Policy 8-202

GUIDELINES FOR EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

The major purpose of a testing program is to provide ongoing and systematic feedback upon which to make individual and institutional decisions to improve education.

A testing program should:

1. Provide information about each student's developmental levels (cognitive, language, motor, sensory, and affective).
2. Measure each student's levels of academic achievement.
3. Provide diagnostic information about individual learners, e.g., learning styles, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
4. Assess student attitudes and interests, e.g., school, self-concepts, social interactions.
5. Provide the means to compare educational productivity to selected normative groups.
6. Measure the degree to which students have mastered the objectives of the curriculum.
7. Provide continuing feedback into the larger questions of curriculum development and educational policy.
8. Provide information for parents, students, and the community.

When the Superintendent wishes to make use of testing instruments that assess attitudes and/or values held by students not solely related to operations of schools and their programs, he will present to the Board of Education the objective of the proposed assessment AND THE INSTRUMENT TO BE USED. Approval of the Board will be necessary prior to the commencement of such a project.

Adopted 10/8/85
Modified 10/10/95