EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY REFLECTION FOR ACTION Canadian Edition O’Donnell, D’Amico, Schmid, Reeve, Smith CHAPTER 13 Classroom Assessment Chapter 13 Classroom Assessment • Themes of the chapter – Classroom assessments inform teachers about student progress – Assessments promote the notion that classroom assessment is not just assessment of learning – Classroom assessments should be assessments for learning – Standardized and standards-based tests are an integral part of schools – There are benefits gained from using such assessments as well as problems associated with them – There are controversies associated with standardized testing Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Guiding Questions • What is the role of assessment in the instructional process? • How can teachers devise assessments that facilitate instruction and at the same time provide information about students’ progress? • Of the many options teachers have for assessment, which are the best? • How can a teacher develop a grading system that is fair and that lets students take responsibility for their own learning? • How can assessment help students learn about their own strengths and weaknesses? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Guiding Questions • How can teachers continually improve assessment and grading practices? • How can teachers create and modify assessments to include learners who face special challenges? • How do cultural differences among students and their parents affect the process of communicating progress? • What are standardized assessments, and where did they come from? • How can a teacher make sense of the statistics and scales that come with these measures? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Guiding Questions • What is the best way to interpret standardized test scores? • How concerned should teachers be about issues of reliability and validity? • How can teachers fairly assess students with learning and physical challenges? • How do teachers ensure that assessment is equally fair for students from different cultural backgrounds? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Assessment for Instruction: Roles, Goals, and Audiences • Assessment – the process of determining what students know and can do • Assessment identifies areas for growth and improvement • Assessment should address the needs of students, parents, other educators, and the teacher Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student, Parent, and Teacher Concerns in Assessment • Student concerns: – Is test/quiz/activity going to be fun? – Am I going to do well on it? – How am I going to do in comparison to other students? – How will it affect my grade? – How will it be graded? – How will it affect what the teacher thinks of me? – How much work is it going to be? – If I work hard on it, will I succeed? – Will being successful be worth the effort? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student, Parent, and Teacher Concerns in Assessment • Parent concerns: – How is my child doing? – What can I do to help? – What are my child’s strengths and weaknesses? – How is my child getting along socially? – How is my child doing compared to the other children (in the class, in the school, in the nation)? – Is my child working up to his/her potential? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student, Parent, and Teacher Concerns in Assessment • Teacher concerns – Which assessment option would work best in this situation? – When should assessment take place – before, during, or after instruction? – How can this assessment promote students’ ability to evaluate their own progress? – How well does it match the statewide standards or assessment? – How will I communicate the results to students and parents? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student, Parent, and Teacher Concerns in Assessment • Teacher concerns (continued) – How much work will it take to construct or select the assessment and to grade it? – How is this assessment related to others in the class? – How can students learn that they need to work more in this area without making them feel like failures? – What if the results are really poor? – How can this information improve instruction? – Should this assessment count as part of the students’ grades? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student, Parent, and Teacher Concerns in Assessment • Other Audiences and Areas of Concern – Teachers must also consider other audiences who receive and use assessment information, e.g. universities use high school transcripts to make admission decisions • Diversity among students and their parents – Students and their parents come from diverse backgrounds, which can influence students’ performance Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Formative and Summative Assessment • Formative – an assessment designed to inform teachers and students about student learning and to help improve instruction Given prior to or during instruction • Information the teacher can use to form forthcoming instruction • Information used to summarize students’ strengths and weaknesses • Not graded Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Formative and Summative Assessment • Summative – assessment designed to summarize student achievement • Given after the conclusion of instruction/lesson • Information the teacher can use to evaluate what students accomplished • Information used to diagnose what students have accomplished • Graded Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Principles of Assessment and Grading Communication • Make assessment and grading explicit • Communicate it to the students • Use the communication from students not only to tailor instruction, but also to let students know that they are listening Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Principles of Assessment and Grading Fairness: assessment or grade is just • Validity – appropriateness of judgments about students based on assessment information • Reliability – consistency over an aspect of assessment, such as over time and multiple raters • Bias – systematic unfair treatment of a particular group of individuals Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Principles of Assessment and Grading Student Growth • Are based on instructional goals and the instruction that follows those goals (valid) • Provide students ample opportunity and variety of assessment formats to show what they can do (reliable) • Allow all students to demonstrate their achievement equally (free from bias) Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Student Growth Principle • Assessment and grading should enhance the instructional process and lead to student growth • Assessments should be engaging and rewarding to students • Rapid feedback should be focused on improvement Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Options for Assessment Recognition format • Multiple choice – item format consisting of a stem (questions), a right answer, and a set of wrong answers (distractions) • Matching – item format that involves generating two sets of objects that are to be linked together • True/False Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Options for Assessment Generative format • Constructed response – format in which the student has to provide the answer to the question (also called short answer format) • Essay tests Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Options for Assessment Alternative formats • Authentic assessment – tightly related to the instruction that the students have received or to tasks that are relevant in real life • Alternative assessment – assessments that are different from traditional approaches such as recognition formats Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Alternative Formats • Performance assessments – students generate a product or an actual performance that reflects what they have learned – Objectivity in scoring: not having a direct interest or bias – Products: student creations that reflect their skills and abilities as well a their ability to create something new Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Alternative Formats • Portfolios – collection of students’ work over time that allows for assessment of the development of their skills • Journals – running set of thoughts, responses to prompts, and reflections that students have concerning their learning in a particular area • Informal assessments – activities used to get a quick and rough idea of student progress Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Your Turn • Imagine that you have just graded an assessment for your class • The students did much worse than expected; only the two best students in the class did well— very well • What might have gone wrong? How can you find out what happened, and how to avoid repeating this situation? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Developing and Using Assessments • • • • • Determining what to assess Rubrics Determining the best assessment format Assessing students with special needs Administering, scoring, and communicating assessment results Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Determining What to Assess • Achievement target – well-specified statements of what teachers want to accomplish in a particular lesson or set of lessons • Test blueprint – statement of what a test will comprise, often in outline form • Content/behaviour matrix – method for specifying what is to be assessed by making a matrix with expected student behaviours on one axis and the content on which that behaviour will be observed on the other axis Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Rubrics • Rubrics – explications of the criteria for a performance assessment or an essay that include specifications for how various levels of performance are to be graded – Criteria: specifications of what is expected of a student on an assessment Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Determining the Best Assessment Format • Assessment should be closely linked to instruction – Consider the appropriateness of alternatives to a specific goal – Consider the time and effort needed to build, administer, grade, and communicate the results to students – Provincially-based curricula influence instruction but do not dictate day-to-day goals Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Assessing Students with Special Needs • Individualized education program (IEP) – educational and behavioural intervention plan for a student with special needs • IEP guide teachers regarding accommodations, i.e., changes made in an assessment for students with disabilities within an established curriculum • Modifications – changes made in an assessment for students with disabilities reflecting a different grade level Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Administering, Scoring, and Communicating Assessment Results • Administering assessments – When appropriate, specify and follow time limits – Students should be quiet, and distractions minimized – For projects/presentations, specify due dates – Consider possible exceptions • Giving feedback – Feedback must accurately reflect how well the student has done – Be specific; students need to know exactly what they have done Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Administering, Scoring, and Communicating Assessment Results • Student Conferences – Involve communication in both directions – Allows for finding common ground – Allows for misunderstandings to be cleared up – Allows for elaboration of issues • Prepare for conferences by reviewing student work Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Interpreting Classrooms Assessments • Comparing performance with expectations – Look at assessment results for the class – Data-based determinations of next steps • Reflecting on assessments to improve them – How do the results look? – What did I expect? Were there surprises? – How did students respond to the assessment? Did they find it useful? – How can I improve this assessment? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Developing a Grading System Options for grading systems – Grading options at the primary level • Exceeds expectations • Meets requirements • Needs improvement – Grading options at the upper elementary and middle school levels • Letter grades – Grading options at the secondary level • Five point scale corresponding to A – F Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Developing a Grading System Record keeping for grading – Record keeping with technology – Help students develop a sense of responsibility for their grades Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Communicating with Parents • Parent/teacher conferences – primary form of teacher-to-parent communication • Maintaining communication – Course grades (assessments, quizzes, reports) – Unexcused absences – Missed assignments – Disciplinary concerns Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Standardized Assessment • A measure of student ability in which all students take the same measure under the same conditions • Can be useful to inform educational process • Policy decisions can also be informed by standardized tests • Teachers need to be concerned with provincial achievement at set grade levels Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Categories of Assessments Three widely used categorization: • Norm and Criterion Referencing – Criterion-referenced: method for understanding what assessment scores mean by referring them to some arbitrary standard – Norm-referenced: scores that are given meaning by referring them to other individuals or sets of individuals) Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Categories of Assessments • Achievement, Aptitude, and Affective Tests – Is test assessing past achievement or predicting future achievement? – Assessment also includes how people learn, how they feel about themselves, how motivated they are, and what they do and do not like to do • Affective assessments – assessment related to feelings, motivation, attitudes, and opinions Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Categories of Assessments • Classify assessments using the following: – – – – Normative vs. summative Formative vs. summative Achievement vs. aptitude vs. affective Traditional vs. alternative Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Technical Issues in Assessment • Statistics used in assessment – Central tendency: Mean, median, mode – Variability: Variance and standard deviations – Z-scores – Normal distribution – Use statistics to look at groups of scores Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Scales • Raw scores – simple sums of the points obtained on an assessment • Scaled scores – scores transformed into an arbitrary numbering system in order to facilitate interpretation • Percentiles – indicates what percentage of the national norming sample performed less well than the score in question • Grade-equivalent scores – scores that are reported in terms of how well children did in the norming study at various grade levels Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Your Turn • Your school has received the results of a standardized test • You are scheduled to present the information to parents • Describe how you will present the results to them • What scores would you tell them about? How would you explain what the scores mean? Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Norms and Equating • Norms – a set of tables based on a representative administration of an assessment that makes it possible to show how well particular students did compared to other samples of students Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Setting Passing and Other Proficiency Scores • Passing scores – scores that one needs to obtain or exceed in order to pass the assessment, also known as cut scores or mastery scores Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Validity and Reliability in Context • Validity – the degree to which conclusions about students based on their assessment scores are justified and fair; correspondence between what an assessment measures and what was taught Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Validity and Reliability in Context • Establish validity by: – Having experts review assessment to ensure what is measured is what is intended (content validity evidence) – Statistically relating scores from the measure with other indicators of the same ability (criterionrelated validity evidence) – Conducting research studies where assessments are hypothesized to demonstrate results based on theories of what the assessments measure (construct validity evidence) • Consequential validity – concern for how the assessment will affect the person taking it Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Validity and Reliability in Context • Reliability – consistency over an aspect of assessment, such as over time or over multiple raters; having enough information about students on which to base judgments • Not the assessment’s reliability that must be proven but the reliability of the application of the assessment Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Validity and Reliability in Context Reliability (continued) • Split-half reliability – form of reliability coefficient, similar to coefficient alpha, that takes half of the items on an assessment, sums them into a score, then correlates that score with a score based on the other half of the items • Reliability coefficient – index, ranging from .00 up to 1.00, of how reliable an assessment is Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Interpreting Standardized Assessments • Find the child in the data • Demystify the assessment report • Combine standardized results with other information – Work from the top down – Make and test hypotheses about the child • Bring the child into the classroom, i.e., fit the child’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals into classroom environment Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Interpreting Standardized Assessments • Think about the classroom, school, and school board levels • Look at scores for second language learners • Look at scores for students with special needs Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Controversies in Assessment • Bias in testing – Test bias: the degree to which the scores from an assessment take on different meanings when obtained by individuals from different groups – The language the test is in may not be the first language of those being assessed; understanding of what is required during assessment may be affected Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition Copyright Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Access Copyright (the Canadian copyright licensing agency) is unlawful. Requests for further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. The purchaser may make back-up copies for his or her own use only and not for distribution or resale. The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or damages caused by the use of these files or programs or from the use of the information contained herein. Educational Psychology, Canadian Edition