Classroom%20Assessment%20(1)

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Classroom Assessment (1)

• EDU 330 Educational Psychology
• Daniel Moos

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What do you see? Please do not say it out loud
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Why Should We Assess Student Learning?

• 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
• What type of formative evaluations/assessments
  have you experienced? Effective/Ineffective ones?
• Black and William (1998) recommend "Frequent
  short tests are better than infrequent long
  ones." Do you agree? Why or why not?

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How Should We Assess Student Learning?

• Backwards Design (1) Identify goal/learning
  objective (2) Create and plan assessment to
  align with goals/objectives (3) Develop lesson
  plans that align with learning objectives and
  assessments
• Role of Conditions, Behavior, and Criterion
• Conditions Available (unavailable) resources
• Behavior Observable activity (Blooms Taxonomy)
• Criterion Standard used to measure whether
  objective has been met
• Think of a class/course that you feel exemplifies
  a backward design. What evidence supports your
  view?

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How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued

• Reliability Consistency of measurement
• Example 1 with a scale
• I weigh a bag of potatoes on a scale in the
  morning and the scale indicates that the bag
  weighs 5 pounds. If I were to weigh the same bag
  of potatoes later in the day, a reliable scale
  would indicate that the bag weighs how many
  pounds?
• Example 2 with a classroom
• I designed a test with two items that are
  intended to assess similar (if not identical)
  knowledge. If these two items are reliable, how
  should students perform on them (similar or
  different)?

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How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued

• Measuring Reliability coefficients
  (correlations)
• Values range from 0 (No reliability) to 1.0
  (Perfect reliability)
• All tests have some error, so in reality
  reliability coefficients never equal 1.0.
• Reliability gt .80 very good Reliability lt .50
  poor

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How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued

• Validity Accuracy of assessment (does it measure
  what it is suppose to measure?)
• Example 1 with a scale
• I weigh a bag of potatoes on a scale in the
  morning and the scale indicates that the bag
  weighs 5 pounds. I weigh the bag on the same
  scale later in the day and the scale again
  registers that the bag weighs 5 pounds.
• The scale is reliable because it provide
  consistent measurement
• But, is it valid???? In other words, does the bag
  actually weigh 5 pounds?

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How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued
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Classroom Assessment Validity reliability
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How Should We Assess Student Learning? continued

1. Your school district is looking for an assessment
   instrument to measure reading ability.  They have
   narrowed the selection to two possibilities --
   Test A provides data indicating that it has high
   validity, but there is no information about its
   reliability.  Test B provides data indicating
   that it has high reliability, but there is no
   information about its validity. Which test would
   you recommend?  Why?
2. A parent called you to ask about the reliability
   coefficient on a recent standardized test.  The
   coefficient was reported as .89, and the parent
   thinks that must be a very low number. How would
   you explain to the parent that .89 is an
   acceptable coefficient?

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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

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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 teachers objectives
• ? Weaknesses
• Performance standards are arbitrary andmay be
  difficult to justify
• Standards may fluctuate as a result
  ofunnoticed variation