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I can see that you made an attempt to cite quotes throughout, but all verbatim quotes must be enclosed in quotation marks and all summaries (using all your own words) of other author’s ideas must include a citation. 

 1 This is basically a verbatim quote and is included in your paper without any citation. All verbatim quotes must be enclosed in quotation marks, otherwise it appears that you wrote it yourself. (Even if you summarize this process in all your own words, a citation is required, as you learned about this process from Suskie.) You wrote: It is a process that initially involves establishing clear and observable student learning goals, giving students sufficient opportunities for achiving the goals, gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence that students meet the set goals and using the results to improve student learning. Original source: “1. Establish clear, observable expected goals for student learning. 2. Ensure that students have sufficient opportunities to achieve those goals. 3. Systematically gather, analyze, and interpret evidence of how well student learning meets those goals. 4. Use the resulting information to understand and improve student learning” (Suskie, 2018, p. 8). 

2 You wrote: Assessment refers to the process of deciding what students are going to learn and ensuring they learn it. 

Original Source: “Assessment is deciding what we want our students to learn and making sure they learn it” (Suskie, 2018, p. 8). There are several other areas that appear to be summaries of other authors’ work. Be sure to include citations for these. Also, be sure to include page numbers for all verbatim quotes. Before revising your paper, please review the Safe Assign report and identify all verbatim (or close to verbatim) quotes that need citations (including quotation marks). 

To: Department member

Subject: The value of assessment

Dear (name),

The assessment helps improve the learning of students. With assessment, teachers can identify the areas that students need to improve and ensure that their teaching focuses on those areas. Assessment can, therefore, be used as a planning tool for teachers to determine the skills that students should learn. It also determines whether or not the educational goals are met. Educators use it to determine whether their students have acquired the skills they were supposed to develop.

Assessments affect decisions on curriculum, funding and instructional needs. It inspires educators to ask themselves whether or not they are teaching what they are supposed to teach or whether the students are learning what they are supposed to learn. It provides diagnostic feedback on the performance base of students, knowledge base and educational needs.

Educators may use assessment results to set learning standards. “After assessing students, educators determine or set a performance that demonstrates that a child has understood enough concepts in a particular subject or unit” (Suskie, 2018 p.177). The educators also set standards of the performance that shows mastery of concepts and skills being taught. For example, a performance of ninety percent would show mastery of skills and concepts in a certain subject.

The progress of students is evaluated by the use of assessments. Educators can determine the most effective teaching approaches or methods depending on how students performed using each teaching strategy. They also determine the kind of modifications or changes they need to make in their curriculums to ensure that students benefit from teaching.

“Educators can determine what students have learned and whether they can talk about the newly acquired knowledge and whether the students can demonstrate the new skills acquired” (Suskie, 2018 p.182). Assessment is crucial in motivating the performance of students. Students evaluate themselves and determine how they can do better. Teachers also evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching strategies.

The assessment helps improve the quality of education on campuses, therefore, it is crucial in the planning and budgeting of a campus. “Assessment alone changes little. Its greatest contribution comes on campuses where the quality of teaching and learning is visibly valued and worked at” (Cowie et al, 2017). Institutions are committed to improving and innovating their educational programs. Assessments would help the institutions determine the areas that they need to improve.

There are several reasons as to why a faculty member should be involved in the assessment. First of all, there are wider improvements in assessment when more people are involved. “Assessment questions are fully addressed when various members are involved” (Suskie, 2018 p.180). This helps improve student learning. When one is involved, he/she may learn about the most effective strategies for teaching students to ensure that they understand what the teacher teaches them well.

Educators have a responsibility to teach the students well. Through assessments, the educators prove that they have done their part and students have acquired the skills and knowledge that they are supposed to acquire. As an educator, the co-worker has responsibility for student learning. He should, therefore, motivate the students to learn through assessments. Taking part in the assessment process would help other educators to improve their students’ learning since one educator could share the most important ideas on how to improve the learning of students.

The administration expects collaboration from educators to ensure that student learning is improved.

REFERENCES

Cowie, B., & Cooper, B. (2017). Functions of Assessment about Sociocultural Teacher Education Approaches.

Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. John Wiley & Sons.

TO: Head of the department

SUBJECT: Assessment

FROM:

Dear supervisor,

“Assessment is deciding what we want our students to learn and making sure they learn it” (Suskie, 2018 p.8). Assessment may be confused with evaluation; however, the two terms are different. Assessment is more helpful for students than evaluation because it increases their learning and development. Educators follow several steps to assess their students. “1. Establish clear, observable expected goals for student learning. 2. Ensure that students have sufficient opportunities to achieve those goals. 3. Systematically gather, analyze, and interpret evidence of how well student learning meets those goals. 4. Use the resulting information to understand and improve student learning”. (Suskie, 2018 p.8). The aim of assessments is, therefore, to improve students’ learning.

Some of the obstacles to involvement include having a culture of isolation whereby teachers do not usually get involved in collaborative activities and parents are not involved in the school’s activities. Other obstacles to involvement include societal factors, individual parent factors, child factors, and parent-teacher factors. “The parent factors include a negative perception of some parents towards school” (Astin, 2013 p.4). These are mostly parents who had negative experiences in school. The low literacy levels of some parents also prevent them from getting involved in school activities.

The school opening hours are another obstacle to involvement. This is because schools operate at the same hours as many companies and government offices, therefore, it may be difficult to have those who are working full-time jobs get involved in school activities. Faculty members may be off-putting meaning that other faculty members would not like to get associated with them.

The department can engage faculty or staff members in assessment efforts by allowing staff members who are involved in assessments to submit less-frequent reports. “Staff members should also be encouraged to share what they are doing with their peers through conference presentations and journal articles” (Astin, 2013 p.4). Through this way, faculty members understand more about assessment purposes and how it should be done.

The department can also sponsor a celebratory event such as a wine and cheese party or a luncheon whereby motivational speakers are invited. These celebratory events should exhibit assessment activities in the department. These events would be a great way to share ideas about assessment and give staff members more ideas on how they could improve the learning of the children.

Faculty members obtaining grants to strengthen assessments should be honored. All extraordinary efforts of assessment should also be honored. Staff members can be given mini-grants and assessments when they successfully assess a large number of students. Staff members who initiate crucial assessment efforts on their own should also be rewarded. “Next to disciplinary accreditation, funding from an external source may be the second most powerful incentive for turning faculty angst and even anger about assessment to acceptance, and even appreciation” (Suskie, 2018 p.179). Written recognition may be given to the faculty members.

The programs that engage in serious assessment efforts should be prioritized in the funding list. This would ensure that faculty members do not get stranded due to a lack of funds during assessments. Mini-grant programs would be very helpful in engaging the faculty members in the assessment. The efforts of teachers to improve learning should be valued. Faculties should cultivate a learning culture. “Focus conversations not on assessment but on topics such as what faculty and staff most want students to learn, curriculum design, and teaching methods” (Suskie, 2018 p.181). Assessment should thereafter be introduced as a way of facilitating the conversations. Departments should encourage the scholarship of teaching. This would ensure that teachers develop new learning methods suited to students quickly due to a higher level of motivation.

Kind regards

NAME

REFERENCES

Astin, A. W. (2013). Principles of good practice for assessing student learning. In Leadership Abstracts (Vol. 6, No. 4, p. n4).

Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. John Wiley & Sons.