Running head: ROLE OF ASSESSMENT

Role of Assessment and Evaluation to Improve Schools and Educational Quality

Brenda Linville
EDU 650 Teaching Learning and Leading in the 2st Century Prof. Joyce Frazier December 3, 2013

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Role of Assessment and Evaluation to Improve Schools and Educational Quality In today's society, educational professionals as well as policy makers have changed the traditional role of assessments in today's schools. NCLB has also brought in a new set of standards for school districts and teachers. Students are required to have a much broader expanse of learning experiences that go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic of yesterday's schools. Assessments have also changed due to the demand for more skills in new technology and Twenty-First Century skills for the global marketplace. The day of traditional assessments where the purpose in the classroom was to "measure a student's performance at a specific moment in time'" is a thing of the past. Today's assessments look very different. According to Newman (2013) assessments today offer a look into "future decisions about instructional strategies". (para.1) Today, assessments must play a central role in shaping teaching and learning and actively engaging students in his or her learning process. In the classroom, assessment is no longer something that the teacher alone should control. Teachers, students, and parents now work closely together to create assessments that best fit the needs of the students. Today's students play a more centralized role in the way teachers assess their knowledge. Simply put, in today's information age, assessments provide more than just data for a point in time, but serve as actionable information for individualsfrom students to teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders. (Newman, 2013) Another factor in the role of assessments comes from the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The NCLB act is focused on four major issues: increased accountability; more choices for parents and students; greater flexibility for states, school districts, and schools; and

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putting reading first. While the intentions of the NCLB Act were honorable, it did not achieve its goal to improve the frame work of improving American schools. NCLB has had its share of controversy. The role of assessments, or high stakes testing, has received its share of strong negative reactions from teachers as well as students and parents. Many believe that high stakes testing has forced teachers to teach to the test instead of teaching for understanding. Schools may also reallocate instructional effort away from academic subjects that are not tested, or even attempt to shape the test-taking population in advantageous ways. (Dee & Jacob, Fall 2010.p. 151). Unfortunately, instead of NCLB increasing educational standards, "one unintended result of these systems has been for states to lower their academic standards to ensure an increased passing rate on these standardized tests and avoid possible consequences of not meeting the requirements." (Newman, 2013) When teachers assess a student's understanding of content, they are now more aware of the broad spectrum of learning abilities. Teachers today are using Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences to help provide a better learning experience for their students. Gardner formulated a list of seven distinct intelligences (1983, 1999), which included linguistic intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, musical rhythmic intelligence, bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence. (Newman, 2013) By using this theory to create differentiated instruction, teachers are more able to assess that the students understand better because they know how to gauge how the student learns. When incorporating this into the area of assessments, teachers can provide a variety of learning tasks to measure a student's strengths and needs. As we move into the technology age, students need to learn a new set of skills to help them be successful in the global job market. The values of assessments are a vital part of today's

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society. It is the foundation of every school, district, and state. It provides data to show student progress, instructional strategies, and a picture of a student academic career. An effective assessment measures Twenty-First Century skills that "include critical thinking and problem solving; creativity and innovation; social responsibility and cultural, global, and environmental awareness; communication; digital literacy; lifelong learning, self-direction, and personal management; and collaboration and leadership." (Newman, 2013) A Personal Perspective on Roles and Trends related to Assessments Assessments are not always easy. Today's teachers must take into account many more factors that influence students today. The younger generations of students are growing up with technology all around them. It is common place to most students in America to have access to computers, smart phones, and tablets. As teachers, we must also become more aware of technology to help build our future generation of learners. It is our responsibility to promote digital citizenship and responsibility and to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. (Education, 2008) We need to create lessons that cultivate student creativity, along with summative and formative assessments that align with the Common Core State Standards. Teachers must also be aware of each student's learning needs, benchmarks needed to meet district standards, and be able to provide an engaging classroom that fosters many different learning styles, all the while understanding the sanctions that come with not meeting such standards. "NCLB also requires that states introduce sanctions and rewards relevant to each school based on their AYP status. It mandates explicit and increasingly severe sanctions (from implementing public-school choice to staff replacement to school restructuring) for persistently

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low-performing schools that receive Title I aid." (Dee & Jacob, Fall 2010, p.154) According to Dr. Brian Strecher, three things drive decisions about sanctioning schools: reading scores, mathematic scores, and graduation numbers. He suggests that we need to put into place a different kind of measuring tool, such as informal observation and surveys. He also recommends that schools need to produce students with more than academic skills. Dr. Strecher suggests schools should produce students who: 1) know things 2) do things 3) are healthy individuals 4) have good social skills 5) are resilient psychologically 6) are a good citizen and can contribute to society. (Strecher, 2011) I agree with Dr Strecher that schools need to be betterrounded in what they teach to produce future generations of students. Value of Assessments Assessments are a very important part of the learning process. Teachers assess students for many different reasons. First, we assess for their benefit to improve their quality of education. Second, we assess students to provide better communication between teachers and the students parents. Lastly, we assess students to provide information needed to meet mandates for the NCLB Act. Assessments can be used to shape many aspects of the teaching environment. It is important to know what a student understands, how the student learns best, and to identify if the student needs special attention. To do this effectively, assessments must be valid and reliable. To insure validity, teachers must determine if the assessment is designed for what it was designed to measure. Reliability of an assessment is measured by consistent results over a period of time. By sharing learning outcomes with parents, they are better able to help their child prepare for what is expected and what is being assessed in the classroom. Although NCLB has

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come with much controversy, it does provide a way to measure student learning across the county and it provides schools with necessary federal funds to help ensure all students are receiving quality education. (Newman, 2013) Formative vs. Summative Assessments Understanding the role of formative and summative assessments is an essential factor when measuring for understanding. Assessments are no longer used just to measure what a student has learned, but rather it is used to guide the teacher to help students with the learning process. In other words, assessments have evolved from "of learning" to "for learning". (Newman, 2013) Formative assessments are those assessments that a teachers uses to measure the learning process during class time, such as quizzes, homework, journals, and informal verbal or nonverbal communication. These types of assessments are helpful when planning lesson plans for future learning. The author of Fair Isn't Always Equal, Rick Wormeli, suggests that formative assessments are the most important part of teaching and learning, that the feedback the students receive is the most essential part of learning. It has the greatest impact on student achievement and on feedback to the teacher. (Wormeli, 2013) Summative assessments are those assessments given at the end of a unit to measure what students have learned, although summative assessments may turn into formative assessments if the feedback from the assessment deems it necessary to go back and reteach part of the unit. Summative assessments are given to measure overall understanding of what students know. State assessments and district benchmarks are examples of summative assessments. Summative assessments are those scores that are given to students that cannot be changed and are used to

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make key decisions in the school district. The most important part of formative and summative assessments is to find out the purpose of the assessment and what it will be used for; is the assessment "of learning" or "for learning".(Newman, 2013) Creating Assessments To ensure that the standards and benchmarks are met with CCSS along with Iowa State Standards I begin with the end in mind. I want students to be able to describe characters in a story with regards to the events that happened during the story. What are my learning objectives, how will I get the students there, and how will I know. Planning both formative and summative assessments first will help to guide me in the students learning process. I can also add to formative assessments to ensure that the students understand and can reach the learning objectives.
Learning Objective CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.3.3 STANDARD Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. Iowa Core: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. (RL.3.3) (DOK 1,2,3) Activity Activity 1: Read Bull Run by Paul Fleischman Formative Assessments Informal: reactions and attitudes of the students. Depending on reactions, I can re-read the story Discussion question and answer session. This activity will allow students to discuss each persona and how they came to his or her conclusions. Summative Assessments

Activity 2: Explain how Paul Fleischman explains the Civil War from 16 different personas

Activity 3: Group students to detect all 16 personas and have the students compare the findings of each group

Have the groups write the 16 personas they found with descriptions of each. Have the groups compare and contrast each of the personas.

Activity 4: Have each student choose one persona to analyze and describe.

Students will be given a picture of three people. They will choose a character to pretend to be and will describe that character and analyze who the person is according to the situation and events taking place according to the picture.

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References
Common Core State Standards Initiative (http://www.corestandards.org/) Dee, T. S., & Jacob, B. A. (Fall 2010). The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, pp. 149-94. Education, I. S. (2008). National Education Teachers Standards. Retrieved November 2, 2013, from ISTE: http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2 Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century: Connecting the Dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc., This text is a Constellation course digital materials (CDM) title. Strecher, D. B. (2011, August 14). TEDxTalks. TEDxSoCal Dr. Brian Stecher Cultivating thriving schools. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmYdW871pL4. Wormeli, R. (2013, Novemeber 30). Formative and Summative Assessment. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxFXjfB_B4. stenhousepublishers.