But there are other ways besides questioning to assess knowledge while teaching. A simple technique is to pause in the middle of a lesson, and to ask everyone to write down or tweet or otherwise share briefly their understanding of [such and such] at this instant. This is the entry ticket, which has the advantage of previewing the learning agenda. After class, the teacher can quickly read and compare entry and exit tickets to estimate the range of cognitive change, and the relative need to reteach, review, or move on in the curriculum.
Students should always feel that a summative assessment is an appropriate capstone of some kind, and have time to prepare for it — and summon up metacognition for the purpose. The best summative assessments ask students to construct a response or a set of responses — rather than select right answers from a list as in multiple-choice exams. The best summative assessments are also ones that seem authentic — that is, true in some fashion to how the assessed knowledge is actually used in the world.
Formative assessments are really a kind of teaching. What students understand is not, after all, confined to how they cognitively enter and exit a particular instructional period. This learning progression only happens, however, if the teacher teaches in ways that continually inquire about the evolution — not just en masse as in exit tickets What do my students understand now? How about Mirabelle? These are the kind of teachers, however, who do not ask questions to fish for right answers, and who do not discount wrong answers.
They explore whatever answers they get in order to unearth misunderstandings — so that these can be cleared away, and so that scaffolds can be communally erected to reach higher levels of understanding across the class.
Sadly, however, too few teachers know how to do all of these methods well. The gap may be in part an ironic artifact of the fixation of much assessment on right answers. Step 6: Copy the form link and share it with students to collect responses. As a rule of thumb, instructors turn to formal assessment when they need to grade students' performances. It allows for objectivity and fairness because every student is evaluated using the same criteria. To get valid and reliable results from formal assessments, you must ask the right questions and use objective criteria for grading.
If the grading scale gets compromised, in one way or the other, it ruins the entire process. Students will end up with results that are not fair representations of their knowledge in a subject matter. In addition, ensure that your formal assessment tool matches the unique context and needs of your class. When combined with asking the right questions, it improves the quality of the evaluation. Evaluate your students by creating online educational assessments with Formplus.
Hypothesis testing is as old as the scientific method and is at the heart of the research process. Research exists to validate or disprove As you engage in tasks, you will need to take intermittent breaks to determine how much progress has been made and if any changes need to Researchers often have issues choosing which research method to go with: quantitative or qualitative research methods?
Many incorrectly Sometimes, researchers find it difficult to access the relevant variables for their study and build a sample. When this happens, you can Pricing Templates Features Login Sign up. What is a Formal Assessment? Types of Formal Assessment Norm-referenced Formal Assessment A norm-referenced formal assessment evaluates students by comparing individual scores within the same group.
Advantages of Norm-referenced Formal Assessments These tests allow teachers to compare progress and performance within the same class. Norm-referenced tests are easy to develop and score. Disadvantages of Norm-referenced Formal Assessments Norm-referenced assessments do not capture the depth of a student's knowledge. Most of the questions are at surface level and do not allow students to elaborate on certain topics. Criterion-referenced Test A criterion-referenced test or CRA is a type of assessment that evaluates students without reference to others' achievements.
Advantages of Criterion-referenced Tests It spells out what students need to do to get outstanding grades and move to the next academic level.
It is a reliable and valid judgment of a student's knowledge. Criterion-referenced assessments allow instructors to give relevant feedback about the quality of a student's work, and what they need to improve for future assessments.
Disadvantages of Criterion-referenced Evaluation It is time-consuming and requires a lot of resources and effort. Criterion-referenced assessments are only as good as the grading system in place. If there are biases in the evaluating standards, the results become invalid and unreliable.
Examples of Formal Assessments Tests A test is a standardized evaluation that measures a student's skill or knowledge using a standard grading scale. Advantages of Tests It is an objective method of assessing a student's abilities.
Since there's a standard grading system, subjectivity and bias are reduced to the barest minimum. It creates a level-playing ground for comparing each student's knowledge. A frequency distribution is a listing of the number of students who obtained each score on a test.
If 31 students take a test, and the scores range from 11 to 30 then the frequency distribution might look like Table Plotting a frequency distribution helps us see what scores are typical and how much variability there are in the scores.
We describe more precise ways of determining typical scores and variability next. There are three common ways of measuring central tendency or which score s are typical. The mean is calculated by adding up all the scores and dividing by the number of scores. The median of the distribution is 23 because 15 scores are above 23 and 15 are below.
The mode is the score that occurs most often. In Table 44 there are two modes 22 and 27 and so this distribution is described as bimodal. Calculating the mean, median and mode are important as each provides different information for teachers. The mean is important for some statistical calculations, but is highly influenced by a few extreme scores called outliers but the median is not. To illustrate this, imagine a test out of 20 points taken by 10 students, and most do very well but one student does very poorly.
The scores might be 4, 18, 18, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 20, The mean is However, in this example, the median remains at 19 whether the lowest score is included. When there are some extreme scores the median is often more useful for teachers in indicating the central tendency of the frequency distribution. The measures of central tendency help us summarize scores that are representative, but they do not tell us anything about how variable or how spread out are the scores.
A simple way to summarize variability is the range , which is the lowest score subtracted from the lowest score. However, the range is only based on two scores in the distribution, the highest and lowest scores, and so does not represent variability in all the scores.
The standard deviation is based on how much, on average, all the scores deviate from the mean. In the exercise below we demonstrate how to calculate the standard deviation. Knowing the standard deviation is particularly important when the distribution of the scores falls on a normal distribution.
When a standardized test is administered to a very large number of students the distribution of scores is typically similar, with many students scoring close to the mean, and fewer scoring much higher or lower than the mean. When the distribution of scores looks like the bell shape is called a normal distribution. A normal distribution is symmetric, and the mean, median and mode are all the same.
Normal curve distributions are very important in education and psychology because of the relationship between the mean, standard deviation, and percentiles. In all normal distributions 34 percent of the scores fall between the mean and one standard deviation of the mean.
Intelligence tests often constructed to have a mean of and standard deviation of In this example, 34 percent of the scores are between and and as well, 34 per cent of the scores lie between 85 and In a normal distribution, a student who scores the mean value is always in the fiftieth percentile because the mean and median are the same.
In Exhibit 10 we represent the percentile equivalents to the normal curve and we also show standard scores. There are a variety of standard scores:. Z-score: One type of standard score is a z-score, in which the mean is 0 and the standard deviation is 1. This means that a z-score tells us directly how many standard deviations the score is above or below the mean. For example, if a student receives a z score of 2 her score is two standard deviations above the mean or the eighty fourth percentile.
A student receiving a z score of Any score from a normal distribution can be converted to a z score if the mean and standard deviation is known. The formula is:. So, if the score is and the mean is and the standard deviation is 15 then the calculation is:.
T-score: A T-score has a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of This means that a T-score of 70 is two standard deviations above the mean and so is equivalent to a z-score of 2.
They are only reported as whole numbers and Figure shows their relation to the normal curve. A grade equivalent score provides an estimate of test performance based on grade level and months of the school year Popham, , p. A grade equivalent score of 3. Grade equivalents provide a continuing range of grade levels and so can be considered developmental scores.
Grade equivalent scores are popular and seem easy to understand, however they are typically misunderstood. If James, a fourth-grade student, takes a reading test and the grade equivalent score is 6. It means that James performed on the fourth -grade test as a sixth-grade student is expected to perform.
Testing companies calculate grade equivalents by giving one test to several grade levels. For example, a test designed for fourth graders would also be given to third and fifth graders.
The raw scores are plotted and a trend line is established and this is used to establish the grade equivalents. Grade equivalent scores also assume that the subject matter that is being tested is emphasized at each grade level to the same amount and that mastery of the content accumulates at a mostly constant rate Popham, Many testing experts warn that grade equivalent scores should be interpreted with considerable skepticism and that parents often have serious misconceptions about grade equivalent scores.
Because of the inherent psychometric problems associated with age and grade equivalents that seriously limit their reliability and validity, these scores should not be used for making diagnostic or placement decisions Bracken , ; Reynolds , Many people have very strong views about the role of standardized tests in education. Draw the line of symmetry on the following shape:. A major advantage of these items is they that they are easy to construct. However, apart from their use in mathematics they are unsuitable for measuring complex learning outcomes and are often difficult to score.
Completion and short answer tests are sometimes called objective tests as the intent is that there is only one correct answer and so there is no variability in scoring but unless the question is phrased very carefully, there are frequently a variety of correct answers. Extended response items are used in many content areas and answers may vary in length from a paragraph to several pages. Questions that require longer responses are often called essay questions.
Extended response items have several advantages and the most important is their adaptability for measuring complex learning outcomes— particularly integration and application. These items also require that students write and therefore provide teachers a way to assess writing skills. Well-constructed items phrase the question so the task of the student is clear. Often this involves providing hints or planning notes. In the first example below the actual question is clear not only because of the wording but because of the format i.
In the second and third examples planning notes are provided:. The owner of a bookstore gave 14 books to the school. The principal will give an equal number of books to each of three classrooms and the remaining books to the school library. How many books could the principal give to each student and the school?
Show all your work on the space below and on the next page. Explain in words how you found the answer. Tell why you took the steps you did to solve the problem.
Jose and Maria noticed three different types of soil, black soil, sand, and clay, were found in their neighborhood. Some people think that schools should teach students how to cook. Other people think that cooking is something that ought to be taught in the home.
What do you think? Explain why you think as you do. A major disadvantage of extended response items is the difficulty in reliable scoring. A variety of steps can be taken to improve the reliability and validity of scoring.
First, teachers should begin by writing an outline of a model answer. This helps make it clear what students are expected to include. Second, a sample of the answers should be read.
This assists in determining what the students can do and if there are any common misconceptions arising from the question.
Third, teachers have to decide what to do about irrelevant information that is included e. Then, a point scoring or a scoring rubric should be used. In point scoring components of the answer are assigned points. For example, if students were asked: What are the nature, symptoms, and risk factors of hyperthermia?
This provides some guidance for evaluation and helps consistency but point scoring systems often lead the teacher to focus on facts e. A better approach is to use a scoring rubric that describes the quality of the answer or performance at each level. Scoring rubrics can be holistic or analytical. In holistic scoring rubrics, general descriptions of performance are made and a single overall score is obtained. An example from grade 2 language arts in Los Angeles Unified School District classifies responses into four levels: not proficient, partially proficient, proficient and advanced is on Exhibit 4.
Write about an interesting, fun, or exciting story you have read in class this year. Some of the things you could write about are:. In your writing make sure you use facts and details from the story to describe everything clearly.
After you write about the story, explain what makes the story interesting, fun or exciting. Analytical rubrics provide descriptions of levels of student performance on a variety of characteristics.
Descriptions of high, medium, and low responses for each characteristic are available from Education Northwest. Holistic rubrics have the advantages that they can be developed more quickly than analytical rubrics. They are also faster to use as there is only one dimension to examine.
This means they are less useful for assessment for learning. An important use of rubrics is to use them as teaching tools and provide them to students before the assessment so they know what knowledge and skills are expected. Teachers can use scoring rubrics as part of instruction by giving students the rubric during instruction, providing several responses, and analyzing these responses in terms of the rubric.
For example, use of accurate terminology is one dimension of the science rubric in Table 4. An elementary science teacher could discuss why it is important for scientists to use accurate terminology, give examples of inaccurate and accurate terminology, provide that component of the scoring rubric to students, distribute some examples of student responses maybe from former students , and then discuss how these responses would be classified according to the rubric.
This strategy of assessment for learning should be more effective if the teacher a emphasizes to students why using accurate terminology is important when learning science rather than how to get a good grade on the test we provide more details about this in the section on motivation later in this chapter ; b provides an exemplary response so students can see a model; and c emphasizes that the goal is student improvement on this skill not ranking students.
Typically in performance assessments students complete a specific task while teachers observe the process or procedure e. The tasks that students complete in performance assessments are not simple—in contrast to selected response items—and include the following:.
These examples all involve complex skills but illustrate that the term performance assessment is used in a variety of ways. For example, the teacher may not observe all of the process e.
In addition, in some performance assessments there may be no clear product e. Alternative assessment refers to tasks that are not pencil-and-paper and while many performance assessments are not pencil-and paper tasks some are e.
For example, a Japanese language class taught in a high school in Chicago conversing in Japanese in Tokyo is highly authentic— but only possible in a study abroad program or trip to Japan. Conversing in Japanese with native Japanese speakers in Chicago is also highly authentic, and conversing with the teacher in Japanese during class is moderately authentic. Much less authentic is a matching test on English and Japanese words.
In a language arts class, writing a letter to an editor or a memo to the principal is highly authentic as letters and memos are common work products. However, writing a five-paragraph paper is not as authentic as such papers are not used in the world of work. However, a five paragraph paper is a complex task and would typically be classified as a performance assessment.
First, the focus is on complex learning outcomes that often cannot be measured by other methods. Second, performance assessments typically assess process or procedure as well as the product. For example, the teacher can observe if the students are repairing the machine using the appropriate tools and procedures as well as whether the machine functions properly after the repairs. Third, well designed performance assessments communicate the instructional goals and meaningful learning clearly to students.
For example, if the topic in a fifth grade art class is one-point perspective the performance assessment could be drawing a city scene that illustrates one point perspective.
This assessment is meaningful and clearly communicates the learning goal. One major disadvantage with performance assessments is that they are typically very time consuming for students and teachers.
This means that fewer assessments can be gathered so if they are not carefully devised fewer learning goals will be assessed—which can reduce content validity. State curriculum guidelines can be helpful in determining what should be included in a performance assessment. For example, Eric, a dance teacher in a high school in Tennessee learns that the state standards indicate that dance students at the highest level should be able to do demonstrate consistency and clarity in performing technical skills by:.
In groups of 4—6 students will perform a dance at least 5 minutes in length. The dance selected should be multifaceted so that all the dancers can demonstrate technical skills, complex movements, and a dynamic range Items 1—2. Students will videotape their rehearsals and document how they improved through self evaluation Item 3.
Each group will view and critique the final performance of one other group in class Item 4. Eric would need to scaffold most steps in this performance assessment. The groups probably would need guidance in selecting a dance that allowed all the dancers to demonstrate the appropriate skills; critiquing their own performances constructively; working effectively as a team, and applying criteria to evaluate a dance.
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