Curriculum Assessment in the Document

Curriculum Assessment

In the document by Taylor & Nolen (2005, p. 3), the dilemma associated with assessment is illuminated. When there is too much focus and trust in the "magical" ability of assessments such as state and national test scores to improve schooling, teachers and students become stressed, experiences in schools are diminished, and performance is likely to drop concomitantly. In a more focused manner, specific challenges are presented by in-class assessments. Different teaching methods require different types of assessment. It should also be kept in mind that children have many different ways of learning and presenting knowledge. Just as teaching methods have evolved to accommodate the various ways in which children learn, assessment should also reflect the inner diversity of children. Only by assessing learners accurately can teachers bring home to them the social importance of both diversity and tolerance for differences.

Specifically, I have identified some assessment issues in my specific situation with regard to assessment and learner growth. I believe that all children should be helped to become aware of their own strengths and weaknesses in the learning processes. It is only by doing this that children will develop targeted and effective study methods for their future. It is therefore important that teaching methods and assessment be used together in order to optimize both the teacher's and learner's experience.

Background

I am a teacher of a diversity of English learners at various levels of language competence in the eighth grade. The learners come from a variety of language and ethnic backgrounds. I have adjusted my teaching methods according to the needs I perceive in my classroom. While we receive the curriculum from the district head of education, teachers are free to implement teaching methods as they see fit. I have therefore implemented collaborative learning methods and group work to help weaker students improve their language skills.

I have also developed a preliminary assessment method to determine the needs of my students. This is very informal, and does not count towards the students' more formal assessment sessions during and at the end of the school year.

My preliminary assessment entails developing a profile of each student, his or her perceived strengths and weaknesses, as determined by the students themselves, and how these can be used to improve their language skills and prepare for formal assessments. The main problem in our system is the formal assessment sessions.

There are four formal assessment sessions throughout the school year, at the end of each term. These assessments are standardized tests, provided by the head of education. While teachers are invited to comment on the assessments, little is usually done to implement any suggested changes. The tests themselves do address several of the curriculum elements, but not, in my opinion, to such a degree that students are truly tested on what they had accomplished throughout the year.

Problem Statement

Specifically, I have three problems with the current assessment system. Firstly, the tests are targeted only towards a certain group of students, whose strengths relate to identifying a correct item among others. Secondly, the assessment items do not relate closely enough to the curriculum material. Non-multiple choice questions are for example not structured in the same way as in the text book exercises, thus confusing the students with a different format. Students are already in a stressful situation when taking these assessments. While some of them thrive on the challenge, others crumble and the results are not sufficiently valid to indicate their true level of competence. Students are affected negatively when they thrive in the classroom situation, but falter in the test. Thirdly, my teaching methods and the formal assessment do not relate closely enough to be of true value as an indication of the students' performance. This confuses not only the students, but also the parents who pay for the education their children receive. This in turn reflects badly upon me. There is no valid way in which I can adjust my teaching methods to relate to the narrowly focused test material without severely harming my or my students' goals towards excellence and future success.

Having spoken with other teachers in my school and district, I have found that the problem also applies to teachers of other subject areas and other schools in my district. After carefully considering the issue, it was decided that a number of suggestions should be made to the School Board and district authorities. These are of course substantiated with current teaching and assessment theory.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The first and most important suggestion will be that the assessment methods should be more closely related to teaching methods in the classroom. Like children, teachers have their particular personalities and goals for the classroom. These are concomitant with teaching methods, and should also run parallel to assessment techniques. Of course it is not suggested that existing, standardized tests be eliminated. These are important in terms of setting a district standard. However, we feel that individual goals and teaching should also play a role in order to diversify teaching methods.

At the moment standardized testing plays too large a role in the education process (Taylor & Nolen, 2005, p. 3), and the danger is that too many people will focus on these to determine a child's academic strength. Concomitantly, a danger mentioned by Porter (1995) is that teachers placing too much emphasis on the standardized test will in turn teach according to the assessment demands rather than according to the curriculum and pedagogic goals that teachers deem important for the success of their individual classrooms.

One such addition could be the student profile, group work done in class, or other methods of in-class, group assessment. Individual assessment by means of methods such as oral or in-class essays or other tasks can also be used. It should be kept in mind that each subject field will have a specific area of interest and assessment method that works best with this.

In this, it is suggested that individual teachers be consulted for suggestions. It is also our feeling that there is not sufficient communication with teachers, who work with teaching material from day-to-day. This point will also be used to make the suggestion that teachers should be more involved in standardized assessment creation. This will give teachers a greater sense of control and integration with their subject-specific and classroom-oriented goals.