Constructing

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Constructing Analyzing Teacher-Made Assessments

• Kelly D. Bradley Jessica D. Cunningham
• With contributions from Shannon O. Sampson

• Supported by the grant Putting
  Assessment into Practice. Western Kentucky
  University
• KY Educational Standards Board
  
• 1/30/067/30/06

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Purpose of assessment

• The central purpose of classroom assessment is to
  provide information about what students know and
  are able to do and not to do in order to make
  decisions about instruction.

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Conceptual Assessment Model
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What counts as assessment?

• Anything that provides evidence of a students
  level of understanding of a concept
• Selected response items
• Open response items
• Performance events
• Teacher observations

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Guidelines for Effective Assessment

• Specifies the learning outcomes assesses
  various levels of understanding
• Variety of assessment procedures are used
• Instructionally relevant
• Creates a sample of student performance
• Fair to all students
• Specifies the criteria for judging performance
• Provides meaningful feedback to students
• Supported comprehensive grading system

Guidelines come from Grondlund (2006, p. 22)
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Things to consider before construction

• Ideally team for test development
• Establish instructional opportunities that can be
  used as evidence of progression toward learning
  goals
• Identify available test material sources
• Who can use the assessment Information
• Teacher
• Student
• Parent
• Community

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• "Students and their learning should become the
  focus of everything we do from the instruction
  that we provide, to the intellectual climate that
  we create, to the policy decisions that we make
• (Cross, 1998)

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Sample grade book after a chapter test
Adam 82
Bryan 78
Clay 69
David 85
Elizabeth 82
Faith 90
Geraldine 89
Hugh 77
Isabella 90
Jackie 95
Kelly 94
Is this what you would expect to see?
Are there pieces of information missing?
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What does a raw score tell us?

• Student A 1 1 1 m m m m 1 1 0 5
• Student B 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 5
• Student C 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 5

Do these three students have an equal
understanding of the material?
Student D m 1 m m m 1 m m 1 1 4 Student
E 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 5 Student F
1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 6
Which student has the best understanding of this
material?
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• Using tables, charts, or graphs, present the
  results of the pre-assessment in a format that
  allows you to find patterns of student
  performance as a whole and for groups of students
  who have diverse needs relative to each learning
  outcome.

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More informative picture of multiple choice items
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An example with Microsoft Excel

• Spreadsheet
• Item and Student Statistics
• Bar Graph
• Box and Whisker Plot (website)

Green Handout
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Goals

• Focus on constructing valid teacher-made
  assessments and responsibly analyzing and
  reporting the data
• To this point, working draft of a notebook to
  support in the construction of and
  interpretationutilization of assessments
• Build a community of educators, scholars,
  practitioners, students
• Value and utilize formative and summative
  approaches to assessment
• Concerned with the impact that the results of
  assessments may have on various parties
• Understand that the view on assessment is not
  universal

Blue Handout
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Notebook Organization
What are your strengths with regards to this list?
Have you had instruction on all these activities?
What are your weaknesses with regards to this
list?

• Contextual Factors use information about the
  learning-teaching context and student individual
  differences
• Learning Goals set significant, varied and
  appropriate goals
• Assessment Plan Use multiple assessment modes
  and approaches aligned with learning goals to
  assess before-during-after instruction
• Design for Instruction Design instruction for
  specific learning goals, student characteristics
  and needs, and learning contexts
• Instructional Decision-Making Conduct ongoing
  analysis of student learning to make
  instructional decisions
• Analysis of Student Learning Use assessment data
  to profile student learning and communicate
  information about student progress and
  achievement
• Evaluation and Reflection Reflecting on
  instruction and student learning in order to
  improve teaching practice

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Contextual Factors

• Confidence and Independence
• How willing are students to risk error?
• Will they initiate topics for discussion and
  study?
• Experience
• How well do students use their prior knowledge to
  make sense of current tasks?
• Skills and Strategies
• Do students use the skills of the subject to
  solve problems?
• Knowledge and Understanding
• How well can students demonstrate what they know?
• What evidence suggests they are adding to
  understanding?
• Ability to Reflect
• How well can they judge the quality of their own
  work?

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Learning Goals

• Begin with local, state and national expectations
• Program of studies Core Content for Assessment
• Look for descriptors of different levels of
  performance
• Search for performance standards
• Talk to your students and their parents
• Talk about where they feel they stand and to set
  goals
• List the standards which students will be
  expected to reach
• Students work with you to collect evidence that
  they are progressing toward, and eventually
  reaching, proficiency
• You may wish to use a checklist outlined in
  Meisels (1997)
• make page for each student with list of
  performance indicators
• Score as not yet proficient in process
  proficient

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Assessment Plan

• After Instruction
• Typically used for grading
• Summative assessment
• Examples include
• End-of-the-chapter test
• Performance assessment
• Opportunity for students to demonstrate they have
  reached proficiency

• Before Instruction
• Provide information about whether students have
  mastered prerequisite skills necessary for moving
  to the planned instruction
• Baseline for measuring student growth
• Instructional planning

• During Instruction
• Monitor student progress
• Formative assessments
• Diagnose where students have difficulties in
  understanding
• Address for individuals and/or the class

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Design for instruction

• Plans for assessment should be made during plans
  for instruction
• Instructional decisions are based on information
  that is meaningful, dependable and relevant
• and effective assessments provide information
  that is meaningful, dependable and relevant
• Methods and materials of both instruction and
  assessments should be congruent with the outcomes
  to be achieved

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Instructional Decision Making

• Once you have identified the standards and know
  what proficiency looks like, the task is to
  gather evidence that students are approaching
  proficiency, and to be able identify what support
  they need to become proficient

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Analysis of Student Learning
More difficult items
Proficient (2)
Proficiency cut-point
Not sure (1)
Not yet proficient (0)
Less difficult items
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Evaluation and Reflection

• Consider setting aside at least three samples of
  student work
• Work should demonstrate knowledge that the
  student has gained
• Assessments from class
• An investigation a student conducted
• A presentation
• A relevant assignment

Have students comment about the selected work
Compare student and teacher evaluations
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Current status of notebook

• Began as a math education tool
• Continue to revise toward a final product that
  can be used as an assessment supplement
• Want to incorporate more educator feedback, so
  share your thoughts!

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A few concluding questions

• Are educators equipped with the right (and
  enough) assessment tools?
• Do students, parents, the community, teachers,
  administration, various governing boards have
  agreement on what assessment is and how it should
  be used?
• In the current scheme of education, where does
  assessment fit? Is it the driving force or is it
  a supporting mechanism?

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Thank you very much!
S
Contact Kelly at kdbrad2_at_uky.edu