Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Goal-Directed Assessment

Whether you use a standardized test, a competency-based assessment or authentic assessment, the assessment process must be goal-directed and goal-specific. Keeping the assessment goal-directed helps give learners a clear picture of their learning needs as they relate to their goals, and it also provides good information to help literacy practitioners develop demonstrations and learning plans. Therefore, by its very nature, goal-directed assessment is learner-centred. It is also participatory, requiring input from both the learner and the literacy practitioner. This can be a challenge for learners who may not be used to providing input into their own learning.

In its 1997 document called Goal-Directed Assessment: An Initial Assessment Process, (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/training/literacy/goal/goal.pdf) MTCU suggests following this 5-step process.

• Step 1: Gather background information. We will discuss this in more detail in the next section, Intake.
• Step 2: Identify possible long-term and short-term goals. Some students will have well-thought-out and clear goals but others will need support and guidance to determine their goals.
• Step 3: Assess the requirements of the learner’s goals. This may take some time and cannot be done until the learner has established a goal or goals. Once that is done, you and the learner may have to carry out some research to clearly identify the skills and knowledge needed to reach those goals. You can incorporate that research into the learner’s training plan.
• Step 4: Assess the learner’s achievements. This is the time when you will assess the student’s current skills and knowledge. You may use standard tools or authentic documents – the choice will depend on the student’s goal(s) and your best sense of what the learner can handle. On initial assessment, you, the literacy practitioner will probably choose which tools to use. For ongoing assessment, however, the learner will complete a demonstration activity that you have chosen and prepared for together. You will probably also review samples of the learner’s work and compare early attempts with current successes.
• Step 5: Identify skills gaps and create a training plan. We will discuss this in more detail in the training plan section.

top of page

Designed and hosted by in collaboration with CLO