Educational Assessment Essay Example
Competency ten deals with the importance of assessment. It asks the teacher to monitor's student performance and achievement; provide students with timely, high-quality feedback; and respond flexibly to promote learning for all students.
Assessments form an important part of instruction; they give a lesson a sense of purpose. Evaluations of students indicate the extent to which each student has actually mastered objectives by the end of the course. Assessment can be done formally or informally and helps the teacher know what parts of the lessons are being mastered and what parts of the lesson need to be worked on. However, assessments are not only used for measuring academic purposes, but may be used to measure behavior goals. Assessments need to have clear objectives that are specific enough to be meaningful. This can be done by using clear and concise language when writing objectives. When preparing objectives for assessments it is important for the teacher to be aware What students already know before the lesson is taught, it is also necessary to know what subskills students must be taught before they can learn to achieve the larger objective. The teacher will also need to plan how component skills will be assembled into the final skill. Assessments should be an essential part of planning lessons with long term goals and short terms goals a teacher makes sure the lessons are being executed in a manner that is comprehensible to students.
Assessment just as all other areas of education is a form of communication. By communicating goals or the achievements of assessments parents and other members of the education team, if the instruction is working. Schools sometimes need grades and tests to make student placements. States and school districts need tests to evaluate schools and, in some cases, teachers. Ultimately, colleges use grades and standardized test scores to decide whom to admit, and employers use grade-based evidence of attainment, such as diplomas and other credentials, in hiring decisions.
Not all assessments are built the same or serve the exact same purpose. For example, formative, or diagnostic, tests are given to discover strengths and weaknesses in learning and to make midcourse corrections in pace or content of instruction. This is very different from summative evaluation which is the testing of the students’ knowledge at the end of the instructional unit. It is important to match the students’ needs to the form of assessment that is appropriate to ensure a teacher will create a lifelong learner that will be able to prosper in the classroom and out of it as well.
