Are student interviews a better assessment of progress than standardized tests?

Instructional coach Andrew Miller uses interviewing as a way to read how well students understand what they’re learning, taking the sting from formal assessments at the Shanghai American School in China, he writes for Edutopia.Questions need to be planned, he wrote, with prompts that bring out the “deeper learning and evidence” he hopes students can reveal, and educators can also choose other methods, such as listening in to conversations students have with each other, an unobtrusive method which is a “low-stakes experience.”Finally, when choosing to hold a conversation with students, Miller prefers to take notes with a pencil and paper rather than on a computer, believing it keeps his attention on what the student is saying — and not on making sure he types the right letters and words on a keyboard.While hard data — test results and numbers — are often preferred by educators to assess student learning, there is evidence that qualitative information, which can come from interviewing students or written materials, can be particularly effective as well.