My Philosophy of Classroom Assessment

©Julia Pisani

“Assessment” is an ongoing observation of student progress. As a teacher, I believe that it is

essential to assess students’ learning and academic progress regularly, on a daily basis to best gauge
student successes and areas for improvement. In order to do so, in my classroom, there will be place for
both formal and informal assessment as well as both summative and formative assessment. I believe that
the goal of assessment is two-fold: (1) to monitor and evaluate student growth and progress in terms of
specific objectives, and (2) to help teachers modify their future instructional approaches to improve
student learning. I fear that recent emphasis on “teaching to the test” has caused instruction to divert
from these goals and refocus on ranking schools based on performance numbers. Anyone who is who is
in the education field can attest to the fact that a student is much more than just a test score.
My philosophy is that assessments should be assessments of learning progress, and teaching
should not be focused solely around learning for assessments. While I believe consistently assessing my
students, both formally and informally, in order to gather crucial data and information, I will use
assessments in my classroom as more than simply a way to give a student a grade. These assessments
will guide my teaching instruction as they will also allow me to determine my students’ skill mastery
level and/or deficiencies and whether some areas may need to be retaught through corrective instruction.
When reteaching, I feel that it is important to deliver the material in a different style, possibly using
alternative resources, to ensure that students are able to benefit from it. For those students who do not
need additional assistance, assessments will reveal an opportunity to enhance these students’ knowledge
with extension and enrichment activities.
Once I administer an assessment in my classroom, I will not immediately advance to new
material without reviewing what was assessed. I believe that the students, the focus of the assessments,
should be both aware and involved in the results of the progress tracking. Students should see the steps,
no matter what size, that they are taking in their learning journey. I believe that students should have the
opportunity to look over assessments if they made mistakes to support their learning. In my classroom, I
will welcome mistakes, as they are evidence of student effort; it is a step in the learning process. I
believe it is essential to involve students in the assessment process. If students are knowledgeable about
the results of their assessments, they can use them to self-monitor their own progress, recognize their
strengths and areas of improvement, and set goals for themselves that they can then work towards
achieving.
In my classroom, I will incorporate many diverse assessment methods because I believe that
students can demonstrate what they learned in a variety of different ways. Yes, there are the traditional
tests and quizzes, but I also plan to incorporate journals, portfolios, projects, and presentations. Students
will be given opportunities to use different skills to demonstrate mastery of content, including many
meaningful and authentic assessments, which should be purposeful and not be given simply to grade.
Perhaps most importantly, I believe it is important to truly consider each assessment with the
utmost care and thought toward its purpose and service to the students. Students should not be swamped
with tests and presentations that become a blur, and thus, become useless to the student. Each
assessment, formal and informal, should serve a purpose to gauge and document knowledge and
progress, and in turn, inspire both the teacher and student to continue to work toward achievable goals
and to always reflect on the starting point, celebrate the successes that lead to today, and continue to
work hard to improve.