Lesson Three Reading

Assessment

Assessment is defined as the systematic basis for making inferences about learning and student development. More specifically, assessment is the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase students’ learning and development.

—from T.D. Erwin, 1991, pp. 14–19

Teaching and assessment are not separate functions. Assessment—or, more specifically, testing—is an integral part of deciding what to teach. (See below for How the Test Results are Interpreted.) Tests cannot improve educational outcomes; however, testing may help improve instruction.

Howard Gardner states that “A good assessment instrument can be a learning experience. It is extremely desirable to have the assessment occur in the context of students working on problems, projects, or products that generally engage them, that hold their interest and motivate them to do well.”

Assessments are necessary to measure progress toward meeting standards. Also, determining where a student is currently functioning initiates the special education decision process. Upon completion of testing, general and special educators make the decision to continue with current goals or to adjust for mastery teaching and learning. Therefore, an understanding of test construction, administration, and interpretation is essential to the special education process.

IDEA requires all children with disabilities to be included in all state and district assessment programs, with appropriate accommodations where necessary.

—34 CFR § 300.138(a)

California uses the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) system, which is aligned with the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This system includes the following assessments:

CAT/6: California Achievement Test, 6th Edition Survey

CST: California Standards Test

Aprenda 3: Aprenda, La prueba de logros en español, Tercera edición

CAPA: California Alternate Performance Assessment

(For a chart of all tests in STAR is available at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sa/caassessment.asp.)

Results from these assessments indicate proficiency levels, as defined by NCLB, and California’s Academic Performance Index, as well as show that school districts in California are making progress.

Visit www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/index.asp to find the Academic Performance Index (API). The cornerstone of California's Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, the API measures the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic measures.

In the past, traditional assessments maintained a shroud of mystery; teachers and administrators did not know what would be assessed and what the assessments would look like. And rather than measure student competence, traditional assessments compare students to one another. Conversely, today’s California Standards Tests (CST) clearly inform the public which standards will be assessed each year, and sample CST test questions are released. Teachers are encouraged to visit the California Department of Education website to become familiar with the sample test questions.

The California Statewide IEP Task Force Report addresses student assessment and the IEP:

1. The student's strengths serve as the foundation of the IEP, balanced by considerations of access and progress in the general education curriculum and factors related to the student’s disability.
2. The IEP must be based on state content standards and connected to statewide assessment and accountability.
3. Multiple assessment sources must determine how a student learns and what supports are needed to succeed (e.g., knowledge, skills, academic strengths

—from the Statewide IEP Task Force Meeting Recommendations,
California Department of Education, October 4, 2003

Assessment Results Provide Information

Standards-aligned IEPs provide students the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the general education curriculum. The IEP team considers a student’s needs and skills related to the general education curriculum, as determined by standardized tests. The team then determines what supports are needed to ensure the student’s ability to participate in the standardized tests (i.e., assigning accommodations or modifications based on the aligned IEP). In the aligned IEP, appropriate supports provide opportunities to students with disabilities to meet high expectations through increased access to the general education curriculum.

In addition to helping individual students achieve, assessment results provide information to focus school, district, or state resources on:

• Individuals
• Subgroups (e.g., ethnicity, socio-economically disadvantaged, English learner, students with disabilities)
• Grade levels

Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning

• The assessment of student learning begins with educational expectations or standards.
• Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time.
• Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes
• Assessment works best when it is ongoing, not episodic.

• Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved.
• Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change.
• Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to the public.

—from Martha L.A. Stassen, 2001

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