When John walked into the math teachers laboratory, Aba was thinking about her upcoming unit on fraction computation and the changes this year she wanted to make in assessing student learning. She was not happy with the end-of-unit summative test that her colleagues and administration suggested be given to students. Her belief that assessments should help her understand her students strengths, misunderstandings, and learning errors simply did not merge with the current assessment. The assessment was computerized and contained 30 questions that were multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and technology-enhanced items similar to those on the end-of-year high-stakes test.

 

Instead, Aba wanted to ask her administration if she could give a constructed-response assessment with fewer items that followed recent assessment trends and learning theories. Her proposed assessment would provide a scenario involving cooking pizzas at the new pizzeria in the neighbourhood and allow student choice for which eight of ten teacher-created open-ended problems students wanted to complete. Students would also create and solve two of their own fraction problems. Throughout the fraction unit, students had completed these types of tasks and Aba had provided feedback to students on their progress in mastering the learning targets. Aba knew her assessment would allow students to apply their knowledge within an authentic task. Additionally, by using a rubric for scoring, she could emphasize student effort, which she knew would encourage her students to stay motivated for learning.

 

Aba explained her idea to John, a teacher with whom she had collaborated in designing most of the math units real-world applicable lessons, and asked John if he wanted to codevelop the assessment and give it to his students. John looked at Aba with questioning eyes. He declined her offer and suggested she stick with the current computerized assessment. Aba bantered with John telling him that she believed the traditional summative assessment was solely for providing students with a grade, that this test didnt align with their teaching methods, and that the end-of-unit assessment lacked impact on student learning and motivation.

 

Johns response was that he believed the current assessment provided reliable standardized feedback to teachers and parents on students mastery of learning targets. Additionally, teachers could use the efficient computer data analysis to drive immediate remediation efforts. He also believed it was important for students to be exposed to assessments similar to the end-of-year high-stakes test so students would have practice in preparing for it.

 

To encourage Aba and show his support of her assessment beliefs and values, John suggested that Aba give the computerized summative assessment and instead incorporate her assessment ideas throughout the unit of study.

 

As you having taken the assessment strategies course, think about what Aba should do. Should she follow Johns advice and give the computerized assessment or ask permission to give her end-of-unit assessment? If she follows Johns advice, how can Aba integrate her assessment beliefs and values throughout the unit?