There are many different forms of evaluation that are available to teachers.  Many think that creating grades is something easy, as you often can identify what grade should be given by student participation in the classroom (it's often clear if the student understands material or not).  However, as accountability becomes a larger issue, a teacher needs to have proof for why they gave the student the grades they did and validity of their methods.  Therefore, this article should help clear up what some of the current methods of evaluation are, how they work, why each is valid, and the pros and cons of each type.

Jump to: Pen and Paper Tests, Oral Tests, Final Essays, Projects, The Best Answer, or Final Note on Point Systems

I. Pen and Paper Tests
    This is the most well known and traditional evaluation.  And there are definite reasons why this is the most common.  We see it in many forms, from the SAT and ACT to daily math drills, it's the form of evaluation knows, and sometimes dreads.  This also is in the national limelight now as President Bush makes it part of his national agenda.  I won't take on whether this is the best way to go nationally (I don't believe it is), but the validity of method can be very good.  It's hard to argue when you have a percentage correct facing back at you.  It is a simple system that is stable and comparable.  Plus, it tends to be a fairly fast method, and for many types of questions, quick to grade.  So why are so many people having troubles with it?
    The first question is how the test is written.  Poorly worded questions can often confuse students and lower scores.  English skills can inhibit ability (poor reading skills should not lower a science score).  Some questions that are more free form (short answer, fill in the blank, etc.) can yield answers that can go either way, thus the graders can effect the output.  Handwriting can make a good answer confused and not readable.  Therefore, any written test given need to be carefully considered to reduce the effects of the above (of course, much of this can be said about any method).
    Another issue is test anxiety.  There are many students who freeze up when faced with a test, particularly if the test is a large portion of the grade.  A student will often know the answer to a question before a test if asked, but not be able to respond when the timer is running.  There are many issues with timed tests, and I content that the only type of timer that should be used is that needed to stop students from taking prohibitively long.  A time limit tends to exacerbate test anxiety, so it should be avoided for any test that is a large part of a grade.
    Pen and paper test can be very good if used within the limits suggested above and with a good variety of question types (fill-in-the-blank, matching, multiple choice, short answer, etc.).  Fixing on one type of question will make some student scores higher than regular and hurt others.  A mix of question types tries to balance out the weaknesses and strengths of the student to a better reflection of the student's knowledge level.

II. Oral Tests
    Oral testing is a tradition that goes back to the old British schools and tutors, verbally quizzing their students to know if they had mastery of a given subject.  Sadly, these days, the evaluation form has gone by the wayside in schools.  However, they are still alive in the post-school world (why do you think there is always an interview for any work position one would go for?), so I believe they should be used more.  Of course, there are good reasons it's going the way of the dinosaur.
    Verbal questioning is often used in day to day life in the classroom, usually tied to daily homework or educational discussions of material.  However, too often it is left out of the grading process, of is simple a minor "participation" entry in the grade book.  The problem with making it more than that is a teacher must defend their grade decisions and classroom discussion can often be too nebulous to be sufficient.  So how can you quantify this form of oral testing?
    There are two common ways: anecdotal records and individual verbal quizzes.  Anecdotal records has a teacher carrying around a notebook of some sort, and noting the responses of around ten students each day to the work.  These can be very valuable in many ways.  These often make it easier for a teacher to see trends in the student work and thought patterns which make it easier to make learning more accessible to the student.  It helps guarantee that the teacher looks at each student individually as a learner, not at the class as a whole.  Finally, the teacher can look at a bulk of the students work and effort in the classroom to more easily quantify grades.
    The other method if individual verbal quizzes, where a teacher asks a set of questions to a student alone and the student responds.  From these conversations, it is easier to tell if the student "gets" the material or not, and also allows the teacher to find the extent of the student's knowledge.  That is why they were used in days of old.  If it were to be used today, a teacher would have to use a rubric to clearly quantify the students work, so no student could claim and personal involvement of the instructor in the grade (more about rubrics in IV below).
    But there are definite problems with this method as well.  If a teacher needs five to ten minutes to determine the breadth of a students understanding in a subject, this means that an average class of twenty-four students requires a minimum of 2 hours of individualized time, not counting transitions, one of the biggest causes of lost time in the classroom.  Not many teachers can arrange this time, and in those cases it often requires the loss of teacher plan time and student recess time, the latter being often seen as a punishment by the student when it isn't.
    Another big thing to look at is test anxiety.  Few students, especially young ones, feel like they can talk one on one with a teacher, and this can often force panic attacks and students not being able to remember answers they knew perfectly well before the examination.  Plus, with the realization that just one claim of sexual impropriety, whether true or not, can ruin a teacher's career, teachers find themselves trying to avoid one on one situations.  This, plus the grading issues and time issues, have helped make this evaluation method rarely used.
    Overall, I believe that oral grading should still be used.  There is little reason why anecdotal records can not be kept, and two or three oral tests (given maybe during free reading time) over an entire school year can be very valuable to a teacher to figure out how to help students learn.

III. Final Essay
    Another method, implemented more in the upper grades than the lower grades, is final papers.  At the lower levels, large papers are made large projects to teach research methods and to generally share knowledge among the whole class.  However, at older ages, student often have to write essays in all manner of subjects.  These are often given out in two ways: take home papers, or in-class essays.
    Take home papers have a few dangers and a few nice things.  The best part is that most students put everything they have into take home papers, so a teacher has a decent idea of the limits of the students knowledge.  Also, take home papers have no time limit for the work (no student should have less time he or she needs).  Finally, they also teach students to prioritize their work, for if they don't, their papers clearly show it.  However, this method has its problems.  The quality of the paper has a lot to do with the student's mastery of English.  This could be especially harsh on students who's native tongue is not English, or based on the level of proficiency the student's family may have.  Also, of all these methods, it gives the greatest opportunity for students to abuse the system and cheat.  I don't mean to suggest that all students cheat, but there are often those who would do so, and with the openness of the internet, there are plenty of good sources to take from.  A teacher can often recognize these differences, especially when the work is very different from their other works.
    In-class essays have a slightly different set of pros and cons.  What is probably the largest challenge for anyone taking an in-class essay is the difficulty of organizing one's thoughts into an understandable form.  A student who could otherwise write a very well organized paper feel restricted and hurried with in-class papers and generally the quality of the student's work is not that close to what they could do otherwise.  This can be even harder for students who have language barriers as an additional obstacle.  It's very hard for any student to cheat in this format (especially with an attentive teacher watching), but a teacher needs to lower their expectations from out-of-class essay standards.
    Finally, there is one other large problem with grading this type of work: consistency.  Without a very detailed rubric to work from, teachers can easily find themselves grading an essay not on the points made, but how clearly those points are made.  Therefore, instead of students getting graded for their knowledge of the subject matter, they are graded on their mastery of English.

IV. Projects
    Projects combine many of the above concepts into a cohesive model for grading.  The idea of creating a project is to display a student's understanding and knowledge of required subject matter.  To this end, students, alone or in groups, effectively are challenged to prove they understand the material by making something reflecting both the content and themselves.  This is often a daunting task.
    There are many examples of projects in use. One could be requiring students to create and act out a skit for the whole class where they show the use of the data they have been collecting and making the statistics more than just numbers on the page.  It could be writing a diary from the perspective of a person during a time period studied.  Another option could be teaching other students about their independently studied subject in a lesson of the students' own design.  Any of these could be accompanied by an essay where the student explains what they learned doing the project.  The options are only limited by the teacher's and students' creativity.
    There are many good reasons for using projects to judge student recall and usage of presented material.  The strongest is that it allows student to use their gifts in a way of their choosing.  A musically inclined student could write a song reflecting their studies.  Visual students could present material using posters, dioramas, or even sculpture.  Kinesthetic learners can act out a scene from any setting.  Projects, particularly projects where students may choose their medium (usually within guidelines) allow students to put their best forward, and take pride in their work.  This accesses many different intelligences, and allow all learners to flourish.  Other reasons include requiring student synthesis, a higher level of critical thinking, useful in later life, and giving students ownership of their own work (another factor shown to heighten student involvement and enthusiasm).
    There are a few daunting reasons why projects are not used most of the time.  First off, it takes a lot of work, both for the teacher and the students.  It often takes up a lot of in-class time for students to meet and work, often at the expense of other instructional time.  The other large factor with this type of evaluation is that it is tough to grade, especially when children get to choose their mediums.  How does one grade a sculpture versus an act versus a song?  A carefully built rubric helps grade an encounter, especially if the students understand how they will be graded before hand (something that is very important, regardless of evaluation method chosen).  However, finding the right rubric that is fair to all students being evaluated is very difficult and needs to be very carefully considered.

V. The Best Answer
    Critics have argued about what the best answer is for years, and will continue to do so for as long as people share different values.  However, it is my personal belief that a good evaluation of a student requires all of the above.  Is that going to be possible in most situations?  No, but regularly alternating between the above options let a teacher see at a student from many different perspectives and can give a teacher a good rounded picture to work from.  The exact mix of methods should be up to each individual teacher base upon their experience, beliefs, time requirements, and the developmental stage of his or her students.  Some of the above methods can be mixed with few problem (particularly essays with written tests, or essays with projects), and mixing can allow a good image of student understanding.

VI. Extra Note on Point Systems
       In many classrooms I've seen and worked in, grades often are point and percentage based.  I strongly urge all teachers to make his or her point systems to be VERY percentage based.  If different days seem to have different values (based, for instance, on the number of questions or problems assigned), assignments with many problems (often easy assignments) become very heavy in considering grades.  Students seeing each day's work having a random impact on their grades are going to become jaded to the value of those grades.  Therefore, unless there is good reason to adjust a certain day (for instance, very difficult assignment or a final assessment), keep daily work values the same across a grading period.  Students need to see that no day's work is worthless (an attitude that is more prevalent now than most teachers are willing to admit) and improved work ethics have an impact.  While we don't necessarily use grades and motivators for assessment, it doesn't always hurt either.

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