Equitable Assessments - What, Why and How?

    Every student’s need is different and hence the need for resources is different too. All students need specific support for success. This is how I understand equitable assessment, which is not equal but right thing in right place (Kampen, 2020). 

    This is need of the hour as students are very diverse based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, culture, religion, mental and physical abilities to name a few, a it becomes imperative for a teacher to accommodate all of them (NEA, n.d.). This would involve for me, differentiation of teaching and differentiation of assessments.

    I was a math teacher for IBMYP in a school where all kids are from affluent families hence speak both Hindi and English fluently. However we also have students from different parts of the world such as Korea, Japan and Non Resident Indians from all over. Hence the issue of language does come up in teaching and assessing. I needed to build the skills for the same. 

    McCes’s equity framework gives 5 principles for equitable assessments (Siegel et al., 2008). 

I use comprehension, elicitation and scaffolding instruction steps for my math classes, especially in the beginning of each new concept. To do this, I (a) simplify the language in each question, especially word problems, (b) I break the problems down into clues or pictures or visual tools such as bar models and finally I scaffold by (c) giving students some easy questions to practice before the assessment. I also give peer help for them to work towards an independent work model.

    Quality scaffolding in assessments includes scaffolding such as sentence starters, graphic organizers, and additional prompts (Siegel, 2007).

    I use this methodology by providing graphic organizers, math dictionaries, peer help and extra time. For projects, all students have equal space to use the means of presentation that they find best. I use collaboration, dialogue, and group engagement to bring a positive environment in which students complement one another. During the assessment, I allow for extra time, translation using a dictionary and comfortable space to sit. This allows the student to catch up to their peers in learning (Alrubail, 2016).

Not sure if I am doing everything but the effort is on!

Reference

• Alrubail, R. (2016). Equity for English-language learners.EDUTOPIA. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learnersrusul-alrubail
• Kampen, M. (2020). 8 Powerful ways to promote equity in theclassroom. https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/equity-in-the-classroom/
• National Education Association (NEA) website, DiversityToolkit: http://www.nea.org/tools/diversity-toolkit-introduction.html
• Siegel, M.A. (2007). Striving for equitable classroom assessments for linguistic
• Minorities Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(6). p. 864-881. Siegel, M., Wisserh, C., & Halverson, K. (2008). A framework for equitable assessment. The Science Teacher, 44. http://people.uncw.edu/kubaskod/nc_teach/class_5_assessment/sounds_like_success_equitable_assessment.pdf
• Soika, B. (n.d.). Seven effective ways to promote equity in the classroom. USC
• Rossier-School Education. https://rossier.usc.edu/seven-effective-ways-to-promoteequity-in-the-classroom/