What is an assessment?

The original purpose of assessments was to establish a ranking order amongst students, not to bridge an achievement gap. In the 21st century, this approach to educational assessment is not practical.

The purpose of assessments is to process gathered evidence of student achievement to guide educational decisions (Stiggins, 2018)

Assessment is the process of gathering data to make educational decisions and guide student instruction (Jackson, Gotwals, Tarasawa, (2017).

Assessments at the classroom level are about improvement, and assessments provide feedback to teachers that can be given to students. It is not an evaluation of showing the shortfalls. ­Assessments at the classroom level typically have more details and information for students. Assessments in the classroom also guide day to day and month to month decisions about the next steps in instruction (Pellegrino, 2014).

The new vision of local excellence in the assessment will be based on Balanced assessment, quality assessments, and productive assessment dynamics.

A balanced assessment system meets the needs of all instruction decision-makers in the classroom, with interim benchmark assessments, and with annual testing.

How do you determine lesson objectives on which an assessment is based?

Bloom's Learning for Mastery model can be used as a starting point when designing a lesson plan. Pelkola, Rasila, and Sangwin (2018) reflected on Bloom's Learning for Mastery.

In LFM students are regularly tested by using formative tests. Students are required to demonstrate the correct answer to 90% of the test problems. The results of the assessment will provide guidance for the teacher to guide further instruction.

This same practice can also be noted in the backward design approach to designing the curriculum. According to Wiggins and McTighe (1998) the backward design calls for educators to operationalize their goals and standards in terms of assessment evidence.

The sequence of backward design has three stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, and then planning learning and instruction.

In the first stage, a teacher should ask themselves "what should students know and understand?", "what is worthy of understanding", and "what enduring understandings are desired?"

The standards would be the starting point for the design, and then the teacher would need to narrow down to the standard to most important aspects they desire for students to understand.

When a teacher plans to collect evidence they should consider a wide range of assessment methods such as observations, quizzes, academic prompts, and performance tasks.

References:

Pellegrino, J. W. (2014). Assessment as a positive influence on 21st century teaching and

learning: A systems approach to progress. Psicologia Educativa, 20(2), 65–77.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pse.2014.11.002

Pelkola, T., Rasila, A., & Sangwin, C. (2018). Investigating Bloom's Learning for Mastery in Mathematics with Online Assessment. Informatics in Education, 17(2), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.15388/infedu.2018.19

Stiggins, R. (2018). Better Assessments Require Better Assessment Literacy. Educational

Leadership, 75(5), 18–19.

Wiggins, G., & Mctighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design Chapter 1. What Is Backward

Design?