Assessments

How do we evaluate learning?

In this day and age of accountability, testing and evaluation, how do we judge learning in a classroom?  Do we wait until the final month of the school year and give a comprehensive exam?  With this exam, there are no books, no talking, and few breaks.  Is this the type of learner we are trying to create? I am all for assessments and setting high expectations for all, but why do we teach day to day one way and then in the end here is the final grade? 

The more I think about our testing practices the more I think about how we have not changed our assessment strategies.  We expected our students to collaborate, discuss, apply, communicate, and think global, then we assess them with a multiple choice test.  The future is looking a little brighter with some on line assessments ELA and math with companies such as   @SmarterBalanced that are making the shift to have assessments that match the skills that we are expecting our students to be able to do on a daily basis.

I would also like to say as a school, we are starting to utilize more formative assessments that are performance based and not "what is capital of North Carolina).  Grade levels are creating short assessments that evaluate skills that are testing often, but do these assessments evaluate the essential skills that showcase the skills we want to have our students leave our campus with?  We need to continue to modify our formative assessments....
 
Other articles about assessments - rethinking assessments