Establishing High Quality Classroom Assessments

A High Quality Classroom Assessment is Based on clear and appropriate learning objectives This includes both what students will learn and the criteria for evaluating performance. Things to consider are level of difficulty, consistency with goals of school and district, and comprehensiveness of goals and objectives Appropriate in use of assessment method Selected response versus constructed response Performance assessment - Product versus performance Observations Essays Oral questioning Self-assessment A High Quality Classroom Assessment is Valid This refers to the appropriateness of the inferences, uses, and consequences that result from the assessment. Validity is always a matter of degree! An assessment that is valid for one purpose may not be valid for another. Validity is always determined by professional judgment made by the user of information Content related validity is based on the extent to which the assessment is representative of the learning domain of interest. Consider using a table of specifications to help you evaluate the content validity of your assessment. Questions to answer to help you establish content validity include: What learning goals/objectives will be assessed? What content is most important?

 What topics will be assessed? What content and learning objectives have been emphasized in instruction? Does the assessment adequately sample students' performance in each topic area and target? Criterion related validity is based on the extent to which the results of assessment are related to some other related assessment. Test developers typically use this approach by calculating a correlation coefficient between two related measures. It is VERY important to conduct several assessments based on the same learning objectives rather than relying on a single assessment Question to answer to help you establish criterion related validity include: Do the results from two related measures provide similar results? A High Quality Classroom Assessment is Reliable This refers to the consistency, stability, and dependability of scores. A reliable assessment is one in which a student would perform similarly at different times. A reliable scoring schema is one in which different teachers would score different students in a similar manner. The results of all assessments are comprised of some degree of error. The more error the less reliable your assessment is. The less error the more reliable your assessment is. In large scale testing (i.e. WKCE) the amount of error is determined statistically and referred to as the standard error of measurement. In classroom assessment we try to minimize error by being aware of the sources of error and eliminating them as much as possible. Reliability evidence based on stability is often called test-retest reliability and is based on consistency over time. Reliability evidence based on equivalent forms is not often used by classroom teachers, although this type of reliability evidence is often used on large scale testing endeavors. This type of reliability may be important to teachers if they use a different make-up exam, or if they use a pre-post testing schema Reliability evidence based on internal consistency is referred to as coefficient alpha (or KR-20 or KR-21) in large scale testing. This type of reliability is based on the degree of homogeneity (similarity) of items on an assessment. Reliability evidence based on rater consistency is based on the degree that raters agree on their evaluation of student responses. Reliability evidence based on decision consistency is based on the degree that proficiency classifications of students are stable when based on different assessments.

Ways to Enhance Reliability include: Use a sufficient number of items or tasks. All other things being equal, longer assessments are more reliable. Use raters or observers who provide similar scores to the same performances. Construct items and tasks that clearly differentiate between students on the important objectives that are being assessed. Make sure the assessment procedures and scoring criteria are as objective as possible. Continue assessing until results are consistent. Eliminate or reduce the influence of extraneous events or factors. Use shorter assessments more frequently, as opposed to fewer longer assessments. A High Quality Classroom Assessment is Fair A fair assessment is one that provides all students an equal opportunity to demonstrate achievement and results in scores that are comparably valid from one student or group of students to another. Fair assessments are unbiased and nondiscriminatory and are uninfluenced by irrelevant or subjective factors. Neither the task nor the scoring procedures can be influences by race, gender, ethnic background, handicapped condition, or other factors unrelated to the objectives being assessed. There are two major forms of assessment bias: offensiveness and unfair penalization. Fair assessments communicate the expectations of the task to students. A fair assessment is one in which what will be assessed is made clear to the students. Your objective is not to fool or trick students - think "pop" quizzes here. Both the content of the assessment and the scoring criteria should be made known to students. When students are made aware of this information they are more likely to be intrinsically motivated. Fair assessments allow sufficient time and resources for students to demonstrate their achievement. They are aligned with instruction. Students should not be penalized because of lack of opportunity. Fair assessment take into consideration the prerequisite knowledge/skills/understanding needed to be successful. Consider reasoning problems in mathematics or communication problems in mathematics. Consider test-taking skills. Fair assessments separate personal feelings, stereotypes, and prior student performance from evaluation so that students are judged objectively on their performance on the task at hand. Fair assessments make accommodations for students with special needs.

A High Quality Classroom Assessment is Positive in its effect on students and teachers Practical and Efficient