Teacher based assessment: a comparison with alternatives, strengths and weaknesses, teacher precision and variation amongst teachers

Abstract

There is much to be gained from having teachers intimately involved with curriculum development and assessment procedures. The benefits of this involvement is discussed at length in the literature component of this thesis through a critique of assessment methods, including an analysis of Teacher Based Assessment (TBA). However, the question often arises in such discussions: 'How accurate are teachers in knowing/judging/assessing the children they teach? - How much do teachers really know?' The level of agreement between teacher judgment of student performance on a standardised test and actual pupil performance was examined in the research component of this thesis. An attempt was made to contribute to existing research by requiring teachers to judge test items, rather than ranking or rating likely overall performance as in other studies (which are documented later in this thesis). This enabled the research to acquire a more precise measure of teacher knowledge of pupil understanding. A further aim of the research was to examine the role which differing teacher characteristics (teaching experience, qualifications and teaching philosophy) play on a teacher's in/ability to obtain a high level of agreement between teacher judgment of pupil performance and actual pupil performance. Twelve teachers in twelve Wellington schools became involved in the study on the basis of their various teaching characteristics. Each teacher had four students selected according to certain criteria, to form a homogeneous grouping. A comparison between teacher judgment and pupil response on the Concepts About Print test (part of the six year old Diagnostic Survey) was made, with both correlation coefficient and a level of agreement analysis being undertaken on the data. The sample size of this research, being too small to offer statistical significance, identifies several trends. The literature and research examined in this thesis would suggest that there is strong support for teacher based assessment. There is some evidence that fairly high agreement between teacher judgment of student performance on a standardised test and the actual student performance can exist. The trends of the research component of this paper would also indicate that there are large discrepancies between teachers in this ability. In light of the emphasis of Teacher-Based Assessment of students in the Achievement Initiative, this phenomenon deserves further attention.