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Assessments That Empower Learning November 14, 2019 | Volume 15 | Issue 05 Table of Contents
Denise Pope
Educators want to foster meaningful and joyful engagement in learning, promote mastery of new concepts and skills, and support healthy, balanced students. But sometimes our daily policies and practices can get in the way of these goals.
Imagine if, in the working world, your boss told you to expect a test later this week, but that you won't know exactly what will be on the test, you can't use any of the resources that you normally rely on (computers, colleagues, etc.), you cannot ask questions, you will have limited time to complete it, and your results will impact your next bonus. That doesn't sound like a recipe for success for you or the boss.
But, isn't this what we so often do to our students when assessments focus too heavily on memorization, do not incorporate any student voice or choice, and do not allow for redemption or revision?
At Challenge Success, a nonprofit that I cofounded based on my research at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, we work with schools across the country to make practical and effective changes to better support student learning and well-being. In our school survey research, students regularly report that assessments, particularly tests and quizzes, are a major source of stress at school. Traditional quizzes and tests, especially those where students select responses instead of constructing their own answers, can only show so much about what a student knows. Students can guess or copy answers without actually understanding the material in depth.
As educators, we won't know if a wrong answer represents a careless error or signifies a larger gap in understanding. Too often, traditional assessments result in "teaching to the test," a lack of deep learning, widespread cheating, and even burned-out students.
Here are a few small and not-so-small assessment practices that Challenge Success has helped schools implement to more effectively support students on their journey towards deeper learning and mastery.
One of the mantras that I share with students in my curriculum design class at Stanford is to include "opportunities for voice, choice, revision, and redemption." Giving students a say in how they are assessed can raise student engagement. Creating policies that honor revision and redemption can greatly increase the quality of student work and can lead to deeper learning.
From our work with more than 500 high-performing schools, we know that teachers do not typically just flip a switch and change how they assess students overnight. Schools often need to go slowly and offer time for discussion and debate among faculty along with professional development to support teachers in crafting different types of assessments. But teaching is about what students learn, not what they earn. As educators, we must implement alternative assessment practices that match this goal.
Denise Pope is a senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, the author of "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001), and the lead author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids (Jossey-Bass, 2015). She is also the cofounder of Challenge Success, a nonprofit that provides schools and families with strategies to raise balanced, engaged students.
More on This Topic: Put Students in the Driver's Seat for Assessment
ASCD Express, Vol. 15, No. 05. Copyright 2019 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.
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