WK15 Discussion

Standards for Teacher Competence in Education Assessment of Students

Introduction

Teaching standards refers to the accepted principles responsible for providing quality education services to learners. The committee which began working for this great idea in 1987 aimed at encouraging the development of qualifications for school's counselors, administrators, supervisors, and testing directors among other educators. Assessment refers to the process of extracting information used to improve educational decisions attributed to the students’ strengths, weaknesses and informing them of their progress. Below, I have specifically addressed my current level of understanding in relation to the seven explained competences in the article.

My current level of understanding and skill regarding the elaborated competencies

Coming up with the appropriate standards regarding teacher competence in educational assessment of students is a significant approach simply because it is an important part of the teaching process and it forms a basis for good teaching techniques. The explained seven competencies directly relate to the activities describing the teacher's professional role as well as the responsibilities related to student’s assessments. The activities include those occurring prior, during and after the appropriate instructional segment. Other activities include those associated with a teacher’s involvement when it comes to school decision making and those involved in a wider community perspective regarding educators. In regard to the first competence, it is appropriate for teachers to be equipped with skills focusing on the assessment methods that are appropriate for instructional decisions. This means that they should be familiar with the appropriate criteria used for selecting assessment methods based on the existing instructional plans. Educators who meet this competency will yield diverse benefits all for the purposes of providing quality educational services which still require a sophisticated approach.

When teachers are well equipped with skills concerning the development of assessment methods necessary for instructional decisions as the second standard address, it means that they will readily go beyond the available instruments focusing on the assessment. This standard for assessment competence is significant as the educators will be in a position to follow the appropriate principles, to use student data when analyzing the assessment technique they use and thus they will avoid common pitfalls imputed to assessment. Third, teachers who have acquired the necessary skills requiring administration, scoring, and interpretation of both the teacher- produced and externally produced assessment methods will very likely be able to interpret both formal and informal teacher-produced assessment results. As the fourth competence describes, it is important for educators to use assessment results to come up with relevant decisions about student's progress. By using the assessment plan, they can assess the students’ educational development.

When it comes to the development of valid pupil grading procedures that utilizes pupil assessments, skills regarding devising, implementing and explaining procedures for the appropriate grading are of vital importance. Teachers capable of doing so can easily produce rational, fair and justified students’ results which are in line with the sixth competency. Finally, the seventh competency requires that teachers have relevant skills that recognize illegal unethical and even inappropriate assessment methods. Educators should be well versed with ethical and legal responsibilities dealing with assessments. This is an important standard as it limits the

educators to misuse or even overuse assessment procedures with an intention of embarrassing the students.

References

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln | Web Developer Network. (n.d.). Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students | Buros Center for Testing | Nebraska. Retrieved from http://buros.org/standards-teacher-competence-educational-assessment-students