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EDWN 601
Assessment and Grading
Overview
Assessment vs Standardized testing
Teacher-created tests & Performance
Assessment
Grading and evaluation - communication
with parents and students
Reflective practice - communication with
peers, community
PRETEST...
Homework
Think of a topic you might teach and make a list
of fewer than 10 concepts or skills you might
include in that topic. Bring your list tomorrow
morning.
e.g. topic: ecology,
concepts/skills: habitat, carrying capacity,
interdependence, producer, consumer, food
web
Standardized Testing
what it is and what it’s not...
Testing
•
Take a moment and discuss each
question:
What do we care about?
How do we use tests?
What questions do you have?
•
Each answer reported to papers on
Standardized Assessment
the only way to measure skills
What it is:
necessarily diagnostic of skill or
knowledge success
Test designed to compare a student
to a large population
the boogeyman
a ‘snapshot’ of student performance
on a particular day/time
paper and pencil tests that are
designed to assess specific skills
expensive to administer and score
required by law
What it is NOT:
✓
Prepare for your debate
•
Pro
Con
Another one to read
Terms on Std Tests
Reliability - how consistently the
grade equivalent - BEWARE
scores can be reproduced
- grade # means that a student in the
grade # would probably score at this
level on this particular test. DOES
NOT mean that student could do
work at that grade level
Validity - how well the test
measures what it’s supposed to
measure
norm-referenced - a test that
compares student scores - provides
percentile data
percentile score - an ordinal
report - # means that out of 100
students, # would have scored the
same or worse (bell curve)
National Curve
Equivalent (NCE) - a
mathematical manipulation of the raw
score, which approximates the
percentile - can be used for research
comparisons of students/schools
because it’s a real number
Testing procedures
Standardized test procedures - all students
participating in the test follow the same
procedures, hear the same directions, are allowed
the same time/assistance. VERY IMPORTANT
quiet, controlled setting, teacher may read test
questions or explain word meaning on most tests,
but not on reading test
SPED modifications - often include smaller group,
test read aloud, extended time, other as indicated
on IEP
Typical
Standardized Tests
Achievement
College admissions
WKCE
ACT [max 36]
Iowa Test of Basic Skills
SAT [max 800]
Terra Nova
Stanford Achievement
Test
California Achievement
Test
IQ
WISC-R
Raven’s Progressive
Matrices
IQ tests
General intelligence
scores range from 20-180
80-120 is average
most people don’t know their score
paper and pencil vs individually administered
Wisconsin school report cards
Report card for every
school in WI
Several criteria:
Achievement, growth,
closing gaps, college and
career readiness (CCR)
Info guide at:
http://reportcards.dpi.wi.g
ov/files/oea/wirptcrdguide/
story.html
Analysis of WSAS results
Proficient & Advanced %’s
AYP - mandated by NCLB
Original goal 100% proficiency by 2014
Modified 2011 for all states, many states
(incl. WI) have been given waivers for the
100%
Sort by demographics to see differences (or
similarities)
WINNS data
Select school by various sorting criteria
Modifications to WSAS for SpEd students or
WAA
WKCE data can be found at:
http://data.dpi.state.wi.us/data/SelSchool.asp
x
•
Communicating results
WSAS results go home to parents
Test in the Fall, results in late Spring
parent-teacher conference? accompanied with
letter?
results discussed with students - rarely
Smarter Balanced
Assessments
Developed by a
consortium of states
Currently piloting
ELA & Math,
science will be next
Will be computer
adaptive and
provide immediate
http://www.smarterbalanced.org
results
Standardized assessment
Paper
Discuss your feelings about standardized tests pro or con, support your opinions with citations
Choose a WI school district and analyze its most
recent test results for grade 8 or 10
Overall results, but pay special attention to
your subject area
Do demographic differences affect scores?
Data driven
decision making
IMPORTANT new strategy in teaching
Using information from standardized testing and
other quantitative/qualitative sources to guide
school decisions like grouping, curriculum
planning, staffing, remediation, acceleration
•
•
Activity
- in your assigned groups, examine the provided
data and prepare a presentation of your findings.
Where am I at?
Please write brief notes on each bullet:
What ideas were interesting/new?
What additional information would I like?
How can I use these ideas?
Test and
performance assessment
construction
Planning a curriculum, reprise
Begin with a general
topic
Create an outline with
additional subtopics
Link to Wisconsin
Model Academic
Standards (WMAS)
Lay out topics into
sets that fit together
and that can be
assessed every 2
weeks or so
Plan multiple
strategies to teach as
many of the concepts
as possible
Semester Plan Assignment
•
Any questions?
Outline of topics
WMAS and Disciplinary Literacy Standards
All teachers should address both sets of
standards
Each unit should address a subset of the
standards
Planning assessment
Not only evaluative
ASSESS progress, skills, perspectives, in
addition to content comprehension
Use in planning instruction through pretest, or to
focus re-teaching
Formative & Summative
Formative assessment: opportunity for
feedback, intended to support growth
Summative assessment: determination of overall
success/quality/learning
•
Any assessment can function either way,
depending on how you use it.
Test questions
Multiple choice - easy to use, hard to write
True/false - can be tricky either way
Matching - easy to write, really best for vocab
Short answer/essay - easy to write, hard to grade
(maybe use a rubric)
Skill based [math problem, applied problem,
practical exam, etc.] - be very clear!
Matching
Can be a good way to start a test
Difficulty is increased by having more answers
than questions
Make sure word choice is consistent with your
teaching [one of the potential problems with
‘book tests’]
Provide a line on which to place answer otherwise somebody will draw impossible to
interpret lines to answers
True/False
Write very clearly.
Avoid absolutes (always, never).
... interesting twist - underline/italicize a
term/phrase and have it replaced when false
Multiple Choice
Keep the bulk of the words in the stem of the
question.
Write reasonable distractors - don’t include
Dumbo
Use a correct answer and 2-3 distractors,
decrease the number of distractors for SpEd
students
Make sure the correct answer is not always the
same “letter”
Skill
Critical for skill-based courses like math, foreign
language, science, FACE, Tech
Set up a situation that is similar, but not identical
to, a skill learned in class.
Prepare a set of criteria ahead of time, so that
grading will be more consistent [rubrics can help
here]
Short Answer
Write your question as clearly as possible. [duh]
Using a question/example from class makes this
comprehension
Using a new, similar question/example makes
this an application or analysis
Prepare in advance some criteria for grading
[rubrics are helpful here]
ALL tests
Major form of communication with students
Make sure all written work is correctly spelled
and reads at the appropriate level
Check pagination
Be sure all directions are clear [have somebody
unfamiliar with the content read through]
Clapping Institute
11 volunteers
Debriefing:
Volunteers: How did you feel during the
activity?
Observers: What did you notice?
How does this all relate to assessment?
Performance Assessment
Criterion referenced compared to an ideal
Accomplishment of a
specific task, report,
presentation, project,
complex skill demonstration
Provide criteria for
performance PRIOR to
work
Rubrics/checklists common tools
Norm referenced compared to a large
group
Standardized tests
Textbook/teacher
made tests
Designing a
performance task
Choose a realistic activity that conveys
successful understanding/skill demonstration &
Write a performance assessment
Be specific about the components of the task
describe the task
write a rubric/checklist
use standard English
Checklist
Best for tasks that have only ‘done’ or ‘not done’
as possible evaluations.
e.g. name on paper, safety procedures
followed
More difficult to use for leveled grading unless
many items are listed - otherwise the grade will
be pass/fail
Creating a good checklist
Break the task into
smaller steps that are
essential to the task task analysis
Each item on list
should be independent
from the others and
should be observable
in the performance
Making PB&J sandwich
wash your hands
take out two slices of
bread
using a clean knife,
lift peanut butter out
of open jar
Rubrics
Good for evaluation of performances/tasks that
are not all or nothing
Clear descriptions of expectations enhance
learning, provide a feedback tool
Provide clear communication about learning
outcomes
Increases the consistency of scoring
Making a rubric
List the essential components of the task
Describe in words how a top level performance
would look for each component [place next to
component]
Describe the lowest performance you would
accept as passing for each component [place
furthest away]
Devise 1-2 levels in between these
optional: Assign points to each level, to arrive at
a numeric score [e.g. 5,4,3 instead of 3,2,1]
Design a rubric
Task: cleaning your room
Create at least 3 essential components of this
task
Make a rubric with at least 3 levels that describe
each component
Unit assessment
•
Once you have chosen the WMAS and CCSS
your unit addresses:
Write a test or quiz to assess some or all of the
info
Write a performance task with rubric that could
be used in the unit.
Where am I at?
Please write brief notes on each bullet:
What ideas were interesting/new?
What additional information would I like?
How can I use these ideas?
Grading
Article - Grading student work
- read your section and jigsaw
Traditional grading
Directions are given for
each assignment
Each assignment is
given a numerical
evaluation by the
teacher
Scores are averaged
and range applied
ABCDF grading most
common
Average or sum often
determines overall grade
Bell Curve
May assume that some
portion of children will
fail
Competitive/Comparativ
e
A ‘normal’ curve
Things to consider...
percents? mastery?
components of student work - achievement,
effort, behavior, attendance
weighting of components - allocation of points
ease of use and ease of explanation
Grading activity
Graph the total points on attached graph paper
Assign grades based on some defensible criteria
Identify other information you would have wanted
to include in the grade and consider how you
would keep track of it.
When time is up, share your system/grades with
your group
Where am I at?
Please write brief notes on each bullet:
What ideas were interesting/new?
What additional information would I like?
How can I use these ideas?
Reflective Practice
A process in which
professionals engage
routinely while
practicing a skill in
order to improve
Must be: ongoing
May be:
written/oral
private/collaborative
formal/informal