Educational Assessment

Course Instructor: Sarah Azhar

 Terminology
• Assessment: Any of a variety of procedures used to obtain information
about student performance.
• Includes traditional paper and-pencil tests as well as extended responses
(e.g., essays), performances of authentic tasks (e.g., laboratory
experiments), teacher observations, and student self-report.
• Assessment answers the question: "How well does the individual perform?"
• Assessment is a general term that includes the full range of procedures
used to gain information about student learning (observations, ratings of
pe1formances or projects, paper-and-pencil tests) and the formation of
value judgments concerning learning progress.
 Terminology
• Test: An instrument or systematic procedure for measuring a sample
of behavior by posing a set of questions in a uniform manner.
• Because a test is a form of assessment, tests also answer the question:
"How well does the individual perform either in comparison with
others or in comparison with a domain of performance tasks?“
• A test is a particular type of assessment that typically consists of a set
of questions administered during a fixed period of time under
reasonably comparable conditions for all students.
• We sometimes use testing and assessment together even though
tests are a specific type of assessment.
 Terminology
• Measurement:
• The process of obtaining a numerical description of the degree to
which an individual possesses a particular characteristic.
Measurement answers the question: "How much?"
• Measurement is the assigning of numbers to the results of a test or
other type of assessment according to a specific rule (e.g., counting
correct answers or awarding points for particular aspects of an essay).
 Assessment Process

Assessment

Measurement Non-measurement
(testing) (informal observation)

Value judgments
(e.g. good learning process)
Assessment
• Assessment is a much more comprehensive and inclusive term than measurement or testing.
• The term measurement is limited to quantitative descriptions of students; that is, the results
of measurement are always expressed in numbers (e.g., Alex correctly solved 35 of the 40
mathematics problems).
• It does not include qualitative descriptions (e.g., Ahmed's work was neat), nor does it imply
judgments concerning the worth or value of the obtained results.
• Assessment, on the other hand, may include both quantitative descriptions (measurement)
and qualitative descriptions (non-measurement) of students.
• In addition, assessment always includes value judgments concerning the desirability of the
results.
• Assessment may or may not be based on measurement; when it is, it goes beyond simple
quantitative descriptions
Assessment
• Assessment of student learning requires the use of techniques for
measuring student achievement. Assessment is more than a
collection of techniques, however it is a systematic process that plays
a significant role in effective teaching.
• It begins with the identification of learning goals, monitors the
progress students make toward those goals, and ends with a
judgment concerning the extent to which those goals have been
attained.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• Assessment is an integrated process for determining the nature and
extent of student learning and development. This process will be most
effective when the following principles are taken into consideration.
• 1.Clearly specifying what is to be assessed has priority in the
assessment process. The effectiveness of assessment depends as much
on a careful description of what to assess as it does on the technical
qualities of the assessment procedures used. Thus, specification of the
characteristics to be measured should precede the selection or
development of assessment procedures. When assessing student
learning, this means clearly specifying the intended learning goals
before selecting the assessment procedures to use.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• General statements from content standards or from course objectives
can be a helpful starting point, but in most cases teachers will need to
add greater specificity for the assessment process to be effective.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• For example, a content standard in the area of history might specify that
students should "understand ideas and documents within historical
contexts."
• For a content standard stated at that general level, a variety of multiple
choice, short-answer, or essay questions might be considered relevant.
• To establish assessment priorities for such a standard, teachers need to
answer questions such as the following: What ideas? What documents?
What historical context? What constitutes adequate evidence of
understanding?
• Such questions are not answered by the general statement in the standard,
but they must be answered, either explicitly or implicitly, to develop
assessments.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• 2.An assessment procedure should be selected because of its relevance to the
characteristics or performance to be measured.
• Assessment procedures are frequently selected on the basis of their objectivity,
accuracy, or convenience. Although these criteria are important, they are secondary to
the main criterion: Is this procedure the most effective method for measuring the
learning or development to be assessed. Any specific test may also be appropriate for
certain uses and inappropriate for others.
• In assessing student achievement, for example, we need a close match between the
intended learning goals and the types of assessment tasks used.
• If the development of the ability to organize ideas and write a well-integrated
composition is a learning goal, then a multiple-choice test on the mechanics of writing
would be a poor substitute for assessments based on analyses of student writing under
a variety of conditions (e.g., in-class essay tests, writing projects, and term papers).
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• 3.A Comprehensive assessment requires a variety of procedures.
• No single type of instrument or procedure can assess the vast array
of learning and development outcomes emphasized in a school
program.
• Multiple-choice and short-answer tests of achievement are useful for
measuring knowledge, understanding, and application outcomes.
• Essay tests and other written projects are needed to assess the ability
to organize and express ideas.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• A Comprehensive assessment requires a variety of procedures.
• Projects that require students to formulate problems, accumulate
information through library research, or collect data (e.g., through
experimental observations or interviews) are needed to measure
certain skills in formulating and solving problems.
• Observational techniques are needed to assess performance skills and
various aspects of student behavior.
• Self-report techniques are useful for assessing interests and attitudes
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• 4.Proper use of assessment procedures requires an awareness of their
limitations.
• Assessment procedures range from highly developed measuring
instruments (e.g., standardized aptitude and achievement tests) to
rather crude assessment devices (e.g., observational and self-report
techniques).
• Even the best educational and psychological measuring instruments
yield results that are subject to various types of measurement error.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• Proper use of assessment procedures requires an awareness of their
limitations.
• No test or assessment asks all the questions or poses all me problems
that might appropriately be presented in a comprehensive coverage
of the knowledge, skills, and understanding relevant to the content
standards or objectives of a course or instructional sequence.
• Instead, only a sample of the relevant problems or questions is
presented.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• Proper use of assessment procedures requires an awareness of their
limitations.
• Even in a relatively narrow part of a content domain, such as understanding
photosynthesis or the addition and subtraction of fractions, a host of
problems might be presented, but any given test or assessment samples but a
small fraction of those problems.
• Consequently, sampling error is one common problem in educational and
psychological measurement
• A keen awareness of the limitations of assessment instruments makes it
possible to use them more effectively.
• The cruder the instrument, the greater its limitations and, consequently, the
more caution required in its use.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF
ASSESSMENT
• 5.Assessment is a means to an end: not an end in itself.
• The use of assessment procedures implies that some useful purpose is being served
and that the user is clearly aware of this purpose.
• To blindly gather data about students and then file the information away is a waste
of both time and effort.
• Wasting time and effort of the students, teachers, and other users of the information
will have negative effects on later assessments.
• Motivation to take assessment seriously will be influenced by the teachers and
students understanding the reasons for the assessments and their appropriate use.
• Assessment is best viewed as a process of obtaining information on which to base
important educational decisions.
ASSESSMENT AND THE
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCESS
• When classroom instruction is viewed in this light, assessment
becomes an integral part of the teaching-learning process.
• The intended learning outcomes are established by the instructional
goals, the desired changes in students are brought out by the planned
learning activities, and the students' learning progress is periodically
assessed by tests and other assessment devices.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• 1.Identifying Instructional Goals
• The first step in both teaching and assessment is determining the learning
outcomes to be expected from classroom instruction.
• How should students think and act when they complete the learning
experience?
• What knowledge and understanding should the students possess?
• What skills should they be able to display?
• What interests and attitudes should they have developed?
• What changes in habits of thinking, feeling, and doing should have taken
place?
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• In short, for what specific changes are we striving, and what are
students like when we have succeeded in bringing about these
changes?
• Content standards and curriculum guidelines established by a state or
district provide a useful starting point for specifying instruction goals,
but they almost always require elaboration and additional specificity
in order to identify specific goals for students and to guide the details
of assessment development.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• 2.Pre-assessing the Learners' Needs
• When the instructional goals have been clearly specified, it is usually
desirable to make some assessment of the learners' needs in relation
to the learning outcomes to be achieved.
• Do the students possess the abilities and skills needed to proceed
with the instruction?
• Have the students already developed the skills and understanding
intended?
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• Assessing students' knowledge and skills at the beginning of
instruction enables us to answer such questions.
• This information is useful in planning work for students who lack the
prerequisite skills and in modifying our instructional plans to fit the
needs of the learners.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• 3.Providing Relevant Instruction.
• During this instructional phase, measurement and assessment
provide a means of monitoring learning progress and diagnosing
learning difficulties.
• Thus, periodic assessment during instruction provides a type of
feedback-corrective procedure that aids in continuously adapting
instruction to group and individual needs.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.

• Many of the assessments that take place during instruction that

enable teachers to monitor and make adjustments are seamlessly
integrated into instructional activities.
• For example, the instructional activity might be group work on a
science problem, but during the group activity a teacher may observe
that Akbar is doing most of the talking and hands on work with the
apparatus while others in the group are largely passive observers.
• Such observations allow teachers to make adjustments as the work
progresses.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.

• 4.Assessing the Intended Learning Outcomes

• The final step in the instructional process is to determine the extent to
which the learning objectives were achieved by the students.
• This is accomplished by using tests and other types of assessments that
are specifically designed to measure the intended learning outcomes.
• Ideally, the content standards and instructional goals will clearly specify
the desired changes in students, and the assessment instruments will
provide a relevant measure or description of the extent to which those
changes have taken place.
Steps included in the Instructional Process.

• Using the Results

• Properly used assessment procedures can contribute directly to
improved student learning
• Information from carefully developed tests and other types of
assessments also can be used to improve instruction
• Assessment results are, of course, also used for assigning marks and
reporting student progress to parents
Steps included in the Instructional Process.
• The systematic use of a wide range of assessment procedures
provides an objective and comprehensive basis for reporting on each
student's learning progress.
• In addition to marking and reporting, assessment results also are used
in the school for various administrative and guidance functions.
• They are useful in curriculum development, in aiding students with
educational and vocational decisions, and in assessing the
effectiveness of the school program.
.
Assessment of learning VS assessment for
learning
• Assessment of learning
• Most of us are most familiar with examinations that take place at the
end of the instruction and are separated from the educational process.
• From the perspective of assessment of students, the almost exclusive
purpose of such assessment is to determine whether the students
have acquired sufficient knowledge, skills, etc.
• Assessments of learning are typically administered at the end of a unit
or grading period and evaluate a student’s understanding by
comparing his or her achievement against a class-, district-, or
nationwide benchmark or standard.
Assessment of learning VS assessment for
learning
• Assessment for learning
• Assessment for learning, however, is an approach in which the
assessment process is inextricably embedded within the educational
process, which is maximally information-rich, and which serves to
steer and foster the learning of each individual student to the
maximum of his/her ability
• Assessments for learning – assess a student’s comprehension and
understanding of a skill or lesson during the learning and teaching
process.