Culminating Views on Assessment: Prioritizing Learning, Not Testing
Claims that testing will serve equity very often aren’t true! I will explain why. I have attended lately a very valuable course "Assessment Strategies" as part of my doctorate degree at ACE, and here are my culminating views on assessment. Developing equitable assessment practices requires starting over, with up-to-date research on teaching and learning. I would like to provide a new vision of assessment integrated with instruction for the sole purpose of supporting learning—not ranking students, teachers, or schools. I will explain how ambitious teaching practices, framed by sociocultural theory, are essentially one and the same as equitable assessment practices (Shepard, 2019). I will begin with a summary of the outmoded beliefs about learning and motivation underlying our current accountability systems. At the end of this blog post, I will address what teachers need from district leaders and higher-level policymakers. Why are Standards Assessment Required? ...