Topic: IRA and NCTE Standards for Assessment

10-second review: The topic translates into International Reading Association(IRA) and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards for Assessment, which is different from evaluation, which is what is happening with standardized tests used to close schools and fire teachers. To find these standards for assessment, you need to go on the Internet at www.reading.org/General/CurrentResearch/Standards.aspx.

Note: Somewhere in the verbiage that accompanies these standards of assessment must include how assessment differs from evaluation. However, I could not find it. To me assessment is ongoing. Evaluation is a final judgment. If it means anything, I agree with assessment, its purposes, and standards.

Here are the Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing (Revised):

. The interests of the student are paramount in assessment.

. The teacher is the most important aspect of assessment.

. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning.

. Assessment must reflect and allow for critical inquiry into curriculum and instruction.

. Assessment must recognize and reflect the intellectually and socially complex nature of reading and writing and the important roles of school, home, and society in literacy development.

. Assessment must be fair and equitable.

. The consequences of an assessment procedure are the first and most important consideration in establishing the validity of the assessment.

. The assessment process should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data.

. Assessment must be based in the local school learning community, including active and essential participation of families and community members.

. All stakeholders in the educational community—students, families, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and the public—must have an equal voice in the development, interpretation and reporting of assessment information.

. Families must be involved as active, essential participants in the assessment process.

Comment: Assessment is what I didn’t do when I was a curriculum supervisor. I helped teachers develop curriculum, but I did not spend an equal amount of time on assessment, It might have made all the difference in the world if I had and if I followed these standards. Groan. RayS.