Secondary School Teachers’ Skills in a Significant Component of Classroom Assessment in North Central Nigeria

Globally, classroom teachers use assessment as a means of ascertaining knowledge gained by pupils following a teaching-learning process. In view of the importance of assessment, this paper sought to investigate the level of competencies and skills in classroom assessment among secondary school teachers in North Central Nigeria. The researcher evaluated the classroom assessment skills of teachers in North Central Nigeria, adopting a descriptive survey. From the population of 26,230 public senior school teachers in the region, 1440 made up the sample. They were selected from 60 secondary schools in North Central Nigeria using a multistage sampling technique. Classroom Assessment Literacy Inventory (CALI) was the sole instrument used for data collection. While the research question was answered using mean, the research hypothesis was tested with a Four-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistic at a 0.05 alpha level of significance. The finding revealed that senior school teachers only managed to demonstrate moderate skill as they were at ‘Below Expectation’ in almost all the ‘Standards’. Also, no significant differences were found among senior school teachers in their skills in administering, scoring, and interpreting the results of assessments based on gender, educational qualification, teaching experience, and workshop training received, with the F-value of 0.219 and the p-value of 0.955. The paper concluded that the majority of senior school teachers in North Central Nigeria were at an average level in their classroom assessment skills. In view of that, it is recommended that the regulatory agencies for teacher training institutions should look into the contents of the minimum standard for courses related to classroom assessments by making their coverage wider enough to accommodate the rudiments of classroom assessments and their application to routine classroom situations.