Understanding how teachers practise inclusive classroom assessment

This study was undertaken to better understand how Canadian teachers utilized the three major purposes of assessment for students with diverse needs through a questionnaire that reflected major concepts of AFL, AOL, and ACC (assessment for and of learning; accommodations and modifications). We found that a higher percentage of teachers-especially special education teachers-reported offering ACC frequently to their students than did those who reported practising AFL and AOL frequently. In line with the literature, our findings suggest that AOL was adopted by a greater percentage of teachers than AFL, especially when teachers reported practising AAL (assessment as learning which is considered a subset of AFL) less frequently. Our data also shows that teachers who put one assessment concept into practice tended to utilize the other concepts. Finally, a small but notable number of teachers surveyed reported sometimes or never implementing AFL, AOL, and ACC in class.