The Student Evaluation Standards

"Teachers make judgments about students every day, based on such formal and informal appraisals of their work as classroom observation, homework assignments, and teacher-made quizzes. Soon, they′ll have the first set of professional standards to help guide them in making such decisions."

—Education Week

—Education Week A practical guide to designing and assessing student evaluation.

Student evaluation and assessment are central to every school and classroom. Evaluation and assessment are how we find out what students are learning, how they are progressing, and how we can make improvements for their future development. With requirements for testing and standards-based instruction at an all-time high, effective student evaluation is more essential today than ever before. But where in the instructional process should assessments occur? What kinds of questions should be asked? How is the information used to direct student learning? Who has the right to access and use this information?

The Joint Committee presents 28 certified standards for assessing evaluation practices in elementary and secondary classrooms. These standards are broken down into four essential attributes of sound evaluation, each providing definitions, guidelines, common errors, supportive documentation, and illustrative case studies:

Propriety standards, which protect individual rights Utility standards, which ensure that evaluations are timely, informative, and influential Feasibility standards, which recognize "real-world" dynamics and environmental influences Accuracy standards, which determine whether an evaluation has produced sound informationThese standards provide teachers and administrators with the tools they need to master every "nuance" of student evaluation, including validity, political viability, teacher biases, conflicts of interest, a student′s right to privacy, and much more. But most important, they will help ensure that student evaluation practices are on track, so we can properly serve and improve student learning.

These standards have been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and were developed with assistance from members of 16 professional societies:

American Association of School Administrators

American Counseling Association

American Educational Research Association

American Evaluation Association

American Psychological Association

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Canadian Evaluation Society

Canadian Society for the Study of Education

Consortium for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation

Council of Chief State School Officers

National Association of Elementary School Principals

National Association of Secondary School Principals

National Council on Measurement in Education

National Education Association

National Legislative Program Evaluation Society

National School Boards Association