Educational assessment

1. Educational assessment

2. Diagnostic Assessment in Education • The 2001 National Research Council (NRC) report Knowing What Students Know (KWSK) • The dominant theme of the report is the role of cognitive psychology as a critical component in test theory and design. • The authors assert that "all assessments will be more fruitful when based on an understanding of cognition in the domain and on the precept of reasoning with evidence" (AERA et al, 2001, p. 178). • The report authors advocate test development and assessment practices designed to address targeted inferences regarding student learning.

3. Diagnostic Assessment in Education • A good diagnostic test is one that goes beyond estimations of individuals’ overall ability levels. • Specific information must be available from student responses that isolates weaknesses or inconsistencies in knowledge and provides a fuller picture of student abilities. • Information should be available from student responses indicating why students responded as they did. Items developed by traditional means provide insufficient information at an appropriate level of description for diagnosis. • Mark Wilson: Ordered-Multiple-choice (OMC) • Partial credit model (PCM) and step function

7. Portfolio Assessment • The collection of student portfolios, sample of student work over an extended period. • Giving students a role in determining the contents of their portfolios may provide greater incentive to learn and a greater sense of responsibility for their own learning.

8. Performance Assessment • Demonstrations of knowledge or skills in real life. • Shows not only what they know, but also what they can do. • Standardized (norm-referenced) testing make teachers focus on a narrow range of topics and items that are most likely to appear on the tests. In theory, performance assessments require a broader understanding of the subject matter. • Different performance assessments produced very different patterns of scores, and student scores were still more closely related to student aptitude than to what students were actually taught (Slavin, 1994)

9. Negotiated Assessment • Focus on reporting students' progress to parents • Customize instruction to individual needs and expectations based upon negotiation.

10. Responsive evaluation • specify instructional objectives and outcomes. • to gather data from naturally occurring setting (qualitative). • to observe, interact, and participate in the learning environment • a close relationship with the students.

11. Authentic Assessment • They are designed to be truly representative of performance in the field; only then are the problems of scoring reliability and logistics of testing considered. • More attention is paid to the teaching and learning of the criteria to be used in the assessment. • Self-assessment plays a greater role than in conventional testing. • The students are often expected to present their work and defend themselves publicly and orally to ensure that their apparent mastery is genuine.

12. Standardized (Norm-referenced) test vs. alternate assessments • Argument: Mastery learning is artificial. There are bell curves everywhere. • Which one would you use? Why?