Chapter 3 - Teacher Assessment Literacy: What Do Teachers Know about Assessment?

Abstract

It is estimated that teachers spend up to 50% of their instructional time in assessment-related activities. The chapter discusses the teacher assessment literacy—what teachers actually know about assessment. It has been found that teachers receive little or no formal assessment training in the preparatory programs and often they are ill-prepared to undertake assessment-related activities. With the introduction of “authentic” assessment strategies, it is more important for teachers to be more skilled in assessment. This is so because they often are involved directly in the administration and scoring of these assessments. Some studies have attempted to quantify the level of teacher preparation in educational assessment of students. The chapter highlights the study of a national survey of teacher assessment literacy. Also, it presents a more detailed analysis of teacher performance on the instrument. The results of this study indicate low levels of assessment competency for teachers. These results suggest that it is time for the education community to recognize that teachers are ill-equipped to successfully undertake one of the most prevalent activities of their instructional program: student assessment. This is especially salient due to the current trend in student assessment, involving an increase in assessment strategies such as performance, portfolio, and other types of “authentic assessments.”