Classroom Assessment A Practical Guide for Educators by Craig A. Mertler Chapter 4 Overview of Assessment Techniques

Introduction  Teachers have a wide variety of assessment options available to them.  Decisions should be based on instructional objectives, content, and necessary skills and behaviors.  Two broad categories of assessments are alternative and traditional.

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Development resulted from criticism of pencil-and- paper testing and the need for assessments that focused on more meaningful student learning.  Focus on application of knowledge and skills as well as higher levels of real-world application.  Alternative assessments: those assessments that overcome the limitations of pencil-and-paper testing.  Authentic assessments: subcategory of alternative assessments that focus on real-world applications.

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Informal Assessments specifically, teacher observations and teacher questions characteristics: most common forms of assessment used in classrooms typically occur in ongoing, never-ending manner Observations: watching and/or listening to students. Questions: unplanned oral inquiries; lower-order vs. higher-order questions.

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Informal Assessments (continued) strengths and limitations: observing and making mental notes is something we all do naturally allow us to observe events simultaneously or in quick succession do not need to be planned in advance require inference often forgotten or distorted as time passes teachers often do not provide adequate time to answer questions

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Performance-Based Assessments allow students to demonstrate what they know and can actually do in applied situations characteristics: provide for direct observation of performance require some subjective scoring procedures (using rating scales, checklists, or rubrics) wide variety of possibilities when developing performance assessments

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Performance-Based Assessments (continued) strengths and limitations: allow for assessment of skills that could not be measured using more traditional methods can be used to evaluate both process and products can be used to make informed decisions about instruction tend to be very time consuming may require a high degree of subjectivity on the part of the teacher

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Portfolio Assessments allow students and teachers to gather evidence of abilities over an extended period of time characteristics: contain samples of student work selected by the student based on guidelines developed by the teacher emphasis is on individual student’s accomplishments reflection is a key component variations include documentation, showcase, class, and evaluation

Alternative Assessment Techniques  Portfolio Assessments (continued) strengths and limitations: students become empowered by being included in the assessment process foster communication between teachers and students documentation of student growth should not be used as the exclusive means of assessment may be extremely time consuming subjectivity often results in validity/reliability problems

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Primary means of assessment in American education for decades  Majority of assessments on which student grades are based  Objective test items: test items that are scored objectively (single correct answer requiring no judgment).  Subjective test items: test items that require subjective judgments in the scoring process.

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Objective Test Items only one correct answer; no teacher-related judgments involved in scoring present a question or problem along with several options from which students select answer ( selected- response items ) characteristics: Multiple-choice items: consist of stem, options, and distractors.

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Objective Test Items (continued) characteristics: (continued) Alternate-choice items: consist of a statement with only two options. Matching items: two lists of terms ( stimuli and responses ).

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Objective Test Items (continued) strengths and limitations: appropriate for assessing lower-order skills very efficient to score subject to guessing sometimes difficult for teachers to write high- quality items that are clearly understood by students

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Subjective Test Items teachers’ subjective judgments enter into the scoring process; more than one possible correct answer students are required to construct a response to a question or prompt ( constructed response or supply items ) characteristics: Essay items: consist of a problem, question ( prompt ).  restricted-response ( short-answer ) items and extended-response items

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Subjective Test Items (continued) characteristics: (continued) Completion items: consist of statement requiring responses of one or two words.  also known as fill-in- the-blank items

Traditional Assessment Techniques  Subjective Test Items (continued) strengths and limitations: typically easy to construct reduce chances of guessing students’ abilities to write can affect their scores spelling can also be an issue