Act of Teaching

Pages 303-309
Evaluating Students Learning
Outline
Defining Classroom Assessment Measurement. and Evaluation (304)
Factors Influencing Assessment Quality (305)

SOURCES Of INFORMATION (305)

ACCURACY OF INFORMATION (306)
TYPES Of ASSESSMENT: FORMATIVE VERSUS SUMMATIVE (308)

Notes
Defining Classroom Assessment Measurement. and Evaluation (304)

continually gather accurate information about their students' progress

across a range of sources, to synthesize that information, to make
judgments about how well or how much each student has learned, and to
adjust instruction accordingly (304)
Assessment is the process of collecting, synthesizing, and interpreting
information to aid in decision making (305)
Some of our assessments attempt to assign a numeric value to students'
performances. When we do this, we are using measurement (305)
Ultimately, the goal of our assessment or measurement is to make
judgments about the "goodness" or quality of students' performances and,
by extension, the effectiveness of our teaching. This process of using our
assessment information to make this judgment is called evaluation (305)
Factors Influencing Assessment Quality (305)

SOURCES Of INFORMATION (305)

o Students' Work
o Tests or Projects
ACCURACY OF INFORMATION (306)
o The data that teachers obtain about students and their progress is
never completely accurate (306)
o No one assessment can precisely measure a given student's
knowledge or achievement (306)
o In addition to using multiple sources of data, a teacher must
consider the accuracy of information gained from tests, projects, or
other sources to gauge student performance. This includes asking:
Does the information provided by the assessment allow
reasonable conclusions to be drawn about what the student
has learned (validity)?
Does the assessment provide consistent measurements
(reliability)? (306)
o Validity refers to the extent to which a particular assessment
provides information that allows accurate and meaningful
conclusions to be drawn (307)
 A valid assessment is matched with curriculum and
instruction in: (1) the breadth or range of concepts or skills
they include; (2) the depth or level of detail at which students
are engaged; (3) the emphasis placed on particular concepts,
ideas, or skills; and (4) the cognitive level or complexity that
is expected, often in terms of Bloom's taxonomy (306)
o Reliability - In addition to measuring what you want it to measure,
you hope that your assessment provides you with consistent
measures of your students' learning. (307)
o Students with Special Needs assessment could be modified and
accommodated (308)
accommodations refers to adaptations in the testing
environment that change only the manner in which students
participate in the assessment (308)
when an assessment is adapted in ways that change the
intellectual task or cognitive level being assessed,
modifications are being made (308)
TYPES Of ASSESSMENT: FORMATIVE VERSUS SUMMATIVE (308)
o Formative assessment refers to assessment conducted during the
course of instruction (309)
o Summative assessment is the term used to describe assessment
conducted after instruction is completed. (309)
Reflection
For me, this is a new way of viewing assessment as my previous experiences
lead me to believe that tests are made to determine your value. Which is why I
hope that I can give assessment that my students will be excited for and will
really give them feedback. I do not want to give them and assessment method
that will burden them. I will try to be varied in my assessment and not just rely
on test results. I also will not pressure my students on grades.