¶ … Student Assessment
What is the most appropriate way to assess student achievement? The commission of the National Middle School Assessment of student achievement suggests "authentic assessment refers to evaluation that makes use of real life tasks instead of contrived test items." (NMSA, 2000) In other words, rather than focus on testing students more, a greater interest and study of effective teaching practices are better employed in further research regarding education. The National Middle School Assessment Authentic assessment also suggests that while standardized testing may occasionally function as a rough means of evaluating all children, such as identifying children with possible special needs, assessment in a truly learner-centered classroom will vary. "Examples of types of assessment are performance tasks, portfolios, student self-assessment surveys and probes, peer assessments, journals, logs, products, and projects. Successful assessment improves learning, instruction and program effectiveness." (NMS 2000, citing Donald, 1997) In my own school district, located in a parochial school in the inner-city of Chicago, standardized testing is deployed, however, I attempt to counter the possible negative impulse to 'teach the test' by using exactly the type of assessments suggested by the NMSA, which takes into consideration individual learning differences.
However, the 'No Child Left Behind Act' of 2001 made one of its philosophical pillars the ideal of "accountability." The effect of this has been to make school districts accountable by raising state standards in reading and mathematics and assessing these standards through "annual testing for all students in grades 3-8, and annual statewide progress objectives ensuring that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years." It has made standardized more and more of necessity of proof of achievement in school districts today, both public and parochial, if parochial schools wish to have access to funds available for the community through the act's other philosophical pillars of choice and flexibility.
In contrast to the Wilmette Public schools of Illinois, which use the Illinois...
There are, for example, many ways for a student to present an understanding of the causes of the U.S. Civil War" (1999, p. 35). Conclusion The research showed high stakes standardized testing approaches are becoming increasingly commonplace in the nation's schools, and the outcome of these testing regimens has enormous implications for the students involved, as well as for their teachers and schools. The research also showed that by formulating standards
Here, it would be possible to establish a range of categories and subcategories relating to student socialization, academic performance, emotional development, improvement and a host of other crucial learning and developmental areas. The great value in the observational checklist is that it essentially creates a context in which all students are assessed according to the same standards of consideration. This improves the objective veracity of the yielded findings. Finally, portfolio
A change in any one of the factors has to be 'compensated' by changes in the other two" (p. 27). Consequently, the type of instructional practices that may be best suited for one learning venue will likely be unsuitable and therefore ineffective in another setting. The goal, then, is to identify the optimal mix of the three elements to produce instructional practices for each setting (Koehler et al., 2004),
Students and Learning The learner-based outcome that I've chosen for this paper involves all students being able to successfully complete a physical education curriculum designed to enhance overall physical strength, improve dexterity and increase stamina. For this learner-based outcome, it is important to create a rubric so that students understand the criteria involved for measuring success. Toward this endeavor, it is important to include concrete, attainable and measurable goals for all
The shift toward standardized testing has failed to result in a meaningful reduction of high school dropout rates, and students with disabilities continue to be marginalized by the culture of testing in public education (Dynarski et al., 2008). With that said, the needs of students with specific educational challenges are diverse and complex, and the solutions to their needs are not revealed in the results of standardized testing (Crawford &
Com). A devoted practitioner of Peer Review myself, I have found that students grow into the process. The more intelligent appear to latch onto it almost immediately, provided they are matched with students of similar intellectual prowess. As Robert Bly predicted in his book of the same name, we do live in a Sibling Society (p. ix). "Holistic Grading" involves looking at the paper as an entire document instead of distinguishing content
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