The Social Purposes of Learning Assessment
Main Article Content
Keywords
Assessment, Social Roles and Purposes of Assessment, Academic Performance, education
Abstract
Assessment has been studied by many researchers and educators from the prism of educational theories viewed purely from an instructional or pedagogical analysis, but there is an open space in which learning assessment could be further scrutinized using sociological perspective so as to explore its social roles. The paper analyzes the social consequences of assessment and its resistances from the various participants of teaching and learning process. Assessment has been widely used for accountability, control, and sorting mechanism of society to distribute the limited available social positions. Thus only those students properly equipped with knowledge, values and competencies excel in the assessment devices. Students in the lower echelon of society, however, are left with few opportunities for social mobility and employment due to their limited capacity to pass through this filtering machine called assessment. Teachers and student demonstrate some manifest and latent resistances to the negative consequences of assessment. Hence, assessment both serves as a system to improve learning or account teachers and schools and as an instrument for academic segregation and tracking. It should be viewed beyond the walls of classroom by looking at the close, but intricate linkage of assessment to society.
References
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Shor, I. (1980). Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press.
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Biesta, G. (2008). Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education, The Stirling Institute of Education, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland UK: Springer.
Broadfoot, P. M. (1996). Education, Assessment and Society. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Committee on Assessment and Teacher Quality, Board on Testing and Assessment, National Research Council. (2000). Tests and Teaching Quality: Interim Report Committee on Assessment and Teacher Quality, NationaL Academy Press.
Corbett, M. (2008). The Edumometer: The commodification of learning from Galton to the PISA. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 6(1).
Dearden, R. F. (1979). The Assessment of Learning. British Journal of Educational Studies, Blackwell Publishing. 27(2).
Farganis, J. (1993). Readings in Social Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Glaser, R. & Silver, E. (1994). Assessment, Testing, and Instruction: Retrospect and Prospect. Review of Research in Education, 20, 393-419.
Gordon, E. W. (1995). Toward an equitable system of educational assessment, The Journal of Negro Education. Washington: 64(3).
Hanushek, E. A. & Raymond, M. E. (2005). Does School Accountability Lead to Improved Student Performance? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24(2), 297–327.
Harlen, W. (2007). Designing a fair and effective assessment system. A paper presented at the 2007 BERA Annual Conference as part of the ARG symposium, Future Directions for Student Assessment, University of Bristol.
Johnson, H. C. Jr., Rhodes, D. M., & Rumery, R. E. (1975). The Assessment of Teaching in Higher Education: A Critical Retrospect and a Proposal. Part I: A Critical Retrospect. Higher Education, 4(2), 173-199.
Madaus, G. F. (1993). A national testing system: manna from above? A historical/technological perspective. Educational Assessment.
Mansell, W., James, M., & the Assessment Reform Group. (2009). Assessment in schools. Fit for purpose? A Commentary by the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. London: Economic and Social Research Council, Teaching and Learning Research Programme.
Maylone, N. (2000). The Relationship of Poverty Indicators and District Scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program Tests. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Orwell, George (1961). Animal Farm. Sigmet Classic. N.Y.: The New American Library, Inc.
McDonnell, L. M. (1994). Policymakers' Views of Student Assessment. Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND.
McDonnell, L. M. (1994). Assessment Policy as Persuasion and Regulation. American Journal of Education, The University of Chicago Press, 102(4).
Ollman, B. (n. d.). Why So Many Exams? A Marxist Response.
Pellegrino, J. (1999). The Evolution of Educational of Educational Assessment: Considering the Past and Imagining the Future. The sixth Annual William H. Angoff Memorial Lecture was presented at Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey.
Pellegrino, J. W. (2001). Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment. Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, Board on Testing and Assessment, Center for Education, National Research Council.
Ravela, P, Arregui, P., Valverde, G., Wolfe, R., Ferrer, G., Rizo, F. M., Aylwin, M., & Wolff, L. (2009). The Educational Assessments That Latin America Needs. Working Paper Series, No. 40. Washington, DC: PREAL.
Ritzer, G. (1996). Sociological Theory. (4th ed.). New York: The McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Schaefer, R. & Lamm, R. (1995). Sociology. (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7).
Shor, I. (1980). Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press.
Skidmore, P. (2003). Beyond Measure, why educational assessment is failing the test, London: DEMOS.
The Relationship between Critical Pedagogy and Assessment in Teacher Education. (2003). Radical Pedagogy, Early Childhood Teacher Education, School of Education, UNITEC.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Secretary. (2008). Great Expectations: Holding Ourselves and Our Schools Accountable for Results. Washington, D.C.
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Published
Nov 8, 2010
Article Details
How to Cite
Abulencia, A. A. (2010). The Social Purposes of Learning Assessment. The Normal Lights, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.56278/tnl.v5i1.62
Section
Research Article
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