Research Study "Students View of Assessment"

IN New Zealand a study was conducted on how students view assessment. The students viewed assessment in four different ways: 1) making students accountable, (2) being irrelevant because it is bad or unfair, (3) making schools accountable and improving the quality of learning or (4) being enjoyable. It also stated that the students who saw the assessment as them being made accountable actually did better then viewing it another way. The article suggests that assessment be presented as a measurement of student knowledge. http://www.ernweb.com/public/1074.cfm?sd=59

I really liked this view on assessment. Because we are told again and again to be careful with our assessments or "tests". In viewing assessments in this way I think that we need to tell the students that it is a test, that way they will try harder to achieve a good grade.