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A Critical Reflection
Given what you’ve read so far in this chapter, think about an occasion where you experienced evaluation,
and an occasion where you experienced assessment. What was the biggest difference between the two
experiences? How did each experience make you feel?
It wasn’t me, but it reminded me of how evaluation can feel: my whole family went
to an amusement park last summer and my niece, Roseal, was really excited about
finally being old enough to hang with her older cousins. We waited in
line for like an hour to ride the new coaster but when we got up there,
there was this sign with a big ruler next to it, “You must be THIS
tall to ride this ride.” Roseal stood as tall as she could but was
still like an inch under the line. She was so embarrassed and
disappointed. Evaluation doesn’t make you feel like that all the
time but sometimes, yeah. It’s being judged. My performance
on the field gets assessed regularly by our soccer coach; he’s
great about telling you what you’re doing well, and when he
gives you things to work on (improvements), he always has a plan
for how you can do the work. My coach in middle school was like
that too, so being assessed makes you feel like they’re on your
side and WANT you to get better and succeed. I think that’s the
biggest difference for me, between evaluation and assessment...
assessment makes you feel like someone’s helping you get there.
Profile of a High-Quality Assessor
Below are some of the attributes and characteristics that are associated with people who are strong
assessors.
A high quality assessor…
• uses evidence to make informed decisions
• is objective
• is comfortable receiving and giving feedback for improvement
• is aware that nothing is so perfect that it cannot be improved
• has the ability to multitask
• can focus on what to observe
A description of different levels of assessor performance is presented at the end of this reading.