Objective or Subjective? That is the question.

Reflect on the idea that tests are the only objective assessments of student learning.

Are tests the only objective assessment of student learning? The answer is not an easy one to explain. I feel that tests are one of the only ways to assess student learning of specific, logical, factual content. The questions have difinitive answers that adhere to a specific and logical pattern, sequence, or fact. Tests, in that respect, offer objectivity in assessment because there exists no gray area. Unfortunately, in education, we are not always working in a black and white, hit or miss environment.

While I feel that tests may be the most objective way to assess specific learning objectives, I would also like to think that educators make their best effort to evaluate any student assessment objectively. It is our jobs as educators to be objective in our assessments, however, we must also assess the areas "in between" that are not covered by numbers, dates, times, names, terminology, etc. It is much harder to assess critical and creative thinking abilities and higher-order thinking skills. These are developed over time and are much more difficult to assess.

Accepting that we must incorporate a varying array of assessment strategies into our instruction will help to ensure that our students are learning everything they need to know in order to be successful adults. It is necessary to implement all types of assessments, the objective as well as the subjective, in order to provide all the necessary guidance for learning to our students.

The cartoon above represents an example of subjective assessment.



The video above represents a school that is working hard to incorporate authentic assessment that effectively assesses objective as well as subjective content matter.