Evaluating and Selecting Assessments 1

Iva Edwards

Grand Canyon University: ESL-433N

08/11/2016

Professor Lawrence
Evaluating and Selecting Assessments

Assessment is a vital element of teaching, as it establishes whether or not the objectives

of education are being met. Assessments have an effect on outcomes about grades, progress,

placement, educational needs, core curriculum, and sometimes even, educational funding.

Assessment motivates us to examine these difficult questions: "Are we teaching our students

what we should be teaching them?” “Are they learning the right things?” “Is there a better way to

teach my students the curriculum?” Therefore, when one really contemplates these things, one

can see this is not a subject to be taken lightly. There are a lot if important aspects to think about

when it comes to selecting assessments for ones ELL students however, there are two that I find

to be the most important which are: “Decisions: Does the assessment help make instructional

decisions that are beneficial for the students? and Disclosure: Do my students understand the

assessment: is it purposeful, what is expected, how it will be judged, and its consequences”

(Smith, Teemant & Pinnegar, 2004)?

Decisions are a part of one’s everyday life. The Cambridge Dictionary states that a

decision is, “A choice that you make about something after thinking about several possibilities”

(Cambridge Dictionary, 2016). Therefore, I pose the question again, “Does the assessment help

make instructional decisions that are beneficial for the students” (Smith, Teemant & Pinnegar,

2004)? Every student not just ELL students need to understand not only the elementary reading

and arithmetic skills, but additionally proficiencies that will help them perform suitably in a

world that changes so rapidly. Today’s student should be capable of thinking critically, analyzing

effectively, and make inferences. That is why it is so important that one’s assessments help one

make the tough decisions and that they answer the right questions. Educators do not have time to
Evaluating and Selecting Assessments

waste on assessing inappropriate areas nor do they have time to squander on teaching their

students the wrong skillsets due to unbeneficial assessments that have guided them in the wrong

direction.

Full disclosure is so important when one is introducing any type of assessment for, you

can focus one’s student’s attention on what is of most significance for them to absorb and

remember. It could also remove the stress out of the overall assessment because they will

understand where they must focus their attention instead of trying to focus their attention

everywhere. Understanding the purpose behind the assessment should assist one’s students in

understanding that it is not simply another unjustified test and it might help them to try harder

than if they suspected there was no purpose for the assessment. Thus, one should communicate to

their students what the assessments expectations are, how the assessments will be judged, and its

consequences for, it is giving them the tools that they need to be prepared for the assessments

that one is about to give. One should continually be prepared to respond any questions that the

students might have as a ‘Full Disclosure Policy’ should be set in place at the beginning of each

school year and it should extend to the parents and caretakers.

Evaluating and Selecting Assessments

References

C. (2016). Decision Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved August 14, 2016,

from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/decision

Search results for "" (showing 21-20 of 0 books). (2016). Retrieved August 14, 2016, from

http://www.goodreads.com/search?page=2

Smith, M. E., Teemant, A., & Pinnegar, S. (2004). Principles and Practices of Sociocultural

Assessment: Foundations for Effective Strategies for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms.

Multicultural Perspectives, 6(2), 38-46. Retrieved from. https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

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