Assessment Issues

1. Assessment Issues Jeffrey Oescher

2. Quality Assessments • Knowledge of … • learning targets, • assessment methods, and • specific guidelines for writing specific assessments. • Let’s briefly look at each of these

3. Learning Targets • Master factual and procedural knowledge • Use knowledge to reason and solve problems • Demonstrate mastery of specific skills • Create quality products • Acquire positiveaffect/dispositions

4. Learning Targets • Knowledge • Name at least two influences on the culture of New Orleans • Give two examples of how location has affected the history of New Orleans.

5. Learning Targets • Reasoning • Compare the way of life of the early settlers of New Orleans to your own. • What would New Orleans be like if it was not located on the Mississippi River?

6. Learning Targets • Skills • Use the scale provided on the map to measure the distance from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. • Work effectively as a group to identify the critical issues facing New Orleans in the next several years.

7. Learning Targets • Products • Create a crossword puzzle. • Create a collage that depicts some aspect of New Orleans’ heritage. • Design a study to investigate the use of data driven decision making in a school.

8. Learning Targets • Affective characteristics • Demonstrate respect toward yourself and others. • Develop a positive self-concept. • Develop a positive attitude toward history

9. Learning Targets • Classify each of the student tasks on the following slide relative to the type of learning target • Write your responses on a scrap piece of paper

10. Learning Targets • List and define five types of achievement targets. • Explain each of the five types of outcomes in terms of real examples of targets you might address in your classes. • Identify the learning targets upon which you might focus in a class and assess them relative to the five types discussed today. • Statistically analyze the items on a test you have given. Revise your test items based on these analyses. • Write appropriate learning objectives for specific targets. • Recall or knowledge level outcomes are often regarded as “less important” or “less challenging.” Are some kinds of reasoning more important than others? • Heated debates continue about the kinds of outcomes our schools should help students attain. Opposing camps often include conservative and liberal political factions, religious communities, or business leaders. In your opinion, are these volatile exchanges of values good or bad for schools and students? (Knowledge, Reasoning, Skills, Products, Affective Traits)

11. Assessment Methods • Selected response and short answer • Essay • Performance assessment • Personal/oral communication

12. Assessment Methods • Selected response • All of the objectively scored paper-and-pencil test formats • Multiple choice • True/false • Matching • Fill-in-the-blank

13. Assessment Methods • Essays • An exercise in which the respondent is provided a prompt which calls for the preparation of an extended written answer • Describe how the concepts of evaporation and condensation come into play in the context of the water cycle. Be sure to include all the key elements of the cycle and discuss how they relate to one another. • Using what you know about the causes of air pollution in cities, propose two potentially useful solutions. Analyze each in terms of its strengths and weaknesses.

14. Assessment Methods • Performance Assessments • An exercise in which the respondent actually carries out a specified activity under the scrutiny of an evaluator who makes judgments based either on observations of the process and/or on the product created • Processes • A musical recital • A speech • A hundred meter dash • A science experiment • Products • A drawing • A term paper • A prepared dish

15. Assessment Methods • Personal communication • Formal and informal discussion with students about their achievement • Informal • Questions posed and answered during instruction • Discussions during class • Conversations • Formal • Interviews • Conferences • Oral examinations

16. Target – Method Match • There is a need to match learning targets with assessment methods • Complete Table 1 on the following slide • Place a ‘X’ for an appropriate match between target and method • Place a ‘?’ for a possible match • Place a ‘O’ for an inappropriate match

17. Target – Method Match

18. Target Method Match • Using the table on Slide 17, place an ‘X’ in each cell where you feel the target and method are matched.

19. Target – Method Match

20. Reflection • What questions do you have about … • achievement targets, • assessment methods, or • the match between targets and methods?

21. Learning Objectives • Making your assessment targets clear to students

22. Learning Objectives • Clearly defining cognitive targets • Learning objectives • Content • Cognitive processing of this content • Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain • Stiggins’ Knowledge and Reasoning Targets • Other taxonomies

23. Learning Objectives • Examples • List the parts of a cell and describe the structures included in each. • Identify the literary devices authors use to convey their characters’ feelings to the reader. • Across the stories we have read this semester, describe the general approach that the main characters have used to resolve their problems.

24. Learning Objectives • Examples • Illustrate the similarity between addition and subtraction. • Categorize examples of researchable and non-researchable research problems. • Speculate on the long term impact of the BP oil spill on Louisiana’s economy. • Argue for the case that a particular golfer is the greatest of all time.

25. Learning Objectives • Becoming clear – crystal clear • Test blueprints

26. Selected Response Items • Write a multiple choice item for each of the following learning objectives • Identify four (4) sources of information used to make decisions in education.1.1 • Differentiate researchable problems from non-researchable problems.3.0 • Evaluate the use of a norm-referenced or criterion-referenced test for specific purposes.3.5

27. Selected Response Items • Guidelines for writing selected response items • General guidelines for all formats • Items are clearly written and focused • A question is posed • The lowest possible reading level is used • Irrelevant clues are eliminated • Items have been reviewed by a colleague • The scoring key has been checked

28. Selected Response Items • Guidelines (continued) • Multiple choice items • The item stem poses a direct question • Any repetition is eliminated from the response • Only one best or correct answer is provided • The response options are brief and parallel • The number of response options offered fits the item context

29. Selected Response Items • Guidelines (continued) • True/False items • The statement is definitely true or false • Fill-in items • A direct question is posed • One blank is needed to respond • The length of the blank is not a clue to the answer

30. Selected Response Items • Guidelines (continued) • Matching exercises • Clear directions on how to match are provided • The list of items to be matched is brief • Any lists consist of homogeneous entries • The response options are brief and parallel • Extra response options are offered

31. Selected Response Items • Critiquing your items • Review the guidelines for writing selected response items • Take the practice exercise at the end of this handout • Identify any problems with your selected response items • Correct these problems • Statistically analyzing test items • Let’s go here - briefly

32. What Is Next? • Essay items • Specifying appropriate targets • Writing, scoring and grading • Performance assessments • Specifying appropriate targets • Developing scoring criteria and scales • Affective scales • Valued affective traits • Measurement scales • Scoring and score interpretation