Why can teachers provide sensitive assessments of students’ preinstructional abilities?

Teachers are uniquely positioned to provide the most sensitive assessments of a student's preinstructional abilities because they possess a direct, ongoing relationship with the learner that standardized tools cannot replicate. While educational psychologists and various agencies provide standardized test materials to measure reasoning power and readiness, these external assessments do not diminish the teacher's essential role in the classroom.1

Effective teaching requires a comprehensive understanding of a student's specific capabilities, achievements, strengths, weaknesses, background, and interests before beginning new instruction. By integrating this personal knowledge with clear pedagogical objectives, teachers can tailor their curricular strategies to the individual needs of their students. This professional responsibility allows teachers to perform nuanced diagnoses and analyses of a student's capacity that are far more sensitive than those derived from generalized testing alone.1