“….Special ed law embraces the “disability is natural”
paradigm, and requires schools to educate children with disabilities in general
ed classes and provide them with the assistive technology, supports, and
modifications they need to be successful…” (Snow, 2003) Without assessments
this statement would hold no meaning for children that don’t have a visible disability.
Not all disabilities can be seen with the eye, that is why I feel that assessments
are a good source of information regarding children’s development and if they
might need additional support in their personal and educational lives. I even
feel that gifted children need to have
assessments done to actually see how gifted they are and also if they are
mentally stable enough to handle the pressure of the additional requirements
for a gifted program. I had my son tested for the gifted program at the
suggestion of his teacher. She felt that he was not being challenged enough in
her class because he learned faster than the other children and got bored in
the class easily. Me personal I thought he might be ADHAD, his score was like
five points away from what is required for the gifted program but the school
put him in the class anyway and I’m proud to say he is at the top of his class
and doesn’t get into trouble anymore. My
son has be measured and assessed since he was born. He was born at 26 weeks
gestational time after being without a water bag for 18 days. I’m happy that
they did all those test to make sure he was well. They released him from the “preterm
clinic” at the age of 3 because he was advance for his age and able to do
things that 4 and 5 year olds were tested on. The 1st picture is when my son was 2 weeks old and the first time I got to hold him without him being connected to machines and wrapped up like a tamale. The 2nd picture is my son at 11 years old and in the 5th grade doing very well.
I chose Africa to learn more about the assessments in
school age children. I have a best friend from Africa and I like to learn new
information about her country.
The use of assessment to improve the quality of
education in African education systems over the past two decades are described in
four categories of assessment: public examinations, national assessments, international
assessments, and classroom assessment.
Public Examination:
Public (external) examinations have played a major
role throughout the history of modern education in Africa. They serve a number
of functions, the most important of which is to select students for successive
levels in the education system. Despite their central role, many criticisms
have been made of their quality. In particular, it has been observed that
examinations are limited in the areas of knowledge and skills that they assess;
they contain little reference to the knowledge and skills that students need in
their everyday life outside the school; and they tend to measure achievement at
a low taxonomic level.
National Assesments:
While public examinations are a long-standing
feature of education systems,
national assessments (sometimes called system
assessments, learning assessments, or less
appropriately assessments of learning outcomes) are
relatively new. A national
assessment may be defined as an exercise designed to
describe the level of achievements,
not of individual students, but of a whole education
system, or a clearly defined part of it
(e.g.,
fourth grade pupils or 11-year olds).
International Assessments:
International assessments differ from national
assessments in that they can provide some indication of where the achievements
of students in a country stand relative to the achievements of students in
other countries.
Classroom Assessments:
The assessment of students’ learning in the
classroom (both by teachers and by students themselves) is an integral
component of the teaching-learning process. Much of this kind of assessment is
subjective, informal, immediate, on-going, and intuitive, as it interacts with
learning as it occurs, monitoring student behavior, scholastic performance, and
responsiveness to instruction. Its role is to determine students’ current level
of knowledge, skill, or understanding, to diagnose problems they may be
encountering, to make decisions about the next instructional steps to take (to
revise or to move on), and to evaluate the learning that has taken place in a
lesson.
References:
Kellaghan, T. & Greaney, V. Monitoring performance
assessment and examinations in Africa. Retrieved from:
http://toolkit.ineesite.org/toolkit/INEEcms/uploads/1089/Monitoring_Performance_Assessment_Examinations.pdf
<<<Me and 1 of my grandsons Dom
<<<My 2 dogs Goldie (black one) annd Brandie (brown one) & my grand dog Zippy and grand cat Billy
<<2 of my daughter by other parents, me and my son. (I raised the girls from the ages of 6 and 5).
