How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning

Guskey, T. (2003, February 2003). How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. Educational Leadership, 60(5), 1-6.

Summary:

As Educators, we know the importance of implementing classroom assessments in order to structure our lessons accordingly, but for most of us, training to create these assessments has been unavailable. Classroom assessments serve as a means to monitor the students in our classes. Classroom assessments should be used as a source of information to learn about the areas of need for our students. Assessments should not contain information that is “secret,” but rather include information that the students have previously seen. In this article, the author states that, “Teachers are testing what they teach. If a concept isn’t important enough to teach, then it isn’t important enough to assess” (Guskey, 2003).

            Teachers need to take the information gathered from an assessment to help them analyze where the areas of concern are most prevalent. In this manner, they can return to that area and re-teach that specific concept. Developing those re-teaching ideas may seem daunting for some educators because they feel that they are doing this alone. Team meetings, where teachers are able to collaborate, can be effective in this situation (Guskey, 2003).

            Assessments are a crucial part of the classroom environment. They assist teachers in pinpointing the areas of need that were either not taught effectively or a concept that the students did not grasp. If teachers come together and work cooperatively, they can share ideas and create more effective classroom assessments that can aid not only in classroom instruction, but also in creating benchmarks for each student.

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