Assessment in the Classroom Revisited

After reading and participating in the discussion about assessment in the classroom, the main takeaway for me is that when we are planning assessment we should begin with the question of purpose first. Data collection, analysis, and interpretation should be guided by the clear purpose of the assessment. There was a good amount of discussion regarding formative and summative assessments. Before this week, I was a little unclear about what those definitions actually meant. I had heard them used in previous classes, but I didn't really understand them. I found the following image on the website listed. I like the image because it shows the overlap of the two.

Life of an Educator


It seems that most groups (parents, teachers, and administrators) think that formative assessment is a priority and students want a voice about the process. If the real overarching goal of education is to increase and deepen student learning, then it seems that giving students a voice will help engage them in the process of their own learning.

I found the article about Will Letter Grades Survive? very  interesting, especially since I am in higher education and the focus on grades is high. As a student, I would like that. I really connect with the idea of students demonstrating mastery and being able to showcase their work. I think that qualitative feedback is very useful and has a tendency to evoke less of an emotional reaction for people. Especially for me as a first generation undergraduate, I had a great deal of anxiety that surrounded grades. I'm better now about that. Back then, though, if there was even the hint that I would get less than an "A", I would drop the class even if I really enjoyed the material I was learning. I think that there are still students out there who can relate to that feeling.

I was wondering though how administrators would use this and what impact this would have on admissions. This was one of the unanswered questions in the article to be worked through. So much of higher education, scholarships, admittance to certain programs, courses, and scholarships just to name a few rely on letter grades and GPA. I'm just not sure how this would work for all the areas that use grades comparatively.