Assessment in the Classroom Revisited
Assessments. Balance.
These two go hand in hand. When imbalance occurs, effectiveness seems to decrease. To much and students become stressed and seemingly voiceless. To little and teachers are not able to meet students at their level. To educators this might seem obvious, but it is an important concept to remember, especially in a time where the role of assessments is changing.
I have seen first hand how easily the role of assessments can become unbalanced and the impact it has on both students and teachers. In Korea, there is a lot of pressure put on students to perform well on exams, tests and other assessments. So much so that many students have become overly stressed and depressed because of it. Many schools, as well as the Korean government are seeing the need for change and are currently trying to figure out ways to do so (It is actually a very exciting time education wise to be living in Korea).
My current school attempted to solve this issue on their own by creating a play based school and eliminating almost all assessments and standards. Though good in theory, I soon discovered that this to was not beneficial. I was no longer able to teach my students effectively. I essentially had no data to go off of and I found that my lessons were not meeting my students at their level. When this happens the quality of learning begins to lower.
After reading Newton's (2007) article I realized that the focus was solely on the assessments and not on the purpose. I found his article to be foundational in the discussion of assessments by asking "What is the purpose?" He makes the reader really stop and evaluate the reasons behind each and every assessment given. Why and what am I assessing? What data, understanding or skill am I trying to see? How will this benefit my students? It helped me to stop and evaluate what is currently happening both at my school and in the country as a whole. I realized that without a purposeful foundation there can be no balance.
Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) has done a good job at opening up this discussion and allowing students to play on active role. Below is a short video about their findings. I will expand on this in later reflections, but I added it because I feel that this is crucial to the assessment discussion. Their findings are bringing us closer to finding a successful balance.
These two go hand in hand. When imbalance occurs, effectiveness seems to decrease. To much and students become stressed and seemingly voiceless. To little and teachers are not able to meet students at their level. To educators this might seem obvious, but it is an important concept to remember, especially in a time where the role of assessments is changing.
I have seen first hand how easily the role of assessments can become unbalanced and the impact it has on both students and teachers. In Korea, there is a lot of pressure put on students to perform well on exams, tests and other assessments. So much so that many students have become overly stressed and depressed because of it. Many schools, as well as the Korean government are seeing the need for change and are currently trying to figure out ways to do so (It is actually a very exciting time education wise to be living in Korea).
My current school attempted to solve this issue on their own by creating a play based school and eliminating almost all assessments and standards. Though good in theory, I soon discovered that this to was not beneficial. I was no longer able to teach my students effectively. I essentially had no data to go off of and I found that my lessons were not meeting my students at their level. When this happens the quality of learning begins to lower.
After reading Newton's (2007) article I realized that the focus was solely on the assessments and not on the purpose. I found his article to be foundational in the discussion of assessments by asking "What is the purpose?" He makes the reader really stop and evaluate the reasons behind each and every assessment given. Why and what am I assessing? What data, understanding or skill am I trying to see? How will this benefit my students? It helped me to stop and evaluate what is currently happening both at my school and in the country as a whole. I realized that without a purposeful foundation there can be no balance.
Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) has done a good job at opening up this discussion and allowing students to play on active role. Below is a short video about their findings. I will expand on this in later reflections, but I added it because I feel that this is crucial to the assessment discussion. Their findings are bringing us closer to finding a successful balance.
Thank you for sharing that clip. It's a good reminder about the importance of Student Voice. It's easy to get trapped in old way's of thinking and doing what we've always done. Change is good but
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, balance is key!