Developing Quality Assessments

1. Developing Quality Assessments Presented by Ellen Vorenkamp for the MI Assessment Consortium at Lewis Cass ISD Best of Formative Assessment Series Session 5

2. Overview • The need for Quality Assessments • Accurate Data • Use of Data • Student Growth • Educator Evaluation • The Development Process • MAC Modules • Planning for your Assessment (CASL) • Key Components—Common Core Connections • Test Blue Prints • Quality Items • Conclusion

3. Good Assessment applies to all Learners • Regardless of student ability or communication level, our assessments must have a clear purpose and stretch our students to higher levels of doing and thinking • Good assessment design is fundamental to all • Each student is unique • As ever – take the best and adapt to our kids!

4. Essential Questions to Dialogue Around… • As you develop quality assessments, keep the following questions in mind… • What is the purpose of the assessment? • Who will use the information? • How will it be used? • Is the use formative or summative?

5. A Formative View • As you develop quality assessments, keep the following questions in mind… • What is the purpose of the assessment? • To provide teachers immediate information on student learning • Who will use the information? • Teachers and students in the classroom • How will it be used? • To inform next steps in the learning process • Is the use formative or summative? • Formative

6. A Summative View • As you develop quality assessments, keep the following questions in mind… • What is the purpose of the assessment? • Educator Evaluation / Accountability • Who will use the information? • Teachers and Administrators • How will it be used? • To certify the learning process • Is the use formative or summative? • Summative

7. Think…Pair…Share… What elements are necessary to ensure quality assessments? • List these qualities • Discuss why these are important

8. MAC’s Thinking… • 24 Modules that cover the entire development process… • Planning • Modules 1-7 • Developing • Modules 8-20 • Implementing • Module 21 • Reflecting • Modules 21-24

9. Quality Assessments… • are Reliable and yield Valid data. • In order for these two requirements to be met assessment developers must pay special attention to the following: • Standard/Item Alignment • Balance of Representation • Target-Method Match • Quality Items • The best way to ensure your assessment is reliable and valid is to create a test blueprint and follow the blueprint while developing the assessment.

10. Test Blueprints • Requires a bit of planning and forethought as you begin this process… • Several steps should be completed that will help make developing your test blueprint easier

11. Standard Alignment • Are the assessment items tightly aligned with the standards? • Do the assessment items address the targeted standards sufficiently and at all levels of cognitive demand? • Are there an equal number of assessment items per standard? If not, is there “rationale”? • Are there enough assessment items per standard to determine mastery?

12. Balance of Representation • Items are balanced and should reflect what was taught and how it was taught within the classroom environment • The assessment as a whole should reflect the emphasis of the lesson, unit or other educational experience on which you are assessing. • For example, a social studies assessment might cover 4 related standards or learning targets…

13. Balance of Representation

14. Balance of Representation

15. Target-Method Match • Identify the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) for the standard • Match the cognitive demand of the standard with an appropriate item type • Determine which item types will be included in the assessment and in what proportion.

17. Depth Of Knowledge

18. SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION “Putting together elements & parts to form a whole, then making value judgments about the method.” BLOOM’S TAXONOMY WEBB’S DOK KNOWLEDGE “The recall of specifics and universals, involving little more than bringing to mind the appropriate material” RECALL Recall of a fact, information, or procedure (e.g., What are 3 critical skill cues for the overhand throw?) COMPREHENSION “Ability to process knowledge on a low level such that the knowledge can be reproduced or communicated without a verbatim repetition.” APPLICATION “The use of abstractions in concrete situations.” SKILL/CONCEPT Use of information, conceptual knowledge, procedures, two or more steps, etc. STRATEGIC THINKING Requires reasoning, developing a plan or sequence of steps; has some complexity; more than one possible answer ANALYSIS “The breakdown of a situation into its component parts.” EXTENDED THINKING Requires an investigation; time to think and process multiple conditions of the problem or task. Wyoming School Health and Physical Education Network (2001).  Standards, Assessment, and Beyond.  Retrieved May 25, 2006, from http://www.uwyo.edu/wyhpenet

19. Prepared and published by the Educational Policy Improvement Center

20. Prepared and published by the Educational Policy Improvement Center

21. Reflection… • What are the implications for classroom instruction? • What are the implications for classroom assessment?

22. Types/Levels of Standards • Recall and Reproduction– (Knowledge) Facts and concepts we want students to know (Usually DOK Level 1 or 2) • Skills & Concepts – (Skills) Students use their knowledge and reasoning to act skillfully (Usually DOK Levels 2; Can go higher based on context) • Strategic Thinking– (Reasoning) Using what they know to reason and solve problems (Usually DOK Levels 2-4) • Extended Thinking– (Application/Products) use knowledge, reasoning, and skills to create a concrete product (Usually DOK 3-4)

23. Methods of Assessments Selected Response Constructed Response Performance Assessment Observations/ Conversations • Multiple Choice • True-False • Matching • Diagram • Fill-in-the-blank (words, phrases) • Essay • Short answer (sentences, paragraphs) • Web • Concept Map • Flowchart • Graph • Table • Matrix • Illustration • Presentation • Movement • Science lab • Athletic skill • Dramatization • Enactment • Project • Debate • Model • Exhibition • Recital • Performance Task • Oral questioning • Observation • Interview • Conference • Process description • Checklist • Rating scale • Journal sharing • Thinking aloud a process • Student self-assessment • Peer review 23 Adapted from the work of Dr. Robert Marzano

24. Target-Method Match How well does your method of assessment match your target?

25. Test Blueprint Putting it all together: • Standard • Specific Learning Target derived from Standard • Target DOK Level • Assessment Method • Number of Items/Points

26. Performance Tasks • Performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to respond to complex real-world problems. They can best be described as collections of questions and activities that are coherently connected to a single theme or scenario. These activities are meant to measure capacities such as depth of understanding, writing and research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with traditional assessment questions. The performance tasks may take one to two class periods to complete.

27. Components of a Performance Assessment • Performance Assessments: • call upon the examinee to demonstrate skills and competencies (application) • are comprised of 4 basic components: • A reason for the assessment • Identify the content and/or skill standard(s) to be assessed • A specific performance to be evaluated • Construct the prompt or item and determine the criteria for success • Exercises to elicit that performance, and • Describe the way you will collect evidence, when you will collect the evidence and how much evidence you will collect. • Systemic rating procedures • Determine the score for proficiency or mastery; determine who will rate the performance, scoring method (rubric, checklist, anecdotal record, portfolio)

28. SBAC Performance Tasks (PT) • Performance tasks, the most complex of all items, include the following elements:  Integrate knowledge and skills across multiple claims.  Measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and/or complex analysis with relevant evidence.  Require student-initiated planning, management of information/data and ideas, and/or interaction with other materials.  Reflect a real-world task and/or scenario-based problem  Allow for multiple approaches.  Represent content that is relevant and meaningful to students.  Allow for demonstration of important knowledge and skills.  Require scoring that focuses on the essence of the Claim(s) for which the task was written.  Seem feasible for the school/classroom environment.

29. PT Sample: Prior to Test Date

30. PT Sample: Stimuli and Tasks

31. PT Sample: Stimuli and Tasks

32. PT Sample: Stimuli and Tasks

33. PT Sample: Stimuli and Tasks

34. PT Sample: Stimuli and Tasks

35. 4th Grade ELA Sample

36. 4th Grade ELA Sample

37. 4th Grade ELA Sample

38. Additional Sample Items • http://www.dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/documents/asmt-sbac-math-hs-sample-items.pdf • Scroll down to page 3

39. Implications for the Classroom • Assessments will evolve to be more rigorous and real world relevant, must match our teaching to this same standard • Assessment data must be used in the moment to inform “next steps” in the learning process • Schools must have a balanced assessment system in place within their classrooms

40. Not the end of the journey… • MAC Modules • Much left to do to ensure quality assessments

41. A Final Thought… • “Remember, formative assessment works,” says Popham. “When it is used, students learn better. By using this assessment-rooted instructional process, teachers can increase the test-based achievement of their students… ‘Student growth’ will be demonstrated on the tests because, in fact, student growth will have occurred.” • “Formative Assessment’s ‘Advocatable Moment’” by James Popham in Education Week, Jan. 9, 2013 (Vol. 32, #15, p. 29)

42. Questions and Discussion