High-Quality Assessments

1. High-Quality Assessments Tindley Accelerated Schools 2014

2. Session Overview Objectives • Review characteristics of a quality unit assessment. • Revise and edit a standards aligned summative assessment.

3. Summative vs. Formative Formative (low stakes) • identify students strengths and weaknesses; forms future planning/instruction • Use information to drive instruction • Examples • Pre-tests • Exit tickets • Individual whiteboard activities • Think, pair, share Summative (high stakes) • Evaluate student learning; Sums up student learning over a given period of time • Based on a standard or a benchmark • Examples • State-mandated tests • Chapter or unit tests • Semester/final exams

4. Formal vs. Informal Formal (scored/graded) • Students are compared to other peers within the population • Percentiles or standard scores are most commonly used • Examples • Standardized tests • Summative Assessments • Exams Informal (content/performance driven) • Standard scores not given • Teacher uses results to tailor instruction • Examples • Logs/Journals • Games • Observation • Exit Slips

5. What Type? Informal or Formal?

6. What Type? Informal or Formal?

7. What Type? Informal or Formal?

8. Common Mistakes • Questions/Tasks are not aligned to a unit standard. • Questions do not represent/align with the unit knowledge and skills. • Questions/Tasks are not as rigorous as they could be (focus on INCCS). • Assessments do not adequately prepare students for success on standardized or rigorous future tests. • Lack of developed exemplars and rubrics for open-ended questions/tasks.

9. Writing Aligned Questions Consider your options for question types: • Multiple choice/Matching • Short Response/Fill in the Blank + More efficient, easy to scaffold, objective and quick scoring ─ potential for guessing/cheating, formatted for lower-level thinking • Extended Response • Essay/Performance Task + Can cover depth and breadth, easy to see student knowledge, encourages critical thought and expression ─ time-consuming, difficult to cover large amounts of material

10. Practice with Sample Test 1. Partner Critique: • Do the questions align to the standard? • Can you identify which knowledge and skills are providing the basis of the questions? • Provide feedback

11. Checking Questions for Bloom’s Alignment

12. Practice with Sample Test • Identify which level of Bloom’s each of your questions fits. • Determine whether it is appropriately aligned and where you can “amp up” your rigor. • Record your notes on the handout.

13. Rubric-Based Questions/Tasks/Assessments In some courses or for some units, you may decide to use a project or performance assessment as the summative unit assessment. In this case, a standards-aligned rubric and exemplar are necessary. When creating a rubric, it’s essential that you align the components of the rubric with standards, skills, and knowledge.

14. Application Pull out your unit assessment and quality check handout. Go through the entire assessment: • Align questions with standards/knowledge/skills • Identify questions that need to be removed/revised • Identify standards/knowledge/skills that aren’t represented and need questions added • Rewrite questions to make sure they are rigorous • Check ratio (too many or too few of one type of question)

15. Quality Check

16. Key Takeaways • Share out something you’re taking away from this session: • What is one thing you learned/revised/improved in your approach to planning assessments? • What is something you want to remember when planning future assessments?