During my student teaching experience in undergrad, I worked in a Kindergarten classroom in which my primary form of assessment was authentic. The only assessment I can remember giving in a standardized test format was a pre-assessment in the beginning of the year. I commonly used my observations to inform my teaching and there was little or no pressure from the administration to produce quantitative results. On the contrary, the current school I am employed at is pushing an initiative for data driven instruction. It has been quite the adjustment to have to find a way to quantify my findings, rather than discuss issues that pertain to the whole child, and it has frequently been a complaint among the teachers.
We recently administered a test and input the data in an Excel spreadsheet that helped us target specific skills. In addition, TAs are being trained to use the brand new computer lab in lesson planning. (I work in an extremely low-income community in the South Bronx, so technology in the classroom has pretty much been limited to projectors). I can’t help but think that a compromise could be breached by using technology to produce tangible results that are a bit more documented than just observations. We continually say that we want children to self-assess to develop their cognitive processes and suing blogs or video reflections, as outlined in Boss’ article, could be a great stepping stone to using technology for assessment in a reluctant school.
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