Strengths And Weaknesses Of Curriculum Based Assessment

How are curriculum-based measurement, performance assessment, and portfolio assessments similar? How are they different? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How might you adapt each of them for students with special needs? Curriculum-based measurement, performance assessment, and portfolio assessments all have similarities and differences as well as strengths and weaknesses. First, curriculum-based measurement is developed to measure or monitor student learning progress. They “could include timed tests of performance on reading, math, and writing skills.” On the other hand, performance assessment are curriculum based, which require students to “engage in a process or construct some product, often real-world tasks.” Lastly, portfolio assessments …show more content…
First, curriculum-based measurement allows teachers to choose teaching methods that work well with her class and get rid of those that aren’t working. It shows an academic performance goal on the chart, which can help both the teacher and parents know if the student is making progress to meet the intended goal. They are also easy to understand and may help the teacher know what students are understanding the material and focus more on helping those that are struggling. However, curriculum-based measurement can make students feel unmotivated if no progress is shown on the graphs. Performance assessment allows students to show what skills they’ve learned, integrated learning is represented, and “learning occurs during the process until completion of the task.” The disadvantages with performance assessments are that it’s not easily calculated, it’s hard to judge student learning, and it’s time consuming. Like curriculum-based measurement and performance assessment, portfolio assessments also have advantages. The advantages of portfolio assessments are that they include the student’s progress and accomplishments, allows the students to reflect on their own work, it allows them to monitor their own progress, they“measure the student’s ability overtime,” and promotes ownership. The disadvantages of this type of assessment would be that it requires more time due to the planning, it “may be seen as less …show more content…
Curriculum based-measurement allows the teacher to change the way she delivers instruction, if she sees that a student with special needs is not showing progress, she could change up the way she teaches. To adapt curriculum based-measurement for students with special needs include adjustments in the testing procedure, adjusting the test format, and adjusting scoring procedures. For a performance-based assessment, a practice test may be helpful, but determine what students should be able to do. Two adaptations for students with special needs may be to give them more time and reading items on the test to students may be beneficial. Portfolio assessments could be “linked with individual student IEPs by including work products that show growth on IEP objectives and by periodically completing summary sheets that link IEP objectives to documentation in the portfolio.” They could include videos of how the student works in academic settings. Additionally, teachers could teach students with disabilities test-taking skills that will help improve their test