The
assessment standards describe the key ingredients of quality assessment.
They focus on classroom assessments, the kinds of assessments that take
place in the midst of instruction and are an integral part of student learning.
These assessments are closely connected to instruction, involve immediate
feed forward to help students improve their work in progress, and are designed
to provide rich, detailed pictures of individual students' learning. The
following beliefs form the foundation for the Pacific assessment standards:
1. Every student can learn and is capable of achieving mathematical and scientific literacy; assessments need to help educators see the development of that literacy clearly.
2. Children must have opportunities to learn how to respond to a variety of types of assessment so that their assessments truly show their knowledge, capabilities and caring.
3. Assessment should help students become reflective learnersto develop skills and confidence as self-assessors.
4. Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learninggood assessment produces learning and improves teaching.
5. There are multiple ways of learning and assessing learning. Assessments need to have clear purposes and the types of assessment used must match the purposes.
6. Assessments should portray learning. To do this, assessment tools must be fair, unbiased, challenging, flexible, and authentic.
7. Instruction that prepares students to portray their learning does not teach to the test, rather it is teaching to the standards.
8. The results of assessments must be used for the intended purposes and should never be used to punish, ridicule, or threaten students.
9. Assessment information needs to be clear and understandable to the usersstudents, teachers, school administrators, parents, community members, and others.