Sun-hong’s online journal

Rethinking assessment and accountability: assessment as learning
Around the world, assessment is becoming an extremely “high stakes” activity for students, teachers, and schools. At the same time, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the available assessment procedures. Assessment reform, like other educational changes, is caught in a maelstrom of rapid change and uncertainty (p. 150).
Reporting is about communication, not mere information giving. Judgments do not arrive suddenly, by surprise, when it is too late to do anything about them. No secrets, no surprises: there are key principles of positive assessment practice in Rich’s classroom. (p. 153)
It is important to involve students in the assessment process not just to avoid nasty surprises, but also to develop their own skills in self-assessment: an extremely valuable form of learning in itself. If students are to become critical thinkers and problem solvers who can bring their talents and knowledge to bear on a particular problem, then developing such skills of self-assessment and self-judgment is essential. (p. 154)
Assessment is, by definition, judgmental. It is a deeply personal and emotional experience for the student being assessed; and it can have a far-reaching impact on individual students, on educators, and on the nature of the society in which they live. It is no wonder that decisions and ideas about assessment practices and assessment reform are often not reasoned, logical, or objective. They are too closely tied to people’s deeper beliefs, their fears, and their aspirations. (p. 158).
Darling-Hammond, L. (1994). National standards and assessments: Will they improve
education? American Journal of Education 102, 4: 478-510
Two very different theories of school reform are working in parallel and sometimes at cross-purposes…. One theory focuses on tightening the controls: more courses, more tests, more directive curriculum, more standards enforced by more rewards, and more sanctions. These reforms would improve education by developing more tests and tying funds to schools’ test scores…. A second theory attends more to the qualifications and capacities of teachers and to developing schools through changes in teacher education, licensing, and certification processes,… professional development schools, efforts to decentralize school decision making while infusing knowledge, changing local assessment practices, and developing networks among teachers and schools (p. 22).
It is ironic that the word assessment is derived from the Latin word assidere: to sit with (Wiggins, 1993).
Wiggins, G. (1993). Assessing student performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
When assessment is seen as learning, teachers are the key, with responsibility for the breadth and depth of students’ expression of learning. (p. 167)