Ideal and Reality of Literacy Assessment Practice in Elementary Schools

Literacy assessment should ideally be multidisciplinary in scope, standardized across cognitive dimensions, and systematically implemented through clearly defined procedures encompassing testing, measurement, and specific instruments. However, empirical evidence from the field indicates a substantial discrepancy between these normative standards and the actual implementation of literacy assessment in schools. To investigate this discrepancy, this study employed an explanatory design with quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods. This study involved twenty-two elementary school teachers from Malang, Indonesia, who participated in a school literacy ecosystem training to examine the identified gap in their capacity as literacy assessors. The findings consistently reveal that literacy assessment practices remain considerably below the expected standards in terms of procedural rigor, standardization, and reporting mechanisms. This condition contrasts sharply with national education policies that advocate for contextualized, adaptive, and systematic literacy assessment frameworks at both national and classroom levels. At the classroom level, the most prominent gap lies in the persistent misconception of summative assessment organized by subject area, wherein literacy assessment is narrowly equated with, and confined to, the Indonesian language subject. The findings demonstrate that teachers’ conceptual and practical mastery of literacy assessment remains limited, underscoring the need for sustained professional support to achieve ideal assessment practices.