My recent readings, along with the recent administering of standardized state tests, have had me thinking a lot about assessments. As a pre-service teacher, I've learned that assessments are an integral part of education. In order to help students learn and grow, you first have to know their strengths and abilities. Unfortunately, the term "assessment" is often used in conjunction with standardized tests, but what is really meant is "evaluation," and the two have different meanings.
Teachers use assessments to determine students' understanding, what their strengths are and what they are ready to learn next. Also, assessments help teachers decide what direction to go in for future instruction; they happen regularly and allow teachers to keep a pulse on students' learning and abilities. Evaluations, on the other hand, are purely about results. How do the students compare to a set of standards or to other students? How do they rank? The results of evaluations are often coupled with some form of accountability, either for the student, the teacher, the school, or a combination there of. In a Voice of Literacy podcast, Dr. Betsy Baker and Dr. Caitlin Dooley note that in some instances students are being retained based on the results of a single test and, likewise, teachers are being hired and fired based on single test results.
Dr. Dooley states it perfectly, "One test doesn't tell the whole story." That is why the distinction between assessment and evaluation is so important. Essentially, assessment is like a movie of a child's performance filmed from multiple angles over an extended period of time, and evaluation is a single snap shop, taken from one angle (and often a critical one) at a single point in time. Which would you want to represent your child's abilities?
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