Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Assessment

As educators we are often at fault for attempting to solely test our students instead of assessing them, in order to certify our own teaching abilities. Testing focuses on what we do to learners after learning has taking place, whereas assessment focuses on what we do with learners before, during and after learning (allthingslearning.com). According to researchers at Indiana University and Purdue University, “Assessment is a systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, and reviewing data to improve learning. It is important because it tells us what and how much students are learning and where they’re learning it, and it gives us insight into how we might refine our programs to help them learn more” (ipfw.edu). In order to fully value the importance …show more content…
The writer read and analyzed two articles pertaining to assessment, they were; Developing a Progress Monitoring Portfolio for Children in Early Childhood Special Education Programs by Nancy Stockall, Linsday Dennis and Jessica Rueter, and Documenting Reading Achievement and Growth for Students Taking Alternate Assessments by Gerald Tindal, Joesph Nese, Dan Farley, Jessica Saven and Stephen Elliot. Both articles were extremely informative and gave the writer more insight into assessment especially with students with disabilities. Although the articles discussed different age groups and two different academic domains to be assessed, the articles had similar arguments in regards to the effectiveness of assessment. Both articles argued that in order to properly assess a student with disabilities the assessment given must coincide with their style of learning. Meaning how the student processes and provides information. For example, Tindal, Nese, Farley, Saven and Elliot explain “alternate assessments must take into consideration the supports needed for students essentially taking a modified test…typically the changes involve the levels of supports needed and the complexity of the standards being assessed” (2016, p.332). Both articles provide brief information on various assessments, but