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Philosophy of Assessment

Walaa Sarsour

North Carolina State University

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As a Junior studying Middle Grade Math Education, I spent a semester observing in a 7th

grade classroom and engaging in my ED 311 and 312 classes where I learned about assessment

principles and practices. My experiences in my field placement and classes have caused my

philosophy on assessment to evolve greatly. My philosophy of assessment centers around the

belief that assessment is not the end of the teaching and learning process, but the starting point.

It’s the means to successful teaching, leading the way and driving instruction itself. As I have

learned in my experience creating the backwards design unit plan in ED 311, informal, formal,

formative, and summative assessments are all part of the unit planning process. My assessment

practices revolve around proper feedback to effectively increase learning and improve

performance of students. In my field placement experience, the students received minimal

informal/formative assessments and tended to score very poorly on formal assessments due to a

lack of assessment and feedback throughout the unit. Finally, a key policy of my assessment

refers to my experience learning about differentiation in ED 312 and how it is essential to a good

quality assessment that the abilities and needs of all students are considered and met.

I believe that assessment is an iterative process that allows teachers to learn about what

and how well students are learning. During journal 1 on assessment during instruction, I was

hoping that the teacher would stop at one point to offer an informal or formative assessment in

order to understand how lost and disengaged the students were during instruction. The class

score ranges on the test a few weeks later showed large gaps of knowledge for students. This

demonstrated that there were insufficient formative assessments in the unit despite that a variety

of these assessments is “the best means to obtain evidence about school quality and student

learning” (Neill, 2012, p.25). In the classroom, this means that formative/informal assessments
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occur on a daily basis to prepare students for formal/summative assessments. This is how

assessments may exist to guide and support students as they progress through the unit and learn.

I believe that assessment is not an isolated step in instruction. Rather, it exists in a cycle

as a critical entity in the teaching and learning process. This assessment cycle includes the

teacher collecting data from assessments, analyzing the data to best understand students and

tailor to their needs, evaluating each student’s progress based on objectives, and finally,

communicating this to students in ways they can use to enhance their learning. Teachers must

“provide students descriptive, useful feedback during the learning process, not just at the end of a

unit in the form of a grade on a test” (Chappius, Commodore, & Stiggins, 2016, p.1). Assessment

must exist for, as, and of learning as true learning occurs in the process, not the end result.

I believe that assessment planning, design, and grading should tailor to individual

students’ needs and achievement levels to ensure an appropriate and unbiased assessment which

adheres to diverse learners. As we learned in ED 312, assessments must be differentiated and

tailored to different students’ needs and IEPs through the implementation of appropriate

modifications and accommodations to assessments and procedures. Students may also have a

choice in the way they are assessed whenever possible to allow them to demonstrate their skills

in the best way they know (e.g. choice of a paper, poster, or presentation for the performance-

based assessment). This is essential as getting the most out of assessments requires choosing “the

right one for each situation” (ETS, 2003, p.2) to make the assessment as effective as possible and

to ensure valid and useful data.

I believe that assessment should be aligned with the intended learning outcomes. This is

because when creating assessments, “linking assessment and instruction is critical to effective

learning” (ETS, 2003, p.1). In order to improve learning activities and teaching approaches,
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assessments must guide students through the learning process according to the objectives to

properly address challenges students may face in regards to the learning outcomes. In order to

achieve this, I would make questions authentic to instruction and make test questions “reliable

and valid indicators of what was experienced by the students” (Wormeli, 2006, p.137) using

backwards planning, designing assessments based on learning outcomes, and including

indicators and pedagogy from the objectives into the lessons and assessments.

I believe that it’s important to maintain a balance between traditional and authentic

assessments to test student knowledge. Traditional assessments should ideally be used to test

students’ knowledge of certain skills and concepts that were taught throughout the unit lessons.

On the other hand, authentic assessments must demonstrate to the teacher how students use what

they know. A balance between traditional and authentic assessments requires that students in the

classroom achieve in many different ways as they’re “expected to gain content knowledge, to be

able to reason and figure things out, to master performance skills, to create products that meet

certain standards of quality, and develop important attitudes, beliefs, and values” (Stiggins,

2017, p.13). To implement this in the classroom, teachers must explicitly state the learning

targets, clarify the assessment purpose, and develop high-quality assessment exercises and

scoring schemes. This allows students to acknowledge the applications of the concepts in their

everyday lives and engage in higher-order thinking.

7th Grade Mathematics Syllabus

Ms. Walaa Sarsour

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Course Outline:

● Mathematical Investigations
● Ratio and Proportional Relationships
● The Number System
● Complex problem solving
● Expressions
● Equations
● Geometric Figures
● Geometric Measurement
● Statistics
Grading Policy:

➢ Graded Assignments
○ Homework 15%
○ Quizzes 25%
○ Tests 40%
○ Classwork/Participation 20%

❏ Homework:

Homework will be assigned everyday and will be listed on the class website. Each

homework is worth 3 points, with 1 point for completion and two points for correctness. For

absent/incomplete homework, the student will be able to turn it in within two days for a chance

to receive 75% of the total homework grade for that assignment.

❏ Quizzes:

Quizzes will be administered every two weeks and will usually cover the sections taught

during those two weeks with some review of older concepts as well. In case of absence, students

will be given a maximum of three days to complete the quiz upon return to school for full credit.

❏ Tests:
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Tests will be administered at the end of each unit. Students will have a review day a week

before the test and will receive a study guide to help them review. Students who score below an

A are encouraged to remediate (retake a test) based on the learning targets they have yet to

master. Remediating students may receive 75% of their missed points back. If a student misses a

test due to an absence, they’ll have one week to take the test upon returning to school.

❏ Classwork:

Classwork and participation include activities, group work, and worksheets. If students

are absent and would like to make up for missed classwork, they may receive make-up work for

the missed classwork grade if it’s completed within two days of returning to school.

❏ Grading Scale:

A 90-100

B 80-89

C 70-79

D 60-69

F 0-59

(Source: Dillard Drive Middle School)

❏ What Grades Mean:

Grades will be a measure of what students have mastered and what they need to continue

to work on. Students will always have the chance to improve their grades and receive points back

by re-doing work to help them succeed and stay motivated to put in their best effort and master

their learning.

I look forward to a productive year working with students and parents to achieve the best

learning experience possible. If anything from the above is unclear or if you ever have any
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questions/concerns, please feel free to contact me by calling, texting, emailing, or scheduling a

meeting. I would love to hear from you any day you’re available from 6pm-9pm.

Phone Number: 919-527-5606 Email: wsarsou@ncsu.edu

Conclusion

By articulating my assessment philosophy, I am combining my understanding from

academic knowledge, practice, field experience, scholarly sources, and experienced teachers to

create a philosophy which I will follow as a teacher. My assessment philosophy closely aligns

with the NCPTS Standards to create an informed and focused philosophy targeted at professional

growth and student success. My philosophy centers around the belief that assessment is the

means to successful teaching, it drives instruction and is an integral part of the whole unit. This

directly relates to Standard 4, Teachers Facilitate Learning for Their Students. This approach to

assessment facilitates student learning because the teacher is using different methods of

assessment throughout the unit to assess what students have learned, provide feedback, and allow

students to assess themselves, set learning goals, and improve their learning methods.

Another important aspect to my philosophy is that assessments exist for learning rather

than primarily of learning, and this is an ongoing practice which allows students to improve their

learning and enables teachers to better their teaching and instruction. This relates to Standard 5,

Teachers Reflect on Their Practice, because it involves analyzing student learning to figure out

why learning happens and what can be done to improve achievement. Finally, assessments must

exist in a diversity of forms, allowing all students to demonstrate their understanding in the way

that they know best. This is directly reflected in the NCPTS Standard 2 which states Teachers

Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students. This requires that
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teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of all students, regardless of their needs and ensure

inclusion by considering different needs and student criteria in their instruction and assessments.

References

A. (n.d.). A COURSE OUTLINE FOR GRADE 7. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from

http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/download/?Num=2907&filename=106-Gr7_Cou

rse_Outline2014.pdf

Au, W. (2012). Pencils down: Rethinking high-stakes testing and accountability in public

schools. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

Chappuis, S., Commodore, C., & Stiggins, R. J. (2017). Balanced assessment systems:
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Leadership, quality, and the role of classroom assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin,

a SAGE Publishing Company.

E. (2003). Linking Classroom Assessment with Student Learning. Retrieved November 4, 2018,

from

https://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEFL_Institutional_Testing_Program/ELLM2002.pdf

North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2018, from

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-

standards.pdf

Parent MPMS Grading Policy 2018-2019. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CwUKpWvuVST_qPTCOTmu_KD7qvxdQ2DHsI

oTyrQsD-I/edit

STIGGINS, R. J. (2017). REVOLUTIONIZE ASSESSMENT: Empower students, inspire

learning. LOS ANGELES: SAGE PUBLICATIONS.

Wormeli, R. (2006). Fair isnt always equal: Assessing & grading in the differentiated

classroom.

Portland, Me.: Stenhouse.

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