Student Assessment What Is the Most Appropriate

¶ … Student Assessment What is the most appropriate way to assess student achievement? The commission of the National Middle School Assessment of student achievement suggests "authentic assessment refers to evaluation that makes use of real life tasks instead of contrived test items." (NMSA, 2000) In other words, rather than focus on testing students more, a greater interest and study of effective teaching practices are better employed in further research regarding education.

The National Middle School Assessment Authentic assessment also suggests that while standardized testing may occasionally function as a rough means of evaluating all children, such as identifying children with possible special needs, assessment in a truly learner-centered classroom will vary. "Examples of types of assessment are performance tasks, portfolios, student self-assessment surveys and probes, peer assessments, journals, logs, products, and projects.

Successful assessment improves learning, instruction and program effectiveness." (NMS 2000, citing Donald, 1997) In my own school district, located in a parochial school in the inner-city of Chicago, standardized testing is deployed, however, I attempt to counter the possible negative impulse to 'teach the test' by using exactly the type of assessments suggested by the NMSA, which takes into consideration individual learning differences.

However, the 'No Child Left Behind Act' of 2001 made one of its philosophical pillars the ideal of "accountability." The effect of this has been to make school districts accountable by raising state standards in reading and mathematics and assessing these standards through "annual testing for all students in grades 3-8, and annual statewide progress objectives ensuring that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years." It has made standardized more and more of necessity of proof of achievement in school districts today, both public and parochial, if parochial schools wish to have access to funds available for the community through the act's other philosophical pillars of choice and flexibility.

In contrast to the Wilmette Public schools of Illinois, which use the Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT), Chicago parochial schools in the district such as St. Joseph's currently use the Terra Nova Standardized test. Although the test is different, the use of standardized tests is thus still a 'presence' in the classroom. The Terra Nova test is a norm-referenced test. This means that student results are compared against a 'norm' for student achievement.

It is published and standardized by CTB McGraw Hill publishers, the Catholic division of the scholastic publishing company, which aims to cater to a specifically parochial education in a broad sense, so that students in such schools will not have to engage in extra preparation simply for the test, in comparison to their public counterparts. The test's different components assess students on specific criteria and objectives that should mastered by students at particular grade levels.

The Terra Nova test publishes a "Brush Up for Terra Nova" review on the web, to supplement in-class preparation for the exam. One of the strengths of the Terra Nova is that it aims to test skills rather than knowledge. As well as basic English skills, it also tests writing, science, and other comprehension skills but through the reading component of the test, so that students read passages and then answer questions on these issues. It is not a pure 'achievement' or knowledge-based test.

The math section also tests graph-reading skills useful and necessary in social studies. Examples from the preparatory material on the web, for a first grader, might prompt a student to find the 'asking' or questioning sentence from a list, while for a third grader, it might ask a student to fill in a sentence blank.

("Terra Nova Test Prep," and "Terra Nova Printable Practice Test," 2005) Within the limits of the standardized testing format, the Terra Nova Test thus seems to do an adequate job in assessing a student's ability to perform on a fairly basic standardized exam, without a specific pre-determined base of knowledge. However, the test fails to assess the sorts of life skills discussed by the NMSA.

It fails to make students active participants in the learning environment and does not contain subjective components, such as the ability of a student to do research, reason mathematically, etcetera. In other words, it does not assess student's ability to deploy basic skills in a hands-on environment, as for example, a writing portfolio might, or a science project. The disadvantage for a teacher is that to over-rely on standardized assessment's successes or failures is that preparation for such tests does not stimulate dialogue in the classroom.

When a teacher 'teaches to the test' or even stresses the multiple-choice format endemic to the bulk of such standardized assessment, the teacher is put in the position of having all of the answers, while students passively assimilate information.

Principle one of effective teaching must be defined by the idea that "students learn more when they are engaged actively during an instructional task." According to a recent "Area of Teacher Education, Programs in Special Education University of Alabama Report" the authors write that "advances in research in cognitive and social science and student self-regulatory learning have led to numerous new "student-centered" instructional models (e.g., whole-language instruction, reciprocal teaching, cooperative learning, etc.).

"Curriculum may be determined for teachers by school boards, administrators, and curriculum publishers and communicated through curriculum guides, district-wide objectives, course syllabi etc., but the teacher must be "the final arbiter of what content gets taught," depending on the student's individual needs. (Ellis, Worthington, Larkin, 2005) An over reliance upon standardized testing deprives a teacher of such final arbitration and tailoring to student needs, an idea of particular concern in a private school, where students' parents pay extra money for individualized attention to student needs.

In the district where I am an educator, an inner-city parochial school in Chicago, parents are anxious that the teachers understand the specific stresses of this environment, and that their children receive appropriately sensitive yet disciplined learning. To accomplish this in my own teaching, I use assessments that assess course-related knowledge and skills, values, and self-awareness, and finally assessing learner's reaction for instruction. This is accomplished by using summative and formative evaluations. Standardized testing is a necessity and a reality, unfortunately, for teachers.

One could even make the argument that the process itself prepares students for the SAT and other standardized assessment that they will face later on in their scholastic life. But the Terra Nova only scratches the surface of the necessary life skills of student. Its focus and skills-based.