Classroom Assessment (1) EDU 330: Educational Psychology Daniel Moos

What do you see? Please do not say it out loud…

Why Should We Assess Student Learning? Summative evaluation  To provide a summary judgment of student performance over time and different tasks Formative evaluation To monitor student progress for remedial or supplementary instruction What type of formative evaluations/assessments have you experienced? Effective/Ineffective ones? Black and William (1998) recommend: "Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones." Do you agree? Why or why not? 3

How Should We Assess Student Learning? Backwards Design: (1) Identify goal/learning objective; (2) Create and plan assessment to align with goals/objectives; (3) Develop lesson plans that align with learning objectives and assessments Role of Conditions, Behavior, and Criterion Conditions: Available (unavailable) resources Behavior: Observable activity (Bloom’s Taxonomy) Criterion: Standard used to measure whether objective has been met Think of a class/course that you feel exemplifies a backward design. What evidence supports your view? 3

How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued Reliability: Consistency of measurement Example #1 with a scale I weigh a bag of potatoes on a scale in the morning and the scale indicates that the bag weighs 5 pounds. If I were to weigh the same bag of potatoes later in the day, a reliable scale would indicate that the bag weighs how many pounds? Example #2 with a classroom I designed a test with two items that are intended to assess similar (if not identical) knowledge. If these two items are reliable, how should students perform on them (similar or different)? 3

How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued Measuring Reliability coefficients (correlations): Values range from 0 (No reliability) to 1.0 (Perfect reliability) All tests have some error, so in reality reliability coefficients never equal 1.0. Reliability > .80 very good; Reliability < .50 poor 3

How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued Validity: Accuracy of assessment (does it measure what it is suppose to measure?) Example #1 with a scale I weigh a bag of potatoes on a scale in the morning and the scale indicates that the bag weighs 5 pounds. I weigh the bag on the same scale later in the day and the scale again registers that the bag weighs 5 pounds. The scale is reliable because it provide consistent measurement But, is it valid???? In other words, does the bag actually weigh 5 pounds? 3

How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued 3

Classroom Assessment: Validity & reliability

How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued Your school district is looking for an assessment instrument to measure reading ability.  They have narrowed the selection to two possibilities -- Test A provides data indicating that it has high validity, but there is no information about its reliability.  Test B provides data indicating that it has high reliability, but there is no information about its validity. Which test would you recommend?  Why? A parent called you to ask about the reliability coefficient on a recent standardized test.  The coefficient was reported as .89, and the parent thinks that must be a very low number. How would you explain to the parent that .89 is an acceptable coefficient? 3

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of Norm-Referenced Grading  Strengths – System is useful for evaluating advanced levels of learning – System is useful for selecting students for limited enrollment programs  Weaknesses – There are few situations in which the typical school teacher can appropriately use it

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of Criterion-Referenced Grading  Strengths – Provides more specific and useful information about student strengths and weaknesses – Promotes the motivation to learn because it holds out the promise that all students can master most of a teacher’s objectives  Weaknesses – Performance standards are arbitrary and may be difficult to justify – Standards may fluctuate as a result of unnoticed variation