Summary Blog on Assessments

Chapter 15 on assessments and evaluations served as an educator’s guide to starting discourse around aspects of the “teacher” position that can be overwhelming, frustrating, challenging, yet rewarding. The bloggers of this group, Shane, Daniel, and Nadine all wrote of real life experiences positive and negative regarding assessments, evaluations, and standards.” All agreed that assessments have been more of a “one size fits all” approach that has been hindering teacher and student learning and performance because it is something that is “simply used”.

In addition, this chapter helped the group members better understand why conversations about assessments, evaluations, and standards are currently not something to have a conversation about. The group members felt confident about taking information from this chapter to make changes to the way they approach assessments, evaluations, and standards in the fall. They have decided to take something that has a negative connotation and turn into something positive by using assessments, evaluations, and standards to promote teacher and student learning and to begin to support conversations and other discourse about these topics.

Quotes from the Group:

Nadine writes, I asked myself, “How can I be a catalyst for change in my school, district, and the state?” Ultimately, I know this journey is going to be a difficult one, but I am confident that change can begin in my classroom…. I have learned that in order to change any issue in our society, we must first be willing to have a conversation about such issues. ”

Daniel writes, “Ok, enough of the school bashing, let’s focus more on what can be done. While standardized testing is part of school, I think there are many forms of assessment that can be used to drive instruction……Assessment is used to drive instruction. That is the main reason why it is done. We need to remember this so that it doesn’t get lost when times get tough.”

Shane writes, “Assessment is an ongoing process that will always be correlated with teaching as long as there are students. As teachers we implement assessment in a variety of ways. We may use portfolios, observations, or even tests but the reason should be the same. Assessment is a gauging tool to allow us to know how well we are doing as teachers. If the entire class did poorly on an assignment, it most likely means the teacher failed in the execution of the lesson. No one should be penalized, just evaluate the situation and move on. …. Allow assessment to promote growth not stagnation.”