Rethinking Assessment

I agree with Bond (1995) that assessments should inform teaching. Students should be assessed not just to gage their learning but also to inform the teacher on his/her teaching.
It is interesting though the idea of a revolutionary assessment that will require teachers to provide good instruction and to cover important learning outcomes. Clark and Clark (2000) state that schools “..must have assessment programs that complement the curriculum and encourage expansion, involve teachers in the design and implementation of assessment, and provide students with a challenging, active learning environment.” However under NCLB, it is inevitable that many teachers, especially in struggling schools, will teach to the test when it comes to high stakes testing and meeting AYP.

Growing up in a country where there is one national curriculum for all schools and where standardized curriculum-based assessments were held at certain milestones in a student’s life, reading this article seems to be counter intuitive. Students in Malaysia wear the same uniform, read the same textbooks, and take the same national examinations at the same time and day nationwide. If given a choice I would not want to go through those two weeks of pre-university examinations where students have to basically regurgitate all that they have learned in the last one and half years. Public university entrance is based solely on the result of this examination. And if a student were to fall ill during the examination period and is not able to take the examination, s/he would have to wait another year regardless if s/he is the top student in the school during school-based examination. No wonder I still get examination nightmares. However at the same time I am unsure if I would have learned better or more if I was brought up in the U.S.

References
Bond, L.A. (1995). Critical issue: Rethinking assessment and its role in supporting educational reform. Retrieved April 7, 2006, from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory Website: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as700.htm

Clark, D.C., & Clark, S.N. (2000). Appropriate assessment strategies for young adolescents in an era of standards-based reform. The Clearing House, 73, 201-204.