Characteristics of Education Testing - Essay Example

However, they do not indicate a qualitative degree of mastery. Criterion-referenced tests provide useful benchmarks but do not place them in context with other performers.

The main disadvantage of both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced standardized tests is that schools might be tempted to make important educational decisions based solely on information from one or the other. Teachers must use a judicious combination of assessments and take into account unique student differences, to create the best possible instructional plans.

Informal assessments offer several advantages. They can be more holistic, easily adjusted for situational and student differences, and occur in a wide variety of contexts. One example of an informal assessment is “walking around” one’s classroom. The advantages of this assessment are that it gives teachers a chance to have active meetings with students while their works are in progress. It can also be used easily in conjunction with other assessments, such as conversation records (Cole, 1999, p. 3-4). The disadvantages are that initial discipline problems might increase when you spend too much time with one group and that it may require some adaptation of your teaching style.

Assessment conversations are informal assessment that uses dialogue and interaction during teacher-student conferences to monitor student progress and adjust instruction. They are flexible and give students an excellent idea of where to proceed with their projects (Cole, 1999, p. 5). They require extensive time away from direct instruction or class monitoring, though. They will also be ineffective if the teacher does not prepare the right questions for each student about their progress. The conferences must be productive uses of classroom time.

Group discussions allow teachers to see how students communicate their ideas and participate in groups. They give students who prefer talking to writing an opportunity to work in their most comfortable learning mode. But they may not show all students’ abilities accurately. Some students prefer not to speak much in large group settings (Ruiz-Primo & Furtak, 1999, NA). Teachers may need to consider individual students’ propensity toward discussion when using this assessment.

Another effective informal assessment is class interaction. By simply watching what information a student offers in a group, and how they interact with others, teachers can help students relax, as if they are not being assessed at all. Its advantages are that it is a natural process and easy to implement. A teacher may find it difficult to observe all students equally, though, and it also disfavors students who prefer writing, drawing, or other modes of expressing their mastery. However, plenty of opportunities to observe occur during the school day, providing a wealth of information for the teacher’s use.