You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to learn more. Good.

Question: How can you learn more about using assessment?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 12 questions.

1. How does assessment impact student learning?
2. What type of assessment can you use?
3. What makes a good assessment good?
4. How good is your assessment?
5. How can you make your assessment even better?
6. How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?
7. How much practice do your students need?
8. What makes a good rubric good?
9. How can you use a rubric?
10. How can you use assessment data?
11. What's your vision for using assessment?
12. How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn more about using assessment?" The real question is "How will you use assessment help your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study?”


Additional resources:

1. Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
2. Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
3. Self-assessment: To get started with using assessment, take this self-assessment
4. Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
5. Use assessment

You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to use assessment.

Question: How can you get started?

Answer: By taking the following self-assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

___ I understand how assessment impacts student application of a Biblical perspective.
___ I know what type of assessment to use to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.

___ I know what makes a good assessment good.
___ The assessments I give my students are good.
___ I work to make my assessments even better.

___ My students proficiently apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.
___ My students apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration to what they study.
___ My students get sufficient practice in applying a Biblical perspective to what they study.

___ The rubrics I use to score my assessments are good.
___ I use my rubrics effectively.
___ I use my assessment data to modify instruction.

___ I use assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I have a clear vision for using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I want to learn more about using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I am committed to helping my students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.


Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
3. Which items would it be helpful to learn more about?
4. What will I do?

Additional resources:

1. Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
2. Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
3. Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
4. Use assessment
5. To learn more about using assessment, explore these 12 questions

Dan Beerens, vice president of learning services at Christian Schools International, focuses on Christian education in his blog Nurturing Faith. In this blog entry, he makes a case for quality faith integrated assessments.

If one of the most important things in a Christian school is to nurture faith through the ability of a student to apply a Christian perspective (or worldview) to contemporary life, then we should make sure that our assessments are top notch and will drive our instruction. Additionally we need to make sure that the assessments involve the higher level thinking skills of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

What follows is an excellent example of this type of faith integrated assessment question for 8th grade science (thanks to Kristyn Kamps and Lloyd Dozeman from Holland Christian):

Letter to the Editor: God included fire as part of His creation; its effects can be not only good but necessary. However, wildfires can also create wide scale destruction and death as did the fires of 1910. On January 4, 2002, CNN ran the following story: “Wildfires which were started by multiple lightning strikes early last month continue to burn out of control. They continue to wreak havoc across Australia’s most populated state and are expected to rage into next week. The largest fire has burned about 160,000 acres of bone-dry forest, killed animals, and created millions of dollars in property damage. Nothing good can come of this tragedy…”

Using what you have learned about forest fires, write a reaction to the CNN story using the following format.

• Heading: Your reaction should be addressed to the editor of the article; begin your letter “Dear Editor.” (1 point)
• Paragraph 1: Your first paragraph should explain who you are and why you are writing. (2 points)
• Paragraph 2: Describe conditions that cause wildfires to spread. (3 points)
• Paragraph 3: From what you’ve learned about what God created fire to be (good) and the issues people face when dealing with wildfires (bad), give detailed examples of how wildfires can be BOTH good and bad. (6 points)
• Paragraph 4: Choose a position: either AGREE with the statements from the CNN article or DISAGREE and give 2 reasons for your position. (4 points)
• Closing: Be sure to sign your letter with a closing (”Sincerely,”) and your name. (1 point)

I really like this assessment because it asks the student to apply a perspective to a real life scenario. Since it is a letter to the editor, it is also ready to be shared with others who may have agreed without thinking too deeply that “nothing good can come out of this tragedy…” - this statement reflects the nihilistic view that often pops up in media and needs to be countered by Christians who believe that we have a redeeming God who can bring good out of evil. This assessment asks students to use higher-level skills and apply a faith perspective to the situation.

Are you using these kinds of assessments with your students? Are you willing to share them with others?

Deep down, we know our real level of commitment is best demonstrated by our practice. So, we know that the real commitment level of the following teachers is not high:

• I’m an elementary Bible teacher who is committed to students memorizing God’s Word. Each year, my students memorize 2 verses.
  
• I’m a high school English teacher who is committed to students being effective writers. Each year, my students write 2 essays.
  
• I’m a middle school science teacher who is committed to students doing labs. Each year, my students do 2 labs.

In Christian education, we want students to love God with their minds, to apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn.

Question: How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Answer: How many Biblical perspective assessments do you give?

Raise your real commitment level. Give more Biblical perspective assessments. Today.

Imagine.

Every student, in every class—proficiently demonstrating an understanding and/or use of a biblical perspective to complete an assessment.

Imagine.

If this happened...

• How would this affect your students' understanding of the importance of looking at all of life through the lens of Scripture?
  
• How would this affect your students' ability to impact the world for Christ?
  
• How would current parents respond?
  
• How would parents considering sending their children to your school respond?
  
• How would staff at your school respond?
  
• How would your board respond?
  
• How would this affect the achievement of your school's outcomes and mission?

Just imagine.

What are you willing to do to make this a reality?

• On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how committed are you to this? (How committed is God to having students at Christian school proficiently applying a biblical perspective on course content?)
  
• If you said 8 or less, what would it take for you to say 9 or 10?