Philosophy

of Assessment Statement
Created by: Greg Thomas

I believe the purpose of assessment is to engage students in clear,
meaningful, and achievable tasks which will foster an atmosphere where students
are self-directed and intrinsically motivated.
As a teacher I will create clear, meaningful and authentic assessments which
the students will be able to successfully accomplish.
According to McMillan and Workman, as students actively process
assessment events they develop cognitions concerning task importance or value,
difficulty, and the likelihood of success. These beliefs, in turn, influence expectations,
effort, and motivation If students believe it is important for accomplishing future
goals or because it has intrinsic interest, they will be more engaged (McMillan).

I believe the purpose of assessments is to allow the teacher to collect
information for accountability and grading, but more importantly to determine
whether the learning goals and objectives are being met and make important
instructional decisions.
As a teacher I will keep students informed on the learning goals and
objectives which they are expected to meet. Students will understand how they are
being evaluated and know what knowledge or skill they must display to be
successful. This will allow me to determine whether or not the goals and objectives
are being met and determine whether further instruction or a change in
instructional methods is needed.
This paragraph, by Cecil Fore III, et al., refers to an educational philosophy
called Curriculum Based Measurement and is based on teaching mathematics;
however the theory behind it is the same as what I would practice in my classroom:
Unlike a summative evaluation approach, using CBM the teacher
can make instructional decisions throughout the year that will
help the student to meet his or her particular goals in the
Curriculum. CBM offers a simple and easy to use way of
monitoring student progress and identifying the students who
are not making academic progress before they fail Steps in
administering the standardized procedures include (a) sampling
assessment items from classroom curricula, (b) administering

the assessment to one or more students under the same or

similar conditions, (c) summarizing the assessment information
graphically, and (d) then using the assessment information in
instructional decision-making for students and parents (Fore
2007).

I believe the purpose of assessment is to provide a point of reflection and
self-assessment in regards to the students performance, knowledge, and
confidence, and the performance of the assessment and its usefulness as a learning
tool.
As a teacher, after each assessment I will create an open dialogue among the
class and feedback from the students pertaining to the assessment. I would begin
this dialogue by guiding the class discussions with questions like these: Do they feel
they successfully reached the learning goal set for them? Why or why not? Did they
feel the assessment was meaningful? Why or why not? Was there anything that
could have been changed to make this assessment more successful?
Utschig and Apple agree that self-assessment is very important to self-assess
after each performance and to create an open dialogue within the classroom in this
reading from the International Journal of Process Education:
each person wants to improve and practices self-
assessment as a means of mentoring self-growth. This
basically requires support for stopping to take a few
minutes after each performance
to assess the performance to see how future
performance can be
improved Another critical step that is often skipped is
in the establishment of rules of engagement between
the assessor and [assesse]. This helps to create an
atmosphere of trust within the assessment process and
relationship. Creating simple guidelines for collecting
assessment data and delivering the feedback lead to
conditions where the feedback can be used effectively
to produce an enhanced future performance (Ustig
2009).

Works Cited
Fore III, Cecil, et al. "Using Curriculum-Based Measurement For Formative

Instructional Decision-Making In Basic Mathematics Skills." Education 128.2

(2007): 324-332. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
McMillan, James H., and Daryl J. Workman. Classroom Assessment and Grading

Practices: A Review of the Literature. ERIC. Metropolitan Educational

Research Consortium, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
Utschig, Tris, and Dan Apple. "Keys to Improving Academic Assessment."

International Journal of Process Education 1.1 (2009): 47. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.