Fair Isn't Always Equal, Chapter Three

Chapter three of Fair Isn’t Always Equal focuses on the importance and essentials of successful assessment methods. It describes three different types of assessment. Pre-assessment is valued because it allows the teachers to develop a better understanding of each student’s readiness before starting the unit. The chapter suggests completing all of the summative (or end of unit) assessments, to make sure they reflect the essential knowledge the students should be retaining. From there, formative assessments, which are more frequent and provide feedback for the teacher, can be developed. It is very important that the formative assessments are also authentic assessments; that is, the ability to apply the information to real-world situations. It’s also very important that the assessment matches the format in which the information was originally taught- it’s silly to give a math student a word problem if all they have been solving from are complex numerical equations.

The general consensus for the class was that they liked this chapter in that it was useful to either solidify the importance of the assessment area of teaching, or because it differed from their own classroom experiences in school. The assessment types were described in great detail, and played off each other and linked to each other nicely. Some had never been exposed to either summative or formative assessments, and explained that it would be more beneficial to have a healthy balance of the two in order to assess correctly and efficiently.