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

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

3. 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

4. How Should We Assess Student Learning?
Think of a class/course that you feel exemplifies a backward design (i.e. alignment between outcomes, assessment, and learning activities. What evidence supports your view? 3

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued3

9. Classroom Assessment: Validity & reliability