EDU 6160 – Blog Post Assignment #1

This blog post is for my first EDU 6160 Applied Inquiry and Teaching Assessment Methods’ assignment. In this post, I will share a teacher’s opinion of statewide testing. I decided to research and write about this topic of statewide testing in regards to my content area of physical education. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) developed assessments that are designed to measure physical education Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) for grades 5, 8, and high school (Rakoz, 2016). The teacher that I spoke with focuses on the fitness performance aspect of assessment by performing FitnessGram tests. The FitnessGram accesses the five components of fitness (i.e. aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition) through the performance of the one-mile run, 20m pacer test, sit and reach, body max index (BMI), sit-up test and push-up test (FitnessGram, 2016). The teacher that I spoke with records student assessment scores in WELNET Focused Fitness software (district/state data tracking) and their gradebook. Depending on the student’s age and gender, each test has a state developed score range determining whether or not the student is below average (failing grade), average, proficient or advanced (passing grade). Thus, implying that the FitnessGram is a criterion-referenced assessment, meaning that, “A score is interpreted by comparing it to a performance standard” (Shermis and Vesta, 2011, p. 28). The teacher that I spoke with believes that the FitnessGram allows for them to effectively assess their students’ fitness level and efficiently track progress over the course of a semester. As an aspiring educator, the teacher that I spoke with recommended that I understand the following quote when giving assessments, “The important question is not how assessment is defined but whether assessment information is used…” (Palomba and Banta). Thus, the teacher that I spoke with believes that their assessments are valuable because the data is applied to student grades and, “It also provides surveillance data allowing for identification of trends and informs curricular and programmatic decisions related to quality and quantity of physical education” (FitnessGram, 2016).

References

FitnessGram. (2016). Retrieved October 8, 2016, from http://www.fitnessgram.net/default.asp

OSPI. (2016). Retrieved October 8, 2016, from http://www.k12.wa.us/

Rakoz, L. (n.d.). Washington State OSPI-Developed Health Assessment [Letter written 2016 to Washington Teachers of Health and Fitness]. In Superintendent of Public Instruction. Retrieved October 8, 2016.

Shermis, M. D., & J., D. V. (2011). Classroom assessment in action. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.