Running head: ASSESSMENT PHILOSOPHY 1

Assessment Philosophy Statement

Yuanyuan Sun

Colorado State University

ASSESSMENT PHILOSOPHY 2

Assessment is primarily used to collect information about students to make decisions

about instruction and learning (Bachman, & Palmer, 2010). A quality assessment demonstrates

attributes of validity, reliability and authencity. To maximize the positive impact of assessment

on teaching and learning, a variety of assessment methods, both formative and summative in

nature, and techniques used in traditional and alternative assessment should be used in light of

specific purposes and objectives.

Validity indicates the adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of

assessment results, which leads to fair treatment to students performance and effective

instructional decisions (Miller, Linn & Gronlund, 2009). A quality assessment has high

construct validity. Generally speaking, construct indicates what teachers try to gather

information about with assessment. To interpret an assessment as a meaningful measurement

and reflection of students performance, I have to match the construct for my assessments to

the content and objectives of what I teach, at the same time, I have to ensure that my tests show

evidence of students learning outcomes regarding to the elements in the construct. For example,

a first-year academic composition class at university primarily focuses on understanding

rhetorical knowledge to compose a variety of texts effectively. I include tasks such as defining

rhetorical concepts to evaluate students knowledge and understanding of rhetorical elements,

as well as extended response task with a written product to evaluate students application of

the concepts. Only valid assessments can make sure the reliability of decisions made based on

the results. The results showing students achievement or difficulty can offer me information

to modify my instruction and offer pertinent help.

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Its also necessary for a quality assessment to have content validity. I include more real-

life tasks to increase the authenticity of my assessment, and I do this by emphasizing

correspondence between characteristics of the target-language domain and assessment tasks

(Bachman, & Palmer, 2010). For example, I choose note-taking tasks as the assessments for

academic listening classes, since generally speaking, students have to perform similar skills

and strategies required in note-taking tasks in their various academic classrooms. I evaluate the

note-taking tasks according to grading rubrics. For example, for a note-taking task that requires

students to take note while listening to a short lecture, the criteria in the rubrics includes the

main ideas and details of the lecture.

A quality assessment should involve both formative and summative assessments. A mix

of them is desirable and can be effective (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). I use alternative

assessments for formative purposes as learning tools for students, which are woven into regular

class activities. I choose alternative assessments such as self and peer assessment to have

students reflect their own learning process and learn collaboratively. For instance, in a writing

class, before students submit their final paper, Ill let them exchange drafts and provide

feedbacks to each other, based on the rubric I offer. Additionally, I use interviews and

conferences to observe and evaluate individuals, as well as give more niche-targeting feedback

and help regarding individual learning strategies or with specific difficulties of comprehending

class content. For the summative assessment, which aims to measure students achievement

after an instructional phrase is completed, I use traditional comprehensive achievement tests

with combined items and tasks (e.g. multiple choice, cloze test, short essay), to give both
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qualitative and quantitative descriptions of students performance. Portfolios, which provide a

summary of students achievements over time, enhance students motivation for learning and

performance in summative evaluation, potentially by engaging them in the responsibility of

reflecting, selecting and collecting their work as well as creating supportive learning

environment.

Overall, quality assessments should include a variety of procedures, which emphasize

constructs in course objectives and outcomes. Moreover, quality assessments should play the

role of assessment of learning achievement for effective instruction decisions, as well as

assessment for learning to reflect and facilitate students learning progress.

References

Bachman, L., & Palmer, A. (2010). Language assessment in practice. New York, NY: Oxford

University Press.

Miller, M. D., Linn, R.L., & Gronlund, N.E. (2009). Measurement and assessment in teaching.

(10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, Prentice Hall.

Vandergrift, L., & Goh, C. (2012). Teaching and learning second language listening:

Metacognition in action. New York, NY: Routledge.