1. Classroom Assessment Strategies
Chapter Fifteen
Educational Psychology: Developing Learners
6th edition
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod

2. Assessment as Tools
Assessment is the process of observing a sample of a student’s behavior and drawing inferences about the student’s knowledge and abilities.
When we are looking at students’ behavior, we typically only use a sample of classroom behavior.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

3. Assessment as Tools
Assessment instruments do not dictate the decisions to be made.
Teachers, administrators, government officials, parents, and even students interpret assessment results and make decisions based on the results.
Assessments are tools.
Allow us to make informed decisions about how best to help our students learn and achieve
Assessment interpretation can be abused.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

4. Paper-pencil assessment vs. Performance assessment
Informal assessment
vs.
Formal assessment
Paper-pencil assessment
vs.
Performance assessment
ASSESSMENT
Standardized test
vs.
Teacher-developed assessment
Traditional assessment
vs.
Authentic assessment
Informal assessment
vs.
Formal assessment
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

5. Using Assessment for Different Purposes
Two basic types of assessment
Some assessments are formative and assess students’ knowledge before or during instruction.
Homework assignments, in-class assignments, quizzes
Some assessments are summative and assess students’ achievement after instruction.
Exams
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

6. Other Purposes of Assessment
To promote learning
In order for assessment to promote students’ learning and achievement, it should:
Provide specific & concrete feedback
Act as a learning experience, letting students know what they have and have not mastered
Act as a motivator—students should know what to study and when
Act as a review mechanism
Influence cognitive processing
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

7. Other Purposes of Assessment
To guide instructional decision making
To assist in the diagnosis of learning and performance problems
To promote self-regulation
To determine what students have learned
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

8. Important Qualities of Good Assessment
Remember RSVP
Reliability
The results of our assessments should be consistent no matter when we give it.
Standardization
The assessment should have a similar format, content, and procedure for all students.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

9. Important Qualities of Good Assessment
Validity
The assessment should measure what it is intended to measure.
Practicality
The assessment and its procedures should be fairly simple to use and take only a small amount of time to administer and score.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

10. Reliability There may be slight variation from time to time.
Students change from day to day.
The physical environment may change.
Sometimes teachers are more clear in their instructions than others.
There is always subjectivity in scoring.
More likely when responses are scored on the basis of vague, imprecise criteria
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

11. Enhancing Reliability
Include several tasks in each instrument and look for consistency in students’ performance
Define each task clearly so students know exactly what they are being asked to do
Identify specific, concrete criteria for evaluation
Try not to let expectations for students’ performance influence judgments
Avoid assessing students when they are obviously tired, ill, etc.
Administer assessments in similar ways and under similar conditions for all students
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

12. Validity Content Validity
This is the extent to which an assessment includes a representative sample of tasks within the domain being assessed.
It assures that what we are testing truly represents what we have taught (the instructional objectives).
High content validity is essential in summative evaluations.
Teachers can use a table of specifications to enhance content validity.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

13. Validity Predictive Validity Construct Validity
Extent to which the results of an assessment predict future performance
Often take the form of aptitude tests
Construct Validity
Extent to which an assessment accurately measures general, abstract characteristics
E.g., motivation, self-esteem, or intelligence
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

14. Informal Assessment
Informal assessment occurs in our day-to-day interactions with students.
Advantages:
It provides continuing feedback about the effectiveness of instructional tasks and activities.
It helps determine the appropriateness and success of our formal assessments.
It is easily adjusted.
It provides valuable clues about social, emotional, and motivational factors affecting classroom performance.
Disadvantages:
It is not very reliable or valid.
We sometimes see the halo effect.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

15. Paper-Pencil Assessment
Paper-pencil assessment is often the first choice for formal assessment because of its practicality.
It may use recognition or recall tasks.
Recognition: Multiple choice, true-false, matching
Recall: Short-answer, essay, word problems
It often only measures lower-level skills.
However, they can be used to measure higher-level skills, but these questions take more time to write.
Essays are more often used to measure higher-level skills.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

16. Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Alternative-Response Items
Rephrase ideas presented in class or the textbook
Make statements that clearly reflect one alternative or the other
Avoid excessive use of negatives
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

17. Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Matching Items
Keep the items in each column homogeneous
Have more items in one column than the other
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

18. Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Multiple-Choice Items
Present distractors that are clearly wrong to students who know the material but plausible to students who haven’t mastered it
Avoid putting negatives in both the stem and the alternative
Use “all of the above” or “none of the above” seldom if at all
Avoid giving logical clues about the correct answer
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

19. Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Short-Answer and Completion Items
Indicate the type of response required
For completion items, include only one or two blanks per item
Problems and Interpretive Exercises
Use new examples and situations
Include irrelevant information
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

20. Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Essay Tasks
Ask for several essays requiring short responses rather than one essay requiring a lengthy response
Give students a structure for responding
Ask questions that can clearly be scored as correct or incorrect
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

21. General Guidelines for Constructing Paper-Pencil Assessments
Define tasks clearly and unambiguously
Decide whether students should have access to reference materials
Specify scoring criteria in advance
Place easier and shorter items at the beginning of the instrument
Set parameters for students’ responses
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

22. Administering the Assessment
Provide a quiet and comfortable environment
Encourage students to ask questions when tasks are not clear
Take steps to discourage cheating
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

23. Strategies for Scoring Students’ Responses
Specify scoring criteria in concrete terms
Unless specifically assessing grammar skills, score grammar and spelling separately from the content of students’ responses
Skim a sample of students’ responses ahead of time
Score item by item rather than paper by paper
Try not to let prior expectations of students’ performance influence judgments of their actual performance
Keep students’ scores confidential
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

24. Performance Assessment
Performance assessment can be used for measuring mastery of:
Playing a musical instrument
Performing a workplace routine
Engaging in a debate
Ideal for the assessment of complex achievements
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

25. Choosing Appropriate Performance Tasks
Four distinctions to help choose tasks most appropriate for the purpose
Decide whether to look at the products, the processes, or both
Is what you are assessing tangible (product) or a behavior (process)?
Determine if you need an individual or group performance
Dependent upon WHAT you are assessing
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

26. Choosing Appropriate Performance Tasks
Restricted vs. extended performance
E.g., is the student playing a few notes or an entire piano piece?
Should you use static or dynamic assessment?
Dynamic assessment applies the Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

27. Planning and Administering Performance Assessments
Consider incorporating the assessment into normal instructional activities
Provide an appropriate amount of structure
Plan classroom management strategies for the assessment activity
Be continually aware of what the students are doing and make sure all students are busy and engaged
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

28. Strategies for Scoring Student Performance
Consider using checklists, rating scales, or both in your rubric
Decide whether analytic or holistic scoring better serves your purpose(s)
Analytic: Scoring a student’s performance by evaluating various aspects of it separately
Holistic: Summarizing a student’s performance with a single score
Limit the criteria to the most important aspects of the desired response
Describe the criteria as explicitly and concretely as possible
Make note of other significant aspects of a student’s performance that the rubric doesn’t address
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

29. Including Students in the Assessment Process
Including students in the process encourages them to self-assess.
Teachers should:
Provide examples of “good” and “poor” products
Make evaluation criteria explicit
Allow students to compare self-ratings with teacher-ratings
Encourage self-reflection via the use of daily journal entries
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

30. Evaluating Assessment Tools
An item analysis can be done to determine if certain items are measuring the knowledge or skill we intended to measure:
Item difficulty measurements
Item discrimination measurements
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

31. Taking Student Diversity into Account
Some things to keep in mind:
Students often suffer from test anxiety.
Gender and ethnic differences may impact assessment performance independently of their actual learning and achievement.
Assessment instruments must comply with the federal mandates regarding students with special needs.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition

32. The “Big Picture” of Assessment
Our assessments will indirectly affect students’ learning and achievement.
Our instruments and practices should match our instructional goals and objectives.
Remember RSVP.
Our scoring criteria should be as explicit as possible.
Students’ errors provide valuable information about where their difficulties lie.
We should continually evaluate our instruments.
Copyright © 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey All rights reserved.
Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, sixth edition