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Essay on Curriculum Based Assessment
Academic assessment is a long-standing tradition in education. Assessment usually involves measurement of student progress for the purpose of informing. One level of informing is identification or eligibility decision-making, a second level is that of informing instruction. Traditional assessment instruments have limitations which restrict their application for instructional program planning. Alternative assessment procedures appearing in educational literature in the last 20 years are Curriculum Based Assessment. Whereas standardized commercial achievement tests measure broad curriculum areas and/or skills, CBE measures specific skills that are presently being taught in the classroom, usually in basic skills.
Typically, Curriculum Based Assessment is used in the subject areas of math, reading and spelling, but has also been found effective in other areas. CBE can be used in general education as well as special education classroom settings. It became clear in the 1985 special issue publication of Exceptional Children journal that there are different approaches to assessing students using curriculum materials. The two most prominent features that differentiate the Curriculum Based Assessment models are (a) the purpose of the assessment, and (b) research support for testing procedures and decision-making .
Curriculum Based Assessment satisfies six of the criteria for assessments. It addresses the three purposes for assessment, and it incorporates standardized measurement techniques, providing reliability and validity. It offers detailed information on a student's performance on specific skills and can be used to determine how to improve an instructional program. Its measurement framework is not tied to any particular model of instruction, so a broad range of instructional options can be used. A teacher can use widely varying methods with the same child to see which method is most beneficial. Students know how they are evaluated and can set personal learning goals. In addition, the assessment demands are manageable in classroom settings, and to make them even more easily manageable, computer programs..........
