What Are the Purposes of Classroom Assessment?

WHY DO TEACHERS ALWAYS GIVE US EXAMS?

There are three purposes of classroom assessment. These are assessment for learning, assessment of learning and assessment as learning.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING includes three types of assessment done before and during instruction. Under this we have placement, formative and diagnostic assessments.

Placement assessment is done prior to instruction. From the term itself, it can be deduced that placement assessments are done to know where to "put" the students.

A good example of a placement assessment is entrance examinations. Entrance examinations in schools, colleges and universities determine whether to "place" aspirants in the school or out of the school.

The purpose of placement assessments is to assess the needs of the learners to have basis in planning for a relevant instruction. Teachers use this assessment to know what their students are bringing into the learning situation and use this as a starting point for instruction.

The results of this assessment place students in specific learning groups to facilitate teaching and learning.

Formative assessment is done during instruction. Say, Teacher A planned for a two-day lesson about adjectives. In the first day, he administered an assessment to see how the students are doing. What she did is a formative assessment.

It is this assessment where teachers continuously monitor the students' level of attainment of the learning objectives (Stiggins, 2005). The results of the assessment are communicated clearly and promptly to the students for them to know their strengths and weaknesses and the progress of their learning.

Diagnostic assessment is done during instruction. Say, Teacher B noticed that his students don't seem to understand his lesson about adjectives. She conducted an assessment to see where the students' weaknesses lie.

Diagnostic assessment is used to determine students' recurring or persistent difficulties. It searches for the underlying causes of students' learning problems that do not respond to first aid treatment. It helps formulate a plan detailed remedial instruction.

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING is done after instruction. This is usually referred to as summative assessment.

Summative assessment is used to certify what students know and can do and the level of their proficiency or competency. Its results reveal whether or no instructions have successfully achieved the curriculum outcomes.

The information from assessment of learning is usually expressed as marks or letter grades. The results of which are communicated to the students, parents and other stakeholders for decision making.

It is also a powerful factor that could pave the way for educational reforms.

ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING is done for teachers to understand and perform well their role of assessing FOR and OF learning. It requires teachers to undergo training on how to assess learning and be equipped with the following competencies needed in performing their work as assessors.