Principles of Assessment and Evaluation

1. Assessment and evaluation are essential

components of teaching-learning process.

2. A variety of techniques for these two

should be used. E.g., written works in forms of
quizzes, assignments or agreement and home
works, seat works; performance tasks in forms
of oral or written performances, projects; and
periodic assessments for preliminary, midterm,
pre-final and final exams
3. Teachers should communicate and plan with students in
advance the strategies by informing them (students) of the
objectives and assessment procedures related to the
objective-goal. Thus sometimes there are announced and
unannounced quizzes but certainly scheduled periodic exams
and given ample time to accomplish a project. For exams,
pointers and coverage of the exam are given, and for
projects and other performances, rubrics or criteria are also
provided.
4. Assessment and evaluation should be fair and equitable
to one’s belief, religion, and gender. That is be impartial in
the grading system regardless of one's status in life be it
economic, marital, religious, and sexes.
5. Assessment and evaluation should help students and
encourage them to participate actively in their own
assessment to foster lifelong learning and enable them
transfer knowledge and abilities to their life experiences.
That is, students must have a positive outlook towards any
forms of assessment.
6. Assessment and evaluation data and results should be
communicated both to students and parent/guardians,
regularly in meaningful ways. Thus give back test papers or
projects and results of any form of assessments and
evaluations.
7. Assessment and evaluation should use a variety
techniques and tools.
What is Authentic Assessment?
Authentic assessment is concerned with using tools,
devices, instruments and approaches that
contextualize the learner’s learning experiences to
real-world tasks in order to apply content. It
focuses on performance by learners, thus it may
also be considered performance-based assessments.
For example, in a short play or skit presentation is
more than a portrayal of a true-to-life characters
in the real-world, allowing students to accomplish
a huge project of conducting an interview or a class
debate
According to Wiggins (1990), one of the proponents
of authentic assessment, the practice entails:

1. Make students successful learners thru active

participation with acquired knowledge;
2. Provide students with full range of skills (e.g., research,
writing/composition, drafting/revising/finalizing, oral
communication skills, debating, and other critical thinking
skills);
3. Demonstrate whether student can generate full and
valid answers in relation to the task or challenge at hand;
4. Provide reliability by offering suitable and standardized
criteria or rubrics for scoring such tasks and challenges;
5. Give students the chance to rehearse critical
thinking (essay writing and debate) in achieving
success in their future adult and professional lives;
6. Allow for assessment that meets the needs of
learners by giving authenticity and usefulness to
results while allowing students greater potential for
improving their learning and teachers more
flexibility in instruction.
Approaches in Implementing Valid and
Meaningful Authentic Assessment

1. Articulate the standards of curricular outcomes, such as

those in Outcomes-based Education (OBE) or various
performances.
2. Provide interesting, fun, and real-world performance
tasks. A performance task is an assignment or activity that
lets students apply learning to real-world scenarios. These
are components of a good performance task as presented by
Wiggins and McTighe (1995). E.g., skits, role-playing,
debates, oral interpretations, group dynamics and
discussions
a. Goal is the purpose and intention of the activity or
assignment. For example in newscast, the primary goal is to
deliver an honest and truthful news event to the public.
b. Role is what learners take on as part of the real-world
activity. E.g., Learners are to enact real newscasters that
are trusted for veracity of the news event.
c. Audiences are the “stakeholders” of the activity based
on the role and situation. E.g., Audiences are the listening
group and spectators who primarily believed what has to be
broadcast.
d. Situation is the real-world situation that the learner’s role
and the audience will operate on that serves as the springboard
for the goal. E.g., Media serve as the encoder of news information
while the mass serve as the decoder to interpret, understand, and
accept the information.
e. Performance is the product or process, or both, that students
need to accomplish based on the task. Processes are steps taken
to reveal applied skills, while products are tangible outputs that
are evidence of those skills. E.g., Junior newscasters do the
process of gathering data in order to deliver a credible news
coverage while the viewers/spectators receive the tangible
outputs and products of a well-informed newscast.
f. Standard are the curricular or situational
measures that evidence the accomplishment of
the task. E.g., Essential qualities of news
include accuracy (facts and data), completeness
and balance (news must contain important
details and must be impartial), objectivity
(unopinionated and based on facts), and
simplicity and clarity (avoid the use of high-
falutin words and complex sentences).
References:

Go, Mildred B.; Posecion, Ofelia T. 2010. Language

and Literature Assessment: A Comprehensive
Guide. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Jimenez, Frine F., principal contributor. 1990.

Measurement and Evaluation: A Handbook.
Makati city: Fund for Assistance to Private
Education.