Assessment As, For, and Of Learning

By Margo Gottlieb?

Looking into my closet, I decide my clothes for the day based on what is the weather forecast, where I am going, who I am going to see, and how long I plan to be out and about. At times the selection of my attire is deliberate; at others, it is quite impulsive. Walking into their classrooms, teachers make similar decisions each day regarding where their students are, what are the learning targets, how to actively engage their students, and which options to offer students to show their evidence for learning. In essence, just as I make a daily needs assessment of my wardrobe possibilities, so too do teachers take inventory of potential activities based on their students’ interests and characteristics to optimize their learning opportunities. That’s the gist of classroom assessment.

We often mistakenly equate assessment with standardized testing, an activity that is usually outside the control of teachers.

Actually, assessment is an iterative process, one in which both teachers and students can become change agents. Within the process, we envision a model of assessment as, for, and of learning as a course of action that revolves around relationship and trust building among students, educators, and families. Most importantly, we leverage the richness and strengths of our multilingual learners’ vibrant resources to ensure the linguistic and cultural sustainability of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information is the essence of assessment. It can be spontaneous, occurring in the moment, or planned over time, such as embedded in the design of a long-term project. Just as the Dress for Success movement is one of empowerment that leads to personal independence, so too can classroom assessment where students, if given choice and voice, can attain autonomy.?