Assessment Information from multiple sources that

describes a student’s level of achievement Used to make educational decisions about

students Gives feedback to students about

progress, strengths, & weaknesses Judge the effectiveness of the curriculum

and the teacher’s instruction

Goals of assessment Enhance learning

Monitor & report student achievement

Assessment as part of the learning process

Preassessment: Tells teacher about students’ knowledge, skills, fitness, interests, attitudes Which students already have

skills/knowledge prior to the daily lesson Which students may need additional,

individual help

Part of the learning process

Assessment during instruction may be given through feedback to students so they are aware of their progress throughout the activity

At conclusion of instruction, assessment helps teachers check the effectiveness of the teaching process

Part of the learning process

When students are held accountable for evaluating their performance (or a peer’s), they stay on task more and spend less time in avoidance behaviors

Formative assessment should be on-going Informs students Used to evaluate and improve instruction May be used as a reflective tool for teachers

Types of assessment Norm-referenced:

Students are compared with others of same age, gender, grade level, even school

Based on the normal bell curve which assumes the class is normally distributed around the class average

Should not compare students with norms of other students who are not similar

Used for summative assessment

Types of assessment

Criterion referenced: How well a student performs in comparison

with a predetermined standard of performance

Can be used for either summative or formative evaluation

When used for summative assessment, the criteria will not change as students become ore proficient

Types of assessment

Traditional Consumes time and

seems unrelated to outcomes

Does not describe what students can do with their knowledge and skills

Authentic Students apply skills

and knowledge to solve real world problems

Emphasizes higher order thinking skills

Students are engaged in their own learning and assessment

Steps in the assessment process

#1 Determine the purpose Unit/lesson objectives should align with

content standards Objectives should have terminal

behavior,conditions, criteria Assessments should reflect appropriate

expectations

Steps in the assessment process

#2 Selecting the correct technique If the objectives have been written

correctly, the verb should indicate the kind of assessment technique to be used

Skill assessment for verb in psychomotor Written assessment may be for cognitive Written surveys/journals may be used for

affective domain

Steps in the assessment process

#3 Effective assessment Validity: does it assess the content

correctly? Reliability: would the student get the same

test score on the same test? Objectivity: would the student get the same

score regardless of who administered or graded the test?

Learn about these in PEP 289! Stay tuned!

Creating authentic assessments

Students are required to utilize or apply knowledge or skills to address a real problem or situation Determine the content standard Determine whether the task requires

student to integrate knowledge in a meaningful manner

Be sure the task is at a higher level of thinking on the cognitive taxonomy

Creating authentic assessment

Determine whether the task is feasible in the amount of time

Can students construct learning with other students

Will students be able to ‘perform’ their learning in some form to an audience?

Do students have a chance to master & revise the task?

Developing the rubric criteria What do you want to assess? What type of rubric will you use? What elements of knowledge, skill,

qualities should students attain? How many levels do you want to put in

your rubric? 3 is minimum, 5 is more detailed

Developing the rubric

Write the criteria for judging performance Focus on the presence of observable behaviors or

elements of learning Begin with the first level, then move to the last,

then move to the middle criteria Middle criteria will be the most difficult

Check for appropriateness of elements for all students

Check that the rubric elements reflect current ideas of excellence

Types of rubrics Numerical

Points assigned for parts of a response, e.g. open-ended test questions

Checklist Yes/no on presence of feature

Analytic rating Numerical or qualitative scale

Holistic Score based on rater’s judgment of student

performance

Homework Be ready to discuss the different types

of rubrics You will be required to construct an

authentic assessment project for your unit plan and create a grading rubric