Chapter 3

Principles of High Quality Assessment.

According to Mcmillan (1997), high quality
classroom assessment involves different
criteria
with
concerns
on
how
the
assessments influence learning and provide
fair and credible reporting of students
achievement
of
which
the
primary
determinant of quality is how the information
impacts students.

3.2 Appropriateness
Methods

clear and appropriate learning targets

or instructional objects;
appropriateness
of
assessment
methods;
validity
reliability
fairness
Positive consequences; and
practicality and efficiency

Types of Assessment Methods:

3.1 Clarity of Learning Targets

Learning Target is defined as a statement of
student performance that includes both a
description of what student should know or
be able to do at the end of a unit of
instruction and as much as possible and
feasible about the criteria for judging the
level
of
performance
demonstrated
(Mcmillan:1997)
There are five types of learning targets and
these are as follows:
1. Knowledge- student mastery of
substantive subject matter.
2. Reasoning- student ability to use
knowledge to reason and solve
problems.
3. Skills- student ability to demonstrate
achievement-related skills, such as
reading aloud.
4. Products- student ability to create
achievement-related products such as
written reports, oral presentation, and
art products.
5. Affective- student attainment of
affective states such as attitudes,
values, interests, and self-efficacy.

Assessment

As you are well aware, a number of

different types of assessment methods can
be used in the classroom, but the match
between type of target and method is very
important.

The following are the criteria for ensuring

high quality classroom assessments:

of

Objective tests are the most

popular, most commonly used and are
considered to be the easiest to
construct and administrated.
Essay tests are paper and pencil
assessment that allow students to
construct a response that would be
several sentences to several pages in
length.
Oral question assessments are used
continuously in instruction to monitor
student understanding.
Observation assessment, like oral
question, is so common in teaching
that we often dont think of them as
form of student evaluation.
Performance based assessments
require students to demonstrate a skill
on proficiency by asking them to
create, produce, or do something,
often in a setting that involves realworld applications.
Self report assessments are those in
which the students are asked to
complete a form or answer questions
to reveal how they think about
themselves
or
how
they
rate
themselves

3.3 Validity
Validity in the general sense simply
means the extent to which a test
measures what it is supposed to measure.
Types of validity are face validity, contentrelated, criterion-related and construct
validity.
3.4 Reliability
Reliability means the extent to which a
test is dependable, self consistent and
stable. Remember that reliability is

concerned with how much error is present

in the assessment. Multiple assessments
reduce the overall error, as will that are
longer.
Methods of estimating reliability include
test of equivalence and test of internal
consistency.

background, handicapping condition, or

the other factors unrelated to what is
being assessed.
3.6 Positive Consequences
The nature of classroom assessments
has important consequences for teaching
and
learning.
The
most
direct
consequence of assessment is that
students learn and study in a way that is
consistent with your assessment task.
3.7 Practicality and Efficiency

3.5 Fairness
A fair pre-instructional assessment is one
that provides an equal opportunity to all
students.
This
means
that
your
interpretation of the information is not
influenced by race gender, ethnic

High quality assessments are practical

and efficient. It is important to balance
these
aspect
of
assessment
with
previously mentioned criteria. Time is a
limited commodity for teachers and it
may be best to think twice about the type
of assessment being used.