ABSTRACT

Authentic assessment of what a person thinks, feels, knows, and is able to do is unreliable when the language of assessment is different from the language of the person under assessment, when the assessment tasks lack meaning and cultural relevance for those being assessed, when pedagogy and curricula are poorly aligned with assessment methodology, and when the primary goal of assessment is to measure what learners don’t know as opposed to finding out the ways in which they are capable so as to appropriately point them in new instructional directions. If assessment instruments and processes exhibit these difficulties, at best they are unsuitable, at worst they can be cruel and damaging to the children who must undergo them, because the end results will invariably show children in the least positive light. In such cases, issues of ethics and morality, as well as validity and reliability, become paramount because the lives of children are at stake.