Standard B. Assessment

One of the most critical responsibilities that teachers have is assuring that each student is properly assessing for his/her strengths, weaknesses and preferences. These assessments are critical if a teacher is to create the proper classroom conditions and instruction to maximize student learning. The purpose for assessment is to make decisions about instruction.

As an instructor of severely handicapped children, assessments are extremely critical.

References:

The web site  Designing Effective and Innovative Courses explorers different types and strategies for assessment.

The article claims that "For most learning disabled students, last on the list should be a pencil/paper tests," and the authors suggest alternative assessment methods:

Presentation: A presentation taking the form of discussion, debate, or question/response.

Conference: An informal teacher/student conference to determine a student's level of understanding and knowledge. Especially for formative assessments.

Interview: helps the teacher clarifying the level of understanding for a specific purpose, activity or learning concept.

Observation: Observing a student in the learning environment is especially useful for the teacher to change or enhance a specific teaching strategy.

Performance task: is a learning task that the child will do while the teacher assesses his/her performance.

Self-assessment:  This is having students be able to identify their own strengths and weaknesses.

The web site by the Connecticut State Department of Education shows assessing student learning as the key to understanding student progress and how assessment drives instruction.

The site gives a purpose for assessment, which is to monitor student progress, assess student strengths and weaknesses, determine a teacher’s instructional effectiveness and especially to drive instruction. The article gives an expanded repertoire for student assessment. 



The subject of assessment is not as simple as one may think. Some assessment types are more preferable for measuring different kinds of skills and abilities than others. Teachers must also take into consideration that abilities such as problem solving and creativity are neither well-defined or consistently defined. Teaching bias can be a problem.  Also, there is the question of whether your assessment is testing the skills that he intends to test.

 

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