I feel pretty strong with providing the kids with a clear purpose, a clear target, and an accurate assessment, but I have a question about effective communication. I teach Language Arts. I can do effective communication about writing such as ...clear ideas, logical organization, vague word choice use more interesting words, etc....but what feedback would you provide that's not evaluative on a multiple choice test that assesses comprehension?
I would add the biggest road block is TIME.
I feel like I do many of these assessments and the feedback already. I have 106 students, and we write some extended piece of writing every 3-4 weeks. It takes me 12 hours just to grade their writing and give informative feedback plus more time to enter and analyze the data.
This time comes after the kids (the real ones I have at home) go to bed and on the weekends when I can bribe my husband to entertain them. With all of the personal time I give up during the school year, I feel like I've earned my summer break.
I agree with you on the time piece. I remember wishing I hadn't assigned such robust Social Studies projects when I was spending my entire weekends and evenings grading video projects with a three page rubric!
It's a tough line to walk. Teachers often slam the MEAP because it doesn't assess students at a deep enough level, however, we realize quickly (like you and I have) that the time it takes to assess students at the apropriate level takes a lot of time.
You've probably tried it, but have you had any luck with assessing writing while focusing on one or two areas? I found a bit of success with it last year when my students knew I was only going to be assessing organization (particuarly leads and conclusions) because my lessons focused on those areas.