Module 3 Productive Assessment - Essay Example

They still employ competency testing to establish minimum competency standards for graduation or promotion to the next grade to show for improvement. In some states even, the law requires that students pass tests in reading, math skills and other academic areas to show they can perform daily tasks. For those who hold non-traditional values at heart, emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge and personal development through informal means is encouraged. Involvement in social issues outside the school curriculum is deemed to be the best way to garner an education stressing that it is in the students' best interest to respond to what the student's need and want to study.

Most of the schools that employ these methods allow the students to participate in the decision-making activities of the schools. Only then can we fully appreciate the extent to which equitable assessment can be used to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and achievement. Teachers also are able to make inferences about student performance and how they must refine their instruction to increase or maintain high performance without calling into question the technical adequacy of the assessment (Jones, 1990).

However, when school. student retention, promotion, or graduation), the importance of understanding ways to maximize equity while not compromising the technical quality of alternative assessments should be looked into. The validity of inferences made affects the technical adequacy of the assessment made regarding the performance of all students (Jones, 1990). It is then when alternative tests are used for high-stakes purposes, schools--in addition to being concerned about equity when selecting or developing assessments--must take advantage of methods for maximizing fairness in administering and scoring them.

Of utmost importance is ensuring that students have had adequate opportunity to learn the material on which they are being tested.These assessments, authentic, traditional and equitable, are just tools themselves and are just as responsible as the curriculum and the educators. Regardless of the level of the assessment effort, equity will never be achieved as long as everyone involved in educating children sees these assessment tools as responsible for ensuring fairness. It is not just the tools, but also the curriculum, instruction, professional development, parent and community involvement, and leadership practices that affect the fairness of assessments and the inferences based on them.

As education is more important today that it was ever before, the choice of whether employing authentic/productive assessment over conventional assessment is becoming more widespread largely because of the power of the internet. Western culture and influence has spread to every part of the world, and the ideal of the free and compulsory education has taken root in almost every country. For much of history, people's social and vocational status had been largely ascribed - that is, determined by the