miller guidance assessment hierarchy

The Assessment Hierarchy

How to choose effective and efficient assessments.

A New Methodology for Public Education

Copyright Miller Guidance 2009

1. Introduction

The Assessment Hierarchy (page 9) is a tool that is used to structure school district discussions regarding the assessments that are given to their student population.

The Hierarchy can be used for all age groups and skills. It is important to specify what each Hierarchy represents. For example, Kindergarten through 5th grade reading or middle school social emotional development may be a focus.

Begin by taking an inventory of the assessments that are currently in use in the district. List all tests including those used with subgroups such as students requiring special education and English language learners. Also, don’t forget to ask classroom teachers if they use any formal or informal assessments.


2. Introduction

As you complete this list be sure to record

what grades and groups of students each

assessment measures. For example, the list

may include assessments given to 2nd grade

students referred for speech articulation errors

or all H.S. juniors.

It is also important to record the assessments

that are required by the district and/or

state.


3. Directions

Begin by separating assessments into grade and skill clusters. (K-5 reading, K-5 math, K-5 social emotional development, K-5 other, 6-8 language arts etc.)

Decide which cluster will be your first focus.

For this cluster, separate assessments into two piles. The assessments given to all students in one pile and assessments given to a subgroup of the total cluster in another pile.

Next, each assessment is classified by function. (See #5, 6, 7)


4. Directions

If there is not a universal screener among the assessments for this cluster, then the next task is to choose a valid and reliable universal screening tool that has been constructed for this purpose.

If there is a universal screener among the assessments for this cluster, then the next task is to decide how you will use the universal screening data to define “risk”. For example, “intensive risk” could be defined as the students whose scores are in lowest 10%, “strategic risk” as the students whose scores fall between 11% and 25% and “benchmark” as the students whose scores fall above 25%.

Look at the remaining tools and place them on the hierarchy in the appropriate boxes.

Be attentive to areas where assessments overlap (i.e. two or more assessments are used with the same group of students for the same function) or where there are gaps (i.e. there are no assessments for a group or particular function).

If needed, create lists of assessments that will be suggested for abandonment or that are needed to fill in gaps.


5. Functions and Definitions

The four functions of school assessments

Universal screening; screening Who are the “at risk” students?

Global view (General outcome measure)

Diagnostic What skill development or instruction is needed to close the gap?

Formative

Common Formative

Mastery Measurement

Diagnosis

Progress monitoring Is the program that we are using working to close the gap?

Program evaluation As a result of our instructional programs, have students made the expected growth?



Universal Screening assessments are conducted regularly (a benchmark program) on all students to monitor progress and identify those students who are at risk. This data provides a standard of performance for comparison purposes. Because they are conducted regularly on all students they are best if brief and inexpensive. General Outcome Measurements are designed to serve as

indicators of general achievement in a skill area and are the most effective universal screening tools. General Outcome Measures (i.e. CBM) are not tied to a specific curriculum and measure progress on long term goals.

They don’t measure everything, but measure important things.

They are standardized assessments and are sensitive to improvement in short periods of time.

Screenings are brief assessments conducted on a subgroup of all students, generally following a referral, to identify those students who are at risk in a specific area (i.e. speech articulation screenings).



Diagnostic assessments give information on specific skills that need to be taught and take longer to administer and score. They are best when tied to the curriculum and include a variety of item types. Standardized diagnostic tests are often used for determining eligibility for programming. Because they take longer to administer and score they are generally not used for universal screening.

Formative assessments often look more like instruction in that they include tasks typically used during the instructional process. As such, formative assessment is often referred to as curriculum based assessment. Formative assessment serves to further define the specific focus for instruction.

Common Formative assessments are formative assessments that are administered to all students in a grade, department or course.

Mastery Measurement is summative assessment (occurs after instruction has occurred) of a child’s mastery of a concept or curriculum presented.

Progress monitoring is a scientifically based assessment practice that is used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring can be implemented with individual students, an entire class or an entire school. Because it is not for the purpose of designing instruction, it is efficient to use a general outcome measure (brief and inexpensive)for progress monitoring.

Program evaluation assessments are summative assessments that provide programmatic information for large groups of students. Summative assessment usually leads to summative evaluation, which represents a final judgment about a program’s strengths and weaknesses.



Program evaluation Universal screening

Intensive risk

Diagnostic

Progress monitoring

Strategic risk

Diagnostic

Progress monitoring

Benchmark

Common Formative

Some students

All students

10. Sample


List of K-5 Reading Assessments

All students Some students

State accountability test Progress monitoring (R-CBM

and TEL) – at risk K-5

NWEA Measures of Academic

Performance

Story Town Weekly Tests – all

students in select classrooms

Reading Curriculum Based

Measurement (R-CBM and TEL)

Diagnostic Reading Assessment

– 2 – at risk K-5

Story Town Theme Tests Phonics survey – select students

in select classrooms

Leveled Literacy Assessment –

all students in select classrooms

Reading Mastery placement test

- at risk K-2

Corrective Reading placement

test – at risk 3-5

Wilson placement test – at risk

K-5


Program evaluation

State accountability test

NWEA MAP

Universal screening

Reading Curriculum Based Measurement

R-CBM and TEL

Intensive risk

Diagnostic

Reading Mastery, Wilson, Corrective Reading

DRA-2

Progress monitoring


R-CBM, TEL

Strategic risk

Diagnostic

Phonics Survey

Story Town Weekly

Leveled Literacy

Progress monitoring


R-CBM, TEL

Benchmark

Common Formative

Story Town Theme Tests

NWEA MAP

Some students

All students

For the purpose

of planning

instruction

Frequency of

progress

monitoring is

greater with

greater risk

12. Conclusion

Tests on the inventory that are not given to all

students and/or are not deemed appropriate for use

with all “at risk” students can be used by

classroom teachers as formative assessments.

Like the assessments on the Hierarchy, these

assessments need to have a function that is clearly

defined by the teacher using them. It is helpful to

state in question form what the assessment is

seeking to answer.

The process (pages 3-7) is repeated with each

cluster.
