Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice that Enhance Student Learning and Motivation

Description

"I remember it well: When I took my first "tests and measurements" course in graduate school at Michigan State University, I was fairly apprehensive-what would this class have to do with teaching and learning? Would I be using complex mathematics and learning about the technical aspects of "standardized" testing that really had little to do with what I wanted to do day in and day out in the classroom? Well, the course met some of my negative expectations! It was interesting, but not as helpful as I hoped when applied to teaching. I have written this book to address this shortcoming, to be directly relevant to instruction so that student learning and motivation are enhanced. The premise of this book is that classroom assessment is the most important element in evaluating students that has a direct and powerful impact on student learning and motivation. It is through everyday interactions with students, as well as quizzes, unit tests, papers, and assignments, that teachers communicate what is important in learning, the standards that indicate proficiency and more advanced levels of understanding and skills, and communicate with students about what they understand and what needs further learning. While much recent emphasis has been placed on large-scale accountability testing, classroom assessments, from what I have seen in classrooms, show what is really being learned, as well as what influence teachers have had on student achievement and motivation. Classroom assessment is the most direct, specific, and helpful indicator of what students know, the depth of their understanding, and the nature of their dispositions. Over the past two decades the field of classroom assessment has changed considerably. There is now more emphasis on how student assessment is an integral part of teaching that effects student learning and motivation, not just something that is done after instruction to measure what students have learned. Much attention is now focused on formative assessment-what is also called assessment for learning"--