{"id":14746,"date":"2014-04-07T10:03:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T14:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=14746"},"modified":"2021-08-13T10:16:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:16:48","slug":"assessing-education-using-innovative-tests-get-student-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2014\/assessing-education-using-innovative-tests-get-student-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing education: Using innovative tests to get student success"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Samantha Wright Allen <\/em><\/p>\n

Janna Fox says she had an unlikely start in diagnostic assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into testing because I hate tests,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Though her feelings on the matter have changed, that impulse never stopped – assessment has become the Carleton linguistic professor\u2019s life\u2019s work. She says it\u2019s so important because assessment is an everyday reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when a teacher asks a question and scans the room to see how students are responding \u2013 that\u2019s a form of assessment. It\u2019s part and parcel of every learning and educational act. It\u2019s also a major player in who gets to do what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox has made it her mission to ensure that a strong testing system exists so that people \u2013 whether students, job applicants or new immigrants \u2013 are observed properly by assessors and go through a testing process that is both fair and looks for skills beyond traditional reading comprehension.<\/p>\n

Her work is well respected. She\u2019s advised government on public service and citizenship testing, and in 2003, she was awarded the prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship<\/a>, which acknowledges educators who excel in teaching and contribute to its development across disciplines.<\/p>\n

Fox is currently in the midst of a project with Carleton\u2019s engineering department, one she hopes to see adopted by other departments.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the \u201cSafe\u201d project, it\u2019s a form of assessment that\u2019s embedded in a first-year course and looks at various vulnerabilities \u2013 from linguistic to math \u2013 to determine the strengths and weaknesses of first-time students.<\/p>\n

That way, teachers can adjust approaches and design coursework that best serves their students’ needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt attempts to identify students who may be at risk,\u201d says Fox, adding it\u2019s important to note the approach is not remedial. It also identifies unknown strengths. Five years in, Fox says the engineering project is a success but still has room to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to initiate and create a snowball, and then let the hill carry it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been building snowballs since the beginning of her career, when Fox taught English in Mexico as a first-time instructor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered a love of teaching language. That kindled a spark in me,\u201d she says.\u00a0Throw in Qatar, Pakistan and a four-year stint in Seychelles where she built the tri-lingual 115-island country\u2019s curriculum.<\/p>\n

But at Carleton she found her home. It\u2019s also where she became the principle developer of the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) assessment<\/a>, now a nation-wide program that assesses English language proficiency. At its inception in the late \u201890s, she says the \u201cstate of the art\u201d approach was known as \u201cthe Carleton test.\u201d It became the focus of her master\u2019s, and then PhD research.<\/p>\n

Fox says she feels like she has a mission to make assessment better, and that her passion has made her a better teacher, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you know by actively engaging in research, the more effective you are as a teacher because you speak with the understanding of the practical side,\u201d she says. \u201cI think I\u2019m doing what I was designed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Samantha Wright Allen Janna Fox says she had an unlikely start in diagnostic assessment. \u201cI went into testing because I hate tests,\u201d she laughs. Though her feelings on the matter have changed, that impulse never stopped – assessment has become the Carleton linguistic professor\u2019s life\u2019s work. She says it\u2019s so important because assessment is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,468],"yoast_head":"\nAssessing education: Using innovative tests to get student success - 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