1. Classroom Assessment, Grading, and Standardized Testing
Cluster 14
Modules 38 – 40

2. Focus Questions How will you test students on a unit of work?
How can you evaluate tests that accompany textbooks and teachers’ manuals?
How should you create multiple-choice and essay tests for your subject area?
Will you use authentic assessment approaches, including portfolios, performances, exhibitions, and scoring rubrics?
What are the potential positive and negative effects of grades on students?
What are examples of criterion-referenced and norm-referenced grading systems?
How will you explain your grading system to parents or caregivers who do not understand their children’s grades?

3. What Would You Do? Refer to page 603 Teacher’s Casebook
What would be your major graded assignments and projects?
Would you include credit for behaviors such as group participation and effort?
How would you put all the elements together to determine a grade for every student for every marking period?
How would you justify your system to the principal and to students’ families?
How will these issues affect the grade levels you will teach?

4. Basics of Assessment Measurement Quantitative
Process of gathering information about students’ learning
Formal
Informal

5. Formative and Summative Assessment
Formative Assessment
Occurs before or during instruction
Summative Assessment
Occurs after instruction

6. Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Testing
Comparison based on average performance of others
Criterion-Referenced
Comparison based on set standard

7. Assessing Assessments: Reliability and Validity
Likelihood that scores remain constant across time and conditions
Validity
Likelihood that test is measuring what it is intended to measure
Error in scores
Higher reliability=lower error

8. Using Tests from Textbooks
Designed for the typical classroom
Do test questions match what teacher focused on in class?

9. Objective Testing Multiple Choice, Matching, True/False Stem
Distractors
Used by half of teachers, even though 3/4 of education professors reject them

10. Essay Tests
Should be focused on important, complex learning objectives
Students require more time to answer
Expectations should be clear

11. Evaluating Essays
Use scoring criteria (rubrics) to help eliminate subjectivity
Grade all responses to one question before moving to other questions
Ask students to put name on back of paper
Have a second reader check for reliability

12. Authentic Assessment
Require students to apply skills as they would in real life
Includes assessment on writing, speaking, listening, creating, critical thinking, research, and application

13. Portfolios A systematic collection of work
Includes work in progress, revisions, work analysis, and self-reflections
Document learning and progress

14. Exhibitions Public display of work A culminating experience
Issues of equity should be considered
Judgment should be kept as objective as possible

15. Informal Assessments
Journals
Checklists
Observations
Rating scales

16. Norm-Referenced v. Criterion Referenced Grading
Norm-referenced grading
Student standing compared to other students
Criterion-referenced grading
Student standing compared to a set standard or list of accomplishments

17. Effects of Grading on Students
Value of failing
Some failure may be beneficial
Retention in grade
20% of high-school seniors have been “held back”
Affiliated with dropout, low self-esteem, lack of job opportunities

18. Grades and Motivation Assessments should enhance motivation
Assessments should reflect meaningful learning
Educator’s job: to select talent, or develop talent?

19. Beyond Grading: Communicating with Families
Should be more than sending home grades
Notes
Phone calls for good news
Open houses
Websites
Portfolios

20. Standardized Testing NCLB Policy Concerns among politicians
Global competition
Knowledge about standardized tests

21. Types of Scores
Measurements of Central Tendency and Standard Deviation
Mean, median, mode
Standard Deviation
How widely scores vary from mean

22. Normal Distribution Bell curve See Fig. 40.1 on p. 637
68% of scores fall between 1 standard deviation above and 1 standard deviation below

23. Percentile Rank Scores
Raw score compared to raw scores of norm group
Caution in interpreting percentile scores

24. Other Scores
Grade Equivalent Scores
Standard Scores
Raw Scores

25. Interpreting Standardized Test Reports
See Fig on p. 641

26. Accountability and High-Stakes Testing
Quality of test and way test is used
Values/ethics of test
High-stakes testing
Helpful or harmful?

27. Problems with High Stakes Testing
Very little test material overlaps with curriculum
Narrows curriculum
Takes up valuable instructional time
Could be damaging to student beliefs

28. Use High-Stakes Tests Well
Match content standards
Be part of larger assessment plan
Test complex thinking
Provide alternate assessment strategies
Provide opportunities for retesting
Include all students
Provide appropriate remediation
Take language into account

29. Help Students with Disabilities with High-Stakes Tests
Preparation should start earlier
Preparation should align closely with problems presented on test
Better equip students with necessary skills

30. Diversity and Convergences
Teachers may hold lower expectations for minority students
Be cautious with information that will enter student file