Ashleigh Carls

Professor Edgar
10 November 2015
InTASC Standard 6: Assessment to Prove and Improve Student Learning
While it may seem like an unfortunate aspect of education, assessments help teachers
prove and improve student learning. Educators should use multiple methods of assessment to
engage learners, to monitor progress and growth, and provide indication of necessary changes or
adjustments that should be made by teachers and students. Pre-tests, formative, and summative
assessments all measure student knowledge, but what teachers do with these evaluations can
really affect student progress. If students are doing poorly on assessments, this indicates that
either the students need to develop a better understanding of the material, that teachers did not
prepare students properly, or a combination of the two. Of course, the most important thing is
that the scores are not taken at face value, close examination of these measurements prove
growth and indicate areas of student and teacher learning that may requires improvement. The
difference of pre-tests, formative, and summative assessments are related to timing. Preassessments are given to students to reveal current familiarity before a new topic, formative
assessments measure short-term growth, while summative assessments seek to indicate longterm progress in student learning. Each have their own purpose, but they all help students and
teachers make decisions regarding future changes. As a teacher in general, it is important to
evaluate students regularly before a significant assessment. But specifically as a future social
studies teacher who will expose students to a large amount of information at one time, creating
these assessments help to focus students back to the objective and main points of the lesson. My
middle school mentor and I created a lesson together and had a great idea for the formative

assessment. However, it did meet the objective so we created a new assessment. I believe this
standard greatly impacts student learning as it actually helps students and teachers. While it may
seem unpleasant, it is a necessary evil that should often be modified and adjusted to meet student
needs.