Student Assessment - How is Success Measured in Schools?

Student assessment can be performed in a number of ways, and is a great way of keeping on top of a student progress. Students themselves benefit from being involved with assessment, and regular feedback on how they're doing is a great way of enhancing their educational experience, and allows them to plan ways of doing things so that they can get the best out of their studies.

There are of course a number of reasons why a teacher would also want to assess their students. It allows teachers to find out what exactly the students are learning, whether they are all learning at the same pace, and whether they are learning and remembering the same important things. Equally, it allows teachers to recognize the things that some students will be struggling with - and hence means that the teacher will be able to provide these students with the necessary extra help and assistance they need.

Ultimately, it's a great way of getting students to reach their full potential and reach their academic goals - and the first, perhaps most common method of student assessment is setting projects for students to do. This can be done alone, or done in groups, but by giving projects and a deadline to students, they will be able to learn whilst also providing the teacher with the information they need about how well they are doing in class.

If students do the project alone, the teacher will easily be able to see how well a student copes independently and how well they can put the things they have learned into context. Equally, group work can give good student assessment feedback as to how well students interact with one another.

Another method of student assessment is through analyzing work produced throughout the year. Analyzing the performance of a student throughout the year is effective as it shows precisely what the students takes in from the classes, and how well they can use that information in tasks like writing essays or making presentations. It shows directly how much they have learned, and how much effort they put into their work. It does mean, of course, that the teacher will need to set essays and activities throughout the year, to ensure that there is something to actually analyze.

One more method is asking the students themselves. Perhaps the best feedback a teacher will ever get, is the truthful comments of students. If a teacher can arrange meetings with students, they will learn valuable things from the student as to a) how much they are learning, b) how well they respond to classes and, c) how they think they could learn better, if they find themselves struggling.

Finally, self-assessment of students has often proven to be quite effective. Teachers might want to create a kind of questionnaire-type document, for students to write down exactly how well they think they are progressing with the course. Questionnaires and written-forms will usually produce more honest results from students.