Explain why language arts assessment is important and how a classroom teacher can best assess student literacy performance
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: With the event of NCLB legislation and Reading First Initiatives at the federal level and high-stakes testing and school accreditation at the school district level, language arts assessment has taken on greater importance. There is now a national set of educational standards: the Common Core Standards. States feel the impact as they put in place mandated assessments to measure student performance on state-wide language arts standards of learning. Student performance in individual schools at the district level reveals whether students are making adequate yearly progress, which ones are not, and whether a school becomes at risk for losing accreditation. Constituencies also want to know how well teachers are doing with students since tax dollars fund public schools. With so much emphasis on assessment coming from so many quarters, it is important for teachers to ensure that students will be successful readers and writers. In the final analysis, it is the classroom teacher who best assesses student literacy performance and best instructs students based on those assessments. Through the teacher's own assessment and instruction, he or she will know more about language, reading, and writing abilities of students than any single national, state, or district measure.
You might also like to view...
All but which of the following is true about incorporating diversity into science education for young children?
a. Teachers should be aware of the various cultures represented in their classroom so they can avoid culturally insensitive or offensive activities b. Diversity is not a concern in science education, because science is universal c. Science learning offers an opportunity to talk about different cultures, their customs, and their environments d. Some activities or materials may need to be modified for children with cultural or sensory differences
Many educators fear that some early childhood programs can be so focused on pre-reading skill development that they omit child dramatic play and other child play activities
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false
Interpreting standardized achievement test score requires familiarity with:
a. reliability of the test b. validity of the test c. type of scores reported d. problems with score extremes
According to the text book, Which of the following factors does not influence a person's critical thinking skills?
a. Income b. Personality characteristics c. Epistemic beliefs d. Cultural upbringing