8 Concepts

There are 8 elements or concepts critical to the contemporary idea of assessment in today's schools, these being NCLB, alternative assessment, traditional assessment, norm- and criterion-referenced measurements, IDEA, universal design, and standards-based education reform. Of these eight, I feel that teachers often lack an understanding of universal design and alternative assessment. As both of these concepts are vital to teaching for success, and understanding of their meanings and implications is, undoubtedly, necessary.

In my opinion, alternative assessment is largely overshadowed by traditional assessment in the majority of classrooms today, due to both a lack of knowledge and teachers becoming stagnant in their practices. Traditional assessments, of course, are often made up of multiple-choice and/or true/false questions. The decision by teachers to administer these types of assessments surely puts restraints on their students by limiting their abilities to express what they know. These tests, instead provide a short list of acceptable answers and insist the student chooses just one. Alternative assessment, on the other hand, gives students the variety from which to choose how to best express their knowledge and skills. Alternative assessments take on multiple forms, including creating poems, music, essays, pieces of art, oral presentations, demonstrations, exhibitions, and more. It is not so much a matter of teachers not being aware of these alternative forms of assessment, but rather taking the time and dedication to change their curriculum to include these forms.

Also, I firmly believe that teachers have little knowledge of the application of universal design to assessment. Despite the vast differences in abilities due to any given reason in a classroom, bearing in mind a universal design approach to curriculum and instruction will help serve to meet the needs of all of unique individuals. All learners, then, would be more likely to experience success in the form of meeting classroom goals and objectives.

Finally, NCLB is often too simplified by schools, teachers, and administrators. Many fail to realize that their colleagues (physical education, art, and music teachers) would lose valuable class time to make up for the newfound emphasis on reading, science, and mathematics. With a critical obesity epidemic taking shape amongst very young children in this country, physical education cannot be cut short to increase time in science or math class. Likewise, is losing valuable education in the arts the proper way to establish more focus on math, science, and reading?