Module 1: Introduction to Assessment

34 out of 45 of my advisory class finished their First Semester with an average grade of 90 and above. In the new K-12 curriculum, they will receive Academic Excellence Awards - With Honors, With High Honors and With Highest Honors. But I always tell them that the "Honor" one should strive for is the one founded on integrity, honesty, and self-respect. Getting high grades should imply they have good characters. #UtakAtPuso

Tinimbang Ka Ngunit... Kulang Pa Ba?

Examinations are made to determine how much our students have learned from each unit lesson. We, teachers prepare tests that will measure how much information they have understand and managed to recall from their memory and cognition. A failed mark means they have not learned enough... but does it mean the student is a failure as well? And if it's true, then does it mean we, teachers, also failed?

https://sunildhadwe.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/fail-exam.jpg

It has been a dilemma for public school teachers since there has been an unofficial, but evident, indirect directives for mass promotion. Things eventually boil down to the teachers. If the student is failing, the teacher should intervene and provide remediation. If the student suddenly stop attending school, the teacher should do home visitation to know what the problem is, do remediation and provide learning modules, up to some extent. If the student failed, the teacher will be asked: What did you do to prevent the student from failing? Teachers have to explain, and do a lot of paper works just to prove they did everything. And so a lot of public school teachers simply give their students a grade of "pasang-awa" not only to avoid the burden of doing tedious paper works but also to appease the hardworking parents.

So... who's to blame?

No one. In the first place, assessment is not meant to judge the capacity of teachers, students, school officials, parents and stakeholders. The purpose of assessing the learning process of our learners is for us to understand the process itself - to check its condition thru empirical data and constant reflection (Koshal, 2013) so that we would be able to know what are needed to be developed further, where we can help to to improve the system.

Standard tests are just "small pictures" of the assessment process. We have to look at other evidences in the learning process to holistically determine our learners' progress from time to time. This will give us the opportunity to reflect on the teaching-learning process so as to make it more meaningful; to make it constant and pervasive to improve learning environment (Suskie, 2013).

Let me end this blog entry with an African Proverb:

It is indeed the role of the whole society to raise a child. A good assessment is a relevant tool to know not only the individual state of each learner, but to evaluate our education systems if it still serves the best interest of our youth and our nation.

Reference:

Suskie, L (2013). Linda Suskie: A Common Sense Approach to Assessment in Higher Education. https://www.lindasuskie.com/apps/blog/show/39829623-what-is-good-assessment-