A Reflection on Assessment Strategies

Every educator’s responsibility is to assess the efficacy of his or her instruction from every student to measure growth, therefore a balanced assessment system remains requisite. A balanced assessment system is a multi-faceted process that involves proper planning, responsible and unbiased execution as well as careful analysis of data these assessments provide. This requires that the educator have solid assessment literacy in all subject areas that he or she teaches.

A Reflection on the Analysis

This course has taught me that assessment literacy matters to ensure growth for all students. That said, assessments need to both reliable and valid (Stiggins, 2008). Without assessment literacy, the growth of the student has no meaning or relevance and therefore cannot be used as acceptable data to inform further instruction. For educators as leaders in the classroom, it is our job to ensure this reliability and validity through assessment literacy to ensure the cycle of growth not only starts, but continues.

A Reflection on the Application

The most eye-opening idea that I am taking away from this course is the complexity of assessment design and keeping all of the steps in order. To my understanding, determining a learning objective comes first, then backward design dictates the next steps which is unpacking the relevant standard associated with the chosen learning objective. A curriculum map will help pace the relevant instruction and activities which will inform the assessment design. Before actually designing the assessment, the teacher should develop a table of test specifications. The design of the assessment will determine whether an analytic or holistic rubric is required, which contributes to both the validity and reliability of the assessment. The challenge for me in developing these is the time involved can be extensive and sometimes daunting. Yet I realize that this remains my responsibility of the educator as well as all of the previously mentioned steps, if I am going to strengthen my use of assessment for learning and assessment as learning.

Assessment Summary

My strengths with respect to assessment are rendering accommodation for my students with Individual Education Plans (IEP) and offering alternative assessments that reflect the work they have done toward the goals within the IEP. I realize now that I have several needs when it comes to assessing students. Those include partnering with the students in designing the assessments and encouraging more reflection in self-assessment. Additionally, I pledge to improve my assessment literacy by using the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) method of analysis to improve application of assessments and interpreting the data afterward.

In conclusion, attaining solid assessment literacy will prove to have a positive impact on the growth of my students. Asking essential questions as they related to instruction should gear toward the enduring understanding that I want my students to ultimately attain and keep forever as we all work toward making them self-regulated learners. Understanding the student is the ultimate users of assessment data (Black & Wiliam, 1998) should always drive everything that I do with instruction and assessment. With this in mind, I hope to serve my current and future students well with my new and improved teaching and assessment practices.

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappa, 1-13.

Stiggins, R. (2008). Assessment manifesto: A call for the development of balanced assessment systems. Portland: ETS Assessment Training Institute.