Assessment of English Language Learners - Essay Example

11). Analysis of our data, for example, showed that elementary children were instructed during the week for an average of twenty-two and a half hours. Student involved classroom assessment is an alternative tool of assessment based on: "student involvement in the assessment process, student-involved record keeping, and student-involved communication" (Stiggins and Chappuis 2005, p. 12). Student-involved classroom assessment ensures that student's achievements are objectively assessed and analyzed by a teacher.

Students can be guided toward a real, active respect for an interest in education, extending from secondary education through college and beyond. Apart from narrow educational norms and emphases, other personal characteristics are important for the growth of such a positive outlook. These include a real feeling of self-discipline, understanding of and respect for art and other intellectual achievements of human society, an interest in physical and mental health, and in sound relationships with others, and a sensible perspective on the value and use of leisure.

Student-involved record keeping allows students to monitor their achievements and improve them immediately. This assessment tool motivates students to pay more attention to their educational achievements. "As they chart progress, they gain a sense of control over their own learning." (Stiggins and Chappuis 2005, p. 13). It yields an immense variety of designs, characterized not only by self-adaptiveness and a very sparing use of natural resources in their realization but also by two other most significant factors of flexibility: the acceptance of imperfections and the mass production of individuality.

Both of these characteristics need to be viewed not as an involution but as an evolution, indeed a revolution, in ability to design flexibly. Student-involved communication is effective tools of assessment because it allows parents to monitor achievements of their children and communicate with teachers and other parents. This techniques motivates students to have "a positive story" and to be responsible for their achievements. If effective and stern judgments cannot always be made, then let us at least use the accreditation process to improve things where possible--this seems to be the conclusion that many have drawn.

But this conclusion does not fulfill the objective of accreditation, and, of equal importance, it does not have accreditation doing what the public thinks it should be doing. If the process is to survive, therefore, and if the rapid advance of government in the process of educational evaluation is to be halted, steps must be taken to restore accreditation to the role it is assumed to have--that of evaluating educational institutions, honestly, rigorously, and openly, so that when a person obtains a degree from an accredited institution, reality will match expectation (Kyriacon, 2000).

The other alternative assessment tools are concentrated on reductions in score gaps and low achievements. Classroom Assessment to Reduce Achievement Gaps helps educators to concentrate on problems appeared during education programs: " (a) focus on clear purposes, (b) provide accurate reflections of achievement, (c) provide students with continuous access to descriptive feedback on improvement in their work (versus infrequent