Assessment Silos
There is one silo when it comes to standardized tests. Teachers are given test-worthy curriculum accompanied by detailed lesson plans and pacing guides so they know what to teach on which day of the week. This strategy has had little effect on test scores since the 1990s.
Standardized tests do have a place and purpose at one end of the spectrum of assessment: Primarily for making comparisons between schools and districts in relation to student achievement of the tested content. They provide little insight into students’ understanding of the question, their problem-solving skills, or their ability to transfer learning to other scenarios. In this way, they are like a channel for seeing how information entered at the top of a silo comes out the bottom.
In today’s world, it is less about what you know and more about what you can do with what you know. When I play Team Trivia on Tuesday nights, there are many who know what you get when you add opposite sides of a dice or who invented the scissors. My group, of self-proclaimed sages, will take all the time allowed to discuss what gives Silly Putty its unique characteristics or whether it is neurons or dendrites that continue to grow during a human’s lifespan. Think about which set of questions encourages student’s thinking. Is it the one that has one right answer or the one that requires thoughtful analysis and synthesis of prior learning.
Assessment is not an isolationist task. Learning does not take place in silos that are emptied on a predetermined schedule. Along the assessment spectrum are numerous measures that provide insights into student thinking. For example:
- Annotated tests where students explain their answers.
- An open-ended strategy (with reasonable parameters) where the learning targets are provided and students shape their answers in response to specific questions.
- Reciprocal appraisal where quizzes are returned for analysis by the student.
You can find more ideas for purposeful, responsive, mutual, and flexible assessment at Sticky Assessment