How to Measure Academic Progress? Essay

Significance of Aligning the Assessment Process with the Existing Standards

Performance-based assessment of students’ skills is a crucial element of any curriculum since it helps shed light on not only the academic progress of students but also the areas of improvement that educators may have to consider to design an appropriate learning environment. The assessment standards, in turn, serve as the building blocks for developing a comprehensive analysis of the target population’s progress. Thus, evaluation outcomes inform further choices made by educators as far as the design of the lessons and the strategies used for meeting the needs of students are concerned. The current standards for carrying out assessments in the school environment are supposed to contribute to the creation of opportunities for careful measurement of students’ progress and the further identification of the areas that need improvements. However, the unique characteristics of students and, therefore, the specific goals that define the choices made by educators in a particular academic environment are unlikely to coincide with the goals of the standardized assessment process. Herein lies the importance of aligning the latter with the present-day framework (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2004).

Standards Used in School: Overview and Analysis

Description

The assessment standards that are currently used at the Washington Elementary School District align with the principal ideas of encouraging students’ success and promoting independence among them so that they could engage in an unceasing process of self-directed learning. Indeed, a closer look at some of the evaluation tools will reveal that the current focus is on the active promotion of the qualities such as strategic thinking (DLM, GOGAT), flexibility (PARCC, DLM), and academic curiosity (DLM, GOGAT, ELA).

Furthermore, the Common Core Standards are utilized as the means of determining the progress of students. Serving as the indicators of the students’ academic progress, the specified standards allow determining the problems in the target population’s development. For instance, writing skills are evaluated with the help of the 9-10.W.2- 9-10.W.4 standards, which allow students to develop analytical skills required for planning, choosing the appropriate writing tools and strategies, revising, etc. (Common Core: Language arts standards, grade 9-10, 2012). The fact that the application of the Common Core standards also implies the active use of innovative technologies should also be interpreted as one of the advantages of the framework adopted at the Washington Elementary School District.

Apart from creating opportunities for learners to train newly acquired skills, the use of IT devices contributes to enhanced communication with teachers, thus, leading to a more detailed feedback from educators (Chappuis & Chappuis, 2007). At this point, one must mention that the role of a teacher as far as the evaluation of the progress is concerned should not be misinterpreted. According to Reeves (2007), a teacher must assess learning, thus, creating the environment in which students can acquire the necessary skills successfully. Furthermore, a teacher must develop a certain degree of confidence in the evaluation process. The Common Core tools deployed at the Washington Elementary School District, in turn, produce extensive opportunities for determining the efficacy of learning since they allow evaluating the very process of acquiring knowledge and skills. As a result, a deeper understanding of the students’ needs and the issues that they face becomes possible. Moreover, opportunities for collaboration between a teacher and a student can be built; as a result, the most effective pathways to the further improvement and academic growth are located (Reeves, 2007).

Strengths and Outcomes

The opportunities for evaluating different aspects of students’ development can be deemed as the primary strength of the present assessment framework. The existing assessment kit contributes to the retrieval of the data that informs the further choice of teaching strategies. However, it may use some significant improvements, including the strategies that could encourage the enhancement of a multicultural approach toward meeting students’ needs.

Students’ Skills and Suggestions

The existing framework allows placing a strong emphasis on the development of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, there are extensive opportunities for the students of the Washington Elementary School to develop problem-solving abilities. It is recommended that the existing assessment framework take the evaluation of creative thinking into account. While some of its elements imply that the students should train the ability to think creatively, most of them tend to emphasize the importance of critical thinking. Therefore, introducing a careful balance between the two is essential.

Impact of the Standards: Instructional Program and the School

As stressed above, the blind adherence to the established standards without the analysis of the specific needs of the target population is bound to work to the detriment of students’ skills and, therefore, lead to deplorable outcomes. A balanced approach toward shaping the assessment process, on the contrary, is likely to allow promoting the consistent academic improvement among students, at the same time keeping their motivation levels high. Therefore, it is assumed that, when being taken as general guidelines for shaping the curriculum, the specified standards will have a positive effect on the target population’s academic achievements.

One must also give the current assessment system credit for embracing the issues associated with the application of the acquired information to solving practical tasks Therefore, it can be considered that the current framework deployed by the school contributes to the development of the “vision of a sensible and challenging education for all students” (Phillips & Wong, 2010, p. 38). Consequently, the instructional program has a direct impact on the existing standards since it shapes them to adjust them to the needs of specific students.

The current standards shape the school program extensively. However, the specified effect is reciprocal. Understanding the effects of these changes is crucial to the creation of a proper learning environment. For example, new opportunities for providing assistance to students with special needs can be created. Furthermore, the available assessment tools help manage the problems that students develop at certain points of their academic progress. As a result, a teacher can prevent the issue from snowballing to the point where it becomes so convoluted that it seems barely impossible to address. For example, the M&M assessment used in class to determine the challenges that students face when solving math problems indicates that there are several vulnerable groups of learners that require the application of elaborate teaching strategies to advance in learning math. Without the specified assessment tool, receiving the data that would inform a teacher about the need to deploy a specific approach to meet the needs of the target population would not have been possible.

At this point, one must mention the extensive opportunities for teacher-student collaboration mentioned above, which the combination of the Common Core tools and the instruments used at the Washington Elementary School District provides. The focus on teacher-student collaboration is an especially important outcome of deploying the said framework in the context of the Washington Elementary School District since it helps create the environment in which students with special needs will feel comfortable and, therefore, in which they will be inclined to learn.

Aligning the Standards with Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessments

Advantages

While following the set standards with exact precision is likely to lead to an internal conflict between the needs of students and the defined requirements, it is important to make sure that the key provisions of the suggested standards should be introduced into the curriculum. As a result, the opportunities for the improvement of assessment processes, e.g., the speed and accuracy of formative assessments, will be created (Owen, 2015). The rigid set of standards that the current instructions for conducting formative assessments in the context of the Washington Elementary School set premises for a massive improvement in the curriculum since they help identify the gaps in students’ knowledge, thus, informing the teaching strategies that will have to be used in the future.

Disadvantages

Because of the lack of flexibility, the said standards do not leave much room for adjustments required to assist students with special needs in their learning process. For instance, the existing framework lacks the multicultural standpoint that could help create a more comfortable environment for ESL students. Therefore, further improvements will be required.

Monitoring Student Growth and Creating a Quality Instructional Program

Despite the problems that the available tools for the assessment of students’ academic growth, the identified frameworks have their advantages. For example, the emphasis on creative thinking that the current system promotes suggests that students should develop a more independent approach toward the learning process, whereas teachers will perform supportive functions. As a result, students will be able to not only have a much deeper understanding of subjects than they would otherwise but also acquire meta-cognitive skills. Consequently, students will realize how they acquire the relevant knowledge and skills. The identified information, in turn, will allow them to build a strategy for managing the learning process successfully and, thus, engaging in the process of lifelong learning (Regier, 2012). Educators, in their turn, will be able to monitor the success of students with the help of the suggested assessment instruments. Furthermore, possible problems in understanding the material or training a specific skill will be spotted immediately and addressed respectively so that the further learning process should face no impediments. Consequently, a quality instructional program for encouraging active learning among students from different backgrounds can be implemented.

Changes as the Impetus for a Shift in Assessment Thinking: Conclusion

The alterations mentioned above are bound to serve as the means of altering the very concept of the assessment process. In other words, the latter will be viewed as not only the means of defining the current stage of students’ progress but also as the means of receiving essential information about culture-specific needs of students. The application of the evaluation techniques mentioned above, therefore, will allow addressing the issues of teaching in a diverse environment. As long as the focus of the assessment process is kept on the needs of students and the principles of equality in learning, opportunities for designing new and improved formative and summative assessment techniques will remain open to educators.

References

Chappuis, S., & Chappuis, J. (2007). The best value in formative assessment. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 14-19.

Common Core: Language arts standards, grade 9-10. (2012). Web.

Owen, J. E. (2015). Innovative learning for leadership development: New directions for student leadership. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Phillips, V., & Wong, C. (2010). Tying together the common core of standards, instruction, and assessments. Phi Delta Kappa International, 91(5), 37-41.

Reeves, D. (2007) (Ed.), Ahead of the curve: The power of assessment to transform teaching and learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Regier, N. (2012). Book two: 60 formative assessment strategies. Weyburn, Canada: Regier Educational Resources, Saskatchewan.

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (2004). Alignment in SEDL’s working systemically model. 2004 progress report to schools and districts. Austin, TX: SEDL.