Lecture IV: High Quality Assessment Components

Saturday, February 6, 2021

08:04 AM
 

Clear purpose

 Classroom assessment practices should have a clear purpose that supports teaching and
learning.

 Summative
• Tied to accountability
 Teacher
 Student
• mid-term and final exams, exit tests

 Formative
 Check for understanding
 Show of hands, tests and quizzes, projects, papers

Clear and Appropriate

targets

 Assessment should be clearly stated and specified and centered on what is truly
important. "Teaching emphasis should parallel testing emphasis.
 Assessment can be made precise, accurate and dependable only if what are to be achieved
are clearly stated and feasible. The learning targets, involving knowledge, reasoning,
skills, products and affects, need to be stated in behavioral terms which denote something
which can be observed through the behavior of the students.
 Know what kinds of targets are represented in curriculum
 Know which targets each assessment measures
 Communicate the learning targets in advance in language students can understand
  Kinds of Targets:
 Master content knowledge
 Use knowledge to reason and solve problems
 Demonstrate performance skills
 Create quality products

 Kinds of Learning Targets – Knowledge

Master factual and procedural knowledge, to be learned outright or retrieved.

 Recognizes and describes patterns

 Recognizes common isotopes and their uses
 Explains the important characteristics of U.S. citizenship.
 Differentiates between elements and compounds

 Kinds of Learning Targets - Reasoning

Use knowledge to reason and solve problems.

 Uses statistical methods to describe, analyze, evaluate, and make decisions

 Analyzes fitness assessments to set personal fitness goals, strategizes ways to
reach goals, and evaluates activities.
 Examines data/results and proposes meaningful interpretation.
  Kinds of Learning Targets - Skill

Demonstrate mastery of specific performance skills

 Measures length in metric and US units

 Performs appropriate first aid for dance-related injuries (e.g. cramps, sprain, heat
exhaustion)
 Dribbles to keep the ball away from an opponent
 Applies simple separation techniques such as distillation, chromatography (LAB)
 Uses simple equipment and tools to gather data

 Converting Learning Targets to Student Friendly Language

1. Identify important of difficult learning goal.
2. Identify word(s) needing clarification.
3. Define the word(s).
4. Rewrite the definition as an “I can” statement in terms that your students will
understand.

 Student – Friendly Language

 Word to be defined: Summarize
- To give a brief statement of the main points, main events, or important
ideas

 Student-friendly language:
 I can summarize text.
 This means I can make a short statement of the main points or the big ideas of what I
read.

 Student – Friendly Language

 Learning Target: “Deeply examine policy issues…”
 Word to be defined: Examine
- A process by which problems, alternate views and reasons for differing
views for a given situation are understood

 . Student-friendly language:
  I can “examine”.
 This means I can state the problems, describe alternative views, and understand
the reasons for these different views.

 Things to remember:
 Convert complex or unfamiliar targets to student-friendly language
 Post them or have students keep them
 Connect learning targets to activities

Appropriate Methods

 Match assessment method with targets Types of assessment:

a. Written response instruments

 Objective tests – appropriate for assessing the various levels of hierarchy of
educational objectives
 Essay – can test the students’ grasp of the higher level cognitive skills
 Checklists – list of several characteristics or activities presented to the subjects of a
study, where they will analyze and place a mark opposite to the characteristics

b. Product Rating Scales – used to rate products like book reports, maps, charts, diagrams,
creative endeavors of students

c. Performance Assessment– used to determine whether or not an individual behaves in a certain

way when asked to complete a particular task.

 Consists of a list of behaviors that make up a certain type of performance

 Use of checklist/rubric

d. Oral Questioning – an appropriate method when the objectives are to assess the students’
stock knowledge or to determine the students’ ability to communicate ideas in coherent verbal
sentences
e. Observation – used to record the frequency of student behaviors, activities or remarks,
useful supplementary method when used in conjunction with oral questioning and performance
tests

f. Self-assessment or Self-report – often employed when teachers want to diagnose or appraise

the performance of students from their own point of view

 Assessment methods match learning targets

 Sample is representative of what is taught
 Items, tasks and scoring guides are well-written

Adequate Sampling

 Adequate sampling across instruments and contexts can ensure both validity and
reliability.
 Use enough questions to assess competence – reliability increases with length of
assessment (esp. for high stakes assessment)
 Objectivity

 Assessment procedure needs to be fair, which means:

 Students need to know exactly what the learning targets are and what method of
assessment will be used.
 Assessment has to be viewed as an opportunity to learn rather than an opportunity
to weed out poor and slow learners
 Freedom from teacher stereotyping
 Bias is avoided

 Steps in ensuring objectivity in assessment

 Clearly defining the objective of the assessments
 Identifying the criteria and sharing it with the students in a transparent manner
 Feedback to the students on his/her performance
 The nature of records made and data collected needs to be shared with the
students
 If the data is to be used for purposes other than what is defined before the
assessment, the student needs to be informed regarding the same

 References:
 Fowler, M. Components of Quality Classroom Assessments School Data
Consultant, CalhounISDhttps://www.bing.com/search?
q=components+of+quality+assessment&cvid=5e5cbbe647534ab7
84cae08adcc8d03a&FORM=ANAB01&PC=U531
 Santos, R. D. (2007). Assessment of Learning 1. Quezon City: Lorimar
Publishing, Inc.
 Vail, J(2009). “Formative Assessment for Secondary Social Studies Teachers.”
Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency. Kalamazoo, Michigan. 10
Aug. 2009.