When I think of the assessment style of an exemplary educator, the first thing that I envision about the educator is that they would use assessments to enhance their instructional decision making. Assessments would not be done simply to assign grades to students at the end of a unit. Assessment would be on-going and done frequently in order for the teacher to monitor student progress so they have a clear understanding of where the students are with relation to the teacher’s instructional objectives. The teacher would also use information obtained from the assessments to plan and modify lessons in order to best meet the needs of the learners.

The exemplary educator would also utilize a wide variety of assessment methods in the classroom.  Using a variety of methods of assessment in the classroom helps to present a more complete picture of what students have learned, because it requires them to present their learning in a multitude of ways. Including a variety of assessments will also allow you to assess your students using all of the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Although variety for variety’s sake is silly, varying your methods of assessment will help keep students interested and engaged and will reduce assessment bias for students who think differently than others. Teachers should go beyond using summative assessments at the end of instruction, and regularly use formative assessments to check student understanding as well as the effectiveness of the teaching, while there is still time to modify the instruction.

A variety of paper-and-pencil tests, as well as performance assessments would be used in the classroom I envision. If a teacher used only one type or the other, they would not get a clear picture of what the students had learned, and might make invalid inferences based on the information gained about student learning through the single form of assessment. Paper-and-pencil tests play an important role in classroom assessment. Many students prefer a paper- and-pencil test to other forms of assessment. Paper-and-pencil tests are also important because they help prepare students for taking the many high-stakes standardized tests that have become so common since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002. When creating a paper-and-pencil test for the classroom, it is important to implement a wide variety for assessment tasks including both selected and constructed response items. Instead of creating a multiple choice test, create a test that contains multiple choice questions, but also might ask students some short answer, binary choice or multiple binary choice questions, has students match items, or to write an essay. The use of performance assessments also plays a vital role in the classroom that I envision. Many students do a better job presenting their learning through a performance task than they ever could on a paper-and-pencil test. One big benefit of performance tasks is that they can be designed to consider the multiple intelligences of the students and the needs of diverse learners, particularly those with learning disabilities. Performance tasks not only allow students to share their learning in a way that is meaningful to them, but also to apply what they have learned to a real world situation. Performance tasks also better allow for the integration of multiple content areas into one activity. Also since many paper-and-pencil tests address the knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, but fail to assess the higher levels, performance assessment allows teachers to activate the higher levels of Bloom’s such as application, synthesis, analysis and evaluation.

With the implementation on the No Child Left Behind Act, teacher accountability has taken on a whole new meaning in recent years. I agree with the idea that teachers and schools should be held accountable for doing their jobs of educating students, but I don’t think that using the scores of the standardized tests that students are now required to take is the answer. Teachers should not be assessed solely on the test scores of their students, but on observations and through mentoring and even teaching portfolios. Much like using only one method of assessment is an ineffective way to get a true understanding of what our students are learning, using only one method to assess teachers also will provide inaccurate information on which inferences will be formed.

Still, due to the high stakes of these standardized tests, classroom teachers must prepare their students to take these tests. The exemplary educator would use appropriate forms of test preparation to prepare their students for these tests on a daily basis by asking questions that might be on the test using a varied format. It is also important to prepare students to take the tests by providing instruction on generalized test-taking preparation.

The overriding goal of the exemplary educator is to create assessments that are valid, reliable, and absent of bias in order be able to use the information obtained through the assessments to make accurate instructional decisions for their students. I envision a wide variety of assessments being used in order to provide both summative and formative assessments, as well as to address multiple intelligences, the needs of diverse learners and to access the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.