A Philosophy of Assessment
We give students standardized tests but teachers are being asked to differentiate instruction. There seems to be a big disconnect between ideas in education about assessment and ideas about instruction. This has been an issue for a while, I recently read a paper by Lorrie Shepard, where she highlights this phenomenon. The below figure illustrates the concept. What blows me away is this paper was written back in 2000 and yet this is still an issue I’m wrestling with in my classroom today.
Assessment doesn’t need to be incompatible with how we teach. I believe assessment should be part of the learning process.
There’s been a shift in technology from the 20th century being about broadcasting like the telegraph, TV and the radio to the 21st century being about individual interactive technology. (Selwyn, 2011) Our assessments should reflect this shift. Assessments should be interactive and individualized. We shouldn’t just mirror what technology is doing around us but also respond to it. In light of this, assessments should at times also be collaborative.
Feedback can and should come from the instructor, peers, and from the student themselves reflecting on their own work.
A common criteria to evaluate assessment is whether it is valid or reliable. I believe it is important we evaluate what we're using evaluate our learners and the below TED-Ed video summarizes these concepts well:
I do believe assessments should be valid and reliable.
Valid in that they measure accurately what we intend it to measure and that we interpret the results within that scope. Let the thermometer give us a read of temperature accurately and let’s not think that number also tells us humidity for example. Within this it is important that we’re not testing literacy or understanding of white American culture on top of what we intend an assessment to assess.
Reliable in that there is consistency in the results if we were to do an assessment again. It’s still a bit foggy to me how to guarantee this but I do value it and see the value in it.
To best serve students, we should assessments them loosely. I would caution against using the same assessment that’s been used for 20 years- at the very least not using it exclusively to evaluate a learner. We should be critical of them, question them and when they’re not measuring what we seek to measure or they are hurting the learning process we should be quick to innovate and pivot.
Assessment Thoughts Summarized:
Assessments should align with instruction
Assessments should be part of the learning process
Shifts in technology and society should be reflected in and responded to by our assessments
Assessments should be individualized, interactive, and at times collaborative
Feedback should come from instructors, peers, and from the student themselves through reflection
Assessments should be reliable and valid.
Assessments should be held loosely and we must be quick to innovate when they aren’t serving us or our students well.
Sources
Selwyn, N. (2011). Education and technology: Key issues and debates. Continuum International Publishing.
Shepard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.
TED-Ed. (2017). Should we get rid of standardized testing? - Arlo Kempf [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtE0OsRWeYI
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