Assessment Literacy Level of EFL Teachers in Buleleng: A Descriptive Study

This study aimed to investigate the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. This study used a descriptive quantitative research approach to answer the research questions. The sample of this study was 40 EFL teachers in Buleleng. The quantitative data were obtained from a set of close-ended questionnaires that contained seven standards of assessment literacy and thirty items of questions. The quantitative data were analyzed using Dixon & Massey (1987) formula, in which the score of EFL teachers was divided into five categories; Very good, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very poor. From this study, it can be obtained that there were 5% of EFL teachers categorized as Very good, 32.5% of EFL teachers categorized as Good, 47.5% of EFL teachers categorized as Fair, 15% of EFL teachers categorized as Poor, and 0% of EFL teachers categorized as Very Poor. The result of this study showed that teacher assessment literacy in Buleleng categorized as “Fair” in general.


INTRODUCTION
Currently, the Indonesian government enforces the 2013 Curriculum as the National Curriculum in Indonesia. Every year, there are still certain changes that require teachers to update the set policies (Amrullah et al., 2019). One part of learning that often changes is assessment. In the 2013 curriculum, the implementation of the assessment must be based on several aspects such as attitudes, knowledge, and skills possessed by students (Suryadi, 2016). Assessment in the 2013 curriculum must refer to the standards of assessment set by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Bulan et al., 2020). Therefore, it requires every teacher to understand these standards before conducting an assessment fully. Assessment is commonly considered a measurement tool used to obtain information about students and is used to decide students' abilities (Chetty, 2020). Assessment is the actions that teachers and students engage in in order to obtain data that can be utilized to improve the learning process (Ekua & Sekyi, 2016). The assessment process involves documenting students' attitudes, knowledge, and abilities using certain measuring instruments. In the 2013 curriculum, the teacher is not the only evaluator, but students can also assess themselves and other students (Bulan et al., 2020). It becomes a new challenge for a teacher to determine the right assessment practice for students.
In English learning, assessment becomes a big challenge for teachers, it is because the teacher must be able to assess students from the four language skills (reading, speaking, listening, writing) so, the teacher must pay attention to the right technique of assessment for students. Besides, most of the time in the learning process is done to assess students' performance (Nurdiana, 2021). Assessment is essential since it reveals how many English students have met their learning objectives in using English (Tosuncuoglu, 2018). It is also useful to find out what difficulty students experience in learning and how to solve it. With different levels of students' abilities and skills, the teacher must determine the right strategy in the assessment (Werdiyanti, 2021). The teacher will be able to identify the right teaching strategy for students by understanding their issues. As a result of this strategy, students' obstacles can be resolved, and the teacher can determine whether or not to continue the learning (Han, 2017).
The previous explanation demonstrates the importance of assessment is not only for teachers but also for students. Assessment is useful for students to show their learning to their teachers, and for teachers to provide feedback about student learning (Liljedahl, 2010). Assessment can determine how student's ability level is and its suitability for learning (Gautami & Santosa, 2021). The assessment also determines the student's continuous learning, reflects student learning, and also can be a tool to promote the effectiveness of learning (Tagele & Bedilu, 2015). Therefore, the teacher must choose an effective assessment technique that follows the learning styles of the students so that they do not feel pushed during the assessment process.
In the practice, EFL teachers in Indonesia understand that assessment is not only seen as a student's score in learning. It does not only aim to get grades, graduation, certification, etc. Assessment regulates the process of learning itself (Saefurrohman, 2017). Saefurrohman (2015) in his research about assessment practice in Indonesian Junior High School, found that not all EFL teachers are fully aware of the principles of the assessment. Each student's ability is different, so many teachers have difficulty in implementing the principles of assessment because of the discrepancy between the assessment techniques used and the students' abilities. This study indicates that many EFL teachers in Indonesia have unsatisfactory abilities in practicing assessment. Several things can influence teachers' lack of ability in practicing assessment. One of them is the lack of assessment literacy owned by the teacher.
Teacher Assessment literacy is considered the knowledge and abilities needed by teachers to assess students' achievement of learning outcomes (Lian & Yew, 2016). Teacher Assessment literacy reflects the quality of education because the teacher's ability to assess will direct student achievement (Xu & Brown, 2017). Every teacher must own assessment literacy to carry out assessment practices well. Without a high assessment literacy, teachers will not be able to assist their students to improve their academic achievement (Zolfaghari & Ashraf, 2015). Assessment literacy will provide teachers with an understanding of why they assess, what to assess, and how to assess (Marhaeni, 2018). Teacher assessment literacy can also help the teacher carry out a valid assessment according to the established assessment standards. So that this also influences the success of a lesson, where teachers who can carry out valid assessments will be able to bring students to achieve learning targets. Several studies have reviewed teacher assessment literacy in Indonesia. Zulaiha (2020) found a disconnect between teachers' conceptions of the assessment principle and their classroom practice. Indonesian EFL teachers already knew the assessment principle, which states that assessment is an integral component of the learning process. Teachers should assist their students in completing assessment assignments. On the other hand, teachers did not put their expertise into practice. It is proven by the appearance of contradictory instructions on student exams, which caused the student to struggle with the assessment procedure. According to Zulaiha (2020), Indonesian teachers are aware of assessment principles. However, their assessment practices are not optimum. The study's findings suggest that Indonesian EFL teachers still have a lot of work to do regarding assessment literacy.
Some assessment practices in Bali found in (Marhaeni, 2018) show gaps in the implementation or practice of authentic assessment in EFL classes, particularly in senior high schools in Bali. The gap acquired ranged from moderate to wide. As a result, authentic assessment implementation in EFL classes can be described as unsatisfactory. It also showed that the assessment literacy owned by the EFL teachers in Bali is lacking. Therefore, teachers need to improve their assessment literacy to be able to improve the condition of assessment practice in Bali. Similar to the previous research, Wahyuni et al., (2021) found that secondary school English teachers in Buleleng Regency have sufficient knowledge to practice authentic and language assessment skills. The data shows that the teacher still has misconceptions in practicing the authentic assessment even though they have improved their knowledge. Wahyuni et al., (2021) suggested that supervision is needed to check teachers' performance in conducting assessments, and also teachers need to improve their literacy by joining workshops and seminars. Etc.
The implementation of assessment in the research results above shows that even though the EFL teachers have adequate knowledge regarding assessment, unfortunately, teachers still experience difficulties in practicing the assessment. This problem can happen because of each teacher's assessment literacy influence. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out further investigations regarding the assessment literacy level of the EFL teachers. This investigation plays an important role in finding out more about the quality of EFL teachers in practicing assessment. In the future, it can be a reflection for teachers to improve themselves if they have a low level of assessment literacy.
The previous research led the author to conduct this research to study more deeply the condition of assessment literacy in Bali, especially in Buleleng regency. Teacher assessment literacy is still rarely done in Buleleng. Therefore, the research question of this research is "What is the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng?" This research aims to investigate the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. This research is necessary to improve the quality of the literacy assessment possessed by EFL teachers.

METHOD
This research employed a descriptive quantitative research approach to identifying the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. The sample was 40 EFL teachers in Buleleng regency taken by using In obtaining the data, this research conducted an online survey using a close-ended questionnaire consisting of 30 items. The 30 items of the questionnaire consist of 7 dimensions, which are the seven standards of assessment literacy, so this questionnaire aims to obtain data related to teacher assessment literacy. The questionnaire's data were analyzed using (Dixon & Massey, 1987) formula. The data were grouped into five levels; Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very Poor. The questionnaire of this study had been developed by the researcher's supervisors in their previous research and adapted from (Plake et al., 1993). Therefore, the reliability of the questionnaire already tested before use.

FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS
The findings of this research are organized according to the research question. It consists of a subsection that aims to present and analyze the data and report the EFL teacher's assessment literacy level.
A set of instruments using a close-ended questionnaire consisting of 30 items with 7 indicators was distributed to investigate the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. The data were obtained from 40 EFL teachers and analyzed quantitatively using Dixon and Massey (1987) formula. Table 2. illustrates the analysis result of the data questionnaire. Based on Table 1, it shows that there are five levels of assessment literacy possessed by the EFL teachers: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very Poor. Teachers' range score of assessment literacy is from 0 to 30. There are 40 teachers as the respondent who voluntarily fill the questionnaire. 2 out of 40 teachers, or 5% are categorized in the Very Good level. 13 out of 40 teachers or This study attempted to investigate the assessment literacy level possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. Based on the result of the questionnaire data, it is shown that the assessment literacy level owned by the EFL teachers in Buleleng is categorized as fair. The findings of this study are in line with the study conducted by Marhaeni (2018) that the EFL teacher's assessment literacy in Singaraja, Bali is categorized as sufficient. This result means that the assessment literacy level of EFL teachers in Buleleng still does not meet the expectation stated in Khadijeh and Amir (2015) that by the in-depth knowledge of the assessment principle and process, the teacher will be able to practice the assessment properly and responsibly.
This study indicates that assessment literacy is important for teachers before conducting the assessment process. One of the reasons why assessment literacy is very important is that teachers will develop an accurate and valid assessment strategy when they have adequate literacy (Khadijeh & Amir, 2015). Teachers can use assessment literacy to get the information they need regarding the effectiveness of their strategy and materials (Mellati & Khademi, 2018). With assessment literacy, teachers will succeed in integrating assessment well and determining appropriate teaching techniques. According to Stabler-Havener (2018) assessment literacy is a link between the quality of the assessment carried out with the achievements obtained by students. Therefore, teachers need to improve their literacy assessments.
From the results of this study, further research is needed on what factors might affect EFL teachers' assessment literacy in Buleleng. This is very important to improve the quality of teachers. As a first step to improve assessment literacy, it is necessary to make certain efforts that need to be done by teachers to be said to be literate. Increasing professional development is one way to build quality as an assessor (Said et al., 2013). Professional development includes training, attending seminars, workshops, and others. Enriching the experience in terms of assessment is also very important to provide new knowledge about the principles and practice of good assessment. Besides, institutional support also needed to support teacher's knowledge on assessment (Xu & Brown, 2017). It can be in the form of routine socialization held by the institution where the teacher teaches about the assessment so that the teacher will receive information about the updated rules or techniques for implementing the assessment. These are several efforts that the teachers can make to improve the quality of teachers as assessors and improve the quality of learning and the assessment process that will be carried out in the future.

CONCLUSION
This study was aimed to investigate the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng. The data obtained showed that the assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in Buleleng is categorized as Fair by a percentage of 47,50%. This study indicates that the level of understanding and skills that EFL teachers have regarding assessment is categorized as adequate. In its application, EFL teachers in Buleleng still have misconceptions

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The Art of Teaching English as a Foreign Language on several assessment standards, resulting in difficulties in practice. Based on the result of the level of assessment literacy possessed by EFL teachers in this study, it is necessary to improve the quality of teacher assessments literacy by increasing their professional development and enriching their experience. Besides, support from the institution where the teacher teaches also needed to improve teacher's knowledge on assessment.