Assessment Checklist
Assessing student knowledge is one of a teacher’s most important jobs and yet, many teachers have trouble creating useful assessments. As a GK-12 fellow, it may seem like assessments are not a necessary part of your job. However, assessments may be valuable as a quantitative measure of the progress of your students, especially if you plan to write a paper or article on your work and for end of the year evaluations. The criteria below will help you increase the efficacy of your assessments.
Mirror good instruction
This means that students must be assessed in the same manner in which they are taught. The hope is that teaching methods will follow the principles of learning and understanding and assessments will mirror this. The most important thing to remember is to assess the same way you teach, no matter what method is used. More information on learning and understanding can be found on the Vocabulary page, the Learning and Memory Strategies page and the Teaching for Understanding page.
Stress understanding rather than memorization of information
While this point is contingent upon the one above, if teaching practices are in line with the principles of learning and understanding it should not be an issue. Memorization has been found to be ineffective as a learning method for most concepts, and most lessons are instead taught for understanding. Therefore, assessments should match these lessons and test for understanding. For a more in depth look at the reasons for teaching for understanding, consult the Lesson Plan Checklist and the Teaching for Understanding page.
Provide continuously, but not intrusively, as a part of instruction
Assessments must happen continuously because end of term assessments are not sufficient. As is detailed on the Vocabulary page, there are two types of assessment, formative and summative. Formative assessments take place throughout the course of learning, and their purpose is mostly to provide feedback for improvement, both for the teacher and the student. Summative assessments take place at the end of a unit of learning. Both are necessary to develop a good understanding of a student’s grasp of the material. For more thorough definitions of formative and summative assessments, consult the Vocabulary page.
Provide information (to teachers, students, and parents) about the levels of understanding that students are reaching
Assessments do not function only to provide a grade for students. For an assessment to be worthwhile, it must supply a reliable measure of student understanding. Then, teachers can form a plan of what next steps need to be taken to increase understanding, students have a starting place on which to base new knowledge, and parents have concrete proof of their child’s progress.