Before assessment and grading happen, it is important to first create the conditions under which authentic assessment can truly occur. Artze-Vega and Delgado (2019) refer to concrete ways teacher can create a culturally responsive and equitable assessment framework, based on four pillars, those being establishing inclusion, developing attitude, enhancing meaning, and engendering competence (p. 26). First, teachers must “cultivate an environment that is intellectually and socially safe for learning” which includes incorporating culturally responsive teaching practices (Artze-Vega & Delgado, 2019, p. 34). Students feel valued and safe when they can harness their knowledge and explore ideas in a low-stakes environment.
"An educator's ability to recognize students' cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the student knows to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing" (Artze-Vega & Delgado, 2019, p. 26). However, the definition has been expanded to include other social groups such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, to name a few (Burns et al, 2020, p. 177).
Culturally responsive assessment practices work to further breakdown dominant power structures. Before this course, I thought that culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment was much more individualized to the student and knowing their culturally background, language, and customs. Because of this misconception, while I wanted to become a culturally responsive teacher, I was apprehensive because the thought of having to to acquire such extensive knowledge was daunting. This course has taught me that while knowing my students is a crucial part of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), culturally responsive and equitable assessment practices are much easier to incorporate than I originally thought. I hope to start incorporating some of the strategies listed below, especially Hammond's Discussion Protocols as in SDL discussion in a key component in learning. The chart I created below demonstrates my learning in culturally responsive assessment and explores culturally responsive assessment strategies.
Equitable assessment practices incorporate all of the culturally responsive assessment strategies and techniques listed above.
(Artze-Vega & Delgado, p. 32).
Before taking this course, I had never heard of equity in assessment, though some of my assessment and evaluation practices are equitable. My biggest take away from equity in assessment is to really look at how my own epistemological lens impacts my assessment practices. Doing so provides a new perspective on assessment that I had never taken into account before. The board below explores ways I have learned to DISRUPT assessment and ways I can incorporate equitable assessment into my teaching practice.
Links to photos:
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