Assessing Pre-Service Teachers' Assessment Literacy
Conducting classroom assessments is a regular part of teachers' daily work. Despite the centrality of tests in K-12 classrooms, teacher candidates consistently demonstrate fundamental weakness in their understanding and implementation of assessment. Student teaching has the potential to be an important training ground for teacher candidates to grow in their assessment practices, and by focusing on assessment during the student teaching experience, teacher candidates can more easily develop a deeper understanding of the myriad ways to evaluate student learning. This chapter explores the assessment relationships between teacher candidates and their mentors (i.e., cooperating teachers, student teaching supervisors, and seminar instructors) and provides a framework through which intentional and incidental classroom assessment can be considered. Ways to teach assessment through planning, debriefing, and raising awareness through noticing are discussed, and recommendations are made to help teacher candidates build the foundation of a strong assessment repertoire.