March 13, 2008

What is the Purpose and Motivation for Assessment?

By: Gwen Doty

Formative assessment is an ongoing process throughout the learning cycle to determine student understanding and teacher effectiveness. But with each assessment task that is assigned, are all parties clear about the purpose for engaging in the assessment task? Both teacher and student should have a clear understanding of the rationale behind it. For example, is there a need to gather information about how well individual students understand a portion of a lesson or unit? Is the goal to determine what students know prior to the content instruction? Or would it be useful to determine how well students understand essential knowledge before you convey more advanced concepts? One purpose present in every assessment involves providing teachers with feedback about how well they have taught the lesson or unit.

How do we determine the assessment purpose? It starts with a clear understanding of the overall function of assessment. Assessment should be a purposeful and natural process that coincides with instruction. The purpose for assessing can be as simple as observing students as they discuss their understandings. It can be as versatile as a musical student performance or as traditional as a multiple choice quiz. The key functions, however, to effective assessment revolves around three aspects: 1) It must be ongoing, coinciding with instruction 2) It must be varied so that students with different learning styles have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding in ways that make sense to them and 3) It must appropriately reflect the content standards and the information that was actually taught. Making a conscious decision to assess, with a clear purpose and motivation, is key to the success and usefulness of that assessment.

What Questions Must be Asked?

Depending on the entity that is concerned, the purpose and motivation for assessment varies. Motivations are different between the state and the school district, and between the school district and a specific classroom. Each entity is asking questions such as:

State level

How well are our schools doing around the state? Which schools are excelling and what are the causes for their success? How are different districts conducting assessment throughout the school year? Which assessment formats tend to lead to improved teaching?

Schools/Districts

How are we doing in specific areas? In what areas could our students improve overall? What kinds of assessments are the successful teachers employing throughout the year? How can we ensure that students and teachers clearly understand the purpose for each assessment that is undertaken? How do we help teachers to engage in more purposeful assessments?

Classroom

How can I assess accurately, without spending more hours? How well are my students mastering the content standards? How will I use the results of this particular assessment? How do I ensure that I assess throughout the instructional cycle to include pre-assessment, checking and monitoring student progress throughout the lesson, as well as conducting a final assessment? In which areas are individual students falling short of proficiency? In which areas are a high percentage of students having problems? How can I use student assessment to better design my instruction?

Student

How well did I understand the content? How much learning did I gain when I compare my pre-assessment with my current knowledge? In which areas do I still need to improve? Which assessment format makes the most sense to me? How do I best show what I know?

The following components should be addressed when creating or implementing a classroom assessment.

• The teacher and student both have a clear understanding of the learning target. What knowledge or skills are students expected to achieve and to what degree should they learn them? This is usually determined through an analysis of the state standards.
• Performance Criteria is determined, which involves the guidelines, rules, or attributes that will be used to judge the quality of student performance.
• Both teacher and learner have a clear purpose in mind regarding why the assessment is taking place.
• Next, in considering the purpose, the teacher determines the best method for assessing. Prior to creating an assessment, ask the question, “Based on my purpose for assessing, which format for assessment (for example multiple choice, essay, portfolio, presentation) should I use?”
• After creating the assessment, the teacher ensures that the assessment reflects the content standards or goals being taught. The performance criteria are stated clearly, and aligned with the content standards to exclude irrelevant information. Performance tasks create an authentic venue for students to demonstrate their new knowledge.

It’s not possible to create a list of all of the “purposes” for assessment, as this blog has attempted to demonstrate. Assessment purposes would certainly have multiple purposes on any given day. This would be based on the specific learning cycle stage in which the learning is taking place as well as the feedback and cues that the teacher is receiving regarding student readiness. Purposes would also reflect the goals of the person or entity that is promoting or administering the assessment.

One Response to “What is the Purpose and Motivation for Assessment?”

1. chorne Says:
   December 2, 2008 at 1:42 pm
   

   Our SWD subgroup continues to miss the target for AYP. Many of these students are on state alternate assessments and our district does not provide formative/benchmark tests as they do for students following SCOS and taking End of Grade test. How do we as a school go about developing formatives for this pocket of kids?

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