What is Assessment?

The assessment cycle first plans and formulate a plan to teach students. Secondly, use the plan to
effectively do the task of teaching. Thirdly, check whether outcomes the work is according to the
plan and outcomes met or not? Lastly, teaches a way to use the learned knowledge.

Meaning of Assessment

Assessment is a process which follows a set of four components. These four stages or
components are Plan, Do, Check and act. It is a process to evaluate the student’s
performance. Besides, it is an orderly process. This uses a test to check the student’s
performance. It divides into many types.

Assessments can run the gamut from start to finish when it comes to instruction. Think of it like
a long distance race that has a start and finish line and many stations to refuel in between.  The
race can be any instructional period of time, such as a unit, a quarter, or even the full year.  In
this metaphor, the student is the runner and the teacher is the coach who is trying to help the
student run the race as well as they possibly can.  Different assessments types, when utilized by
the coach (teacher) in the right way, can help the runner (student) run the race better and more
effectively.

Some assessments are helpful before the race even begins to help determine what the best
running strategy is (diagnostic). Some assessments are beneficial during the race to track
progress and see if adjustments to the strategy should be made during the race (formative).
Some assessments are given to see if students in entire schools or districts, the entire running
team, are moving forward and learning the material (interim). And some assessments are best at
the very end of the race, to review performance, see how you did, and see how to improve for the
next race (summative).

Assessments help the teacher determine what to teach, how to teach, and in the end, how
effectively they taught it.
EDUCATION TESTING ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING VERSUS ASSESSMENT FOR

One of the major problems in edu reformia is the constant conflation of assessment OF learning
with assessment FOR learning.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Assessment OF learning involves looking at assessment information at the end of the teaching

and learning process to rank students’ achievement levels against a standard. It is summative in
nature and typically involves standardized tests. Assessment OF learning scores are often used to
rate teachers’ or schools’ ability to move student achievement based on the results of single,
point-in-time tests — e.g., those generated by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) or
state tests.

Assessment FOR learning embeds assessment processes throughout the teaching and learning

process to constantly adjust instructional strategy. While it can include test data, it also addresses
other quantitative and even qualitative data, and even encompasses a great deal of anecdotal and
descriptive data. Using NWEA in conjunction with teacher generated daily data (checks for
understanding, exit tickets, observations of student engagement) to alter instructional strategy
during lesson or unit delivery is an example of assessment FOR learning in action.

THE DISTINCTION, THOUGH, IS THAT IN ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING, THE TEST

DATA IS JUST ONE DATA ELEMENT IN THE DISCUSSION, AND THE ASSESSMENT
PROCESS IS CONSTANT RATHER THAN AT A SINGLE POINT IN TIME.
JOE SIEDLECKI

CAN THEY BOTH BE PRESENT?

Certainly, there’s no either/or equation at play. Tests like NWEA and Scantron Performance
Series are increasingly being used to evaluate student progress and provide data for instructional
planning and decision making.

The distinction, though, is that in assessment FOR learning, the test data is just one data element
in the discussion, and the assessment process is constant rather than at a single point in time.
WHAT’S THE FUTURE?

One day I hope that the conflation goes away. Why? Because what we should really be talking
about is assessment AS learning — a process where students are aware of their own learning
objectives, where they take responsibility for meeting those objectives, and where teachers assist
students in their individualized learning paths. (An added benefit of assessment as learning is
that it can be used to help students self-reflect on their behavior and attitudes as well as their
learning.)

Only when we stop doing assessment to students or for students and do assessment with students

will we truly be building their intellectual independence and ability to think critically.

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT

There are four type of assessment in terms of their functional role in relation to classroom
instruction. These are the placement assessment, diagnostic assessment, formative assessment
and summative assessment.

Placement Assessment is concerned with the entry performance of student, the purpose of
placement evaluation is to determine the prerequisite skills, degree of mastery of the course
objectives and the best mode of learning.

Diagnostic Assessment is a type of assessment given before instruction. It aims to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of the students regarding the topics to be discussed. The purpose of
diagnostic assessment:

To determine the level of competence of the students

To identify the students who have already knowledge about the lesson;

To determine the causes of learning problems and formulate a plane for remedial action.
Formative Assessment is a type of assessment used to monitor the learning progress of the
students during or after instruction. Purpose of formative assessment:

To provide feed back immediately to both student and teacher regarding the success and failure
of learning.

To identify the learning errors that is need of correction

To provide information to the teacher for modifying instruction and used for improving learning
and instruction

Summative Assessment is a type of assessment usually given at the end of a course or unit.
Purpose of summative assessment:

To determine the extent to which the instructional objectives have been met;

To certify student mastery of the intended outcome and used for assigning grades;

To provide information for judging appropriateness of the instructional objectives

To determine the effectiveness of instruction

MODE OF ASSESSMENT

Traditional Assessment

Assessment in which students typically select an answer or recall information to complete the
assessment. Test may be standardized or teacher made test, these tests may be multiple-choice,
fill-in-the-blanks, true-false, matching type.

Indirect measures of assessment since the test items are designed to represent competence by
extracting knowledge and skills from their real life context.

Items on standardized instrument tends to test only the domain of knowledge and skill to avoid
ambiguity to the test takers.

One-time measures to rely on a single correct answer to each item. There is a limited potential
for traditional test to measure higher order thinking skills.
Performance assessment

Assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful
application of essential knowledge and skills

Direct measures of students performance because task are design to incorporate contexts,
problems, and solutions strategies that students would use in real life.

Designed ill-structured challenges since the goal is to help students prepare for the complex
ambiguities in life.

Focus on processes and rationales. There is no single correct answer, instead students are led to
craft polished, thorough and justifiable responses, performances and products.

Involve long-range projects, exhibits, and performances are linked to the curriculum

Teacher is an important collaborator in creating tasks, as well as in developing guidelines for

scoring and interpretation

Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio is a collection of student’s work specifically to tell a particular story about the student.

A portfolio is not a pie of student work that accumulates over a semester or year

A portfolio contains a purposefully selected subset of student work

It measures the growth and development of students.

What are The Keys to Effective Testing ?

Objectives; The specific statements of the aim of the instruction; it should express what the
students should be able to do or know as a result of taking the course; the objectives should
indicate the cognitive level, affective level and psychomotor level of expected performance.

Instruction: It consist all the elements of the curriculum designed to teach the subject, including
the lesson plans, study guide, and reading and homework assignment; the instruction should
corresponds directly to the objectives
Assessment: The process of gathering , describing or quantifying information about the
performance of the learner; testing components of the subject; the weight given to different
subject matter areas on the test should match with objectives as well as the emphasis given to
each subject area during instruction.

Evaluation: Examining the performance of students and comparing and judging its quality.
Determining whether or not the learner has met the objectives of the lesson and the extent of
understanding.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

Instructional objectives play a very important role in the instructional process and the evaluation
process. It serves as guides for teaching and learning, communicate the intent of the instruction
to others and it provide a guidelines for assessing the learning of the students. Instructional
objectives also known as behavioral objectives or learning objectives are statement which clearly
describe an anticipated learning outcome.

Characteristics of well-written and useful instructional objectives

Describe a learning outcome

Be student oriented-focus on the learner not on the teacher

Be observable or describe an observable product

Be sequentially appropriate

Be attainable within a reasonable amount of time

Be developmental appropriate

Factors to Consider when Constructing Good Test Items

VALIDITY is the degree to which the test measures what is intended to measure. It is the
usefulness of the test for a given purpose. A valid test us always reliable.

RELIABILITY refers to the consistency of score obtained by the same person when retested
using the same instrument or one that is parallel to it.
ADMINISTRABILITY the test should be administered uniformly to all students so that the
scores obtained will not vary due to factors other than differences of the students knowledge and
skills. There should be a clear provision for instruction for the students, proctors and even the
who will check the test or the scorer

SCORABILITY the test should be easy to score, directions for scoring is clear, provide the
answer sheet and the answer key

APPROPRIATENESS the test item that the teacher construct must assess the exact performances
called for in the learning objectives. The test item should require the same performance of the
student as specified in the learning objectives.

ADEQUACY the test should contain a wide sampling if items to determine the educational
outcomes or abilities so that resulting scores are representatives of the total performance in the
areas measured.

FAIRNESS the test should bit be biased to the examinees, it should not be offensive to any
examinees subgroups. A test can only be good if it is also fair to all test takers.

OBJECTIVITY represents the agreement of two or more raters or a test administrators

concerning the score of a student. If the two raters who assess the same student on the same test
cannot agree in score, the test lacks objectivity and the score of neither judge is valid, thus, lack
of objectivity reduces test validity in the same way that lack reliability influence validity.