Assessment literacy

The quality of being in the last stages of skill and knowledge development and being prepared for the practice of accurate assessment can be generically referred to as assessment literacy. It can also be defined more specifically to refer to the analysis of the assessment’s replies and the precise design of the tools employed in the evaluation (Erkens, 2009).

When conducting assessments, educators should focus on three main issues, according to Erkens (Erkens, 2009: Where are the students, Where should they be, and How can they close the Gap). The questions are not just helping the students in their way to mastery, but the teacher is also able to understand correctly understand the amount of work that should be done to enable his students to attain the level of literacy wanted (Erkens, 2009).

One of the greatest elements that a master should employ in the assessment is the engaging the students to be the ones making decisions based on the instructions given in ways that make meaning to them in the entire learning or teaching process. This makes the students think widely rather than confine their thinking ability to set responses (Erkens, 2009).

When a student makes a mistake, he or she should be given time to correct the error. Mistakes are better tools for learning (Erkens, 2009). However, if it is magnified, the student can believe that he or she can’t understand what is being learned.

Chapter Three

Guaranteed and viable curriculum gives the student an opportunity to learn every knowledge and content as well as the skills that are passed on from the supplied effective teacher. GVC is structured such that is primarily operational at the student level, tactical at the PLC level and strategic at the districts, which makes the curriculum address specific issues at the different levels begin from the design to the results from the curriculum. However, it can be ineffective if there is not proper coordination between the various levels (Ferriter, 2009).

The quote by Shmoker (Ferriter, 2009) supports the idea that students need the personalized understanding of what is being learned. By following the GVC, the curriculum is focused on each need of the student, and exhausting that particular need, thus equipping the student with the preparedness for his career.

SBAC Content Specifications

The major principles that are outlined by Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium include:

i. Management of the assessment is based on the Integration of the systems comprising curriculum, instruction, assessment, standards as well as continued teacher advancement. As such, there is a proper guideline for decisions made in the classroom or assessment as well as the assessments that are outside the classroom.

ii. Assessments are conducted to give the evidence that the student is performing. As such, the assessment ensures that the student acquires knowledge and skill that can be transferred to understanding higher education.

iii. The full involvement of the teachers in the development of the assessment or scoring of the progress is such a great thought. Teachers are in full interaction with the students and therefore understands the students more than can be revealed by the computer.

iv. Continuous teaching and learning developments ensure that both the students and the teachers both benefit from the curriculum, and in itself improves the quality of the education.

v. Information is shared across all the stakeholders, which ensures that accountability is highly regarded for the improvement of the curriculum (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015).

Universal tools are those features that all the students can access and select based on their preference. However, designated support is the features that may be consulted by any learner. However, the feature has to be tailored to the student by the instructor or team of educators. On the other hand, accommodations are the changes that are made available for access to the students who were previously not having access to such features (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015).

Consortium points out four major claims which are arguments concerning readiness for higher education as college and career. In the consortium, for major applications are identified and they include: the ability of the student to read and understand as well as analyze increasingly complex content, the ability of the student to write mature content for different audiences which the work is addressing at that particular time, the employing of speaking and communication techniques for audiences and purposes of intent of the speech and skill to conduct research and analyze findings and thereby present the results in a clear and constructive manner (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015). Indeed, the curriculum development is one that enables the student to be ready for the next level of education and increasing knowledge in different areas of study and ultimately for career development and improvement.

The process used to arrive at assessment target include first the making decisions regarding the design of the assessment. In this initial stage, an in-depth analysis is conducted into each available standards and levels, assessing abilities in the reading as well as writing, followed by the deciding on the most appropriate content that must be included in the assessment. For adequate coverage of the material, the contents are organized again and are redistributed to the evaluation targets. The second step is the determination of how the learning process is to be progressed, hence dividing the content into different levels of progress (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015).

Smarter Balance administers various types of questions ranging from multiple choice questions (radio button, highlighting and box checking) to matching tables, short texts, filling tables and graphing of the information given, solving equations and numerical values, essay questions as well as listening tasks. In technology cases, other types of questions include hot spot, dragging and dropping information according to their matching (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015).

References

Erkens, C. (2009). Developing Our Assessment Literacy. In T. R. Guskey, The Teacher As Assessment Leader (pp. 1-82). Bloomington: Solution Tree Press. Retrieved March 21, 2017,

Ferriter, W. M. (2009). Yes, I can: Responsible Assessemnet In An Era of Accountability. In T. R. Guskey, The Teacher As Assessment Leader. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium . (2015). Content Specifications for the Summative Assessment of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical . Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium .