The Controversial Issue of Student Testing and Assestment Term Paper

The Controversial Issue of Student Testing and Assestment - Term Paper Example Conventional rules require instructors to interpret test scores in accordance with legal and societal expectations, norms and criteria; these norms are either established independently or through statistical analysis of massive numbers of participants (Black & Harrison, (2001). However, Christian perspective on testing and assessment differs significantly from the legal and societal expectations of administering assessment tools. Biblical principles guide instructors to adopt significantly different norms, aims and forms of testing and assessment. The purpose of this paper is to consider the controversial issue of testing and assessment from the legal and societal perspective and contrast these expectations to Biblical principles. The purpose of testing and assessment differs rather significantly across many groups of people considered as education stakeholders. For instance, from the legal perspectives, policymakers’ purpose of assessment include setting standards, focusing o n goals, monitoring the quality of education, formulating policies based on results of tests and assessment, sanctioning or rewarding certain education-related practices and determining the effects of tests. On the other hand, teachers, schools and administrators use tests and assessments as tools to make grouping decisions by monitoring student progress, conducting curriculum evaluations and refinements, offering student diagnosis and motivating students through grading, promotion or mastery by defining grades (Gregory & Chapman, 2002). Societal expectations of testing and assessment include gauging students’ progress in order to assess their strengths and weaknesses, ascertain school accountability and make knowledgeable decisions regarding education and careers. However, from the legal and societal standpoint, instructors are allowed to provide standardized student tests and assessments regardless of the students’ abilities, inabilities or levels of knowledge and un derstanding. The tester, in this case, serves as a determiner of student knowledge. However, Biblical principles regarding testing and assessment are quite dissimilar from societal and legal expectations. First and foremost, Biblical principles require all educational procedures to integrate Christian teachings and messages. These Biblical expectations of teaching and instruction must be woven throughout all educational processes from instruction to assessment. Biblical principles articulate not only what students are expected to do and know, but also what is expected of students as they continue through their life journeys as productive members of society and as followers of Christ. As a consequence, Biblical principles that guide teaching, learning and assessment require that student evaluations and assessment must conform to Christian practices, which not only recognize, but also affirm Christian values (Anthony, 2011). This is accomplished by respecting the worth and dignity of all students. Effective assessment and testing according to Biblical principles also requires the provision of successful experiences to all students regardless of their skills, competences and aptitudes. On the other hand, the universal tests and assessments presented to students based on legal and societal expectations are contrary to Biblical principles. Biblical principl

The Electricity Reforms in Chile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Electricity Reforms in Chile - Essay Example During the late 1970s and early 1980s most of the earlier nationalized firms were being given back to their earlier owners and massive government companies, for instance electricity firms were enticed to trade on a commercial basis. Government firms were breaking even and by the late 70s and early 80s there were indications that electricity firms specially showed improving rates of return on capital. The macro economy and most of the major economic indicators started to indicate substantial improvement. Inflation dropped and GDP started to grow at a considerable pace especially after 1985. This healthy economic trend grew further during the late 1980s and accelerated further to 6.2 p.a. during the early 1990s. The electricity reforms in Chile follow most of the features found in the electricity systems of developed nations. Since Chile has a small population (15.5m in 2002), thus the capability to take advantage of economies of scale, if at all is moderate2. Even though Chile's electricity consumption per person is low when compared to developed countries, it is increasing fast at (6% per annum). The electricity making system has a big installed hydro capacity base, however as demand rises fossil fuels have become more vital. Most probably there is a difference between Chile and other developing countries as the strength due to the fact that it was administered by military rule for a long time. 2. Analysis i. Reform in electricity - History The Electricity Act enacted in 1982 is up to now the most vital legislation in the sector. In January 2004 there were some significant changes to the regulations governing the sector after the passage of Lay Corta. The electricity sector inChilebasically depends on thermal and hydro power generation. Shortage of natural gas led the government to increase the supply by building a first liquefied gas terminal with more capacity of generation. The new project started in the year 2007. Re-gasification plant terminal near the capital city ofSantiagois intended to increase and stabilize power supply for its existing and projected gas-fired thermal plants. There was a consideration to further expand the constructions in various new hydropower and coal-fired thermal plants. Chile's electricity sector reform was very efficiently implemented by the authorities and because of the success of the reforms many other governments followed the same to improve power generation in their respective countries3. Figure 4: Chile's Natural Gas Total Consumption (2003) - Total Annual Demand 8.73 BCM Source: www.lyd.com/english/noticias/restructuring.ppt -Chile4 Adaptation of many initiatives like vertical and horizontal unbundling ofpower generation, regular transmissionanddistributionand large scale privatization brought billions of institutional investment to the electricity sector due to electricity shortage of the country5. The 1982 Electricity Act was amended three times in 1999, 2004 and 2005 respectively in Chile's parliament. Even though during the 1980s there weren't many markets from which Chileans could draw inspiration, the officials visited UK, France and Belgium. From the knowledge gained from these countries they came up with the idea of separate generation and distribution firms where payment was done in accordance with a formula based on cost. This apart they also came up with a dispatch