How can teachers employ assessment strategies?
Teachers can use assessment results to make informed decisions about student learning needs and how to teach the material to maximize learning. Teachers make three kinds of decisions when using assessment results: instructional placement decisions, formative evaluation decisions and diagnostic decisions. Instructional placement decisions address what a student knows and where he or she is in the instructional sequence, whereas formative evaluation decisions are based on information gathered while monitoring student learning during an instructional unit. Formative assessment looks at the level of student progress, the rate of progress being made and whether or not the lessons taught are effective or need to be modified. Diagnostic decisions are made when teachers analyze student progress so that remediation may be provided in the learning process. Fairness and consistency in results are considered to be vital aspects of any assessment (Wright). To maintain fairness and consistency, all
