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Philosophy of Assessment
Walaa Sarsour
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
❏ 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
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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meeting. I would love to hear from you any day you’re available from 6pm-9pm.
Conclusion
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
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
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,
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
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CwUKpWvuVST_qPTCOTmu_KD7qvxdQ2DHsI
oTyrQsD-I/edit
Wormeli, R. (2006). Fair isnt always equal: Assessing & grading in the differentiated
classroom.