Assessment as a Continuum

Since there is such a wide range of tools and techniques available for assessment, it is possible, and even advisable, to avoid treating assessment activities as an “event.” Too often, both students and teachers fall into the trap of regarding assessment as the end rather than as the means. Rather, learning and measuring should be practiced as part of the same continuum.

To understand this idea of a single continuum, it may be helpful to blur the distinction between summative and formative evaluations. To review, formative evaluation is the gathering of information in the early phases of developing a system of instruction to use for immediate feedback in modifying that system. Summative evaluation, on the other hand, is the gathering of information at the end point of a process to measure its efficacy.

If assessment is to be integrated as part of instruction, the distinction between formative and summative evaluation is less clear. For curriculum activity that is ongoing, there is no clear-cut end point. The summative evaluation would in fact “serve as a first stage of a formative evaluation for the second wave of innovation.”³

Again, there is no need to fear the supposed complexity of assessment. Remember, assessment is more than testing. It is observing students. It is conversing with students. Any activity that demonstrates mastery, hopefully in real-life situations, is integral to assessment.

Remember, too, that students should have a say in how they will demo nstrate their mastery. A student with strong writing skills may wish to include an essay of self-reflection in his portfolio, while someone with strong people skills may wish to complete a group project. Roleplaying, demonstrations, videotapes, reports, journals, illustrations, interviewing -- the list of potential tools for assessment is endless.

All of these methods provide information on whether an objective has been met. As part of the ever-changing planning of instruction, assessment is a work in progress. As creative educators, we can and do devise ways of assessment which are effective and nurturing, and give value to what learners know about life. A discussion of assessment will be developed in more detail in a separate document.

³ Wittrock, M.C. and Wiley, D.E., eds. The Evaluation of Instruction: Issues and Problems (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970), pg.206.