5 What Do We Know: Assessment of Teaching and Learning
5 What Do We Know: Assessment of Teaching and Learning
Loren Jones; Shannon Kane; Sarah Morris; and Margaret Peterson
Before We Read
Before we read, reflect on how assessments have impacted your learning. What aspects of assessments did you find helpful? Challenging? What qualities do you think make an assessment effective? Take a few minutes to skim the chapter headings and subheadings and consider what you already know about assessment. What are the different types and purposes of assessment? How can assessments be used to inform and improve teaching and learning? What are some ethical considerations when designing and implementing assessments? Finally, consider the different stakeholders involved in assessment (teachers, students, parents, administrators, district leaders). What are their perspectives on assessment? By engaging with these questions before diving into the chapter, you will activate your prior knowledge and be better prepared to understand the complex concepts related to assessment.
Critical Questions For Consideration
As you read, consider these essential questions: What are some ethical considerations when designing and implementing assessments? How can educators work to limit assessment bias? And consider the different stakeholders involved in assessment (teachers, students, parents, administrators). What are their perspectives on assessment?
Defining Assessment and Its Challenges
Assessments in public schools have long been a topic of discussion and debate, with stakeholders ranging from policymakers to educators, parents, and students expressing various opinions and concerns. Recently, the media has played a significant role in shaping public discourse around assessments and their impact on the education system. For example, consider the Edweek headline, “Two Decades of Progress, Nearly Gone: National Math, Reading Scores Hit Historic Lows” (Edweek, October 24, 2022), or NPR’s headline U.S. reading and math scores drop to lowest level in decades. These headlines, though, portray a distorted public perception of teaching and learning in today’s classrooms. One might read this headline and believe our school systems, administrators, and teachers are “not good enough,” but the truth is much more complicated. Rather than capturing the day-to-day functioning of the classroom, high-stakes assessments are generally imposed upon teachers rather than created by them. As such, the assessments and headlines don’t accurately capture the progress and performance of our students. When reading headlines related to schools and assessments, it is essential to be critical consumers of media messages.
Consider that the headline examples above, and many others, label schools as “failing” based on a single metric–a standardized test score. However, the focus is just on specific numbers and not a nuanced understanding of factors that influence these numbers, such as socioeconomic background, limited English proficiency, or special needs students