Key Clarifications - Assessments vs. Evaluation

Is my Assessment plan working?

In the last post I commented on the differences between teaching, assessing, and testing.  This post looks at the differences between assessments and evaluations.  The diagram in itself details the differences between the two, but in layman's terms, evaluations tell you if your assessment plan is working (hence the title :-).  As I mentioned before, assessments can include tests, portfolios, quizzes, assignments, projects, presentations, debates etc.  Each teacher develops an assessment plan to execute, whether it's on a weekly, monthly, trimester, semester, or yearly bases.  At the end of the designated period the assessment plan is evaluated against predetermined standards.  The results are helpful as it informs administrators and teachers whether the assessment plan, and other strategies need to be tweaked.