Education Questions and Responses, Essay Example

Why evaluation is the keystone of education?

Assessment of accomplishment in schools was always a matter of dispute. Everyone knows that making a proper evaluation of students’ results makes them to strive for success in school. In turn, incorrect evaluation can discourage students and they will show bad results. So, choosing the right way of assessment is 50% of success of school’s administration and essential precondition for students’ success. I think that choosing of the best method of evaluation is extremely vital and administration should put decisions on proper method of students’ evaluation in the first place.

What are the main types of test used for evaluation and assessment methods?

There were different types of evaluation in educational institutions, before Robert Glades, a well-known educational psychologist, divided them into two groups: norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced test. He was the first one to classify and research means of measurement. In order to supplement two types of tests, experts in this field add ipsative assessment. Let’s focus on each type of assessment in education.

What is a norm-referenced test?

Norm-referenced test is a test that aims at comparison of educational levels of different student. Results of this test are rankings of students. This type of evaluation only shows the position of each particular student in the whole population of students tested. Norm-referenced tests are useful for students who have different levels of knowledge. However, there are two arguable points: 1) these tests cannot show progress of the whole population; 2) if the educational level of population is low, then norm-reference tests wouldn’t be able to detect it.

What is a criterion-referenced test?

Criterion-referenced tests are used to define the level of students’ knowledge of particular disciplines. These tests are based on criteria, which can show the results of comprehending the subject. Apart from norm-referenced tests, which are pretty complicated for an average student, criterion-referenced test contain specific question that are easier to cope with. Thus, results of this test can misrepresent the ranking in class. However, norm-referenced tests do not show the depth of knowledge.

For which purposes ipsative assessment is used?

The last type of assessment is ipsative one. It is the practice of assessing results individually for every student. Ipsative assessment shows the progress of each particular student and allows analyzing this progress. This type of assessment can be performed using both criterion- and norm-referenced tests.

None of these methods can be solely used for students’ evaluation. As for me, none of these methods is ideal, but combining them, administration can achieve substantial results in student’s assessment process. These types of assessment will now be analyzed in relation to students’ accomplishments, supervisory accomplishments, and parents’ involvement.

How to evaluate students’ accomplishments effectively?

Student accomplishment can be evaluated using all the methods depending on the objective of the assessment. When admission tests are will be designed, they will contain both norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests. An emphasis shall be made on criterion-referenced tests. Schools and colleges cannot afford to admit students who have relatively low educational level. Thus, criterion-referenced tests are necessary for such case. Norm-referenced tests shall be used as well if the school or college wants to get best students. Ipsative assessment shall also be used for evaluation of student accomplishment. This type of testing enables tracking the progress of the student and critically evaluates results of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced test.

In my humble opinion, the method of proof, which can ensure the quality, is the analysis of results of all types of tests and assessment methods. I think that the best way of evaluation of the educational level of each student is to use the combination of all the methods. Thus, teachers can effectively assess test results, and conclude whether any achievements have been made.

What methods can be used to keep track of supervisors’ progress in teaching?

Supervisory accomplishment has much in common with students’ accomplishments as their results are also a merit of their teacher. Norm-referenced tests cannot be used for this purpose as they cannot show the progress of students’ population. Criterion-referenced test is the best method to evaluate teachers’ efficiency. This type of test enables comparing results of students and observing if there is any progress. Ipsative assessment can always be used for this purpose when evaluation of each student is required. This method of assessment enables school administration to perform more accurate analysis.

The quality of evaluation process can be proofed with the help of analysis of students’ accomplishments along with activities, performed to increase teacher’s proficiency. If students’ results increase from year to year, the quality of this evaluation method can be proved. If the results are not so good, the teacher is required to attend certain training. After these trainings, analyses of students’ accomplishments are performed again.

As for me, there is also another method to evaluate supervisory achievements. The best way to do it is to ask student for an opinion. Only they can directly see the quality of teacher’s services. But still some problem may occur – students could make their decision not basing on the level of quality of teachers’ services.

What activities should administration of the school perform to identify the contribution of parents to students’ achievements?

Parents’ involvement is harder to determine than students’ and supervisory accomplishments. The problem exists, because it is very hard to find out whether the results shown by the student were achieved only due to students work or parents have done a great job too. But still, the proper method can be found. First, the information endowments of each student are determined. This can be made through analysis of norm-referenced tests results. When these results are collected, administration can move up to the next stage. Criterion-referenced tests are performed along with analysis of their results. Teacher has to track all changes in the level of knowledge of each student. So, all data is collected and the last thing administration has to do is to identify whether the results were triggered by parents’ involvement or not. Being a student, I know that none of the methods can help with deciding whether parents make any contribution in student’s success. But still there is another methods, which are not connected with educational evaluation. This can be done with the help of polling or personal consultations. Polling is easier to perform, but its result will show only the percentage of parents who are involved in the educational process. Personal consultations can show exactly which students get good or bad results due to their parents’ involvement or non-interference in the educational process.