Reporting of Assessment Data

Language Assessment TSL 3112Semester 6

General pupose: To recognise, acknowledge and give credit for what students have achieved

To contribute to students personal development and progress

To assist schools and the system in identifying the potential of the students

Purposes of Reporting

For Instructional uses: It is for the improvement of student

learning and development. For the purpose of instructional use the

report should include the following: a) clarify the instructional objectives. b) indicate the student’s strength and

weaknesses in learning. c) provide information concerning the

student’s personal-social development. d) contribute to the student’s motivation.

Reports to parents: To inform parents of their children’s school

progress and so parents are better able to cooperate with the school in promoting their children’s learning and development.

To enable parents to give their children the emotional support and encouragement for their successes, failures and problems.

To know their children’s strengths and weaknesses in learning which provides a basis for making better and realistic educational and vocational plans for the children.

Administrative and Guidance uses: To determine promotion and graduation,

awarding honours To report to other schools and prospective

employers To report to the District Education

office/State Education Department

Letter grades have been the primary method of reporting student progress.

Single letter grade is very convenient of reporting as it is easily recorded and averaged but it does not give a comprehensive development report of the students.

It is preferable to report student achievement along with other reports which include portfolios of student work to give a valid and reliable information of the student achievement.

Reporting Methods

The traditional way of reporting student achievement is the report cards.

Student achievements are documented and the traditional way is using the letter or number grading.

Report card formats are continually being developed because often teachers found a mismatch between the ways they are assessing and the way its being reported.

Hence, newly designed report formats do not make comparisons of achievement between students but put an emphasis on documenting individual accomplishments.

Individual written reports will tell the strengths and weaknesses and learning needs of each student which include student’s progress in all areas of development. However in writing out detailed reports teachers must be tactful.

1. Individual Written Report

Multiple reporting system retains the use of traditional grading(letter grades or numbers) and supplements the grades with checklists of objectives.

Two grades are assigned, one for achievement and the other for effort, improvement or progress.

The format of the report can be decided by a committee consisting of students, parents, teachers and other school personnel to reflect the information these groups considered most useful.

2.Multiple reporting

To overcome the limited information provided by the traditional report card and to establish better cooperation between teachers and parents (or guardians), some schools use regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences. This reporting method is most widely used at the elementary level, with its greatest use in the primary grades.

It is a flexible procedure that provides two-way communication between school and home. The conference permits teachers and parents to ask questions, discuss their common concerns in helping the student,and cooperatively plan a program to improve the student’s learning and development.

Limitations to this method:- time consuming- requires skill to communicate - does not provide a systematic record of student progress- Some parents are unwilling or unable to come Therefore it is more useful as a supplementary method of

reporting.

3. Individual parent/teacher conferences