Is there anything good about standardized assessments?

 

Many teachers, students, parents, and administrators struggle with standardized assessments. This isn’t a new struggle in education. However, is there a bright side to standardized assessments? If we as educators have to participate in regular assessments, how can we use them effectively? 

In my school, we administer iReady benchmarks and growth checks to provide a school-wide measure of academic growth that can be compared across grade levels and content areas. Three benchmark assessments are given throughout the year: one in September, one in January, and one in June. There is a shorter assessment called a “growth check” that is administered between each of these assessments. Following each benchmark, we are given an in-service day to review data and compile action plans based on the scores. We are also given time to meet with other teachers to discuss our findings and plan. This has been a great practice in our school that definitely serves as a pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. 

Dagen and Bean (2020) explain that the purpose of assessment for educators is to “systematically use assessment data to plan instruction for individuals and groups, select specific strategies for a given context or content, evaluate students’ responses to instruction/intervention, engage their learners in self-appraisal, and critically reflect on practice” (p. 137). It is the responsibility of administrators to ask meaningful questions that determine the validity, reliability, and bias of an assessment (p. 139). By questioning the usefulness of the data that will be generated, the specific assessment tools that are included, and the fairness of the assessment, literacy leaders can determine the overall effectiveness of an assessment before adopting it. 

Once an assessment is adopted and administered, the next step is educating teachers so that they know what the data show. Then, school leaders need to schedule specific times for teacher-groups to meet and discuss data and instructional practices (p. 146). I have found that a set agenda helps teachers stay on topic during these sessions. Leaders need to be present at these meetings to help analyze data and form learner profiles that will inform instruction (p. 147). In special education, I am the specialist for my students and am required to analyze their data. However, general education teachers in my school are able to meet with a specialist to analyze data which is very helpful. Teachers should be encouraged to analyze specific pieces of data and the data pool as a whole (p. 147). In addition, peer collaboration should be encouraged and even assigned. Finally, educators are tasked with creating a concrete, data-driven action plan (p. 148). I am thankful to have experienced this model in my school.

Kelly and Caprino (2016) provide a few recommendations for teachers who want to more effectively collaborate about their literacy practices. First, it is important that collaborators take the time to get to know one another on a professional level. It is important that collaborators share experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. Next, I appreciated how they included a time to look over all IEPs to ensure that goals and accommodations were being met. They also emphasized the need to have regularly scheduled meetings and share in the collaboration responsibilities. Lastly, they remind collaborators to determine how their implementations on a small scale can be applied to the whole of the district to help more students.  

Dagen, S. A., & Bean, R. M. (Eds.). (2020). Best practices of literacy leaders, second edition: Keys to school improvement. The Guilford Press. 

Kelly, B., & Caprino, K. (2016, February 6). Five tips for collaboration. International Literacy Association. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-now/2016/02/09/five-tips-for-collaboration