What are the different types of assessments and evaluations used in your educational setting?

Various forms of assessment are used in school settings. Assessments are used to determine the quality of the whole school as well as the assessment performance of the teachers and students within the school.

The Southern Association Colleges and Schools (SACS) is built on a set of quality standards and accreditation that applies to public schools accredited by the formed Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (CASI) (SACS CASI, 2005). These assessment standards are built on guidelines that are directed by an evaluation process through a committee. SACS CASI ensures that schools who are accredited "(a) meet standards, (b) engage in continuous improvement, and (c) provide for quality assurance (SACS CASI, 2005, p. 4). Each school under the 5-year cycle review must provide a summary of evidence that illustrates the effective processes of the school's vision, profile, plan, and results.

In a school setting, SACS CASI is a very important assessment process for a school. It validates the quality and belief of the purpose and existing standards in a school that must be evident and viable for student success. The school's organization and culture is based upon the driving directions of the SACS CASI standards; beliefs and mission; governance and leadership; curriculum; instruction; assessment and evaluation; resources; support services for student learning; stakeholder communications and relationships; and continuous process of school improvement (SACS CASI, 2005). The school's Local Educational Agency (LEA) spend tremendous amounts of dollars each year to ensure that these standards are the guiding principals within each school through staff development, quality assurance visits, and results from standardized testing, as well as yearly professional evaluations of staff and teachers.

Teachers undergo in-depth assessment and evaluation process using the state's Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument (TPAI). School administrators use the TPAI to assess teachers during classroom instruction. This assessment tools evaluates teachers on management of instructional time; management of student behavior; instructional presentation; instructional monitoring; instructional feedback; facilitating instruction; communicating within the educational environment; and performing non-instructional duties (NCDPI, 2007). Each area in the assessment requires a check rating the teachers' performance from above standard, at standard, below standard, and unsatisfactory. Supporting evidence from the observation must be written in a narrative format to support the checked rating of the teachers' performance. The TPAI is very detailed and supports the SACS CASI standards that teachers must utilize daily in the classroom in order for students to demonstrate positive academic performance on state standardized tests.

At present time, the ultimate assessment is the academic performance on reading and math standardized tests. The results determine if a school has met adequate yearly progress (AYP) based on the federal guidelines of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This assessment tool is a very informative tool and seems to be the tool to determine if the teaching quality is as effective as needed and there is evidence that the quality indicators of SACS CASI are in fact in place in the school setting. It has been witnessed that schools demonstrating quality achievement have been noted as below standard due to the assessment findings of the NCLB. For example schools in Maryland that were once known for their academic student successes are now going through dramatic changes because the schools are not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) under NCLB (Fletcher, 2005).

Various levels of assessment are valuable tools in providing information. The key to any assessment is to be informed as to what the assessment tool will actually measure. Clawson (2006) provides a true picture of results measure. Results measures monitor past performance, but they don't shed much light on the current processes that determine whether the goals will be achieved.

References

Clawson, J. G. (2006). Level three leadership: Getting below the surface (3rd ed.).Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Fletcher, M. A. (2005). Federal mandate: Is the No Child Left Behind act making the

grade? The Crisis, 112, 16-19.

Public Schools of North Carolina. (2007). Teacher Performance Appraisal Instrument. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/

SACS CASI Accreditation Standards. (2005). Accreditation Standards for Quality Schools. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://. sacscasi.org