Of the many tasks that teachers perform, assessment is one of the most essential. There are numerous methods applied to assess students and not all of them are desirable.
Principals, as instructional leaders, need to know that teachers are offering valid tests and quizzes, as well as formative assessments. They must be able to offer teachers suggestions for improving assessments as needed.
Assessments Reveal much About Teaching Skills
Although many teacher ignore the concept of summative and formative assessments, the distinction is well-recognized by experienced, competent educators. Knowing the difference between the two is important enough to determine whether or not some students pass or fail.
The application of homework is a simple example. Homework is a formative assessment — appropriate for practice and diagnosis, not for grading. Still, many teachers grade homework, and when it is a significant part of a grade student marks may suffer unnecessarily.
Grade books can reveal whether or not teachers or collecting too many or too few grades. Formal assessment should be summative and derived on more or less on formal tests and quizzes which are based on standards. Too few grades or too many indicate a lack of knowledge of the assessment process.
Students should have the benefit of rubrics for helping prepare for major assessments like a test at the end of a quarter or semester. Rubrics are desirable for labs, essays, and other assessments that are divided into specific parts with varying weights.
The Disturbing Issue of High Failure Rates
Teachers who have high failure rates are a concern for many principals, and the reason for the high rates may not be clearly visible in conventional observations. Principals must have personal knowledge of how grades are derived by median, mean, or other methods. They must be able to evaluate the fairness and suitability of how teachers derive grades from assessments
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Armed with this knowledge principals should be able to ascertain whether or not the methods of determining grades are valid. Some grading systems may contain scores for items that should not belong in a grade book. For example:
- extra points for returning signed papers;
- deductions for misbehavior or violations of rules;
- questionable “extra credit” scores;
- low scores derived from missing homework or other formative grades;
- summative scores that are weighted too heavily.
Examine the Structure of Assessments
Competent teachers should be able to write their own tests. If they are relying heavily on published assessments the instruments used may not agree well with what was actually taught. The syntax of published tests may not align well with a teacher’s instructional grammar and vocabulary.
Teachers may be overly dependent on worksheets or other low quality tasks as a source of grades. Summative tests written by teachers should compare favorably with standardized tests. Multiple choice items should be reasonably challenging without “trick” questions. Graphics should be included in the form of charts, graphs, tables, pictures, etc.
Teaching includes the ability to competently assess. Principals must be aware of how teachers test students and derive grades. Doing so can be time-consuming, but the consequences of ignoring how teachers assess and grade can place students unnecessarily at-risk.
Sources:
“Assessing Student Learning,” serc.carleton.edu. (Accessed January 8, 2012)
“Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom,” amle.org. (Accessed January 9, 2012)
Harvey Craft - I am a retired educator with diverse experience. I read anything science, education, and history. I write to share what I learn.
