I am a big believer in getting assessment right. A student's record, pass rate, GPA, and their future success depend on the vital ability to be given a true evaluation of their skills and understanding. Here is a quick and dirty look at some issues that happen:
- Outcome if assessment is too lenient: Student has an unrealisitic expectation of success after graduation. Employers are dissappointed, not only in the student, but in the school.
- Outcome if assessment is too difficult: Student is held to a standard that is beyond the intentions of the objectives, being measured on skills/knowledge not in the course. This results in a high failure rate and often, a student's unwillingness to continue.
- Outcome when the assessments don't match the objectives: Students study the wrong information and maybe even know quite a bit, but fail because the tests were designed for something else.
- Outcome when tests are not vetted: Imagine a scenario when an automated test has bad answers. It grades a student who knows the correct answer and marks then down or fails them anyway. Timid students don't challenge it. They just take the bad grade, all because a teacher did not bother to fix the stuff to begin with. Alternatively, if students were already at risk, this just makes it worse.
As an administrator, I have never witnessed students more upset than when given a bad grade because of a bad assessment.
