Assessment Matters

Analyze the Roles of Assessments and Evaluations

in Schools
Assessment in schools is progressively judged on the premise of powerful learning
results. Information is basic to knowing whether the educational system is conveying great
execution and to giving input to change in students results. Assessment policy and practices are
critical to any successful educational improvement strategy; assessment data are essential to
teaching and learning and are needed to monitor, evaluate, and improve the education system
(Braun, Kanjee, Bettinger, & Kremer, 2006). By dissecting information on students
performance, administers recognize gatherings of the populace that oblige extra backing and
assets. Assessment gives significant data that can contribute altogether to enhancing the nature of
training. Be that as it may, there are expanding endeavors to advance the utilization of appraisal
and assessment for negative and correctional purposes. Some assessments serve for learners,
teachers, parents, and policymakers by providing them with useful information, others focus
educational efforts by virtue of the consequences that are attached to learner performance
(Braun, Kanjee, Bettinger, & Kremer, 2006).

Examine and Explain My Perspective on Roles and

Trends of Assessment in Education
To focus on a more reliable education system, we should focus on what makes the school
thrive through the students. Students should be applying what they know and building on each
subject including mathematics, reading, social studies, history, technology and learning about
foreign countries. We spend more time reflecting on the children though standardized testing that
we do not target these needs. Schools are closing because they cannot meet the goals of
standardized testing and evaluations not because of thrive that educators have for their childrens

learning. By their very nature, secondary schools face greater challenges than primary schools,
given the need for learners at the secondary level to move beyond standard academic content to
the acquisition of relevant competencies and skills that would better prepare them to function in
society. The real challenge is to incorporate relevant knowledge, skills, and experience into the
learning and teaching process in a manner that will address the countrys specific growth and
development needs (Braun, Kanjee, Bettinger, & Kremer, 2006).
Under the right circumstances and properly employed, assessment can be a powerful
tool for improving access, quality, and efficiency towards developing a more equitable system
(Braun, Kanjee, Bettinger, & Kremer, 2006). Moreover, while there is much controversy on the
assessments in schools, there should be assessments should be more directed to the learning of
children over time by embedding information that they can learn, process, and carry on.
Educators should be held responsibility of these things and should be evaluated on their
performance as they are before stepping into such role. If the past is any guide to the future,
well-designed and applied assessments can change the course of education reform and the menu
inputs used to promote it (Braun, Kanjee, Bettinger, & Kremer, 2006).

Evaluate the Value of Both Assessments: Role of

Assessment in My Classroom
Assessments are monumental to develop and target the specific needs of students. I agree
with Rick Wormeli that teachers spend way too much time on the evaluation of students than that
of student achievement and teacher feedback. Assessments should be based on information and
activities built overtime to target the needs of students. At my daycare we use two approaches to
assessment and evaluation with different levels and forms. We use The World at Our
Fingertips an observational assessment where we record a specific task the students or student
is participating in. We explore different levels in the observation as to how well the children are

socializing with one another, language, emotional cues, and what they are learning and how. We
then take that observation and put it in their file. This is monumental to us as educators because
we can revisit those files to see where the student has progress or if there are any additional
weaknesses. The second resource we use is Teaching Strategies Gold, an online website used for
educators to document child development, target strengths and weaknesses through lesson
planning and observations. Teaching Strategies Gold provides different approaches to assess and
evaluate students. The resource also has ways to involve parents and provides educators with the
tools needed to meet the students needs. I believe as a teacher the needs of a student is very
important we spend more time to feed children content and context of learning instead of
teaching them the things valuable to learning. As Dr. Brian Stecher stated, the teaching of our
students should be measured and we should be taking more accountability through teacher
records and observation instead.

Formative/ Summative Assessment

Formative learning is used to inform future practice. Its goal is to improve teaching and
learning. An assessment is considered formative when its information is fed back into the system
and improves performance in some way (Newman, 2014). Formative assessment is the most
important aspect of teaching and learning. It provides the opportunity to record student
achievement and teacher feedback. Formative assessment is an ongoing assessment that provides
checkpoints along the way. It allows teachers to discover or set goals for their children to
determine what the objective is that they are learning, where the relationship is within their
learning, and what the teacher is doing to close the gap. It provides descriptive feedback and
informs the lessons being taught. There are three areas to keep in mind when considering what

makes an assessment formative: feedback, student involvement, and future learning (Newman,
2014).
The purpose of summative assessment is to determine a students overall achievement
level in a specific are of learning at a particular time. Summative assessments provide a summary
of information that students know, understand, or can do (Newman, 2014). Summative
assessment is after learning is done with no room for revision. Summative assessments are made
of exams, standardized test, district assessments, or licensing. It is put in place to provide the
standing of not only the student but the overall school. Students are placed on a specific scale of
expectations and guidelines that they have to meet as a whole in reference to how their school
and teachings are functioning together. Summative assessment is, however, about judging the
final product that a students complete or the sum of what a student has learned up to a point in
time (Newman, 2014).

Assessment Supports Learning: Using Data From

Assessment: Common Core State Standards
Each form of assessment supports learning because they both target the needs of children
on a wide scale and an academic scale. According to Rick Wormeli, something that is intended
to be summative, child does poorly or whatever reason, youre allowed to make a formative
assessment. Something that was summative, now becomes formative. That allows a balance
between both summative and formative assessment.
In reference to the Core State Standards that I picked in my previous assignment, going
forward I will first allow my children to go through different forms of assignments that allow
them to interact and retrieve information from me. I will do a show and response assessment
by providing the children with work and activities on the whiteboard in my class. I start by
monitoring my children that have a weakness in counting from one to one-hundred. At this time,

I will record where their strengths are with this assignment or task and what their weaknesses. I
would next try pairing my each child together based upon their strengths and weaknesses to see
how much they learn from their peers. Once the proper steps are followed, I will present a quiz to
see where they are with the assignment or task. At this time, I will determine whether the subject
is needs to be retaught or if we can move along to the next subject.
In conclusion, assessments are beneficial to the school systems if they are utilized
properly. The needs of the children should be determined as to whether a school stays open, a
teacher keeps their job, or academic levels are met not that of assessments. I believe both
summative and formative assessments that work hand-in-hand that requires growth to build on a
childs academia.