Assignment 2

Antony Jacob

Cheanel Nolden

April 17, 2019

Student Assessment

Elements of worthy Object for Program Evaluation

The student assessment plan is an individual and programmatic scheme that is concerned with examining student’s competencies. The program deals with analyzing individual student’s social and academic abilities through strategies that identify student’s strengths and weaknesses with regards to academic, innate talent, and social parameters. The programmatic nature of the program is concerned with learning functions and student’s decision-making functions. In order for students to participate in their learning processes constructively, the learning process should be supported by programmatic schemes that can positively influence the learning process (Heeneman et al., 2015). As such, the student assessment program is a supportive and programmatic tool that seeks to aid in student development and improvement of the learning process. There will different types of stakeholders to develop, evaluate, and administer the program to ensure its success. Teachers who teach different classes will be involved in developing the assessment program in collaboration with some parents and counselors because they are the ones who fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of each student. Education stakeholders such as administrators will be needed to analyze the feasibility of the program with regards to the requirements needed for its effective implementation. Teachers will be responsible for implementation of the program. The target population for the student assessment program includes students in K-12 classes because the program seeks to mentor and improve student’s competencies as early as possible.

Program Purpose and Expected Results

The student assessment program was idealized in 2018 and has been undergoing different developments and improvements so that it is almost in its last stages to implementation. The main purpose of the student assessment program is to improve individual student’s competencies in all angles of life from social skills, personal talent development, improvement of student’s critical thinking skills, and aligning the educational process to suit students’ needs and future career prospects to increase their chances of success in their professional life in the future (Conley, 2015). Through purposeful selection of specific learning outcomes, a compilation of aggregate information will be used by students individually or collectively to empower them to induce self-directed learning amongst students.

The program is expected to improve students’ critical thinking skills, and to enable them to learn and appreciate education through motivational elements that are part of the program. Further, the program is also expected to improve the robustness and quality of student assessment processes to include social and congenital skills so that students can value the wide dimension of education that focuses beyond academic performance alone (Heeneman et al., 2015). Besides, the program seeks to add value to student assessment processes to motivate students so that they can value education and become focused on identifying the right career and how to integrate their education in their personal, social, and future professional lives.

Reasons for Selecting the Program

One of the main reasons for selecting the program is its potential to have positive impacts on student’s views and attitudes towards education. The student assessment program has the potential to motivate students to like education, and to look at education positively because it expands the scope of the traditional student assessment model that mainly focuses on student’s academic performance. The program seeks to examine and facilitate the development of student’s social, intellectual, and innate skills. As such, students are likely to find it fascinating because its multidimensional nature has the potential to explore the interests of all students with regards to career preferences. The second reason is its relevance. The program is relevant because it enables students to realize that there are important areas in life that they are good at even if they did not perform excellently in their academic work. The third reason is that the program is cheap and does not require a lot of resources to implement.

Advantages of Evaluating the Program at This Time

There are various benefits that come with evaluation of the program within this period. First, the outcome of the assessment can be returned in a timely fashion to students as soon as each evaluation process is complete (Heritage, 2010). In so doing, the students can understand the areas that they need improvement. The second benefit rests in the fact that both the students and instructors are kept informed of all students’ progress, both with respect to the objectives of the study. This forms the essence of formative student assessment, which is often done on a continuous basis. Further, by embracing a more formative method of assessment, the evaluation gives room for a more comprehensive process (Heritage, 2010). For instance, each section of a subject can be evaluated in more details that would have been possible with the utilization of a single final examination. As such, remedial work may be done as prescribed at the most relevant period.

Major Constraints in Conducting the Evaluation

There are various constraints that are associated with evaluations mechanisms used in the student assessment program. First, the inflexibility of the institutional systems, policies, and procedures pose major obstructions. For instance, institutional policies and procedures are only designed to support the traditional standardized academic approaches to assessment. In so doing, it focuses on academic contents alone (Heritage, 2010). This fails to give room for other important areas of students’ life such as their application of theory and technical skills, as well as their attitudes and critical thinking. Inflexibility in the evaluation process may also fail to examine students’ communication skills, problem-solving capabilities, and team-spirit. The second constraint emerges when the summative final assessment bears no relationship with the formative assessments and thus departs from what has been learned.

References

Conley, D. (2015). A new era for educational assessment. education policy analysis archives, 23, (8), 1-41.

Heeneman, S., Oudkerk Pool, A., Schuwirth, L. W., van der Vleuten, C. P., & Driessen, E. W. (2015). The impact of programmatic assessment on student learning: theory versus practice. Medical education, 49(5), 487-498.

Heritage, M. (2010). Formative assessment: Making it happen in the classroom. New York:

Corwin Press.