Assessment

My teacher uses three main assessment tools: worksheets, quizzes, and tests. The majority of the worksheets are done in class. She gives the students quiet reading time to fill out worksheets based on the chapter they're reading. The quizzes are given to her AP students in place of the worksheets. The theory is that students in AP shouldn't need in class time to work on their reading. Instead, they should come in having completed it already. Tests for her non-AP classes are multiple choice with short answer, and her AP classes get questions from old AP tests - sometimes multiple choice, sometimes essay.
I disagree with a lot of this system. First - it seems a little condescending to expect her AP kids to read but not her non-AP kids. Pre-conceived expectations drive me crazy. In addition, the whole quiet reading/answering worksheet questions thing bothers me. I think it's a gross waste of time. Most of the students aren't paying a lot of attention to the worksheet, and those that are don't need a worksheet to comprehend the reading. If I were to give out worksheets, I would allow my students to at least work in groups. Silent classrooms in non-test situations bother me. Students should be allowed to communicate and build ideas off of one another. In my experience, if allowed to work together, students actually do this. While they talk about other matters in addition to the work, they also complete the task and remember it better. I'm not, however, a fan of the formatting of her particular worksheets. To me, they are pure busy work. Students can literally read the text and copy answers right onto the page. It's highly repetitive. I guess some learners would find the repetition helpful, but I would find it extremely boring. Part of being a teacher is finding assignments that work with several different learning types instead of just one.
I also disagree highly with any test formatted in all multiple choice questions. Education is about so much more than the ability to spit back information. I don't mind essay tests, but only when they ask the students to process the information and explain why instead of just how.