Introduction
In 2001 the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation
was passed, stating that only those schools that met
government approved academic standards would be
eligible for federal aid.
Since then, alternative
assessments have received much attention, as it is
generally believed that if students were properly
assessed, they would show a higher degree of
achievement. Studies have evaluated many forms of
alternative assessments, but individual oral testing has
remained conspicuously unaddressed.
Literature Review
Outcomes Assessment in the Biology Classroom:
A comparison of oral versus written testing
Hypotheses
Research Design
1.
Biology students will demonstrate a
better understanding of subject matter if
assessments are administered orally versus
in a written format.
2. Students in low academic level biology
classes will have greater discrepancies
between scores obtained from oral and
written assessments than will students in
average or high academic level classes.
scale of use (1-5)
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Average Academic
High Academic
Level Class
Level Class
Level Class
(30 students)
(30 Students)
(30 Students)
70
50
40
20
The same teacher will preside over all three classes. After each
class has received the same lecture, the classes will be divided
and exams will be given.
Low Academic
60
95
0
low
academic
level class
written exam
average
academic
level class
high
academic
level class
oral exam
Figure 2: Expected score discrepancies between classes and
between oral and written test-takers within those classes.
Implications

Oral
Written
Oral
Written
Oral
Written
Testtakers
Testtakers
Testtakers
Testtakers
Testtakers
Testtakers
(15)
(15)
(15)
(15)
(15)
(15)
Greater discrepancies between oral and written
exam scores for low achieving students may suggest
that oral assessments are most useful for this group of
students.

Should oral exams more accurately assess low
achieving students, the scores for these students will
likely improve.

Improved scores, especially for lower achieving
students may help schools comply with NCLB.
Future Research

1.8
1.6 1.6 1.5
45 combined oral test-takers
Further work could be done to determine whether
oral testing is valuable in disciplines other than
biology.
 The methods presented in this experiment could
be applied to future studies to determine the efficacy
of other alternative assessments.
outcomes assessments
combined subjective/objective written tests
written homework assignments
45 combined written test-takers
projects
The questions on both exams will be identical.
presentations
multiple choice tests
No studies seem to exist that quantitatively compare
oral exams to other forms of assessment. A study was
conducted that compared student scores on various
assessments (Lawrenz et al. 2001), but that study did
not include oral testing. Based on the reported
benefits of oral assessment, it seems that a
quantitative comparison study involving oral
assessment is the next logical step.
75
80
test scores
(% )
90
85
Miranda Bacon, Department of Biology, York College
Alternative assessments have evolved out of a
dissatisfaction with traditional testing methods. They
are preferable to traditional assessments because of
Pilot
Study
their greater accuracy in measuring students’ skills
and progress (Daniels 1999), particularly with lower A pilot study was conducted to determine which
achieving and disabled students (Lawrenz et al. 2001). assessments are currently being used in biology
classrooms.
The results showed that combined
subjective /objective written tests are one of the two
Despite these findings, many teachers still rely on most frequently used assessments, while individual
traditional assessments due to a lack of knowledge oral exams are the least frequently used (Fig 1).
about effective assessments (Warren & Nisbet 2001).
5
Teachers who are willing to implement alternative
4.3 4.3
4.5
4
assessments usually stick to those for which abundant
4
3.6 3.5
research exists.
3.2
Individual oral exams, for which there is little
research, seem to be almost completely absent from
the classroom. The studies on oral assessment that
do exist argue that oral exams have a greater
potential for testing higher order cognitive
skills than traditional methods (Wakeford et
al.
1995),
they
maximize
long-term
retention of information, and they provide
students with a higher level of mastery and
a deeper understanding of material than do
traditional tests (Guest & Murphy 2000).
100
written essay tests
portfolios
computer-prompted evaluations
group oral tests
individual oral tests
1 = Never
2 = Rarely
4 = Often
3 = Sometimes
5 = Almost Always
Figure 1: Average implementation of various outcomes
assessments obtained from data collected from 14 secondary
biology teachers.
Expected Results
1. Oral test-takers in all three classes will
outperform
their
written
test-taking
classmates (Fig 2).
2. A greater discrepancy will exist between
test scores of oral test-takers and
written-test takers in the low academic
level class than will be seen in the
average and high academic level classes
(Fig 2).
Literature Cited
Daniels, Vera. 1999. The assessment maze: making instructional
decisions about alternative assessments
for students with disabilities.
Preventing School Failure 43:171.
Guest, Kristin E. and Murphy, Diane S. 2000. In support of memory retention:
a cooperative oral final exam. Education 121:350.
Lawrenz, Frances, Huffman, Douglas and Welch, Wayne. 2001. The science
achievement of various subgroups on alternative assessment formats.
Science Education 85:279-290.
Wakeford, Richard, Southgate, Leslie, and Wass, Val. 1995. Improving oral
examinations: selecting, training, and monitoring examiners for the MRCGP.
British Medical Journal 311:931-936.
Warren, Elizabeth and Nisbet, Steven. 2001. How grades 1-7 teachers
assess Mathematics and how they use the assessment data. School Science
and Mathematics 101:348-356.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Debbie Ricker for her invaluable advice and support and the
York County biology teachers who participated in the pilot study.