Assessment in Education

1
Assessment in Education

• Laura Acosta
• Juan Hernandez
• Denize Christobal Brenda Southern

2
School Assessment Programs

• Goals Provide information to all stake holders
  improve every students learning
• Purposes Identify readiness, determine mastery
  of skills, placement into educational programs,
  Id. students with special needs, evaluate
  curriculum specific programs of study, aid in
  educational or vocational decision making, to
  assess individual ability or aptitude, and to
  measure effectiveness of courses
• Planning Complex process includes students,
  parents, teachers, administrators, local
  postsecondary institution representatives
• Id. goals, information needed, and establish
  instrument selection criteria, delegation of
  responsibilities, and the development of
  dissemination procedures and strategies to
  monitor the program

3
Instruments Used in School Assessment Programs

• Tests for Achievement, Intellectual Ability,
  Readiness, Aptitude, Admission Career
  Assessment Instruments
• Activities Refer students out to other
  professionals when needed, interpret scores,
  keep abreast of ethical and multicultural
  issues, use test and non-test data to make
  decisions, professional development, interpret
  communicate information to interested parties,
  and help teachers to use assessment and
  assessment information
• Data Mining Process

4
Needs Assessments Responsiveness to Intervention

• Needs Assessment
• Formal process of gathering data from various
  sources on the needs of students from different
  populations
• To prioritize school counseling programs
• Serves as justification for implementation of
  program, to evaluate it and the effectiveness of
  the interventions
• To demonstrate immediate, intermediate, or
  long-range results of how students are different
  as a result of the counseling program

• RTI
• Approach to identify students with SLDs provide
  those at-risk with services and interventions
• Tier I
• Whole group instruction
• Tier II
• Intervention
• Tier III
• Special Education
• Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

5
Assessing Specific Learning Disabilities

• Specific learning disability (SLD)
• A neurological disorder that severely impairs
  childrens ability to learn or to demonstrate
  skills in several academic areas.

6
Assessing Specific Learning Disabilities

• These Academic areas are
• Oral Expression
• Listening Comprehension
• Written Expression
• Basic Reading Skill
• Reading Comprehension
• Mathematical Calculation
• Mathematical Reasoning

7
Assessing Specific Learning Disabilities

• Students with an SLD may have difficulty
  listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing,
  spelling, or doing math problems.
• They often show intra-individual differences.
• It is estimated that approximately 6 of students
  may have an SLD, mostly in the area of reading.

8
Assessing Specific Learning Disabilities

• The most common method used to identify students
  with SLDs is the ability-achievement discrepancy
  model (also called the IQ-achievement discrepancy
  model).
• This model identifies students as learning
  disabled when there is a severe discrepancy
  between their scores on an ability test and their
  scores on an achievement test.
• A discrepancy of 1 to 11/2 standard deviations
  between the scores generally qualifies as severe.

9
Assessing Giftedness

• The term giftedness is applied to those students
  who perform or show potential for performing at
  exceptionally high levels of accomplishment when
  compared to others of their age, experience or
  environment.
• Three million children, or 5 of the U.S. student
  population, are considered gifted and talented.
• The process of assessing students for giftedness
  usually entails two phases Screening and
  identification.

10
Assessing Giftedness

• In the identification stage of the process,
  further assessment is conducted focusing on four
  areas
• Cognitive Ability
• Academic Ability
• Creative Thinking Ability
• Visual or Performing Arts Ability
• Cognitive ability and academic ability are
  evaluated using standardized ability tests and
  standardized achievement tests.
• See table 14.2 on pg.315 for instruments and
  strategies that may be used to assess cognitive
  ability and academic ability.

11
Assessing Giftedness

• Creative thinking ability can be assessed by
  using intelligence tests, general giftedness
  screening instruments, or instruments designed
  specifically to appraise creativity.
• Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) E.
  Paul Torrance(1974). Can be used to assess
  creative thinking ability.
• Consists of two different tests Figural TTCT and
  the Verbal TTCT.
• Torrance also developed Thinking Creatively in
  Action and Movement, Thinking Creatively with
  Sounds and Words and Thinking Creatively with
  Pictures

12
Assessing Giftedness

• Visual or performing arts ability is usually
  demonstrated through a display of work, a
  performance, or an exhibition.
• There are also instruments that were developed to
  assess specific characteristics of giftedness.
• One example is the Scales for Rating the
  Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students,
  Revised.
• It is comprised of 14 scales associated with the
  characteristics of gifted students.
• Other instruments used for identifying gifted and
  talented students include the Gifted Rating
  Scales-School Form(GRS-S), Gifted and Talented
  Evaluation Scale(GATES), and the Screening
  Assessment for Gifted Elementary and Middle
  School Students(SAGES-2).

13
Test Preparation and Performance

• Coaching
• Test-Wiseness
• Test Anxiety

14
Coaching

• Used by administrators, teachers and counselors
• Provided through public schools, private classes,
  private tutors, test books, and software programs
• IE SAT prep classes
• Concerns about social, philosophical, and ethical
  aspects of coaching

15
Test-Wiseness

• Individuals ability to utilized the
  characteristics and formats of a test
• Independent of students knowledge of subject
  matter being tested
• Strategies Time Use, Error Avoidance, Guessing,
  and Use of Deductive Reasoning, Familiarizing
  yourself with the Test

16
Test Wiseness

• Strategy for Multiple Choice Test
• SPLASH
• Skim the test
• Plan you Strategy
• Leave out Difficult Questions
• Attack Questions you Know
• Systematically Guess
• House Cleaning

17
Test Anxiety

• Feeling of Uneasiness or Tension that is felt
  during testing situations 
• That can cause upset stomach, headache, loss of
  concentration, fear, irritability, anger and
  depression

18
Test Anxiety

•  How to relieve test anxiety
• 1. understand test instructions
• 2. establish rapport
• 3. relax and stress free environment
• 4. provide session on how to take test
• 5. practice test
• 6. study guides
•  Relaxation Exercises

19
Environmental Assessments in the School

•  Environmental Assessment
• Factors that interact with and predict behavior
• 1. Physical Space
• 2. Organizations and Supervision of Space
• 3. Materials
• 4. Peer Environment
• 5. Organization and Scheduling
• 6. Safety
• 7. Responsiveness

20
Environmental Factors with School

• 1. Physical Setting
• 2. Teacher/Student relationship
• 3. Curricular and Educational Materials
• 4. Students Behaviors
• ex attendance, social interaction, class
  interruptions
•  
•  

21
Classroom Environment

• 1. Physical and Structural dimensions
• 2. Interactional Dimensions
• 3. Instructional Dimensions
•  

22
Assessment Instruments

• CES Classroom Environment Scale
• 2. ESB Effective School Battery
• 3. SEPS Environment Preference Survey

23
No Child Left Behind

• Emphasizes educational accountability
• By measuring individual student achievement
• Measure progress towards state achievement
  standards
• All states must test in reading, mathematics and
  science (grades 3-8)
• Students must meet minimum score to pass or
  graduate

24

• High stakes testing
• Affects the educational choices a student will
  make
• Judges schools according to students test
  performance
• High performing schools can receive financial
  rewards
• Schools are ranked according to students test
  scores

25
NCLB Criticisms

• Excludes subjects
• Doesnt account for student diversity
• High stakes testing promotes greed fear and
  stress
• Encourages cheating and dropping out
• School counselors time is consumed with testing
• Lacks state to state consistency

26
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills

• TAKS- tests begin in 3rd grade-- reading,
  writing, math, social studies, language arts and
  science
• TAKS (Accommodated) serves students under special
  education-uses large fonts less questions
• TAKSALT assesses students who have significant
  cognitive disabilities and are receiving special
  education services.
• TAKSM- tests have been changed in format and
  test design and administered to children who
  receive special education services
• End-of-Course (EOC) Assessments

27
The American Educational Research Association

• Makes the following recommendations
• High stakes decisions shouldnt be made on test
  scores alone
• Adequate resources for all students
• Individual certification and student motivation
• Policy makers should be made aware of negative
  consequences
• The tests should represent the curriculum
• Students should have a meaningful way to remedy
  failing a test
• Language proficiency should be considered to
  insure proper interpretation of results
• Students with disabilities should also be taken
  into consideration
• Reliable tests to support intended interpretation

28
The Future

• Changes to NCLB will include
• A more rounded education
• The goal after graduation is career and college
  readiness
• Promote change and support
• Take into consideration diverse students
• Hold state and districts accountable who dont
  support their principals and teachers
• Measure schools based on student growth,
  graduation rates and student academic achievement
• Recruit, place, reward and promote effective
  teachers and principals