My Personal Philosophy of Assessment: An Elevator Speech

My third graduate class is coming to a close, and I've been reflecting on how my teaching program has shaped my own personal philosophy of assessment. I'm a firm believer in constant, fair assessment and self-reflection. I also want to encourage experiential learning in my classroom.

Formative and summative assessments can both be useful classroom assessments. Formative assessment can be conducted formally or informally and provide information to both the student and the teacher. It is an ongoing process and can be conducted at any time. On the other hand, summative assessment is given at a specific point in time, usually at the end of a curricular unit or course. Summative assessment is valuable, and I will be using it in my class at the end of every unit. However, I think formative assessment is going to be a great tool in my teaching. I will be able to check in with my students on a regular basis to see how they feel about a lesson or unit.

Two particular formative assessments are self-assessment and affective assessment. Self-assessment requires students to self-reflect and take responsibility for their own learning. Affective assessment also involves student reflection, but the results are used by the teacher. I had never considered either of these assessments before learning about them in class, but I am really glad that I have them in my toolkit now.

Technology can also be a great addition to assessment. I am still wary of letting my students take assessments online with Google or Microsoft programs because of possible cheating. However, I really like using programs like Desmos and GeoGebra with my students. They are fun and interactive and I think students learn a lot. I hope to use these online applications for test review and some formative assessments.

There are so many different types of assessments available to teachers, but they can be biased. Test questions might target or exclude a certain group of students. A prime example of test question bias is assuming that everyone has access to a computer or cell phone. A question like this might exclude students of lower socioeconomic status (SES), making it unfair. It is very important that I do my research on probability questions before using them in a statistics class. As a teacher, I want the probabilities I use to be as accurate as possible (backed up by studies). I am hoping that this will make my questions less biased. I will also reach out to other teachers to double check my work. I always appreciate getting a second opinion.

Overall, I identify most with theorists John Dewey and David Kolb. I think that Kolb's experiential learning theory is very interesting. I am so lucky that many of my math professors have embraced inquiry-based learning. In my experience, I have found that students tend to learn best when they learn from experience. Students usually work by themselves or in small groups. I believe that students still need some direct instruction from the teacher, but I will try to encourage my students to do their research and collaborate with others as much as possible.

My personal philosophy of assessment has a lot of layers. In general, I am a firm believer of administering constant formative assessment, using technology when appropriate, keeping assessment as fair as possible, and letting students learn from experience.

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Keeping Assessments Fair

The most important goal of creating assessments is to make sure they align with state standards and learning outcomes. However, it is also important that assessments are fair. Assessments are considered fair if they are not affected by factors that are unrelated to the standards that they measure. This means that fair assessments are free from any bias. 

I believe that all students are capable of learning given the right environment. As educators, we want all our instructions and assessments to be as unbiased as possible. Looking back on my undergraduate career, I have encountered some questions that might be considered bias. 

This year, my statistics course has covered some tricky topics. Last semester, one of the questions on an exam dealt with gender and politics. We were provided with a conditional probability table that listed the number of men and women who were Democrats or Republicans in a sample. The problem asked us to calculate the probability of a woman being a Republican. This is a loaded question. Is it implying that women tend to belong to a certain party? Is it suggesting that one party is "right" and the other is "wrong?" Not to mention this problem was used in a college class, so all of the students are old enough to vote and have their own political opinions. It's difficult to find a good balance between thoughtful questions and topics that might cross the line.

In addition to potential bias from a demographic perspective, bias can also target students with learning disabilities. Ideally, all students should be able to show their learning in equal ways. However, some students might need accommodations like 504s and IEPs. This is where formative assessments like projects and portfolios come in. 

Project-based assessments are a great way to assess students' learning. Although a rubric is provided, there is a lot of room for creativity. Students know what the outcome of the project should be, but how they get there is totally up to them. Portfolios also work well in classes with students of all different learning backgrounds. Portfolios track a student's individual progress over a certain amount of time. The rubric for a portfolio helps teachers measure student improvement over the semester or school year.

I believe that the best way to guard against any of my own personal biases in selecting assessments is to get a second opinion. I am so lucky to have such an amazing group of educators in my master’s program. I also have several mentors at Stevenson that have helped me so much throughout my undergraduate career. I have an awesome support system that I know I can rely on to double check my work for biases. I’m sure that I will also have some great colleagues at my school that can help me out if I need it. Teaching is such a social job, which is one of things I love about it. No one teacher can survive without support from others. We all have to work together to keep our assessments as bias-free as possible.

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