Assessment & Grading in the Classroom Essay -- Teaching School Educati

Assessment & Grading in the Classroom Grading and testing is usually a mandatory part of teaching. Most schools let the teachers decide how and when to test, as long as the letters A, B, C, D, or F appears on a student’s report card. Teachers may not like the fact that some failing grades will have to be given, but as long as their way of grading is fair to every student, it is something that they will have to deal with. There are many methods of measuring a student’s ability to accomplish a task. However, many students freeze under normal testing procedures and may need to be evaluated in another manner. Also, it is important for teachers to understand fair grading procedures so students can best benefit from effective tests. By knowing the main ways of measuring student achievement, and proper formats for grading, students can be evaluated correctly. (Fairtest, 98) There are two main ways of evaluating a student’s work: objective tests and essay questions. Objective testing places emphasis on a precise, efficient focus on a student’s knowledge of defined variables (Kopeikin, 2000). That is, a teacher can use this format to measure a specific amount of a student’s knowledge. This can include multiple-choice, matching, true-false, and fill in the blank formats of testing. These kinds of testing are best used for checking whether students have learned facts and routine procedures that have one, clearly correct answer. In some subjects, carefully written test questions with planned outcomes can accurately distinguish students who grasp a basic concept from those who do not (Fairtest, 98?). With multiple-choice questions, a teacher can strategically place answer choices in a manner that will best evaluate what her students have... ...ridge, MA 02139. (1998). Multiple-Choice Tests. Retrieved March 11, 2004 from http://www.fairtest.org/facts/mctfcat.html FoCAL Points Issue 23. (2003). Assessment is Active Learning. Retrieved March 11, 2004 from Public Education Network website: http://www.publiceducation.org/pdf/FocalPoints/Assessment_Is_Active_Learning.pxxxxdf Kopeikin Ph.D., Hal S. (2000). Evolution of Objective Testing Retrieved March 11, 2004, from http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/~kopeikin/121lec14.htm National Capital Language Resource Center NCLRC 2011 Eye St, NW Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20006. (1997). Portfolio Assessment Retrieved March 11, 2004 from http://www.nclrc.org/portfolio/6-5.html Trice, Ashton D. (2000) A Handbook of Classroom Assessment. United States: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Woolfolk, Anita (2004) Educational Psychology. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.