The Best Type of Assessment

The Best Type of Assessment

What type of assessment is best in your view: open-ended, selected-response, or performance?

It is imperative to use a variety of assessments while gauging student learning (Alvis, 2019). As an elementary teacher, I have found that formative assessments give me a way to check students learning while teaching a unit quickly. This allows time to change my instructional plan, if needed, to ensure all students are learning the information that is being taught. These formative assessments are usually selected-response or short answers. I like to use summative assessments with a mixture of selected-response, short answer, and open-ended questions or assign a performance task for the end of a unit. To best assess students, a variety of assessments must be used. This balance of assessments allows for an accurate picture of the whole student and their knowledge.

Alvis, A. V. Predictors of elementary-aged students’ writing fluency growth in response to feedback writing intervention. [Doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University]. Open Access.