Assessment is a big part of today’s education landscape. Most states use high-stakes assessments to measure student growth and proficiency at the end of each school year. But is this really the best way to use assessments? The future of assessment in education needs to change.
In order to really reimagine the future of assessment, we must ask ourselves what the purpose of assessments really are. In their current form, assessments are used to measure everything students have learned. High-stakes end-of-year assessments are used to determine whether students pass or fail a class. These same assessments are used to judge the performance of schools.
Rather than use assessments as the final test of what students have learned and how well teachers have taught them, we should be using assessments to measure student progress all year long. These formative assessments, as opposed to the traditional summative assessments, will change the way we think of assessments.
By using formative assessments throughout the year, teachers can measure what students have learned and where they’re struggling. This allows teachers to modify their instruction based on the results of their assessments, rather than waiting until the term is over to see what students know.
Of course, most teachers are already using assessments in just this way. Teachers adjust what they’re doing all year based on student performance. The problem is, these assessments aren’t used to make big decisions, like whether students should pass a course or how a school will be rated. By shifting our focus from what students know at the end of the year to how they’ve grown all year long, we can get a more accurate measure of student and teacher performance.
When schools are judged, the growth that students have made over the year should be weighted much more heavily than their overall achievement. This would create a more level playing field for all schools, regardless of location or students’ previous achievement.
To achieve my vision for the future of assessment in education, we need to create effective assessments that will help us measure student growth, not just achievement. This will require EdTech companies to get involved in the assessment process and create ways to track student growth. By incorporating technology into assessments, we can bring educational assessments into the 21st century.
How do you envision the future of assessments? How will EdTech be a part of that future?
