In my language assessment practice, I rely on Performance Matters (PM) for testing and data analysis. While PM provides valuable insights into student performance, it doesn’t fully meet all my testing expectations. Specifically, I find that assessing speaking skills requires a more authentic approach. At present, as a district admin, I structure our common language assessments into two sections: one for speaking and another for written exams. This separation ensures a comprehensive evaluation if the teachers enter the students' oral exam results. However, administering speaking assessments on teachers' Schoology and manually entering results into PM’s Section 1 is not a practical workflow. I cannot reach the speaking tests on teachers' Schoology courses. I envision a valuable addition to PM: a video or audio (recording) question type. Such a feature would directly assess speaking skills within the platform, streamlining the process and enhancing authenticity.
In summary, while PM serves its purpose, the inclusion of video or audio recording question types would significantly enhance language assessment.
