Comprehensive Guide to Classroom Assessment Strategies

2. Chapter 14 Classroom Assessment Strategies

3. The Many Forms of Assessment

4. Assessment • Process of observing a sample of a student’s behavior and drawing inferences about the student’s knowledge and abilities.

5. Formative vs. Summative • Formative • assess students’ knowledge before or during instruction • homework assignments, in-class assignments, quizzes • “curriculum-based assessment” • Summative • assess students’ achievement after instruction • final exams

6. Informal vs. Formal • Informal = spontaneous, unplanned observation • Formal =planned in advance, used for a specific purpose • scheduled at particular time • students can prepare for it • intended to yield information about particular instructional goals or content area standards

7. Paper–Pencil vs. Performance • Paper–pencil • students address questions or problems on paper • Performance • students demonstrate abilities or skills

8. Traditional vs. Authentic • Traditional • measuring knowledge and skills in relative isolation from tasks typically found in the outside world • Authentic • measuring students’ knowledge and skills in a real-life context

9. Standardized vs. Teacher-Developed • Standardized • developed by test construction experts • published for use in many different schools and classrooms • Teacher-developed • typically used to assess achievement related to specific instructional objectives

10. Criterion-Referenced vs. Norm-Referenced • Criterion-referenced • what students have and have not accomplished relative to predetermined standards • Norm-referenced • how each student’s performance compares with the performance of peers

11. Using Assessment for Different Purposes

12. Assessment is used for… • Guiding instructional decision making • Determining what students have learned from instruction • Evaluating the quality of instruction • Diagnosing learning and performance problems • Response to intervention (RTI) • Promoting learning

13. Promoting Learning • Assessments can motivate students to study and learn. • Assessments can influence students’ cognitive processes as they study. • Assessments can serve as learning experiences in and of themselves. • Assessments can provide valuable feedback about learning progress.

14. Assessment Strategies • Use rubrics for complex topics/skills. • Describe instructional goals/objectives in clear, understandable language. • Assess students’ progress frequently rather than infrequently. • When giving an assessment, communicate a desire to enhance understanding and promote mastery.

15. Assessment Strategies • Help students detect important differences between genuine mastery and more superficial knowledge. • Engage students in constructive discussions of one another’s work, with a focus on ideas for improvement. • Give students opportunities to revise their work based on feedback they’ve received.

16. Dynamic Assessment • Assesses students’ ability to learn something new, in a one-on-one situation that includes instruction, assistance, some other form of scaffolding. Gives insight into: • Students’ readiness for instruction • Students’ motivational and affective patterns • Students’ work habits • Potential obstacles to students’ learning

17. Include Students • Solicit students’ ideas about assessment criteria and rubric design. • Provide examples of good and not-so-good products. • Have students compare self-ratings of their performance with teacher ratings. • Ask students to write practice questions similar to those they might see on an upcoming paper–pencil test.

18. Include Students • Have students keep ongoing records of their performance. • Have students reflect on their work in daily or weekly journal entries. • Have students compile a portfolio of their work. • Ask students to lead parent–teacher conferences.

19. Important Qualities of Good Assessment

20. RSVP • Reliability • The results of an assessment should be consistent no matter when we give it. • Standardization • The assessment should have a similar format, content, and procedure for all students.

21. RSVP • Validity • The assessment should measure what it is intended to measure. • Practicality • The assessment and its procedures should be fairly simple to use and take only a small amount of time to administer and score.

22. Reliability • Extent to which a measure yields consistent information about the knowledge, skills, or characteristics being assessed • Not perfect • students change from day to day • physical environment may change • administration may vary • measure may not be well constructed • scoring is subjective

23. Standardization • Extent to which an assessment involves similar content and format and is administered and scored in the same way for everyone

24. Validity • Extent to which an assessment instrument • measures what it’s intended to measure • allows us to draw appropriate inferences about the ability in question

25. Validity • Content validity • are we testing what we taught? • Predictive validity • do the results predict future performance? • Construct validity • Are we measuring general, abstract characteristics accurately?

26. Practicality • Extent to which assessment instruments and procedures are relatively easy to use • expense • expertise • time

27. Informal Assessment

28. Informal Assessment • Occurs in day-to-day interactions • Provides continuous feedback about effectiveness of instruction • Helps determine appropriateness and success of formal assessments • Provides clues about factors affecting performance • Is very practical • May not be very reliable or valid • Is not standardized

29. Paper-Pencil Assessment

30. Paper-Pencil Assessment • Easy, fast, practical • Recognition tasks • multiple choice, true-false, matching • Recall tasks • short-answer, essay, word problems

31. Constructing Assessments • Alternative-response items • rephrase ideas presented in class or the textbook • write statements that clearly reflect one alternative or the other • avoid excessive use of negatives • Matching items • keep items in each column homogeneous • have more items in one column than the other

32. Constructing Assessments • Multiple-choice items • present distractors that are clearly wrong to students who know the material but plausible to students who don’t • avoid negatives in both stem and alternative • use “all of the above” or “none of the above” seldom if at all • avoid giving logical clues about the correct answer

33. Constructing Assessments • Short-answer and completion items • specify the type of response required • For completion items, include only one or two blanks per item • Problems and interpretive exercises • use new examples and situations • include irrelevant information

34. Constructing Assessments • Essay tasks • combine lengthy essay items with other items that require less time • provide a structure for responding • ask questions that can be scored clearly

35. General Guidelines • Define tasks clearly, unambiguously • Consider giving students access to reference materials • Place easier and shorter items before more challenging ones • Identify scoring criteria in advance

36. Administering the Assessment • Provide a quiet and comfortable environment • Encourage students to ask questions when tasks are not clear • Take steps to discourage cheating

37. Scoring Students’ Responses • Strive for objectivity • Score grammar and spelling separately from content • Skim a sample of responses before scoring • Score item by item rather than paper by paper • Try not to let expectations influence judgments • Provide detailed feedback

38. Performance Assessment

39. Performance Assessment • When selecting a measure • decide whether to look at products, processes, or both • determine if you need an individual or group performance • determine if you are measuring restricted or extended performance

40. Planning and Administering Performance Assessments • Consider incorporating assessment into other instructional activities • Provide appropriate structure • Plan classroom management strategies for the assessment activity

41. Scoring Student Performance • Describe criteria in concrete terms • Develop a checklist or rating scale • Select analytic or holistic scoring • analytic: evaluating components separately • holistic: summarizing performance with a single score • Limit criteria to the most important aspects of the desired response • Note significant aspects of performance that the rubric doesn't address

42. Additional Considerations in Formal Assessment

43. Teach Testwiseness • Teach students to • clarify task(s) to be performed • use time efficiently • reason deductively • avoid sloppy errors • guess well

44. Keep Anxiety in Check • Test anxiety can be debilitating

45. Encourage Risk Taking • Assess students’ achievement frequently • Provide opportunities to correct errors • When appropriate, allow students to retake assessments

46. Evaluating Assessment Tools • Item analysis • item difficulty • item discrimination

47. Using Digital Technologies in Classroom Assessments

48. Digital Technology • Online resources for formative assessment • Templates and management systems for teacher-developed assessments • Electronic essay graders • Strategies for facilitating self-assessment and peer feedback

49. Taking Student Diversity into Account

50. Student Diversity • Keep in mind: • Students often suffer from test anxiety. • Gender and ethnic differences may affect assessment performance independent of their actual learning and achievement. • Assessment instruments must comply with the federal mandates regarding students with special needs.