Assessment Matters

                                                                  

Growing up in the 1970's, the educational norm for that era was to sit and listen as the teacher lectured until the lesson culminated to a test. Once tests were graded, we moved from one lesson to another until the end of the school year. Education has changed tremendously since the 1970's and for good reason. When I was a kid in school, it was normal to fail a grade or two, to pass a grade while not knowing how to read and figure math and so, education needed to change and it continues to change. "Today, assessments must play a central role in shaping teaching and learning and actively engaging students in their own learning process" (Newman. 2013).

After watching Dr. Brian Stecher and Rick Wormeli's video's on formative and summative assessments, one thing is for certain, education finally seems to be headed in a positive direction. Students are expected to take responsibility for their education and schools and educators are being held accountable for their students success and failures. In the past, assessments were tests that proved your kid was smart and had a good grasp on the lessons being taught or they were proof your kid was stupid and was in jeopardy of failing. Of course, the assessments did not really imply your kid was stupid but one cannot deny that the judgement that comes with a failing assessment leaves a parent interpreting the message as being so. As parents, we search for someone to blame. Do we blame the teacher? The school? The educational system? Or do we blame our children? For the sake of this paper, I will discuss the lack of effective assessments and try to explore options that provide better assessment methods.

　

Dr. Brian Stecher spoke about six aspects of a thriving school and as simple as they seem, I believe he hit the mark on the head.

1) Students need to know things (reading, math and writing)

2) Students need to know how to do things

3) Students need to be healthy by eating properly and exercising

4) Students need to know how to play well together

5) Students need to be resilient

6) Students need to become good citizens (Stecher.2011)

Dr. Stecher went on to speak about the need to see what is being over-looked in a students education, measuring it and then rewarding with incentives and publicizing results. However, Rick Wormeli states in his video that both summative and formative assessments are important for a student, he clearly places more importance on formative descriptive feedback as the better overall method of assessments. He then stated the following:

1) We need to help children discover or at the very least, point it out ourselves.

2) We need to ask "what was the goal?" then "what was the original intent?"

3) Where are students in relation to it?

4) What are we going to do to close the gap? (Wormeli. 2010)

Of these two theories, I find myself more drawn to Dr. Brian Stecher's method. Testing needs to have a purpose, a direction and the results need to be understood and valued. Otherwise, you are simply testing to be testing and there is no educational value in doing that. There needs to be an educational goal, lessons to reach those goals and frequent assessments both formative and summative to ensure students understand and are on level with the current lessons. I believe that after a classroom of students have been tested and evaluated, the results can give a larger insight into which students are excelling and which are struggling. Those results can then give the teacher the ability to zone in on those students who require extra help and intervene accordingly whether it be with extra assignments, peer-help or even teacher-student tutoring. Additionally, those results can help guide the teacher in his or her future lessons in a more successful direction if it proves unsuccessful in its current state.

It is common practice for teachers to evaluate their students via two methods, formative and summative. According to Rick Wormeli, most educators use summative rather then formative. He then goes on to explain that students do not learn as well when a teachers focus is placed squarely on a summative method. In order for a student to excel educationally, he or she must be assessed formatively. The biggest benefit to using a formative method of assessment lies on the ability to track a students knowledge or lack of understanding and changing the lessons and activities to strengthen their knowledge and skills to benefit that students success. Such formative assessments include: written observations, quizzes, essays and diagnostic testing.

It should come as no surprise that most schools today use the summative method of assessment. Students are tested with final exams, statewide testing similar to the Florida FCAT or Tennessee TCAP tests and through national testing and college entrance exams such as SAT and ACT. However, the biggest problem with educators only using a summative approach is that by the time students take these tests, students are already on the road to failure because they have not been evaluated earlier, so a great deal of the material on these tests, could be out of their immediate knowledge. It is like giving a teenager the keys to your car without giving them the learner permit test to see what they know or do not know. As a mom of a new teenage driver, that is something I would never do, therefore I firmly stand behind the formative evaluation approach in education.

My goal as an educator is to teach second or third grade at our local elementary school. It is in that age group that I feel formative and summative assessments will be of the greatest use to me as a teacher. Using the summative method keeps the state of Tennessee happy while using formative evaluation as my primary method, allows me as their teacher to stay on top of what my students understand whether it be a little or a lot, I can then assess my activities and lessons accordingly to suit my students immediate educational needs.

It is sad that most schools are not looking out for the students, rather they are looking out for their own jobs. The "higher-ups" in education continue to create new methods of assessment and not every effort is valuable or successful. There will always be students who do not understand, we simply have to discover an A+ method that works and stick to it. When a student fails a test, teachers everywhere need to stop what they are doing and ask "why?" and then figure out how to help get that student back up to par with his or her classmates. With technology and the abundance of teachers, programs and standards, it does not make sense that students are still failing in the presence of solid evaluation methods such as the ones I have spoken about unless of course, schools are not using them.

　

　

References:

Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

TEDxTalks. (2011, August 14). TEDxSoCal – Dr. Brian Stecher – Cultivating thriving schools [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmYdW871pL4

Stenhousepublishers. (2010, November 30). Rick Wormeli: Formative and summative assessment [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxFXjfB_B4