Testing has been an educational buzzword for quite a while now. It is also one of those buzzwords that elicits BIG feelings. Many people also use assessment and testing synonymously. In my mind, they are not the same. Testing exists to score children. Assessment exists to guide instruction. Both provide data. If we think of testing and the data we get from standardized tests such as the MCAs, that data is dead before teachers even have a chance to see it. Assessment data is critical to teaching and learning. It is important to note going further, this is the type of assessment data I will be discussing in this post.
Assessment serves a critical purpose in a classroom and in a school. This is particularly true with literacy. Teachers and literacy professionals need to know where their students are at in terms of literacy development. The data gained from assessments can directly instruct teaching and learning in a classroom.
Screening and Diagnostics
These are two types of assessments that can be particularly beneficial at the beginning of a school year or assessment cycle. Screening assessments can be given to a large group of students to help determine which students may need additional support or instruction. These screeners are the first step to identifying individuals with extra needs. From there, diagnostic assessments can be given to help determining where the student might be struggling. In my school, screeners and diagnostics are used to help determine tiered interventions. This information can also be helpful when communicating to parents about why their child has been placed in a Tiered support program.
Progress Monitoring
Screeners and diagnostics are not enough alone. Teachers, literacy instructors, and interventionists must be monitoring progress throughout the school year. This is the only way to determine if instruction or intervention is working. Progress monitoring only works if it is closely aligned to the instruction being given.
For example, in my classroom I recently taught a unit on Native American stories. My students worked on a variety of reading skills including summarizing, determining importance, theme, and character development. On their assessment, they were asked to apply these skills to a new Native American story. My assessment directly aligned to the instruction that was given. This way I could determine what skills my students had mastered and what additional support and review was needed.
Here is another example of progress monitoring within an intervention program. Our school uses a reading intervention program called Fast ForWord. One of the things that is particularly helpful about this tool is that progress monitoring occurs naturally within the program. The program automatically tracks data and provides progress information based on how the students complete activities. The program compiles data and can provide specific information for parents, teachers, and interventionists on a daily basis if necessary. This type of progress monitoring is beneficial to everyone involved because it provides accurate and timely data so additional supports can be given immediately to those students who need it.
What about those “tests”?
Standardized tests, such as the MCA, fall into the category of outcome measurement (Shearer et. al., 2019). These assessments are generally given at the end of the year and serve as a summative report card on student learning. The issue, for most teachers, lies in the fact that the data is essentially useless. The information provided after the assessment is vague and generalized. It gives information about students who the teacher no longer works with, months after the assessment has been given. Further, the information provides a snapshot of one day in time, with no acknowledgement of the human nature of the testing subjects. We all have bad days don’t we? Unfortunately, these are the assessments that get the attention, and they are the reason testing has such a bad reputation.
Assessment is critical to good teaching and successful student learning. We, as educators, need to make sure we are responsible assessors, using our tools to help students grown and develop as learners and only “testing” students if we are going to use the information to drive instruction. This is the trademark of responsible assessment.
Resources:
Fast ForWord Reporting & Assessment. (2018, May 15). Retrieved from https://www.scilearn.com/products/fast-forword/reporting-assessment
Shearer, B. A., Carr, D. A., & Vogt, M. (2019). Reading specialists and literacy coaches in the real world (Fourth ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Mrs. Murray's Mind 
Clare,
I love your opening statement about the difference between “testing” and “assessing”. I never really thought about it that way, but I agree with you. I would also add to your comments about MCA data, that not only is it “dead before teachers have the chance to see it”, it is also testing students on grade level material BEFORE they have even finished that grade. How can that be an accurate picture of student knowledge. I’ve always though this to be extremely unfair to the students and feels as though it almost sets the up to fail. I actually tell my kids each year that there will be information on the test that they will not know yet because they have not finished 3rd grade yet, and that they just need to try their best. I also tell them that I think this is unfair. I feel it’s important to be honest with them so they know I’m on their side and can sympathize with the feelings they may be having about the test.
Liz
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Thank you for your comprehensive post on assessment. I appreciated your comments on having assessment match instruction, which we had many discussion about in a previous course. Through your example you shared on your ELA unit with Native American stories, you truly were able to assess student learning in an accurate way.
It is so unfortunate that the data from MCAs truly is useless as you describe it. Assessment is helpful when we can use it to inform instruction, and this cannot happen to its fullest when you have a new group of 3rd graders by the time you get your hands on the data.
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Your post provided a great mixture of personal experience and information about assessments. You make some good points about the MCAs. As with most standardized tests, it is so unfortunate that student progress is only measured at one point in time. It takes me back to my own experience taking standardized tests, when teachers would send home information to parents imploring them to make sure students get a good night’s sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. But it is impossible to find a day where all students are operating at their best. Aside from that, the fact that you get MCA results so late is maddening. All it can do at that point is give you a general picture of if your teaching was effective for the group of students you used to have, and give you vague ideas of where to go in the coming year.
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I appreciate how you brought up the need for screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring assessments. Additionally, teachers should use formative and summative assessments that are aligned with standards and curriculum. It sounds like your school has a solid assessment plan.
In addition to what you said, I feel strongly that it is essential that teachers and schools use a variety of quality assessments that help give the whole picture of the student as a reader. For example, if only phonics assessments are used for screening and diagnostic tools, the teacher/reading specialist does not have a complete view of the child as a reader. Rather, all of the pillars of reading should be taken into consideration when thinking of each student as a reader including their strengths and needs.
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