EDLD+5364+-+Week+5+Reflection

The most interesting and most complex concept this week was assessment. Most people are already surprised at how complex effective testing models are. The greater the variety in the methods of delivery and assessment the greater level of complexity and validating the quality of an assessment.

The concept of difficulty is very subjective. How can you truly verify that one form of assessment is as difficult as another? This of course brings up another interesting question. Does difficulty matter? Because a student finds one form of testing "easier" does it make it inferior to the form they find more difficult. It seems to me that if a student can prove their comprehension of a topic through any method then the difficulty of that method is of little consequence. This makes tracking and statistical analysis very difficult though.

The difficulty in tracking leads to an issue of great concern. The issue of funding. Much of a schools funding is tied to its performance. Performance is measured through standardized testing. This leads me to believe that the governing bodies are more concerned with a students ability to perform well on a multiple choice test than their ability to utilize knowledge they are supposed to gain.