2/11/2021
Standards-based Assessments
to Track Student Mastery
ESP 710 - Data-based Decision Making and Student Growth Models
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
Morgan, Higgins, & Brown (2013)
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Standards-based assessments/curriculum-based measures = method for
progress monitoring using assessment techniques aligned to instruction
(Wallace et al., 2007)
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Most research done at elementary
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No universally-accepted program
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Often written locally or by individual teachers
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Considerations with using standards-based assessments (Foegen, Jiban, &
Deno, 2007):
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Consider the reflection of the curriculum/instruction
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Administer prior to, during, and after instruction
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Determine targeted goal a priori
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Analyze data through lens of goal
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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According to Reeves (2001), standards-based assessment help teachers
and students fully understand academic performance
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Primary focus of assessment
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Data should:
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Direct teaching (actionable teaching)
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Guide student understanding of their learning
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Features of standards-based assessments (Reeves, 2001)
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Compared to standard
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Show growth and proficiency
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Have clear expectations
Research indicates that use of standards-based assessments as a formative
technique can have a positive impact on student outcomes
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Components of a standards-based assessment (Loveland, 2005)
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Assessments are valid, reliable, sufficient, feasible, and based on instruction
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Grounded in evidence-based information relative to outcome
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Achievable by students after instruction
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Follows a sound assessment plan
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Assessments are developed by stakeholders; also accessible to them for data-based decision
making
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Clearly connected to student learning
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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In the design of standards-based assessments, think about (Llosa, 2011);
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Subjectivity in answers
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Teacher role in determining correct/incorrect
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Purpose of the assessment
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Reflective of the standards being addressed
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Considerations for implementing standards-based assessments:
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Timeline of administration of assessments
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Data analysis methods and timelines
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Communication of results to stakeholders
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Use of data to inform instruction
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Item analysis of questions to ensure validity
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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The lattice task analysis becomes the basis for writing a standards-based
assessment.
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Steps of the lattice serve as the basis for a question at each DOK level.
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Progress monitoring assessments should not be long, so some steps of
the lattice need to be combined.
Each assessment should follow a similar structure in order to make
comparisons across standards.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Tips for writing high quality assessment questions (Collins, 2006):
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Write the stem first, and write it as a complete sentence or a question.
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Use diagrams, models, or tables in the stem, but also include a statement.
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The stem should contain all of the relevant information needed to answer the question, and
should not contain information unrelated to the question.
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The stem should be as short as possible.
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Use as simple of language as possible; stems are not designed to trick students.
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Use shorter stems for the recall of facts; use longer stems for application questions.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Tips for writing high quality assessment questions (Collins, 2006):
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The stem should be stated so that only one of the choices can be correct.
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For struggling students, avoid questions where the is a best answer.
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Stems should be stated using positive language.
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Avoid absolute terms (e.g., always, never, all, none) and imprecise (e.g., seldom, rarely,
occasionally, sometimes, few).
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Write 3-5 choices; research indicates that 3 options are as effective as 4 options (Collins,
2006).
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Tips for writing high quality assessment questions (Collins, 2006):
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When writing distractors, try to write ones that:
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Are accurate but do not fully meet the requirements of the question or incorrect statements
that seem they might be correct.
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Try to avoid nonsensical distractors.
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Choices should be similar in length, grammatical structure, and complexity.
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Choices should all follow the same grammatical tense.
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Avoid use all or none of the above.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Tips for writing high quality assessment questions (Collins, 2006):
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Try to avoid the use of acronyms and abbreviations in the choices.
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Place options in a logical order (if there is one).
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Options should not contain information that automatically tells the
student the correct answer.
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The correct choice should vary in position (not always C).
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For higher levels of knowledge, multiple choice questions may not be the best option for assessing student
knowledge.
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It is difficult to write a multiple choice question that gets students to apply and extend knowledge.
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Questions where students must think about a situation and write are the best ways to assess higher level
thinking.
For higher levels of knowledge, students may be presented with something to critique or analyze.
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Could be a diagram, chart, table, or scenario.
Higher level questions may have more than one correct answer.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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ESP 710 Rules for Writing Assessments:
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10-15 questions total.
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Readability of questions should be between the 3rd and 4th grade level OR performance based.
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Questions ordered from the lowest DOK to the highest DOK.
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Multiple choice questions will each have four options.
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Use your lattice and DOK deconstruction as a guide.
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All content to answer the question should be included in the assessment.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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For lower levels of cognitive complexity, write selected-response questions
(Ainsworth, 2015).
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Time
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Larger sampling of standards
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Often more efficient
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Objectivity
For this assignment, you must include distractor analysis.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Depth of Knowledge 1:
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3 multiple choice questions.
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Should focus on the basic foundations of the standard and ensure that students have a
basic level of understanding of the content or concept.
Depth of Knowledge 2:
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3 multiple choice questions.
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Should focus on some higher level portions of the standard, but still laying the basic
foundation of the standard or concept.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
• SAMPLE QUESTION:
RI.5.6: ANALYZE multiple accounts of the same event or topic, NOTING important
similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.
Which point-of-view statement can be supported in BOTH reading passages?
a. Rosa Parks purposefully did not give up her seat on the bus to support the boycott.
b. Rosa Parks and her actions played an important role in the civil rights movement.
c. Rosa Parks encouraged Martin Luther King, Jr., to organize the Montgomery Bus
Boycott.
d. Transportation was the most challenging place to enforce segregation of blacks and
whites.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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DISTRACTER ANALYSIS:
a. Rosa Parks did not do what she did because the boycott was taking
place. Her actions initiated the boycott.
b. CORRECT: Authors of both texts demonstrate her role in the civil rights
movement.
c. Martin Luther King was selected by other ministers and activists to lead
the boycott, not Rosa Parks.
d. This statement is clearly indicated in the second passage, but would
need to be deduced from a close reading of the first.
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SAMPLE QUESTION:
STANDARD 6.RP.3B: SOLVE unit rate problems including those involving
unit pricing and constant speed.
A 24-pound bag of dog food seems for $10.56. What is the unit price per
pound?
a. $.44/pound
b. $.53/pound
c. $13.44/pound
d. $34.56/pound
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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DISTRACTER ANALYSIS:
Correct Answer: A
Incorrect answers may indicate the following about student understanding:
Answer b shows calculation error and incorrect division.
Answers c and d indicate the student has not reasoned that the answer needs to be less
than $1.00. Student selection of either of these two answer choices show a lack of number
sense and/or the ability to determine a reasonable answer. Student does not understand
the concept of unit rate.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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For higher complexity questions, use constructed response questions (Ainsworth,
2015):
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Measure of students’ thinking underneath of the question.
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Easier to determine where learning needs to go next.
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Easier to write for higher levels of complexity.
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Short versus extended.
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Include commentary on the correct answer.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Depth of Knowledge 3
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Should focus on analysis of the concepts presented in the standard.
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Provide students with a diagram, chart, or table that they have to read and
analyze.
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2 multiple choice questions should be connected to the diagram or chart.
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1 question should ask students to write.
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Students should be explaining a concept or phenomenon in this section.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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Depth of Knowledge 4
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1 question related to DOK 4 (if applicable).
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This question should be a short answer or essay question.
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Students should be provided with an example or scenario related to the standard
being addressed.
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Students should be asked to critique or analyze the scenario, or to develop an
experiment or application activity that would address that standard and situation.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
• SAMPLE QUESTION:
How does the portrayal of Rosa Parks by the author of the first passage differ from the
author of the second passage? Use evidence from the two passages to support your
response.
Commentary
In the first passage, Rosa Parks is portrayed as a simple working-woman. The author
shares limited background information - only that she grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, and
that she worked as a seamstress in Montgomery when she got older. The second passage
portrays her as a black woman actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement who
worked as a seamstress and who appealed her conviction leading to the US Supreme
Court decision to rule segregation as being unconstitutional.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Commentary
In the first passage, Rosa Parks is portrayed as a simple working-woman. The author shares limited
background information - only that she grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, and that she worked as a
seamstress in Montgomery when she got older. The second passage portrays her as a black
woman actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement who worked as a seamstress and who
appealed her conviction leading to the US Supreme Court decision to rule segregation as being
unconstitutional
Another difference could be that the first article focuses on Rosa Parks’ recognitions earned from
her actions in the Civil Rights Movement. These recognitions include being awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. The second passage focuses on
Rosa Parks’ specific action of refusing to give up her seat on the bus and how she became the
woman that lawyers chose to support in order to challenge the segregation laws.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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SAMPLE QUESTION
The table below shows equivalent ratios to 7:5. Fill in the missing values.
7
21
5
20
35
30
Explain how you determined the missing values.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
7
5
21
15
28
20
35
25
42
30
30
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
• Commentary
Students must explain how they used the relationship between the numbers at the top of each
column and the numbers below to determine the missing values. For example, 21 is 3 x 7, so the
number below 5 would be 3 x 5, which equals 15.
Note the part of the same standard that was not underlined in the above questions “Plot the pairs
of values on the coordinate plane.” A second short-response question would be added to ask
students to “show each ordered pair from the table correctly plotted on the coordinate grid.”
A third question would target the last sentence of the standard, “Use tables to compare rations,”
by asking students to create a second table of equivalent ratios and then compare it to the first
one shown above.
In this way, three short constructed-response questions would effectively assess student
understanding of the entire Priority Standard in focus.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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Develop Scoring Guides for Constructed Response
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Define proficiency
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Number of performance levels
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Names of performance levels
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Holistic or analytic format
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Blend of quantitative and qualitative criteria
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Task specific or generic
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
Objective Components
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Look at the expectation
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Use a three-level scoring guide (target, acceptable, unacceptable)
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Identify two-three elements that should be included in the response
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Write each element as a statement, starting with a verb
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Determine middle- and low-levels of achievement
Leave space for qualitative data to be included
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Try and use advanced level criteria for the qualitative piece
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
SAMPLE:
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Correctly states one of the above differences
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Correctly provides evidence from the first reading passage to support
the difference
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Correctly provides evidence from the second reading passage to support
the difference
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
SAMPLE:
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Correctly includes missing values
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Correctly explains how relationship between numbers at the top and
bottom of each column are used to determine missing values
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Correctly explains how values were added to the table
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
• Analyze your questions:
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Does this assessment question directly align to our “unwrapped” priority standards?
Does this assessment question match the level of cognitive rigor of the unwrapped
concepts and skills?
Does this assessment question include correct standards vocabulary, as opposed to
more student-friendly wording?
Will this question enable use to make reliable and valid inferences about student
understanding?
Is this question free of bias (in its various forms)?
Do we need to revise this question to make certain there is a closer, more intentional
alignment?
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
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• Analyze your questions:
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Is the item a recommended direct question instead of an incomplete statement?
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Does this question measure an important aspect of the unit’s instructional targets?
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Is the wording in this question clear enough to elicit a brief but distinctive response?
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If this is a completion item, is the response blank at the end?
If there are two (maximum) response blanks in this question, are they uniform in length
to prevent unintended clues?
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Is there sufficient answer space for a complete student response?
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Does the format of the item allow for efficient scoring?
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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If standard is taught in isolation, a standalone assessment can be used as a pre- and posttest
measure of student learning.
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Often, however, standards are taught in conjunction with one another.
If there is more than one standard being addressed during a period of instruction:
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Give the standalone standards-based assessments together as a pre- or posttest measure, or
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Combine questions from the standard to make a 10-question assessment.
Assessments can be given at the beginning and ending of units of instruction, or as progress
monitoring during instruction.
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Standards-based Assessments to Track Student
Mastery
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When writing assessments, use your resources.
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Textbook assessments may have questions that can be used or modified
to support your needs.
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Other exams might also serve as a good model for assessment questions.
Make adaptations as needed to best support students.
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