ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT
LEARNING
Arlan M. Villanueva, M.A.
Commonwealth High School
What is Assessment?

Assessment is a systematic process of gathering,
interpreting, and acting upon data related to student
learning and experience for the purpose of
developing a deep understanding of what students
know, understand, and can do with their knowledge
as a result of their educational experience; the
process culminates when assessment results are
used to improve subsequent learning.
Huba and Freed, 2000
Key Points
Assessment is an ongoing
process aimed at
understanding and
improving student learning
Multiple methods
Criteria and standards
Evidence
Students know, can do and
understand
It’s more than just collecting
data

Sequence in Preparing Instructionally
Relevant Assessment
INSTRUCTION
Indicates the learning
outcomes to be attained
by students
Is there
close
agreement
?
LEARNING TASK
Specifies the particular set
of learning task(s) to be
assessed.
ASSESSMENT
Provides a procedure
designed to measure a
representative sample of
the instructionally relevant
learning tasks.
What is the Assessment Process?
AIMS
ADJUSTMENT
ACTION
ASSESSMENT
Importance of Assessment

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To find out what the students know (knowledge)
To find out what the students can do, and how well
they can do it (skill; performance)
To find out how students go about the task of doing
their work (process)
To find out how students feel about their work
(motivation, effort)
What is Student Assessment for?


To help us design and modify programs to
better promote learning and student success.
To provide common definitions and
benchmarks for student abilities that will
enable us to act more coherently and
effectively to promote student learning.
What is Student Assessment for?


To provide feedback, guidance, and
mentoring to students so as to help them
better plan and execute their educational
programs.
To provide improved feedback about student
learning to support faculty in their work.
Functions of Assessment

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Diagnostic: tell us what the student needs to
learn
Formative: tell us how well the student is
doing as work progresses
Summative: tell us how well the student did
at the end of a unit/task
What can be assessed?

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Student learning characteristics
-Ability differences
-Learning styles
Student motivational characteristics
-Interest
-Self-efficacy
-goal orientation
What can be assessed? Cont.

Learning
–
–
–
–
–
Content knowledge
Ability to apply content knowledge
Skills
Dispositions and attitudes
Performances
How should we assess?
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True –False Item
Multiple Choice
Completion
Short Answer
Essay
Practical Exam
Papers/Reports
Projects
Questionnaires
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Inventories
Checklist
Peer Rating
Self Rating
Journal
Portfolio
Observations
Discussions
Interviews
Criteria In Choosing an Assessment
Method

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It should be reliable.
It should be valid.
It should be simple to
operate, and should not
be too costly.
It should be seen by
students and society in
general.
It should benefit all
students.
Who should be involved in assessment?
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The teacher
The student
The student’s peer
Administrator
Parents
What should we do with the
information from our assessment?
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Use it to improve the focus of our teaching
(diagnosis)
Use it to focus student attention of strengths
and weaknesses (motivation)
Use it to improve program planning (program
assessment)
Use it for reporting to parents
Classroom Assessment
Paper and pencil assessments: Ask students
to respond in writing to questions or problem
-Item level: Assessing lower vs. higher skills
-Knowledge vs. application, analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation
-Authentic tasks
e.g. multiple choice, T/F, matching
(recognition), short answer, essay (recall)

Paper and Pencil Assessment
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Strengths
-Can cover a lot of material reasonably well
-Fair
-Effective in assessing declarative knowledge of content
- Easier to construct and administer than performance assessments
Weaknesses
-Require forethought and skill
-Less effective in assessing procedural knowledge and creative
thinking
-Construction of good higher level recognition items is difficult
-Recall items that do a good job of assessing higher level thinking
(essay questions) are difficult to score.
Performance Assessments

1.
2.
- assessment that elicits and evaluates
actual student performances
Types of Performances:
Products: drawings, science experiments,
term papers, poems, solution to authentic
problems
Behavior: time trial for running a mile,
reciting a poem, acting tryouts, dancing
Performance assessments

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Strengths
-Effective for assessing higher level thinking and authentic
learning
-Effective for assessing skill and procedural learning
-Interesting and motivating for students
Weaknesses
-Emphasize depth at the expense of breadth
-Difficult to construct
-Time consuming to administer
-Hard to score fairly
How can we assess student learning?
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Traditional assessment: assess student
knowledge and skills in relative isolation from
real world context.
Traditional assessment practices reflect what
students are able to recall from memory
through various means, such as, multiple
choice, true/false, fill in the blank, and
matching questions.
How can we assess student learning?

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Authentic assessment: assess students’
ability to use what they’ve learning in tasks
similar to those in the outside world.
Occurs when the authenticity of student
learning has been observed. It requires
information from a variety of source such as
content work samples, observation during
class activities, and conferences with
students.
Classroom Assessment
Informal Assessment: teachers’
spontaneous, day to day observations of
student performances.
Examples
 Verbal
-Asking questions
-Listening to student discussions
-Conducting student conferences

Informal Assessment-cont.
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Nonverbal
-Observing
-Task performances
-On-and off-task behavior
-student choices
-student body language
Informal Assessment
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Strengths
-Facilitates responsive teaching
-Can be done during teaching
-Easy to individualize
Weaknesses
-Requires high level of teacher skill
-Is vulnerable to
-Bias
-Inequities
-Mistakes
Classroom Assessment
Formal assessment: assessment that is planned in
advance and used to assess a predetermined
content and/or skill domain.
Strengths
-allows the teacher to evaluate all students
systematically on the important skills and concepts
-helps teachers determine how well students are
progressing over the entire year
-provides useful information to parents and
administrators.
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Portfolios
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A collection of student samples representing
or demonstrating student academic growth. It
can include formative and summative
assessment. It may contain written work,
journals, maps, charts, survey, group reports,
peer reviews and other such items.
Portfolios are systematic, purposeful, and
meaningful collections of students’ work in
one or more subject areas.
Importance of Portfolios
For Students
 Shows growth over time
 Displays student’s accomplishment
 Helps students make choices
 Encourages them to take responsibility for
their work
 Demonstrates how students think
Importance of Portfolios
For Teachers
 Highlights performance-based activities over year
 Provides a framework for organizing student’s work
 Encourages collaboration with students, parents,
and teachers
 Showcases an ongoing curriculum
 Facilitates student information for decision making
Importance of Portfolios
For Parents
 Offer insight into what their children do in school
 Facilitates communication between home and school
 Gives the parents an opportunity to react to what
their child is doing in school and to their
development
 Shows parents how to make a portfolio so they may
do one at home at the same time
Importance of Portfolios
For Administrators
 Provides evidence that teacher/school goals
are being met
 Shows growth of students and teachers
 Provides data from various sources
What do portfolios contain?
Three basic models:
 Showcase model, consisting of work samples
chosen by the student.
 Descriptive model, consisting of representative work
of the student, with no attempt at evaluation.
 Evaluative model, consisting of representative
products that have been evaluated by criteria.
Disadvantages of Portfolio
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Require more time for faculty to evaluate than test or
simple-sample assessment.
Require students to compile their own work, usually
outside of class.
Do not easily demonstrate lower-level thinking, such
as recall of knowledge.
May threaten students who limit their learning to
cramming for doing it at the last minute.
Rubric
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It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a
student’s performance based on the sum of a
full range of criteria rather than a single
numerical score.
It is a working guide for students and
teachers, usually handed out before the
assignment begins in order to get students to
think about the criteria on which their work
will be judged.
Rubrics are scoring criteria for
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Free-response Questions
Scientific reports
Oral or Power point
presentations
Reflections/Journals
Essay
Laboratory-based
performance tests
Article review or reactions
Portfolios
Many others
Open-ended Question
During a storm, Wendy noticed that she always heard thunder shortly
after she saw a flash of lighting. Explain why there is a difference a
time between seeing lightning and hearing thunder.
Level of Performance
Criteria
Sample Answer
4
Response include the fact that light
travels faster than sound; makes the
connection with scenario
Light is faster than sound.
You can see the lightning
bolt before sound reaches
you.
3
Response only mentions the fact that
light is faster than sound; does not
relate the concept of hearing and
seeing
Sound travels slower
than light
2
Response is scientifically incorrect
Sound is faster than light
1
Question or parts of question
restated
Thunder follows lightning
0
No answer or answer erased
Concept Mapping
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It requires students to explore
links between two or more related
concepts. When making concept
maps, they clarify in their minds
the links they have made of the
concepts and having visual
representation of these links, they
are better able to rearrange of
form new links when new
concepts are introduced.
Laboratory Performance
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In this format students and teachers know
the requirements in advance and prepare
them. The teacher judges the student
performance within a specific time frame and
setting. Students are rated on appropriate
and effective use of laboratory equipment,
measuring tools, and safety laboratory
procedures as well as a hands-on designing
of an investigation.
Inventories
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Diagnostic Inventories: Student responses to
a series of questions or statements in any
field, either verbally or in writing. These
responses may indicate an ability or interest
in a particular field.
Interest Inventories: student responses to
questions designed to find out past
experience and or current interest in a topic,
subject or activity.
Classroom Assessment
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Presentation: a presentation by one student or by a
group of students to demonstrate the skills used in
the completion of an activity or the acquisition of
curricular outcomes/expectations. The presentation
can take the form of a skit, lecture, lab presentation,
debate etc. Computers can also be used for
presentation when using such software as
Hyperstudio, Powerpoint or Corel presentations.
Peer Evaluation: judgments by students about one
another’s performance relative to stated criteria and
program outcomes
Journal Assessment

This refer to student’s ongoing record of expressions
experiences and reflections on a given topic. There
are two types: one in which students write with
minimal direction what he/she is thinking and or
feeling and the other requires students to compete a
specific written assignment and establishes
restrictions and guidelines necessary to accurately
accomplish the assignment. Journals can evolve
different types of reflecting writing, drawing, painting,
and role playing.
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
What happened?
How do I feel
about it?
What did I learn?
SYNTHESIS JOURNAL
What I
Did?
What I
learned?
How I
can Use
It?
SPECULATION ABOUT EFFECTS JOURNAL
What happened?
What could happen
because of this?
Summary
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A fair assessment is one in which students are given
equitable opportunities to demonstrate what they
know and can do.
Classroom assessment is not only for grading or
ranking purposes. Its goal is to inform instruction by
providing teachers with information to help them
make good educational decisions.
Assessment is integrated with student’s day-to-day
learning experiences rather than a series of an endof-course tests.
Why link assessment with instruction?
Better assessment
means better teaching.
Better
students
mean better
opportunities
for a better
life.
Better
teaching
means
better
learning.
Better learning
means
better students.
(Read and Take Joy in being a Teacher)
THE CREATION OF A TEACHER
Anonymous
The Good Lord was creating teachers. It was His sixth day of
“overtime’’ and He knew that this was a tremendous responsibility
for teachers would touch the lives of so many impressionable
young children. An angel appeared to Him and said, “You are
taking a long time to figure this one out.”
“Yes,” said the Lord, “but have you read the specs on this order?”
TEACHER:
…must stand above all students, yet be on their level
…must be able to do 180 things not connected with the subject being
taught
…must run on coffee and leftovers,
…must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be
right most of the time
The Creation of a Teacher
…must have more time for others than for herself/himself
…must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, problematic
children, and worried parents
…must go on teaching when parents question every move and others are
not supportive
…must have 6 pair of hands.
“Six pair of hands, “said the angel, “that’s impossible”
“Well, said the Lord, “it is not the hands that are the problem. It is the
three pairs of eyes that are presenting the most difficulty!”
The angel looked incredulous, “Three pairs of eyes…on a standard
model?”
The Lord nodded His head, “One pair can see a student for what he is and
not what others have labeled him as. Another pair of eyes is in the
back of the teacher’s head to see what should not be seen, but what
must be known. The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as
he/she ‘acts out’ in order to reflect, I understand and I still believe in
you”, without so much as saying a word to the child.” “Lord,” said the
angel, “this is a very large project and I think you should work on it
tomorrow”.
The Creation of a Teacher
“I can’t, said the Lord, “for I have come very close to creating something
much like Myself. I have one that comes to work when he/she is
sick…teachers a class of children that do not want to learn… has a
special place in his/her heart for children who are not his/her
own…understands the struggles of those who have difficulty…never
takes the students for granted…”
The angel looked closely at the model the Lord was creating. “It is too
soft-hearted, “said the angel. “Yes,” said the Lord, “but also tough, You
can not imagine what this teacher can endure or do, if necessary”.
“Can this teacher think?” asked the angel. “Not only think,” said the
Lord,. “but reason and compromise.” The angel cam closer to have a
better look at the model and ran his finger over the teacher’s cheek.
“Well, Lord, “said the angel, your job looks fine but there is a leak. I
told you that you were putting too much into this model. You can not
imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher.” The Lord
moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher’s
cheek. It shone and glistened in the light. “It is not a leak,” He said, “It
is a tear.”
The Creation of a Teacher
“A tear? What is that?” asked the angel, “What is a tear
for?” The Lord replied with great thought, “It is for
the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even
the smallest task. It is for the loneliness of children
who have a hard time to fit in and it is for
compassion for the feelings of their parents. It comes
from the pain of not being able to reach some
children and the disappointment those children feel in
themselves. It comes often when a teacher has been
with a class for a year and must say good- bye to
those students and get ready to welcome a new
class.”
“My,” said the angel, "The tear thing is a great
idea…You are a genius!”
The Lord looked somber, “I didn’t put it there.”
Maraming salamat po!
THANK
YOU
VERY
MUCH!
Please visit:
www.arlanvillanueva.blogspot.com