Assessing Students Learning

Assessment is the gathering of reliable information pertaining to students knowledge and understanding of critical concepts.   This is not to be confused with evaluation which is the process of making judgment, based in part on assessment data. There are four types of assessment:
1. Before instruction assessment 
2. During instruction assessment (formative assessment), assessment for learning to provide information on how they are doing
3. After instruction assessment (Summative assessment)-Assessment of learning
4.Assessment as learning, a self assessment reflecting upon your own learning 

Three features to assessment 
1. Reliability, results that are produced are reproducible 
2.Validity, test or a assignment that measures what it is intended to measure  two types 
           A) Content Validity, assessment instruments measures the content that you`ve covered
           B) Instructional Validity, assessment of what was actually done in class

It is important for teacher to be fair when assessing students all students should have an equal opportunity to learn and demonstrate their skills.  Some current trends used to assess student include the use of at least some performance base assessment, higher order cognitive skills, use of multiple assessment methods, having high performance standards and using computers as part of assessments