How can assessments help teachers

Immediately following a gymnast's performance on the balance beam, for example, the coach explains to her what she did correctly and what could be improved. The coach then offers specific strategies for improvement and encourages her to try again. As the athlete repeats her performance, the coach watches carefully to ensure that she has corrected the problem. Successful students typically know how to take corrective action on their own. They save their assessments and review the items or criteria that they missed.

They rework problems, look up answers in their textbooks or other resource materials, and ask the teacher about ideas or concepts that they don't understand. Less successful students rarely take such initiative. After looking at their grades, they typically crumple up their assessments and deposit them in the trash can as they leave the classroom.

Teachers who use classroom assessments as part of the instructional process help all of their students do what the most successful students have learned to do for themselves.

Using classroom assessment to improve student learning is not a new idea. More than 30 years ago, Benjamin Bloom showed how to conduct this process in practical and highly effective ways when he described the practice of mastery learning Bloom, , But since that time, the emphasis on assessments as tools for accountability has diverted attention from this more important and fundamental purpose. Assessments can be a vital component in our efforts to improve education.

But as long as we use them only as a means to rank schools and students, we will miss their most powerful benefits. We must focus instead on helping teachers change the way they use assessment results, improve the quality of their classroom assessments, and align their assessments with valued learning goals and state or district standards.

When teachers' classroom assessments become an integral part of the instructional process and a central ingredient in their efforts to help students learn, the benefits of assessment for both students and teachers will be boundless.

Barton, P. Staying on course in education reform. Bloom, B. Learning for mastery. Mastery learning. Block Ed. Evaluation to improve learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Guskey, T. Implementing mastery learning 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Making time to train your staff. The School Administrator, 55 7 , 35— Twenty questions? Twenty tools for better teaching. Principal Leadership, 1 3 , 5—7.

Evaluating professional development. Kifer, E. Large-scale assessment: Dimensions, dilemmas, and policies. Sternberg, R. Allowing for thinking styles. Educational Leadership, 52 3 , 36— Stiggins, R.

Evaluating classroom assessment training in teacher education programs. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 18 1 , 23— Assessment crisis: The absence of assessment for learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 83 10 , — Whiting, B. Mastery learning in the classroom. Wiggins, G. Educative assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. He began his career as a middle school teacher and school administrator in Chicago Public Schools.

He later became the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national educational research center. He is author or editor of 24 books and more than book chapters and articles. How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. Thomas R. Instructional Strategies. Learn More. Want to add your own highlights and notes for this article to access later? Become a member today. Related Articles View all. Time to Shift Away from Standardized Testing?

Advancing Fair and Equitable Digital Assessment. Related Articles. From our issue. Reduced test anxiety is one of the potential benefits of practice testing. High-stakes statewide assessments can make students nervous. However, preparing students using low-stakes assessments with similar formats and questions can be instrumental in making them feel more comfortable when they are in formal assessment settings.

Furthermore, practice testing does more than teach test-taking skills and calm nerves. Frequent in-class practice can help students understand their mastery of the content, which, in turn, can help reduce test anxiety.

As students prepare, they will become more comfortable answering different types of questions and, therefore, develop proficiency with learning goals [vi].

Quality assessments can Improve long-term recall for students Inform instruction or curriculum Provide evidence of learning Provide the opportunity to reduce test anxiety in students and help build content mastery By approaching the topic of assessment more broadly, school and district leaders can help students and their parents to understand better the benefits of assessment.

Assessments can improve long-term recall A research review concluded that practice testing and distributed practice, or practicing over longer periods of time, were two of the most effective strategies to improve long-term recall [i]. Assessments can inform instruction Formative assessment, or assessment for learning, is what teachers do in their classrooms to gather information about how students are learning.

Assessments can provide evidence of learning All stakeholders—educators, parents, students, and administrators—need evidence that students are actually learning.

Assessment must be planned with its purpose in mind. Assessment for , as and of learning all have a role to play in supporting and improving student learning, and must be appropriately balanced. The most important part of assessment is the interpretation and use of the information that is gleaned for its intended purpose. Assessment is embedded in the learning process. It is tightly interconnected with curriculum and instruction.