Assessment Information from multiple sources that describes a student’s level of achievement Used to make educational decisions about students Gives feedback to students about progress, strengths, & weaknesses Judge the effectiveness of the curriculum and the teacher’s instruction

Goals of assessment Enhance learning Monitor & report student achievement

Assessment as part of the learning process Preassessment: Tells teacher about students’ knowledge, skills, fitness, interests, attitudes Which students already have skills/knowledge prior to the daily lesson Which students may need additional, individual help

Part of the learning process Assessment during instruction may be given through feedback to students so they are aware of their progress throughout the activity At conclusion of instruction, assessment helps teachers check the effectiveness of the teaching process

Part of the learning process When students are held accountable for evaluating their performance (or a peer’s), they stay on task more and spend less time in avoidance behaviors Formative assessment should be on-going Informs students Used to evaluate and improve instruction May be used as a reflective tool for teachers

Types of assessment Norm-referenced: Students are compared with others of same age, gender, grade level, even school Based on the normal bell curve which assumes the class is normally distributed around the class average Should not compare students with norms of other students who are not similar Used for summative assessment

Criterion referenced: Types of assessment Criterion referenced: How well a student performs in comparison with a predetermined standard of performance Can be used for either summative or formative evaluation When used for summative assessment, the criteria will not change as students become ore proficient

Traditional Authentic Types of assessment Consumes time and seems unrelated to outcomes Does not describe what students can do with their knowledge and skills Authentic Students apply skills and knowledge to solve real world problems Emphasizes higher order thinking skills Students are engaged in their own learning and assessment

Steps in the assessment process #1 Determine the purpose Unit/lesson objectives should align with content standards Objectives should have terminal behavior,conditions, criteria Assessments should reflect appropriate expectations

Steps in the assessment process #2 Selecting the correct technique If the objectives have been written correctly, the verb should indicate the kind of assessment technique to be used Skill assessment for verb in psychomotor Written assessment may be for cognitive Written surveys/journals may be used for affective domain

Steps in the assessment process #3 Effective assessment Validity: does it assess the content correctly? Reliability: would the student get the same test score on the same test? Objectivity: would the student get the same score regardless of who administered or graded the test? Learn about these in PEP 289! Stay tuned!

Creating authentic assessments Students are required to utilize or apply knowledge or skills to address a real problem or situation Determine the content standard Determine whether the task requires student to integrate knowledge in a meaningful manner Be sure the task is at a higher level of thinking on the cognitive taxonomy

Creating authentic assessment Determine whether the task is feasible in the amount of time Can students construct learning with other students Will students be able to ‘perform’ their learning in some form to an audience? Do students have a chance to master & revise the task?

Developing the rubric criteria What do you want to assess? What type of rubric will you use? What elements of knowledge, skill, qualities should students attain? How many levels do you want to put in your rubric? 3 is minimum, 5 is more detailed

Write the criteria for judging performance Developing the rubric Write the criteria for judging performance Focus on the presence of observable behaviors or elements of learning Begin with the first level, then move to the last, then move to the middle criteria Middle criteria will be the most difficult Check for appropriateness of elements for all students Check that the rubric elements reflect current ideas of excellence

Types of rubrics Numerical Checklist Analytic rating Holistic Points assigned for parts of a response, e.g. open-ended test questions Checklist Yes/no on presence of feature Analytic rating Numerical or qualitative scale Holistic Score based on rater’s judgment of student performance

Homework Be ready to discuss the different types of rubrics You will be required to construct an authentic assessment project for your unit plan and create a grading rubric