Assessment. This concept is the focus of our readings this
week. At first, prior to the reading, I had plenty of misinformed and
misconceptions of how assessment would occur in the classroom. I felt as though
the assessment I observed throughout my k-12 education was solely based on my
performance on test and such. To an extent it was, and I will go into a bit
more detail further on in this piece. But continuing on my point, let us focus
on our readings, mainly Chapter 4:
Classroom Assessment of Literacy Growth and Content Learning, as it shows
how my initial view doesn’t reflect the depth that goes into assessment, or the
importance of good assessment. With that being said, let us first determine
what assessment is in the first place. As seen in the text, and is something
that I can generally agree with, “the goal of literacy assessment is to provide
teachers with knowledge about how best to improve and support learning and self-knowledge
for students so that they will become more reflective, active, and purposeful
learners.” In other words, assessment, although comes
into play, should be a factor in determining whether I child passes or fails a
class, it is a tool used to better improve your teaching and thus improve
learning. Not only that but as the book suggest, assessment should be a tool
that is not to be used either at the beginning or end of the school year, but something
that occurs multiple times throughout a year. This is because it allows you “to
obtain more useful and meaningful information about your students’ literacy and
learning abilities.” Let us now move toward to see what 5 key aspects are
present in producing good authentic assessment for students.
These are:
1. Content-Area
Assessment is a Continuous Process of Becoming Informed About Students’
Learning
2. Assessment
Literacy and Content Learning Should use Multiple Data Sources across Multiple
Contexts
3. Effective
Assessment Involves Students
4. Effective
Assessment Requires Planning, Interpreting, and Managing a Variety of Data
5. Assessment
Should Include Students’ Interest, Attitudes, and Belief Systems
Let us look at the claim that is
provided in the text which is this: “What needs to be remembered, however, is
that standardized tests, like any other assessment instrument, are only one
data source or sample of students’ behaviors, skills, and strategies.” Now
taking that in, we can assume then that standardized test don’t have that much
importance in assessment and other such things but, as I have seen in other
courses, standardized tests have become the only thing that matters in the
government’s eyes. Education reforms such as No Child Left Behind and Race
to The Top, has created an environment of competition amongst public
education and that of privatized education. What this means is that, these policies
has created an environment where schools must show excellent scores on standardized
test in order to receive government funding and resources. As most can assume,
this means that those schools are marginalized from funding and such which effects
the quality of education a student receives. Not only that but it also limits
the curriculum that can be taught as most schools will prioritize material that
will be on the test. In my head, I can only think of the lack of knowledge,
vital knowledge, children are missing out on due to this.
My point of bringing this up, and
frowning upon standardized test, is that the text make it seem as though they
are more beneficial than harmful. Not once did I see any argument/point that
shows the true relation between standardized test and education in our world.
With that, I also brought it up to introduce
the second reading that accompanied us. That being Disciplinary Literacy Assessment: A Neglected Responsibility. I felt
this would be a perfect way to introduce the idea found in this piece, that
teachers should adopt the Strategic Content Literacy Assessment, which is “a
teacher-created assessment of students’ abilities to read and comprehend
discipline-appropriate text,” and it “measures students’ abilities to connect
what they read to prior knowledge, summarize hat they read, draw inferences,
make intertextual connections,…” and so on. So if we, as a whole, as a nation,
are able to adopt such a form of assessment, I truly believe it would usher in
better education throughout the nation and more knowledgeable students. It is
time we stray away from this toxic environment created by standardized test and
focus our assessments on ones that facilitate knowledge.
ReplyDeleteYou made so many good points that I just don’t know where to begin.
First off, I despise standardized testing as a way of measuring students. Like you, I believe that they are not a sufficient means of measuring a student’s abilities and academic growth, and that many of them are culturally-biased. In addition, they are a means to collecting data for all levels of government and other various institutions that rely on them and it’s not even good, well-rounded data when it comes to education and its complexities. It also simplifies many complexities of a child’s education. Last, we want—as a country—to rethink education, and many of our education courses at UIC urge us to find new ways of educating our students, but the tests do not assess nor reflect these new strategies and methods we are urged to employ within our classrooms. Yet we still use these standardized tests as a “holy grail” to measure students, teachers, and schools alike when simple logic dictates that students, teachers, and schools come in many varieties but are measured against one thing. Do not even get me started on how this standardized testing perpetuates the racial and ethnic divide of this country when it comes to education.
And what kills me is that my school wants its teachers to teach our students “outside the box” and yet measures students “inside a box” (standardized tests) that do not compliment what or how we teach, and yet somehow it is up to teachers to make this conundrum work. This is not authentic assessment. Yet we are required to adhere to it while at the same time are urged to find alternative methods of assessment and use them in the classroom. We wind up teaching to the test because now standardized tests are becoming more and more linked to teacher performance.
Let us not forget to mention the politics of standardized testing and the fact that a lot of money is tied into it, which is why it will be around for quite awhile. The companies that produce standardized tests make money off of the tests. So do learning centers and tutoring site and publishers of standardized test-practicing books/websites. Why did Illinois decide to switch to SAT testing as a way of measurement and not the ACT? Is this because legislators thought it was a better method of assessment that would produce better data? No! Bottom line is that it had to do with politics and money. That is why politicians and not educators made the decision to switch. If a group of experienced educators had an important hand in changing policy, we might actually see something better come out of our state and federal governments when it comes to education reform. But, alas, that is not the case, and we are still stuck with the same problems.
I like the picture text ore than anything. The messages in them are powerful. I agree that some assessments can tailor to a specific group. The truth of the matter is assessments are necessary. There probably will never be a perfect assessment. If it is all multiple choice then people will say it's not fair for the creative thinkers. If it is subjective then someone might say that it is not relative or that they can not relate to it. I believe that standardize testing serves a generic purpose and gauge to measure a students retention. I do not think that teachers should teach toward these tests but the information that is covered in these tests should be presented to the students at times in there educational career. I think the issue is the weight that is put upon these tests. If a student is not an adept to high scores in math but can is very fluent in history or language arts, I feel it is my job as a teacher to bring out the best of that student in math, know that is that students best and allow that student to walk away with confidence. If the whole class is suffering in a subject then it might be something missing externally that has little to do with the students. As long as the students are properly prepared and we as teachers has done our best to prepare the student utilizing whatever methods we deem to be the best for our students and our classroom, who cares about the small stuff. Some of us are not psychiatrist and social workers, so we may not know all the signs for every student. But going in knowing that work is needed and that the school is a team of teachers striving for a common goal can help. What I cant see maybe the last teacher of a particular student noticed. As long as there is money to be made, standardized testing will probably be around. But we as teachers can't let that hinder and label us. We have to continue to teach our well rounded , professional students toward their successful lives that SAT will most likely share such a small part of.
ReplyDeleteHello Jose,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and believe that amount of importance given to standardized testing by the government is ridiculous. I understand why it is important to assess students understanding but what use is it to give test at the end of the year when children are about to finish the school year? I believe that the importance of assessments is to understand where children are at academically in order to help them improve their understanding. However, this is almost impossible when teachers are too focus teaching students how to pass exams. I remember that my English junior year teacher focus an entire semester teaching us ways to cancel out answer choices in order to arrive to the right answer in the ACT. Although this really helped me get a higher score in the English portion in the ACT I felt that it did not help me outside of testing.
In the article Disciplinary Literacy Assessment: A Neglected Responsibility Gills and Van Wig begin the article by stating, "Assessment is a 'four-letter-word' these days." This statement so simple could not be more true. As an educator, I have experienced and have heard many of the stories associated with the revolving door of standardized assessments. In my five years as a teacher, I have experienced ISAT, NWEA, and PARCC. Within the five years of teaching ISAT and NWEA have been eliminated and a new standardized assessment awaits at the door step, PARCC. Each standardized assessment is different from it's successor and posed grand challenges for the educators and students. As an educator, I am forever supplementing materials used in my classroom to accommodate the style of assessment given that year. I am not "teaching to the test" presay but I do acknowledge it's presence in my instruction because I want to prepare my students as much as possible. However, the frustration stems from the inconsistency and continual change in the standardized testing world. How can students and educators feel prepared and successful if the goals are continuously altered?
ReplyDeleteI have always looked at assessments as scary and accusatory. It always seems that I never know enough to get the best score. I really like the fact that you brought up the text definition of assessments. Even though we are reminded time and time again that assessments are simply testing our knowledge, it is hard to fully understand this when it seems as though we have to meet a certain requirement. Although most tests are supposed to fit a certain guideline it seems as though we continue to strive for a percentage, a number. The readings portray the importance of reminding students that assessments are there to help them. We should remind them that although standardized tests are important and scoring well is good, students must first learn the material to better understand topics and the world around them.
ReplyDeleteJose, I'm glad that you pointed out that standardized tests are just one form of assessment because, while this seems to be obvious enough, I don't think we stop to think about it often enough. I believe that, while there were likely to have been good intentions behind the initial push for standardized testing (i.e. attempting to ensure that students in different environments across the country were receiving educations that are similar in quality), the whole thing has perpetuated a gap in equality between schools in different socioeconomic environments. In my opinion, it's been tried and proven ineffective, and it's time to attempt something else, for even if standardized testing were able to solve the problem some say it was put in place to combat, the fact still remains that students' responses to different forms of assessment vary based on the individual, and so I don't think we can deem it fair to place so much emphasis on one type.
ReplyDeleteJose,
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, I often took assessments as a way to understand where I stand in the classroom. Even my math courses here at UIC, we are given quizzes and it always gave me a clear understanding on what I was struggling. But we have students that aren’t good test taker, should teachers really base their performance on that? From prior observations, I have seen many students understand the topic being taught but when they hear assessment their minds block everything they learned. I can even relate this to my sister, she understands a topic and will do the homework with no problem but give her an assessment and she completely blanks out. This brings the point discussed in our reading, do we simply get rid of assessments or take it as some form of where students need more instruction. As you mention, an assessment should be a way to “improve teaching and thus improve learning”.
It’s true that standardized testing can overtake a classroom learning, as the school only worries about scores. But at the same, these standardized test are taking time from students learning. I really like the last image you posted, we can clearly see the gap students have within each other and it’s unfair to have these test that judge that. So how can we find a balance between standardized testing and actually teaching students? Or even how can we refine assessments from what we learned?