made into law in 2002, required that states give standardized tests to students each year; the states were responsible for monitoring the results of the tests as a measure of their progress (Worthham, 2008, para. 3). The tests, which are an assessment of a student's grasp of state-based standards, allow teachers and government officials to obtain hard data about students' success on the tests.

According to Kern (2009), these teacher or subject-based assessments generate mostly teacher, school, and community-based benefits. When schools view the scores together, they can have an understanding of how their students are doing on a macro level. This helps them deal with administrative tasks such as applying for grants, reporting their progress, appeasing parents, etc. In addition, teacher-based methods of assessment have at least one positive implication for students. According to Flood et al., teacher-based assessments allow teachers to enter the process of scaffolding with significant foreknowledge. Flood et al. (2003). suggests that all good assessment includes a component in which a teacher plans and sets goals, and then collecting data and interpreting it. This can be done in the classroom or at the macro level -- applicable to either the school itself or the state. Teachers can use the data gleaned from teacher-centered assessment as a means by which to identify areas of weakness and address them (Kearns, 2009). Standardized testing and teacher-based testing in classrooms allows teachers to determine where most students are having problems and use scaffolding techniques to intervene on the student's behalf and move them to a higher level of achievement.

While these benefits are certainly important and crucial to the running of an institution of academic learning, many have risen up against standardized testing in schools. Wortham (2003) notes that through No Child Left Behind, "there is no doubt that mandates for increased standards-based testing will continue in spite of concerns of their relevancy" (para. 6). The relevancy issue comes into play when one examines why standardized tests are used in the schools. Schools are essentially graded based on students' performance on standardized tests. The performance determines what kind of funding they will receive and whether or not they will be subjected to more federal control in their schools. Further, standardized tests may carry high stakes for the students. They may be responsible for a student's graduation or movement to the next grade level. These kinds of issues encourage teachers and students to think about the test and only the test. Thus, an appreciation for learning or for the subjects at hand is almost completely ignored by the use of teacher-based assessments such as these. In addition, in the classroom, when students know they are being graded through teacher-based assessment tools, such as exams, they engage in practices such as cramming, in which they attempt to learn as much as they can for the test itself and forget it promptly after. All of these practices do not have the benefits associated with student-centered assessment. While student-centered assessment prepares students for a world in which they will face more challenging assessments, assessments from their bosses or family members, assessments in which they will be expected to consult others and finally make a choice, teacher-based assessment methods prepare students for one thing only -- taking more tests.