Do Assessments replace teaching and testing?

Assessments have the distinct disadvantage of forcing many teachers to replace teaching with testing. In the average primary school in Trinidad and Tobago, teachers and students are continuously bombarded with both internal and external assessments. From weekly tests to monthly tests to term tests; on to National tests, then finally, to the dreaded Secondary Entrance Assessment Tests. The testing never stops, especially when schools are judged based on their performance at these test. So where does the testing stop and the teaching start.

Balajthy, 2007, suggests that, when properly implemented, technology can ease teachers’ assessment burdens, therefore freeing them to concentrate on teaching. This in turn leads to increased efficiency and effectiveness. Some of these assessments using technology are explained by Balajthy as he explores their use in reading and literacy.

To reading specialists like us, the package called Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) is most impressive. We all know how time consuming and demanding running records can be, and then how trying it can be to analyse the results. This is a package of running record, containing leveled books and sheets for documenting results, sounds like the reading specialist dream, right. It gets even better. As the running records are administered over time, the online software calculates students’ fluency rate, miscues, and comprehension scores; which can then be made available in individual student reports and/or in class and school reports. Indeed using this software is one sure way of saving time on assessments.

Some of us may remember DIBELS, Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy. DIBELS is a free (a word we like) set of short assessments to be administered to children several times a year. DIBELS assesses: Initial Sounds, Letter Naming, Phoneme Segmentation, and Nonsense words, Retelling, Word Use and Oral Reading Fluency. All of these instruments are important to teachers and reading specialists alike. You can find DIBELS at (dibels,uoregon.edu).

When assessments are available online and through software applications, it makes testing easier for teachers. As less time is spent on planning assessments, teachers can dedicate more time and energy to concentrate on teaching and learning. Teaching and learning are the keys to students’ success in schools, and in this respect, new technology is well worth the investment of both time and money.

New technologies, according to Balajthy (2007 p 246,), “can provide teachers with current information about their students …can help teachers organize and interpret data in ways that directly affect the teaching and learning processes … and can improve the flexibility that is key to meeting the needs of … diverse populations.”