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

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

3. Classroom assessment involves two major types of activities: ã Collecting information about how much knowledge and skill students have learned/acquired (measurement)  Making judgments about the adequacy or acceptability of each student’s level of learning (evaluation) Why Should We Assess Student Learning?

4. Why Should We Assess Student Learning? continued 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 Diagnosis  To diagnose specific strengths and weakness in an individual’s learning Effects on learning ã To motivate further learning Feedback

5. Ways to Evaluate Student Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of Norm-Referenced Grading  Strengths – System is useful for evaluating advanced levels of learning – System is useful for selecting students for limited enrollment programs  Weaknesses – There are few situations in which the typical school teacher can appropriately use it

6. Ways to Evaluate Student Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of Criterion- Referenced Grading  Strengths – Provides more specific and useful information about student strengths and weaknesses – Promotes the motivation to learn because it holds out the promise that all students can master most of a teacher’s objectives  Weaknesses – Performance standards are arbitrary and may be difficult to justify – Standards may fluctuate as a result of unnoticed variation

7. Lack of consistency of grading Focus on verbatim memorization? Focus on verbatim memorization Recognition v. Recall Disadvantages Assess higher-level abilities Relatively easy to write; Allow for breadth EfficiencyAdvantages Ask to discuss one or more related ideas according to certain criteria Objective; Ask to supply info from memory; Assess foundational knowledge Objective; Choose among alternatives; Assess foundational knowledge Characteristics Essay TestsShort-Answer Tests Selected- Response Tests How Can We Assess Student Learning?

8. Classroom Assessment: Selected Response (MC) 1. Vocab = age/content appropriate. 2. Distracters = plausible 3. Difference between distracters = meaningful & not trivial 4. Vary the position of the correct choice randomly, (Do not overuse correct answer as “c”) 5. Avoid similar wording in the stem and the correct choice. 6. Keep the correct answer and the distracters similar in length 7. Avoid using absolute terms, such as always or never in a distracter. 8. Emphasize NEGATIVE/IMPORTANT wording (best, least, etc)

9. Classroom Assessment: Essay-based questions 1. Elicit higher order thinking * “explain” “compare” “defend” 2. Write a model answer for each item * scoring and providing feedback 3. Prepare criteria for scoring in advance 4. Score all students’ answers to a single item before moving to the next item.

10. Classroom Assessment: Essay-based questions, continued 5. Score all responses in a single sitting if possible 6. Score answers without knowing the identity of the student. 7. Develop a model answer complete with points, and compare a few students’ responses to it, to see if any adjustments are needed in the scoring criteria. ------------Application Time--------------

11. Ways to Measure Student Learning Some Concerns About Performance Tests  Time consuming  Harder to explain relationship between scoring and letter grades  New responsibilities for teachers and students  Different purposes for traditional and performance tests (summative versus formative evaluation)  Reliability and validity

12. Classroom Assessment: Testing Issues  Teachers’ test items commonly include many technical errors, such misleading information.  Teachers rarely analyze their items after having given them, and they rarely exam validity.  Teachers reuse items without revision.  Teachers state that higher-order objectives are important, but items are rarely written above the knowledge recall level.  Very few teachers use the essay format in areas other than English.  The short-answer format is most common.