Module 08 / Slide 01:
Introduction

In this module, we examine the assessment of student learning.

Critical questions for our study include: who assesses the students, how are students assessed, when are they assessed, and why are they assessed?

The assessment of student learning has, in the past two decades, acquired a heightened level of emphasis and/or scrutiny. As never before, assessment of student learning has become associated with:

• accountability
• legislative action
• media attention
• judgments regarding teacher, school, and school district performance.

Consequently, it is appropriate that your study of instructional leadership include an examination of student assessment. Therefore, this module will engage you the review of detailed information about how, when, and why the assessment of student learning is conducted.

And yet, despite all the external forces currently being applied to the assessment of student learning, it seems important that those of us who are engaged in instructional leadership not overlook the irony of the point made in the final sentence of the Chapter 8 summary - on page 313:

"Untimately, the task of the school is not to identify talent, but, rather, to develop it."