1.

Assessment is a crucial part of a learning process. In most schools the assessments which are used
the most are usually summative as they are used to gauge what was learnt by students during a
particular time frame and to ensure their knowledge stands up to the standards. Nevertheless
assessment may also be formative, meaning a regular interactive evaluation of students’ progress,
understanding, needs, and helping to find ways to improve teaching. Such type of assessment gives
teachers tools to adjust their teaching methods so that students’ levels of achievement raise and
equity of students’ results is achieved. A regular use of formative assessment may solve multiple
problems arising in modern classrooms. “… formative assessment does improve learning. The
gains in achievement appear to be quite considerable, and as noted earlier, among the largest ever
reported for educational interventions. As an illustration of just how big these gains are, an effect
size of 0.7, if it could be achieved on a nationwide scale, would be equivalent to raising the
mathematics attainment score of an ‘average’ country like England, New Zealand or the United
States into the ‘top five’ after the Pacific Rim countries of Singapore, Korea, Japan and Hong
Kong.” (Beaton et al., 1996, Black and Wiliam, 1998, p. 61)
Formative assessment helps students to larn about the processes of learning itself, nstead of aiming
for the numbers in their scores, it develops their skills to assess themselves, as well as their peers. It
boosts self awareness, intrinsic motivation to study and self-esteem. Such an approach makes
learning process more transparent, therefore making the outcomes more fair. Students know well
what is necessary to be done to achieve better results, as well as teachers know what they need to do
to facilitate quality learning for their students.
2.
Summative assessments usually lack transparency as they often either compare students’ success to
some special standard or to their peers.Students do not often understand what they have done wrong
or why they haven’t met a standard. The criteria should be made clear for the students as well as the
methods of achieving the highest score. Careful documentation can allow formative assessments to
be used for summative purposes. A standardized test should give equal chances to each individual,
being scored, delivered in the particularly same way. Although the results of such tests do not test
individual skills of a student, but they describe how the achievements of one student are related to
similar achievements of the other students. These tests compare students to other students, rather
than measuring student mastery of content standards or curricular objectives (Burger, 1998).
Nevertheless, in case when standardized test is designed well, it can provide data to be an
informational tool for different parts of education system. More to say, such kind of tests is the
easiest to deliver, the least expensive, and able to capture the factual knowledge of those taking it.
(Shavelson & Ruiz-Primo, 1999) What should be kept in mind is no matter how well the
standardized test is designed, there may always be some external factors that may influence the
score of the test taker, therefore, I believe each student should be given a chance to improve their
score.
4.
When it comes to test preparation, the most important role plays the understanding of what the test
will assess, how to perform each task of the test and the way instruction is delivered throughout the
test. Secondary factors are student’s emotional and physical state, time management, general
knowledge, personal qualities, background, etc. The adequate preparation for the test will be
organized by the teacher in the way that it would open all test peculiarities to the students and give
them powerful tools to easily deal with the tasks. The unknown is what scares us the most, therefore
quality preparation will not leave out any parts of the test that students might encounter and provide
multiple examples of test tasks for students.
The reduction of stress is also a part of test preparation. Especially stress tends to affect young
learners or teenagers who are not capable of fully dealing with their emotions. It is essential for
teacher to show support and understanding of these feelings, and ensure students that they are fully
capable of dealing with whatever comes at the test.
5.
Response to intervention process is used when the child is struggling with developing some skill or
learning something. This process may be used with any child, regardless whether they have or don’t
have special needs. Using observation methods and methods of formative assessment, the teacher
can choose appropriate tools for aiding such students. In my view, such process helps all children to
not be left behind their peers and to fully participate in the classroom. In such way teachers boost
motivation and self-confidence in students, making sure they will succeed.
6.
When it comes to fairness in testing, I believe all students should be given equal conditions in
testing, although if to speak about children with disabilities, the testing process should be designed
taking into consideration their particular needs. Another factor is that although I believe
standardized tests are capable of assessing a child’s overall knowledge based on factual learning,
they do not give a full, clear, personalized learning portrait of each individual student. When it
comes to cheating, students should definitely be punished for such activity, but, regardless their
attempt to cheat, they should always be given a second chance to improve the situation. Teachers
should never base their scores on whether they like or dislike a particular student or based on
students’ behavior, race, gender, etc. Another point is the role of parents in assessment. Parents
should be given regular, clear information about the results and progress of their children, in case of
interventions, hey should also be aware. The assessment is not only performed by school as an
institution, it’s a process which involves all participants: students, teachers, parents, school
administration, etc.