Assessments

Assessments is a topic that I kind of straddle the fence about. I believe assessments are good because the teacher and parent need to know how their child is doing academically. By doing this teachers can know what type of interventions need to be in placed to ensure that the child can be successful and so that the parent is aware of their child’s academic standing and they can implement any strategies on their end.  I do not believe that standardized test should be a determining factor of whether or not a child is going to the next grade level. Some children are not good test takers but can make straight A’s on their report card all year and fail their test and have to go to summer school to attempt to past the test again or repeat the grade. These tests are looking at the academic level of the child, but what about the social level. This is very important as well. Also these tests are taking the fun out of learning and teaching. Teachers are teaching to the test and are not teaching the necessary skills to be successful socially and skillfully. It has become clear to me that we're spending way too much time focusing on assessment and evaluation. In fact, conversations about data driven decision-making, authentic assessment practices, design-down planning and testing protocols have now worked their way into the everyday vernacular of teachers and students, and have become such a strong plot line in the narrative of modern-day schooling, to the point where I fear that the very ideas and practices that are supposed to make our children's education richer and more meaningful are actually having the opposite effect. All indications point to the fact that we have somehow convinced ourselves that assessment and evaluation policy and practice is our raison d’être in public schools. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not opposed to strong, equitable and responsive assessment practice. This needs to be an important pillar in modern schooling. I am, however, opposed to anything that suggests that assessment and evaluation are the new horses and that imaginative, passionate and inspired teaching is somehow secondary to the project. When richly complex and engaging learning experiences are sidelined because they are "too difficult to assess", we are taking something precious away from our children. When our curriculum design and lesson planning is engineered and guided primarily by the set of expectations that will be measured and commented on come report card time, then we run the risk of losing sight of the real needs of the real students that we work with each day.
When our teachers feel that they have to rush through their work with students so that arbitrary reporting deadlines can be met, then they are forced into covering curriculum as opposed to uncovering or discovering it. When our school days continue to be compartmentalized in order to reflect the boxes on our report cards, then we prevent both students and teachers from exploring the world in all of its integrated beauty. In essence, if we want to encourage our teachers and students to become more deeply involved with what we are asking them to do, then we need to place our conversations about assessment and evaluation in their proper place. And believe me, that place is not in front of engaging, flexible and responsive teaching (www.cea-ace.ca).  I really enjoyed reading this article because it allowed me to think more in depth about tests and how it is taking away from our teacher and students.

 India

In India the schools are overcrowded, there is not much material, and the teacher-student ratio is very poor. The enrollment rate in India is 95% but there are signs that the children are not benefiting from being in school because of it is overcrowded and lack of materials and teachers. Although the school is given money it is not being used in the proper areas. The government carried out a national sample assessment once every three to four years, so how can you determine what the child has learned within that time frame granted that they are still in school. This assessment did not cover all educational districts. Pratham took on the liberty to find out what the kids are learning and the results show that after five years in school 50% could not read at a level expected after two years of school (www.guardian.co.uk). Pratham's annual status education report, Aser, is conducted across all 600 educational districts of India and assesses 700,000 children every year. What it has exposed over the last six years is that in some states, schools may be well-funded but they have failed to translate that into effective education (www.guardian.co.uk). Now all of the states and districts in India are aware of the educational gaps in their students and low performance schools. One of the strengths of the Aser programme, explains Banerji on a visit to London last week, is that it puts information in the hands of citizens and helps engage the whole community in educational issues (www.guardian.co.uk).  It takes a village to raise a child. When everyone knows the issues then they can be a voice that will be heard to make the educational issues get better for their children.

References
Is our focus on assessment taking away from our children's education?,=. Retrieved June 16, 2013 from http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/stephen-hurley/2012/01/1/our-focus-assessment-taking-away-our-childrens-education.

India pioneers volunteer-led assessment of educational standards. Retrieved June 16, 2013 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/mar/15/education-goals-assessment-india-school.