Purpose of Assessment

What is the purpose of assessment?
Assessment plays an extremely important role in a child’s school life. It has many purposes such as;
  * To see if a child is progressing
  * To check a child’s overall development
  * To find out what needs a child has
  * To evaluate on teaching methods
  * To report to parents
  * To report to other professionals (i.e., other teachers, speech therapists)
  * Allows the child to see how they are progressing and helps them set targets

Compare and contrast the roles of the teacher and the learning support practitioner in assessment of learners achievements.

The teacher has the responsibility of monitoring and assessing pupil achievement so they can see how all children in the class are progressing; they are responsible for planning the resources they need in order to teach a lesson, as well as following the national curriculum.
The teacher needs to ensure that they have adapted activities to suit the needs of individual groups of children and set clear learning objectives so that the child’s progress can be measured and so that the child knows what it is that they are learning.
The teacher can see whether or not the child has met the learning objective, is well on their way to meeting the objective or is struggling with the objective, from this the teacher can reflect on the activity, adapt the activity and get the child the support they require if needed.
The teacher is also required to
• Keep an on going record of each child’s progress in class.
• Talk to the children about their individual performances and achievement’s.
• Communicate to parents to identify their child’s strengths and areas for development.
• Identify individual educational needs of all the children in their class.
A teaching assistant’s role is to support both the teacher and the children.   This may mean contributing towards the planning of lessons, working in groups with children to help them achieve targets, observing children...