Educational Psychology Reader
The Art and Science of How People Learn - Revised Edition
Series:
Edited By Greg S. Goodman
46. Paying Attention and Assessing Achievement: Assessment and Evaluation: Positive Applications for the Classroom
Extract
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CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Paying Attention and Assessing Achievement
Assessment and Evaluation: Positive Applications for the Classroom
Karen T. Carey
Are children making academic achievement? Are we competitive with other countries? Does anyone know what we are doing in our schools? Questions continue to arise about how our children are doing despite the Federal Government’s No Child Left Behind Act (2002).
How do we know if anyone is progressing in any academic area? How do you know when you have learned something? How do I know if you have learned something? Most of us demonstrate what we have learned. Our actions show what we know, our character, and our views about the world. However, we are rarely evaluated academically by our actions and how we function in our day-today activities. Progress is generally assessed in schools through standardized, objective multiple-choice item testing, and in actuality these tests tell us very little about the student, the classroom, or the learning that has taken place.
HISTORY
During the middle 1800s the state superintendent of instruction in Massachusetts required the assessment of students’ skills through written examinations to hold schools accountable (Linn & Gronlund, 2000). Other districts around the country also began to assess students, and following World War I schools began using multiple choice tests to assess students in academic areas. Following World War II the assessment of students in schools became accepted practice in...
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