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As teachers become more familiar with data-driven instruction, they are making decisions about what
and how they teach based on the information gathered from their students. In other words, teachers
first find out what their students know and what they do not know, and then determine how best to
bridge that gap.
During the process of gathering information for effective planning and instruction, the words
measurement, assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably. These words, however, have
significantly different meanings.
Measurement
The word measurement, as it applies to education, is not substantially different from when it is used in
any other field. It simply means determining the attributes or dimensions of an object, skill or
knowledge. We use common objects in the physical world to measure, such as tape measures, scales
and meters. These measurement tools are held to standards and can be used to obtain reliable results.
When used properly, they accurately gather data for educators and administrators.
Some standard measurements in education are raw scores, percentile ranks and standard scores.
Assessment
One of the primary measurement tools in education is the assessment. Teachers gather information by
giving tests, conducting interviews and monitoring behavior. The assessment should be carefully
prepared and administered to ensure its reliability and validity. In other words, an assessment must
provide consistent results and it must measure what it claims to measure.
Evaluation
Creating valid and reliable assessments is critical to accurately measuring educational data. Evaluating
the information gathered, however, is equally important to the effective use of the information for
instruction.
In education, evaluation is the process of using the measurements gathered in the assessments.
Teachers use this information to judge the relationship between what was intended by the instruction
and what was learned. They evaluate the information gathered to determine what students know and
understand, how far they have progressed and how fast, and how their scores and progress compare to
those of other students.
According to educator and author, Graham Nuthall, in his book The Hidden Lives of Learners, "In most of
the classrooms we have studied, each student already knows about 40-50% of what the teacher is
teaching." The goal of data-driven instruction is to avoid teaching students what they already know and
teach what they do not know in a way the students will best respond to.
For the same reason, educators and administrators understand that assessing students and evaluating
the results must be ongoing and frequent. Scheduled assessments are important to the process, but
teachers must also be prepared to re-assess students, even if informally, when they sense students are
either bored with the daily lesson or frustrated by material they are not prepared for. Using the
measurements of these intermittent formative assessments, teachers can fine-tune instruction to meet
the needs of their students on a daily and weekly basis.
Accurately measuring student progress with reliable assessments and then evaluating the information to
make instruction more efficient, effective and interesting is what data-driven instruction is all about.
Educators who are willing to make thoughtful and intentional changes in instruction based on more than
the next chapter in the textbook find higher student engagement and more highly motivated students.
In fact, when students are included in the evaluation process, they are more likely to be self-motivated.
Students who see the results of their work only on the quarterly or semester report card or the high-
stakes testing report are often discouraged or deflated, knowing that the score is a permanent record of
their past achievement.
When students are informed about the results of more frequent formative assessments and can see
how they have improved or where they need to improve, they more easily see the value of investing
time and energy in their daily lessons and projects.
In the Master of Science in Educational Leadership online program offered by St. Thomas University,
Professor Scott E. Gillig teaches a class called Educational Measurement. In this class, students are
introduced "to elements of assessment that are essential to good teaching. It provides students with an
understanding of the role of assessment in the instructional process," including the proper evaluation of
assessments and standardized tests, and how to make better use of the data in their daily classroom
instruction.
Objective test: this is a test consisting of factual questions requiring extremely short
answers that can be quickly and unambiguously scored by anyone with an answer key.
They are tests that call for short answer which may consist of one word, a phrase or a
sentence.
Subjective test: this is a type of test that is evaluated by giving opinion. They are more
challenging and expensive to prepare, administer and evaluate correctly, though they
can be more valid.
Here, a factual statement is made and the learner is required to respond with either true
or false depending on the correctness of the statement. They are easy to prepare, can
be marked objectively and cover a wide range of topics
ADVANTAGES
Advantages:
a. Measures primarily associations and relationships as well as sequence of events.
b. Can be used to measure questions beginning with who, when, where and what
c. Relatively easy to construct
d. They are easy to score
Disadvantages:
Difficult to construct effective questions that measure higher order thinking and
contain a number of plausible distracters.
Advantages:
• Relatively easy to construct.
• Can cover a wide range of content.
• Reduces guessing.
Disadvantages:
Primarily used for lower levels of thinking.
Prone to ambiguity.
Must be constructed carefully so as not to provide too many clues to the correct
answer.
Scoring is dependent on the judgment of the evaluator.
TYPES OF SUBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS
In subject test we have two types of test which are:
Restricted response items &
Extended response items.
Limitations
i. They are insufficient for measuring knowledge of factual materials because they call
for extensive details in selected content area at a time.
ii. Scoring is difficult and unreliable.
EXAMPLES OF SUBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS
Extended response item
Imagine that you and a friend found a magic wand. Write a story about an adventure
that you and your friend had with the magic wand.
The prompt for a subjective item poses a question, presents a problem, or prescribes
a task. It sets forth a set of circumstances to provide a common context for framing the
response.
Action verbs direct the examinee to focus on the desired behavior, for instance, solve,
interpret, compare and contrast, discuss or explain. Appropriate directions indicate
expected length format of the response, allowable resources or equipment’s, time limits
and features of the response that count in scoring.
Scoring response
During subjective scoring at least four types of rater errors may occur as the rater;
becomes more lenient or severe over time or scores erratically due to fatigue or
distractions; has knowledge or belief about an examinee that influences perception of
response; is influenced by examinees good or poor performance on items previously or
influenced by the strength or weakness of a preceding examinees response.
Under extended response items we can take an example of the essay test items look on
how it is constructed:
Essay items require learners to write or type the answer in a number of paragraphs.
The learners use their own words and organize the information or material as they see it
fit.
In writing essay test, clear and unambiguous language should be used. Words such
as ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘contrast’, ‘describe’ and discuss are useful. The questions should
clearly define the scope of the answer required.
The time provided for the learner to respond to the questions should be sufficient for
the amount of writing required for a satisfactory response. The validity of questions can
be enhanced by ensuring that the questions correspond closely to the goals or objective
being tested.
An indication of the length of the answer required should be given.
Uses of tests
1. To Identify What Students Have Learned
The obvious point of classroom tests is to see what the students have learned after the
completion of a lesson or unit. When the classroom tests are tied to effectively written
lesson objectives, the teacher can analyze the results to see where the majority of the
students are having problems with in their class. These tests are also important when
discussing student progress at parent-teacher conferences.
2. To Identify Student Strengths and Weaknesses
Another use of tests is to determine student strengths and weaknesses. One effective
example of this is when teachers use pretests at the beginning of units in order to find
out what students already know and where the teacher’s focus needs to be. Further,
learning style and multiple intelligences tests help teachers learn how to best meet the
needs of their students through instructional techniques.
REFERENCES
1. Coffman, W. E. (1971). Essay examination. In R. L. Thorndike (Ed.), Educational
measurement (2nd ed., pp. 271–302). Washington DC: American Council on Education.
What is an assessment?
What's the definition of assessment in education? Assessment is the systematic
process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skills, attitudes and
beliefs. By taking the assessment, teachers try to improve student learning. This is a
short definition of assessment. If you want to read more about assessment, click on this
link.
What is evaluation?
What's the definition of evaluation in education? Evaluation focuses on grades and may
reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. Evaluation
is a final review on your instruction to gauge the quality. It’s product-oriented. This
means that the main question is: “What’s been learned?”. Finally, evaluation is
judgmental.
Example:
Evaluation: “The flower is purple and is too short with not enough leaves.”
Evaluation is judgmental
Assessment: “I’ll give the flower some water to improve its growth.”