Katharine Beals: Assessing K-12 Assessments

Katharine Beals, PhD analyzes the problems with K-12 assessments Rosetta Stone Languages and recommends ways teachers and administrators can utilize assessments more effectively.Assessing K12 Assessmentsby Katharine BealsIntroductionAs the 2010-2011 school year enters its final marking period, as states wrap up their No Child Left Behind tests, and as colleges and selective high schools send out their admissions decisions, ‘tis the season of K12 assessments. They come in all shapes and sizes and measure all kinds of things, including the knowledge of numbers from 1 to 1000:For all the assessing that assessments do, how often are they themselves assessed? Where do we even begin? Let’s begin at the top. In assessment above, a student, prompted to write down a number that is 200 more than a given a number, has written down a number that instead is 400 more. What sort of mistake is this? What, specifically, does it indicate about the student’s ability to do the task that is apparently being assessed here: adding ones, tens and hundreds to a given three-digit number? What do the rest of the student’s answers indicate about his/her ability?With all this in mind, should this assessment be graded, and, if so, how? How many points should the student lose? What other consequences or follow-up measures should ensue as a result of the student’s mistake?The purposes of K12 assessments:One way to address these last questions is to step back and consider K12 assessments in general. Whether the assessment Rosetta Stone Cheap tool is a test, a homework assignment, or an in-class activity, what purposes does it serve? Most immediately, assessments provide feedback: feedback to the student and his or her parents about how he or she is doing, as well as feedback to the teacher. Ideally, the teacher gains insight not just into how the student is doing, but also into how effectively he or she is teaching this student in particular and the class as a whole. Ideally, assessment motivates self-reflection in student and teacher alike.Related to this, assessments offer incentives: Steelers Jerseys to the student to work hard and adjust his/her study habits as needed; to the teacher to adjust, as needed, his or her teaching strategies or to provide remediation to particular students.Beyond the classroom and the family, assessments (especially course grades, test scores, and teacher recommendations) help admissions committees decide whom to admit into gifted programs, selective high schools, or particular colleges. They help potential employers decide whom to hire. When assessments are standardized and administered across multiple classrooms and schools, as in No Child Left Behind tests, they also provide information to principals about how different classrooms are doing, and information to the school, the government, and the public about how this school compares with others.With this in mind, let’s assess the assessments. How well do different K12 assessments serve these Rosetta Stone Spain Spanish V3 purposes?