Journal 2

In Mrs. DePernos testing process, students are given at least one quiz
and a study guide during the learning segment and unit, and therefore are
expected to be prepared for the unit test.
Mrs. DePernos testing environment is noticeably quieter than her normal
classroom environment, which is much more social and collaborative. Her
students are respectful of the testing environment and raise their hand if they
need a tissue or water or something, or if they have a question about the test.
The students are allowed to move around the room if they need to be separate of
their peers to concentrate, and many students have chosen to set up barriers
with books or binders to block their view like blinders in order to not be
distracted. This also discourages looking onto other students papers, and
makes academic dishonestly much more difficult.
The test that Mrs. DePerno administers has three different forms, each a
traditional multiple choice test with some true/false questions (Oakes, Lipton,
Anderson, & Stillman, 2013). The first two were the same test with questions in a
different order and multiple choice answer options A-D, and the third form had
only answer options A-C with simpler wording on the multiple choice as an
accommodation for students.
For students with accommodations, the students leave the room with their
testing papers and materials at the beginning of class and go to a separate
testing room in the school. They have the same amount of time as the other
students and must return at the end of the class. Their treatment is different, but
fair as shown in a differentiated classroom testing environment (Wormeli, 2006).
After the test, the students place their test and scantron to the side and
then they are allowed to read a book or go on a website link Mrs. DePerno puts
on the board which will get them started on readings for the next unit. Since the

school is BYOT, the students can use their own phones or tablets to go on the
internet.
The grading process is done completely on a scantron and there are no
short answers, only multiple choice and true or false. All of the questions are
worth the exact same number of points, out of one hundred percent. There are
32 questions total, so each question is worth approximately three points. I think
there is nothing wrong with this grading approach and I am sure that it would be
easy to grade. Mrs. DePerno says she grades all of the tests after that days
class period in order to provide immediate feedback.
I would have administered the test the same way Mrs. DePerno does, by
allowing the students to make sure they are relaxed, comfortable, and
accommodated in taking the test. In order to change the test, I might have made
a couple free response questions in order to expand on the students knowledge,
but I understand why Mrs. DePernos PLT gives an only scan-tron test, as each
teacher has over 90 tests to grade.
When I give a test in my classroom, I will also have students spread out
around the room. I also like the idea of creating blinders with books and
binders, or using cover sheets. However, I would make sure that these materials
were looked over by me and that they didn't have any answers written on them
by students in advance. I will walk around the room activity just as Mrs. DePerno
does, and monitor the students for questions and academic integrity. I will always
try to grade the tests as soon as possible.

Mrs. DePernos tests are appropriate, because her questions all align with
the learning objectives of that unit, and include testing items from EOGs to
prepare students for end of year state exams ("Released Test Forms - North
Carolina Public Schools").

For both of the class periods that I observed the test being administered,
no students had a question that actually had to do with the content of the test,
which I found surprising.
The class average was a 83.4%. The range was approximately between a 30100%. The test answers that were mostly missed are highlighted in green.
These patterns suggest the topics and material that Ms. DePerno will go over the
next day in class. She will not only discuss the right answers, but ask the
students what made them choose an incorrect answer. From this feedback, Ms.
DePerno and her PLT may rescore certain questions that almost all students
missed. They might decide a question was misleading or poorly worded, or that
question could have more than one answer.
Ms. DePerno didn't point out any specific problems with grading this test.
Her multiple choice/true false only, scantron approach eliminates the subjectivity
of a free response test.
I did notice that the content of the questions most missed were all
questions that dealt with real world scenarios or hypothetical situations. I wonder
if these questions showed assessment bias (Witte, 2012, pp. 84-113). For
example, some students may not have experience in these ecological
environments or seen these phenomenon based on their various childhoods and
different background, and may have a hard time understanding compared to a
student that spends time playing in a lake, or digging in soil if they have not.
References
Oakes, J., Lipton, M., Anderson, L., & Stillman, J. (2013). Teaching to Change
the World (4th ed.). Boulder, London, CO: Paradigm.
Released Test Forms - North Carolina Public Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved October
19, 2016.
Witte, R. H. (2012). Classroom assessment for teachers. New York: McGraw-Hill.