Assessment has been on my mind lately. Part of my job is to be our building test coordinator and I have helped to administer on-line assessments in reading and math to all of our students in grades 2-5. This has taken a tremendous amount of time on my end - and at least an hour of lost instructional time from each classroom. I have concerns about how students interact with these tests, including:
1. Students do not have much experience in "close" reading on a computer. They typically have not had experience with needing to read ALL of the information on the screen. Rather, they often play games that provide feedback for incorrect responses. The online tests we are giving do not provide feedback as to whether or not they are answering correctly as they take the test.
2. Students need stamina so they do not rush through the test. Again, students have had experiences where the response time is quick on the computer. In contrast to those experiences, when taking these on-line tests, students need to read and think carefully before choosing a response.
3. Adaptive testing makes assumptions about what is "less challenging" or "more challenging". The next test item the child sees is based on whether their previous response was correct or incorrect. Who makes these decisions about the difficulty of content? If a child answers an addition problem correctly, should they see an item that probes more deeply about their understanding of addition? Or should they see a multiplication problem - where they may or may not make the connection to addition?
Any time students are spending time testing, they are losing instructional time. If we are going to take time from instruction to gather assessment information, then we need to be sure this information can inform our practice and benefit students. How much time are we willing to sacrifice for assessment? How will the new Common Core assessments impact our instructional practices?
It is a lot to consider....
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