Fairness in Assessment

Fairness to different types of students includes all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as students with disabilities. "Assessments need not be free of any reference to race, ethnicity, or gender; rather; eliminate stereotypes and balance the references among various groups."

- Chapter 2: Assessments and Grading in the Classroom

Since fairness in assessment is crucial in the classroom, by the teacher, it is important to use various strategies to help the students achieve their fullest potential. Assessment results help students learn by giving them information about where their performance stands in relation to the learning target and by supporting their motivation to learn. This information can come to students in the form of teacher feedback, peer feedback, self-evaluation, by going over questions and so forth. a teacher's assessment should result in student learning.

To ensure the assessment in a classroom is fair, the following should be part of the criteria:
- Objective Testing
- Essays, Papers, and Projects with rubrics
- Make-up work
- Oral Questioning (optional) and Observations
- Peer editing, group collaborations, and additional peer evaluation techniques
- Self-evaluation and
- Grading (report cards)

All of these combined help make fairness in assessment possible, for not all students learn the same; there are students who learn and work in better ways others do not, therefore these types of learning objectives are necessary.

Growing up I have come across multiple teachers who have not believed in this method, it was there way and that it is. Going to Catholic school from kindergarten up until the present, I learned that many of the teachers, especially the traditional nuns, were very set in their ways and did not branch out to find different forms of learning techniques; almost all learning was traditional- the teacher taught, you had a test, and you received a grade, rarely left any room for improvement. Over the years, I learned that I was not always an excellent test taker, I always hoped that a teacher would give the students another opinion or more projects to help balance the two, but that did not happen- from this I made a promise to myself that when I am a educator I will not do this. I want all my students to feel as though they can strive for the best and they feel confident in what they are learning and can truly comprehend any subject they put their mind to.