Assessments
Summative assessments generally address questions such as,
"How well did the students learn the material? Was the instruction effective? Is this program or service worthy of continuation?"
Validity is concerned with what
exactly is being measured and more importantly, what the results of the assessment mean.
There are typically three types of biases that characterize educational assessments:
fairness, prejudice, and stereotyping.
Assessment is:
--information gathering, the process of documenting knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs--the process of determining whether or not clearly defined learning objectives have been achieved by students--a measure of students' knowledge and skills compared against some level of desired performance, such as attaining the level of proficient or distinguished or simply meeting the standard--how well the students are learning and how well the teacher is teaching--student, teacher, parent, and institutional accountability--a method to analyze and improve teaching and learning--a means to motivate students--a range of options for teachers to use that vary greatly from recording anecdotal notes while observing a student to administering a standardized test
True or false questions are
A question of this type is one in which the student is required to determine whether the question stem or statement is a falsification or not.
Selected response questions are
flexible with different degrees of difficulty.
The major types of assessments include the following:
Summative Formative Ipsative Diagnostic Performance/Authentic Criterion-Referenced Norm-Referenced
There are several limitations to selected response questions:
The one that most students recognize is that the correct answer is in there somewhere. It takes time to create good multiple choice questions. An additional disadvantage of selected response questions is that they do not measure or allow for the creativity of the students.
There are a number of variables that affect the reliability of an educational instrument.
The students themselves will affect the reliability. They may be having a good day or a bad day which could affect their performance on a test and therefore, change its reliability.
Effective feedback also helps students develop
a plan to reach their goals and can eliminate students' errors before they become habitual.
The simple way to create a performance assessment is to take
a proven, existing activity, create a rubric, and refer to it as a performance assessment.
When planning a unit or sequence of lessons, the teacher should determine when
a summative assessment is most appropriate and what it should measure.
A formative assessment without the supporting components becomes
a summative test and loses the value unique to formatives.
content validity is:
a valid assessment is one that measures what it is intended to measure.
Summative assessments are designed to
add up or "sum" the amount of knowledge that the test-taker demonstrates. They are considered "assessments of learning." For teachers, the summative assessment is usually given at the end of a unit of study, such as a chapter, semester, or year, for the purpose of student evaluation and assigning a grade or in other words to measure a learner's understanding following a sustained period of instruction with a focus on identifying the level of mastery and the effectiveness of the instruction.
Self-assessments allow the students the opportunity to assume greater control over their learning. They also
afford greater privacy and honesty than a more public event might produce.
Summative assessments are most accurate when they
aggregate data from a number of different sources. For instance, relying on one test to determine a student's grade for the year would be unprofessional.
The test may be unreliable because it contains
ambiguous questions, unclear or no directions, faulty scoring criteria, or is too long or short.
Selected response (also known as multiple choice) questions are
among the most common question or item types.
A performance assessment consists of two parts,
an authentic task and a rubric, or scoring criteria.
Teachers can include a range of questions that assess
an entire curricular unit in both a summative and formative style.
Like formative assessments diagnostic assessments presume that
an instructional component will connect the needs identified by the assessments with future student growth.
Teachers should make sure to avoid items that create
an unfavorable representation of a particular group, depict members of a population in an unfavorable light, or make unnecessary assumptions about gender roles, such as using "businessman" instead of "businessperson."
Summative assessment results also help in determining
appropriate student placement for future courses or units.
summative assessment
are content-driven and appear as tests, quizzes, reports, papers, recitals, and competitions.
it is possible for one assessment instrument to qualify
as multiple types of assessments. For example, it is possible for a teacher to use a criterion-referenced, diagnostic assessment or a norm-referenced, summative assessment.
Effective teachers constantly move between
assessment and instruction during their normal teaching sequence.
It also helps to have multiple scorers rate each student's
assessment, or to create anonymous student answer sheets for scoring to minimize teacher scoring bias on subjective questions.
A diagnostic assessment is one that looks
back on prior student learning and provides data that connects to new learning.
The instructional expectations for formative assessments must be
based on the approved curriculum
Diagnostic assessments are unique in that they can
be used to track student performance, evaluate curriculum, and measure the effectiveness of value-added components in a non-summative manner.
The teacher should create the assessment
before beginning instruction for that unit of learning. Creating the assessment first provides a more unbiased assessment of the students' knowledge and will guide the teacher's planning for that unit
Typically ipsative assessments draw characteristics from
both summative and formative assessments. For instance, students may receive a grade for their efforts while the assessment yields data that is helpful in preparation for the next assessment over the same material, skill, or process.
An ipsative assessment is a type of assessment in which the student is
compared to his best previous attempt within the same curricular concepts. It is also known as a "profiling" type of test.
It is important to remember to measure student growth within the same curricular concepts. For instance,
comparing a student's performance on the photosynthesis test with their results on the cell structure test is not ipsative.
Summative assessments should be
comprehensive and represent measures of overall knowledge, skills, and/or performance.
Teachers that integrate the various types of assessment into their instruction to create a
comprehensive assessment-instruction system are more successful than teachers who plan blindly and move forward with a lack of supporting data.
A test question would be prejudiced if it contains
content, language, or situations that offer an advantage or disadvantage to subpopulations of the class.
Assessments are used to promote the concept of
cyclic and continual student learning as exemplified by the model: assessment → instruction → assessment → instruction → assessment...
Testing is often done to the student, but performance assessments are
done by the student.
One of the benefits of ipsative assessments is the
ease by which the students are able to compare their results with their existing "personal best" within that domain.
Selected response questions are
easy to score.
Once an instructional scheme has been developed based on the data generated from a formative assessment, a student must
engage in learning before it is practical to measure if the student has learned anything.
A fair test provides everyone with an
equal chance of getting a good assessment of their achievement
The teacher must identify and share the achievement goals with the students
in a way that they will understand. It is also helpful to provide examples of exemplary student work as a model or thought-starter, when using formative assessments.
Formative assessments are a
form of practice and should not by a primary source for weight in a student's grade.
Formative assessments are
goal-directed, linked with instruction, and are typically embedded as part of a sequence of lessons. Classroom examples of these assessments include anecdotal records, practice tests, classwork, and self-reflection activities. Since these assessments are considered practice, teachers do not necessarily count them for grading purposes.
Multiple choice short quizzes make
good formative assessments to quickly determine if the students are progressing at an acceptable level.
For instance, a social studies assessment will have a high validity index if it measures what
has been taught in the class. It may also have a degree of validity for predicting how well the students will do in the next social studies course. However, the validity would be suspect in determining how well the same student will do in a mathematics course.
The feedback provided by formative assessments is designed to
help students become aware of any gaps between their current knowledge and their educational goals.
Stereotyping is a situation whereby a test question
may be offensive, contain negative connotations, or is historically-charged. Although the presence of this phenomenon may not make the item any harder or easier, it may upset certain students and affect their performance on the assessment.
A fair test does not
include any non-essential vocabulary that will be challenging or unfamiliar to the students--present a situation that is unlikely for certain students to experience or to which only certain students may have had prior access--too long--It is equally familiar to all students
A biased test question results in an
inconsistent performance for certain individuals or groups of the same ability level, but from different ethnic, gender, cultural, or religious populations.
Effective feedback is one that connects the
individual student with the exact area that needs improvement as well as those areas where the student is considered proficient.
A test/question may also be prejudiced if it contains an
item structure or format that is differentially difficult for certain students. For instance, an assessment where students are scored on how much weight they can lift is prejudiced in favor of boys.
By definition, a norm-referenced assessment does not measure achievement with respect to a standard, so
the assessment is seldom linked to lesson planning or mastery learning.
Teachers must also remain vigilant regarding the pacing of the lessons. Excessive use of ipsative assessments
may consume a large amount of time that will be needed later to complete the entire curriculum.
A norm-referenced assessment, which is also known as a cohort-referenced assessment, does not
measure student success against a defined standard or criteria, but against the achievement of the other students who took the test.
A criterion-referenced assessment is one that
measures students' success in reference to defined standards, or criteria.
When student are more involved with their own learning, they are
more apt to learn from their mistakes and realize ways to do it better next time.
During formative assessments, the teacher's role changes so that the teacher works
more closely with individual students to construct lessons targeting their areas of need based on the data generated by the formative assessment.
To remove the teacher as a source of bias, it is helpful to ask
neutral teachers to conduct a sensitivity review to eliminate potential bias in the questions' construction.
The IQ test is one of the best known
norm-referenced assessments.
Never hold students accountable for content on an assessment that was
not part of the instruction. It is also difficult to justify a low score on a test or test question for material that is not within the confines of the approved curriculum.
Selected response questions are considered
objective assessments because there is only one correct answer.
A biased test is one in which the presence
of some characteristic may unfairly influence the students' scores.
Teaching and the subsequent assessments are reciprocal in that
one affects the other.
Performance tasks may include
open-ended questions, hands-on problem solving, cartoons, experiments, inventions, musical compositions, original plays, stories, dances, essays, and story illustrations.
Assessments also serve to present
personalized student data so that the teacher or institution can give a grade that is linked with an award, such as a degree, license, or certificate
An assessment will show students their
progress toward mastery so individual students can become more aware, self-directed, and motivated in their approach to their own learning
formative assessments can not stand alone and still
provide an effective remedy for students' shortcomings.
A good question must be consistent with the approved curriculum, written without bias, and include
reasonable distractors that are neither too close to the correct answer nor too unrelated to not be considered a possibility.
When curving the test results, the top scoring students always get an "A" (or some other indication of a high mark) and the rest of the students
receive scores based on how well they scored on the assessment relative to the top scoring students.
summative assessments serve as instructional guidance. By definition, they yield data
relevant to a student's mastery of specific curricular goals and also provide a basis for comparison to reference or control groups.
Reliability relates to the ability of an assessment to
replicate the same results. It is a measure of test consistency.
A selected response question asks the students to
select the correct answer from a series of possible correct answers in response to an introductory statement, which is also called a stem. Typically the students are confronted with four or five possible answers and their task is to select the correct one instead of having to generate a response from memory.
Feedback should be personalized and
specific to the expectations for that area of study.
Diagnostic assessments are useful to ascertain each
student's strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction of that curricular sequence. Once the data is available the teachers can then remediate students and/or adjust the instructional sequence to meet the specified needs of each student
A good way to distinguish between summative and formative assessments is to think of
summative assessments as assessments "of" learning and formative assessments as assessments "for" learning.
Each summative assessment should target the
teacher's instructional objectives which are based on the approved curriculum.
another misuse of formative assessments is when
teachers rely too heavily on them
A performance based assessment, which may also be referred to as an authentic or alternative assessment, is a form of testing where
the assessment is not a traditional paper and pencil test, but rather an exhibition of skills. The tasks are typically based on real-life (authentic) scenarios or are career-specific, and require the application of the requisite skills and knowledge for that task.
Formative assessments can also be defined as
the diagnostic use of assessments to provide feedback to teachers and students for the purpose of providing better instruction so that individual students may reach proficiency.
Teachers can minimize
the disadvantage felt by poor readers or non-English speaking students by adjusting the question stem.
Assessments will evaluate the effectiveness of
the instructional implementation of specific curricular units, educational initiatives, teachers, or schools
summative assessments also have also several disadvantages including:
the over-reliance and dependence on these assessments to promote learning (fairly ineffective with reluctant learners)---pressure that is placed upon the students by high stakes tests, such as one where passing or failing the exam will have a profound effect on the student's future--high stakes summative assessments force teachers to "teach to the test" to keep their students' scores high--
A reliable assessment is one which provides the same data with
the same or a similar cohort of students and is consistent in its methods and criteria.
Assessments help turn the act of presenting information into
the science of teaching by creating the feedback loop that connects purposeful instruction to student learning.
validity is considered in relation to
the specified use of the assessment.
When using multiple sources of assessments to determine grades, the teacher should predetermine
the weighting of each assessment before instruction begins. The weighting of each particular component should reflect established curricular priorities.
An assessment should identify
the whole group's and individual student's strengths and weaknesses with respect to the curriculum so that the teacher can have access to the best information before making any instructional decisions
Diagnostic assessments are similar to summative assessments in that
they are both formal and identify students' achievement in reference to pre-determined standards.
An assessment will inform parents and guardians about their children so
they can help them and make informed decisions as to their future
First, norm-referenced tests are considered more fair or compassionate because
they guarantee that a prescribed number of students will be successful regardless of the ability of the students, teacher, or institution.
The data from a diagnostic assessment can also be used
to create an instructional target or goal for the students.
Ipsative type assessments can be used
to motivate and challenge a student to continue to improve. This type of self-competition removes excessive peer pressure and is especially successful with reluctant learners and students with learning disabilities.
It takes longer to write selected response questions that assess higher level thinking than would be expected. It may be helpful
to write a few of your own and then, search the web and consult with your peers for additional questions. You should continue to add to your item bank which you can tap into again and again.
One of the goals of education should be to transition students from dependence upon the teacher to interdependence
upon peers to independence and self-regulation. Students will need to know how to use all forms of assistance wisely.
A diagnostic assessment allows a teacher to make judgments regarding how
well a student is performing or is likely to perform on a particular curricular topic.
Distractors (meaning the wrong answer choices) can be
worded to indicate student misconceptions. This can help teachers determine if a particular concept is well understood and isolate any areas or concepts that may be confusing or troublesome for students.
