EDPSY 325
Practice of Classroom Assessment
Time: W 2:00 – 3:50
Place: CUN 107
Professor: Cindy M. Walker
Office: Enderis 785
Phone: 229-5053
E-mail: cmwalker@uwm.edu
Office hours: By appointment
Required Textbook:
McMillan, J. H. (2004). Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective
Instruction. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Additional Readings:
Your will need to obtain a copy of the Standards for the state of Wisconsin in the content
areas of English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies at all grade
levels (fourth, eighth, and twelfth). These can be purchased directly from the Department
of Instruction or downloaded from the web at the following address:
www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/standards/ If you decide to download them from the web, be
aware that you will have to follow many links to obtain the complete set of standards.
Course Overview
The main purpose of this class is to introduce you to the many forms of assessment that
can be utilized in the classroom and to help you think about the link between learning,
instruction, and assessment. The two philosophical beliefs that this course is based on are that:
1) a teacher’s job is to ensure that students truly learn and understand what you intended to
teach and 2) the most important part of assessment is to support student learning. Therefore, the
focus of this course is on learning. Any assessment that does not support student learning is not
a valid assessment. Many of the assessments used by teachers are not tests and not all tests are
valid assessments. Valid assessments truly measure what you want your students to understand
and learn. In other words, they support student learning, rather than detract from it.
After completing this course, you should have the tools necessary to:
 Think about the essential goals and objectives in your classroom
 Develop valid and reliable assessments of your students’ cognitive learning
 Understand the influence of classroom assessment and grades on student
learning and behaviors
 Understand appropriate and inappropriate uses of published assessments
1
Course Goals and Objectives
1. Students will become empowered to make thoughtful, ethical, and reasonable decisions about
classroom assessments and assessment practices.
1.1 Students will learn how to ensure a direct relationship between essential learning
objectives and classroom assessments.
1.2 Students will learn about appropriate uses of assessment information
1.3 Students will learn the meanings of assessment terms and concepts.
1.4 Students will learn how assessment is used to:
 Assess students’ instructional needs
 Plan instructional activities
 Monitor instruction’
 Evaluate the success of instruction
2. Students will become ethical, informed, and competent developers, users, and consumers of a
variety of assessment tools.
2.1 Students will learn how to develop a wide variety of tools that can be used to provide
valid assessments of students’ learning.
2.2 Students will learn how to obtain reliable assessments of students’ learning.
2.3 Students will learn how to ensure that assessment is fair and unbiased to students.
2.4 Students will learn to develop a wide variety of assessments that reflect important
learning targets.
2.5 Students will learn how assessment can support or adversely affect their students’
learning.
3. Students will learn how to work effectively in groups to solve problems and develop new
ideas (professional demeanor).
3.1 Students will learn to contribute relevant ideas and strategies to solve problems.
3.2 Students will learn to consider the effectiveness of all ideas and strategies.
3.3 Students will learn to assess the impact of their own attitudes and behaviors on other
group members.
3.4 Students will learn to adjust their own attitudes and/or behaviors if they negatively
impact group effectiveness.
3.5
2
Course Requirements
There are several assignments for this course. Each assignment has a purpose and is designed to
help you achieve the goals and objectives of this course. The more you personalize the
assignments by relating them to what you are doing in other courses and field work, the more
you will learn from this class.
The activities and assignments for this course are:
Grading Period Goals and Objectives
Informal Observational Assessment
Formal Observational Assessment
Traditional Test
Performance Assessment
Grading Policy
Final Portfolio
10% of grade
15% of grade
15% of grade
15% of grade
15% of grade
15% of grade
15% of grade
Grading Period Goals and Objectives
The purposes of this assignment are to help you to think about what you truly want your students
to learn and understand in the subject area and grade level you decide to focus on and what major
activities and assessments will help them to accomplish that learning. All of the assessment
instruments that you develop in this course will be based on one or more of the goals and
objectives you set at the beginning of the semester because assessment is only valid if it focuses
on what you want students to learn. As you develop your assessment pieces, you may decide
that you need to re-think and revise your goals and objectives. This is only natural.
Informal Observational Assessment
There will be times when the only way you are able to assess your students is through
observation. This is especially true when you want to assess the process of student learning,
rather than assessing the final product of student learning. Informal observational assessment
tools can help you to keep track of information that you gather when talking with students or
observing them at work, assess understanding, and student affective characteristics.
Furthermore, this type of assessment can help you in maintaining classroom discipline because
they hold students accountable for their behaviors. The purpose of this assignment is to help you
develop a tool that can be used for observational purposes with clear observable behaviors.
Formal Observational Assessment
Formal observational assessment allows us to assess students in the process of some live
performance, such as a speech, presentation, debate, or in the process of conducting lab
experiments, problem solving, or oral reading. Like informal observational assessment, this type
of assessment does not confound students' writing ability with the learning you are trying to
assess. The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop a tool that can be used for formal
observational assessment with clear observable behaviors.
Performance Assessment
Performance assessment is a wonderful way to more globally assess your students using an openended project format set in an authentic real-life situation. Performance assessments are
3
particularly good at assessing higher order thinking skills. Typically, this form of assessments
helps your students to learn and grow in ways that other assessment tools cannot by intricately
linking instruction with assessment and allowing students to work on authentic real-life
situations and problems. These assessments involve a final product and usually take more time
to complete than traditional assessments. The final product usually contains a written
component, but this is in the form of a plan, letter, budget, analysis, etc. Alternatively, the final
product may be a drawing, map, poster, chart, graph, building, model, etc. The purpose of this
assignment is to help you to develop an authentic performance assessment and clear scoring
criteria.
Traditional Test
There may be times when you want to assess your students’ factual knowledge. Traditional
types of tests (i.e. multiple-choice, true/false, fill in the blank, etc.) are perhaps the simplest way
to do so. Furthermore, traditional essay questions can tap higher order thinking in ways that
other traditional items cannot. However, many teacher-made tests lack validity and reliability
because they do not conform to basic item writing rules. Furthermore, teachers do not always
understand how to summarize the results of such tests using basic descriptive statistics. The
purpose of this assignment is to help you develop a traditional test that conforms to all of the
basic item-writing rules.
Grading Plan
At some point, all teachers must formally evaluate student learning by assigning grades. Grades
help students and parents know what we value as teachers. However, trying to condense all the
information you have collected during a grading period into one letter or numeric grade can be a
daunting task. The purpose of this assignment is to help you reflect on what you value and how
you will assign grades to your students each grading period.
Final Portfolio
For your final portfolio you will field test the tools that you have developed when you are out in
the classroom and reflect on their use. Your final portfolio will consist of completed assessments
for at least five students using each of the assessments you have developed (i.e. informal
observational assessment, formal observational assessment, performance assessment and
traditional test). For the formal test you will also need to compile basic descriptive statistics
from the results. In addition, each administered assessment will be accompanied with a
reflection. Each reflection will be approximately 3 pages in length and will include: (1) what
you learned about your students by using the tool; (2) what went well; (3) what did not; (4) how
you might need to modify the tool for future use; (5) recommendations for using the particular
form of assessment in a valid and reliable way, and (6) how you see yourself using the particular
form of assessment in the future. You will administer this test while you are out in the field and
reflect on what it helped you to learn about your students and what you may need to modify. In
addition, you will need to compile basic descriptive statistics from the results.
Further details for all assignments will be handed out in the course as they become due.
Late Work
The key to success in this course is to keep up with the work. If you get significantly behind in
your work, it will be difficult to complete the course with a passing grade. If you have
4
significant problems that will impact one or more assignments, you are expected to work with
the instructor to devise a contract for completion of the work.
Calculating the Course Grade
A scale of 4.0 to 0.0 will be used for all scoring rubrics for all assignments. A weighted average
will be used to determine your grade by multiplying your score on each assignment by the
percentage it contributes to your grade. Grades will be based on a weighted average of all of
your assignments using the following grading schema.
4.0 – 3.8 = A
3.39 – 3.3 = B
2.59 – 2.3 = C
1.59 – 1.3 = D
< 1.0 = F
3.59 – 3.4 = B+
2.99 – 2.6 = C+
1.99 – 1.6 = D+
3.79 = 3.6 = A3.29 – 3.0 = B2.29 – 2.0 = C1.29 – 1.0 = D-
Tentative Course Schedule
Date
Topic
Assignment
9/3
Overview of course
Read Chapter 1
Introductions
Read and discuss syllabus
The Role of Assessment in Teaching
9/10
Read Chapter 3
Establishing High Quality
Classroom Assessment
Reliability and validity: The key to good
assessment
9/17
Read Chapter 2
Bring copy of state standards to class
Planning for Instruction and
Assessment: Part I
The “big picture” - Writing goals and refining
them into objectives
Goals and objectives - the key to validity
9/24
Traditional Tests: Part I
Discussion: When should traditional tests be
used?
The key to writing good test items
Critiquing test items activity
10/1
10/8
Traditional Tests: Part II
Read Chapters 6
Turn in final draft of goals and objectives
IN FIELD – NO CLASS**
Read Chapter 7
Assessing understanding and reasoning
10/15
Read Chapter 8
Turn in first draft of traditional test
Performance Assessments
Discussion: When should performance
assessment be used?
Compare and contrast traditional test to
performance assessment
10/22
Scoring Performance Assessments
Making the scoring criteria public
Holistic rubrics vs. rating scales
Students work on developing scoring criteria
for their performance assessments
5
Bring in first draft of performance task for
peer review
Date
Topic
Assignment
10/29
Informal Observational Assessment
Turn in final draft of performance
assessment
Discussion: When should observational
assessment be used?
How to create a valid and reliable observational
assessment
11/5
Formal Observational Assessment
Turn in informal observational assessment
Differences between formal and informal
observational assessment
How to create a valid and reliable formal
observational assessment
11/12
Read Chapter 12
Turn in formal observational assessment
Bring calculator to class!
Bring copy of report card used at your
school to share with the class
IN FIELD – NO CLASS**
NO CLASS - WORK ON FINAL PORTFOLIOS
Read Chapter 13, pp. 360-368
Evaluating Individual and Group
Turn in grading policy
Performance
Bring a calculator to class!
Read Chapter 13, pp.368-391
Standardized Achievement Tests
What do those scores mean anyway?
Turn in final portfolio
Grading
Why do we grade?
What do grades “really” represent? Different
grading techniques
Evaluation of progress reports used
11/19
11/26
12/3
12/10
6