Policybrief_05_assessement_eng

EI Policy briefEvaluation and assessment of students, teachers and Education+ Quality education requires formative evaluation and assessment+ Testing students is not enough to measure quality+ Quality education is more than teaching to the test Assessmentsofstudentsaremosteffectivewhen made in collaboration with teachers 1. Quality education requires formative evaluation and assessmentEffective evaluation is fundamental to the improvement of any education system. The system should be evaluated through combination of assessments of student performance, evaluation of teaching, and critical analysis of the social and environmental context in which teaching and learning are taking place. Through assessment of students’ performance, teachers determine how well students are learning and take measures to tackle identified weaknesses. By analysing data on students’ performance, administrators identify groups of the population that require additional support and resources. Evaluation provides valuable information that can contribute significantly to improving the quality of education. However, there are increasing efforts to promote the use of assessment and evaluation for negative and punitive purposes. With view to solving the quality conundrum, national governments and multilateral development agencies the World Bank1 in particular call for the use of student test scores to evaluate system and school performance, which effectively penalises teachers, students, principals and schools. Rewarding good and penalising low performance, they argue, will lead to improvements. Assessment of the performance of schools through test scores of students is, of course, an extremely crude way in which to measure the performance of school or an education system. Evaluating the quality of education is complex business which requires sophisticated and professional knowledge, skills and techniques. There is, however, no evidence that basing an evaluation of school or education system on test scores is effective or valid, as the World Bank recognises2. The purpose of such narrow process is apparently to hold teachers ultimately accountable for students’ performance and link their professional development, salary increments and even the termination of contracts to test results. Hanushek Wößmann, Education Quality and Economic Growth. World Bank, (Washington DC, 2007), 16.2 ibid., 19 Unite for Education is campaign of Education Internationalwww.unite4education.orgEducation International believes that student and teacher evaluation should be formative rather than punitive. EI rejects instrumental approaches to the evaluation of education, and challenges the idea that ranking schools according to the performance of their students in standardised tests, thus creating competition among them, is the solution to the quality challenge. 2. Testing students is not enough to measure quality An increasing number of national governments are resorting to standardised tests as indicators of the quality of education and the quality of teaching. There are, however, many inadequacies with such tests. At times of increased decentralisation and school autonomy, tests do not always match the curriculum or classroom practice. Standardise tests are often multiple-choice, which makes assessing higher-level cognitive skills difficult. Additionally, there are many factors affecting the student’s performance the conditions in which they live, the resources allocated to the schools, the curricula and availability of support material which such tests fail to consider. The result is rather incomplete and superficial assessment of quality. Any evaluation of the quality of education must not be based solely on student achievement test scores but take into account range of factors related to the context of the school and the classroom. These include students’ socio-economic circumstances, financial and learning resources, facilities, school leadership, class sizes and the organisation of the school. teacher cannot be considered solely responsible for students’ test results when there are so many contextual factors that affect the learning process. As teachers know, single test provides limited information on student’s knowledge. There can be no thorough evaluation of achievement on limited evidence3. Assessing students’ achievements requires multiple measures and more in-depth analysis of the context in which education takes place. 3. Quality education is more than teaching to the testWhile the proponents of standardised assessments argue that measuring student results and making them public will lead to increasing the quality of education, growing body of evidence shows that greater emphasis on measuring results is not leading to better learning. As the pressure to perform mounts, more instructional time is dedicated to preparing for the test, to the detriment of other subjects or curricular areas that are fundamental to the development of individuals, but that are not covered by the standardised tests. The emphasis on testing stifles innovation and creativity, and undermines professional autonomy. High-stakes accountability uses of standardised tests narrow the curriculum and cause an overemphasis on basic skills4. 4. Assessmentsaremosteffectivewhenmade in collaboration with teachers Defining and measuring quality of education is very complex task. Every national education system is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the quality issue. While measuring learning outcomes can contribute Guilfoyle, C. 2006. “NCLB: Is There Life Beyond Testing?” Educational Leadership 64 (3): 8–13.4 Resnick, L. B., Resnick, D. P. (1992). Assessing the thinking curriculum: New tools for educational reform. In B. R. Gifford M. C. O’Connor (Eds.), Changing assessments: Alternative views of aptitude, achievement, and instruction. Boston: Kluwer. Unite for Education is campaign of Education Internationalto improving the efficiency of the education system, EI believes that the widespread abuse of the notion of quality to justify standardised forms of testing is harmful, as it attempts to reduce the teaching and learning process to quantifiable indicators. Quality education is the result of long-term efforts from teachers, students and leaders supported by parents within the education system. It happens when clear strategies and plans are implemented with adequate resources. An effective assessment of the quality of education can only be achieved if it takes into account and responds to the realities that students and teachers face in the classroom. This is why EI argues for teachers’ organisations to be at the centre of the discussion with governments and states about the nature and purposes of student, teacher, institutional and system-wide evaluations. The active and meaningful engagement of teachers in the development of assessment tools not only makes them more relevant and reliable, but it builds sense of ownership that is fundamental to any successful effort to improve the quality of education. http://www.facebook.com/ unite4education/http://twitter.com/unite4ed Hashtag: #unite4ed Follow: @unite4edUnite for Education is campaign of Education International