This 8 page paper begins with a description of the student assessment process at an elementary school. The writer than reports a study whose purpose was to identify and describe the factors and conditions that make schools' use of the student assessment data more probable and valuable. The writer then offers a list of Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning. The writer then identifies the aspects of the school's assessment program that are in line with these two other sources. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGstas.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
requirement of the state as well as to support the Presidents No Child Left Behind policy. An end--of-year assessment is administered in each grade at the end of the year
to assess performance at that time as well as to compare student achievement from the previous year (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). There are also ongoing assessments in the classroom that
are teacher-made quizzes and tests (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). These assess the learning of lesson units (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). Assessment is not accomplished only by tests, however. Teachers also
use a variety of other methods, such as portfolios, research projects, and student demonstrations (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). With the exception of the required standardized test, all assessments are tied
directly to the curriculum, such as the mathematics curriculum, the language arts curriculum, the science curriculum and the social studies curriculum (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). All classroom assessments are revised
and updated on a regular basis to reflect the most recent research on the best assessment practices that have been identified (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). The assessment goal "is to
provide all students with fair opportunities to demonstrate what they know and are able to do" (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). This is actualized by the various methods used to assess
learning and performance. The different methods account for students who are better able to demonstrate learning through a project or by physically doing something, like demonstrating something. Portfolios not only
offer a sample of work, they are clear evidence of a students improvement and progress from the beginning of the year. Student assessments are not utilized only to monitor
student progress, they are used to improve instruction (Beechview Elementary School, 2004). When assessments reveal students are not making the progress expected, teachers modify their instructional approach, which may