Assessments

Learn. Improve. Grow.

MTED 517 Jenna Graziadei Fall 2017

Did you know that few teachers receive much formal training in assessment design
or analysis (Guskey, 2003)?

Given that educators are intended to implement assessments in the classroom, this
presentation can better prepare you for future assessment experiences and give you a
stronger background on the topic.
 What are assessments?
Assessments are instructional tools to guide improvements in student learning.

They also guide improvements in teaching strategies to ensure that instructional

approaches provide students the opportunity to reach their full academic potentials.

Assessments are a critical aspect of instruction in order for the academic environment to
reach its full potential for the teachers and students.

Do not fear or disregard assessing. Assessments come in all shapes and forms and will
help you out a great deal in your career as an educator.
 Why is assessing important?
Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the
goals of education are met (Edutopia, 2008).

This results in assessments being generally useful for accountability, curriculum

improvement, modifications in instructional strategies, and individualized attention.

Assessments can directly impact grades, placement, advancement, instructional

needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding (Edutopia, 2008).
 Why is assessing important for mathematics?
Mathematics is a subject area that is comprised of hundreds of objectives and stages of
development that typically follow an organized progression towards more advanced
concepts. Therefore, in order to reach the higher levels of thinking, the student must master
all prior skills. A teacher can ensure this is taking place by conducting assessments.
Through checks for understanding, exit slips, quizzes, and other formative, ongoing, and
summative assessments, the educator can gather valuable data about the whole-class and
individual progress. This should guide future math lessons and instructional strategies to
ensure that the children develop strong mathematical models that are to be used and
enhanced in future activities.
 What does a good assessment look like?
A good assessment gathers data that will

Provide diagnostic feedback

Help educators set standards
Evaluate progress
Relate to a students progress
Include students in the process to ensure that they understand the purpose
Motivate performance on behalf of the student and teacher
 What does a good assessment look like?
A good assessment that is best suited to guide improvements in student learning
(Guskey, 2003) will take the form of a

Quiz
Test
Writing assignment
Any other assessments that teachers administer on a regular basis in their
classrooms (Guskey, 2003)
 What does a good assessment look like?
A good assessment will have

A direct relation to classroom instructional goals (Guskey, 2003)

Immediate results that are easy to analyze at the individual student level (Guskey,
2003)
 How do I use an assessment for good?
It will be developed in an age-, grade-, and topic-appropriate manner Thus, it should reflect the concepts
and skills that the teacher emphasized in class, along with the teachers clear criteria for judging students
performances (Guskey, 2003).
There is no need for the content to be a secret Assessments that serve as meaningful sources of information
dont surprise students (Guskey, 2003).
The results should be presented to the students This is important in order to facilitate learning by providing
students with important feedback on their learning progress and by helping them identify learning problems
(Guskey, 2003).
The students should be given a second chance after providing the results and corrective instruction
Students should have a second chance to demonstrate their new level of competence and understanding
(Guskey, 2003). Children need to have the chance to show that they can learn from their mistakes.
Not only should the students reflect on the assessment, but also the teacher should use the data to improve
their instruction or modify their approach (Guskey, 2003).

If all of this is kept in mind, the assessment will function as an opportunity for learning and growth for the
student.
 Teaching To the Test
We all have likely experienced this concept of teaching to the test at some point in our
own educational journeys, or in our field experiences. Regardless, many individuals
typically develop a negative perspective towards this concept with the understanding that
instruction can lack in areas if this approach is followed.

Teaching to the test is not always bad!

If the test is the primary determinant of what teachers teach and how they teach it
(Guskey, 2003), then this concept is being implemented appropriately.
 How can I not teach to the test?
If desired learning goals are the foundation of students instructional experiences
(Guskey, 2003), then the assessments should reflect these learning goals and all of the
skills addressed within the instructional experiences in order to gather information about
the mastery of or challenge in grasping objectives.

This is testing what you teach!

 How can I, as the teacher, learn from assessments?
Reflect. Reflect. Reflect.
Teachers are lifelong learners. As the students learn and grow, so do we. With this
mindset, educators can grow to be the best teachers we can be for our students.
Set aside some powerful ego issues (Guskey, 2003). Mistakes made are not always
at the fault of the child. Responsibility is shared.
The teacher must first consider the quality of the item or criterion (Guskey, 2003).
Perhaps the problem or phrasing was unclear. Perhaps this caused the question to be
misinterpreted.
Assessments must be followed by high-quality, corrective instruction to remedy
whatever learning errors the assessment identified (Guskey, 2003). This may require
that one abandons typical practices and utilizes alternative methods to present those
concepts in new ways and engage students in different and more appropriate learning
experiences (Guskey, 2003).
 Reflecting on assessments is not limited to identifying
those who struggle!
Perhaps a student exhibits that they have mastered the lessons concepts and can use
their new knowledge skillfully in concrete and abstract contexts.
Those students who have few or no learning errors to correct should receive
enrichment activities to help broaden and expand their learning (Guskey, 2003).

The growth of each and every student should be considered within the process of
assessing.
 What about timing? It is too limited in the classroom.

No opportunity for guiding learning and strengthening of students skills is a waste of

time.

To ensure that this time is available, it must be considered when creating the
curricula, units, and lesson plans.
Curriculum coverage will not be sacrificed in the task of corrective instruction when
one includes an additional one or two days of leeway within a unit.
This freedom can prevent time constraints causing the usefulness of assessments to be
disregarded.
 What are the types of assessments?

Formative assessments are assessment(s) for learning (Bilash, 2011).

Summative assessments are assessment(s) of learning (Bilash, 2011).

Ongoing assessments can be both for learning (and) of learning (Bilash, 2011) based
on the chosen purpose.
 Formative assessments: What are they?
Assessments become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and
learning to meet student needs (Boston & Carol, 2002).
They support learning aims and allow students to communicate what they know
(Boston & Carol, 2002).
They look like
Teacher observations
Classroom discussion
Classroom activities and assignments
Homework
Tests
 Formative assessments: Importance & Purpose
The goal of formative assessment is to gain an understanding of what students know (and dont
know) in order to make responsive changes in teaching and learning (Boston & Carol, 2002).
Formative assessments help students take control of their own learning, i.e. become
self-regulated learners (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2007).
The teacher can use the data to improve instructional strategies that will enhance the learning
and understandings of the children.
The student can use the data to improve their understandings of the concepts and skills.
The provide feedback that helps learners become aware of any gaps that exist between their
desired goal and their current knowledge, understanding, or skill and guides them through
actions necessary to obtain the goal (Boston & Carol, 2002).
 Ongoing assessments: What are they?
Ongoing assessments are typically also referred to as formative assessments, which we have previously
discussed. However, in this case we will associate them with portfolio assessments to recognize the ongoing
process that is involved in their production.
A student portfolio is a systematic collection of student work and related material that depicts a students
activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school subjects (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
This is a type of assessment that the student is highly involved due to the process of creating this type of
assessment that will include student reflection and self-evaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio
contents, and criteria for judging the quality for the work (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
The portfolio is a very subjective form of assessment (McDonald, 2011).
 Ongoing assessments: Types of Portfolio Assessments
Process Portfolio

Documents the stages of learning (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).

Provides a progressive record of student growth (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).

Product Portfolio

Demonstrates mastery of a learning task or set of learning objectives (Scherba de

Valenzuela, 2002).
Contains only the best work (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
 Ongoing assessments: How to Create Portfolio
Assessments
1. Set a goal, or purpose, for the portfolio (McDonald, 2011).
2. Determine how - or if - you will grade the portfolios (McDonald, 2011).
3. Create a checklist (McDonald, 2011).
4. Explain the process to students and encourage them to take an active role in the
development of their portfolios (McDonald, 2011).
 Ongoing assessments: Importance & Purpose
They promotes student self-evaluation, reflection, and critical thinking (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They measure performance based on genuine samples of student work (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They provide flexibility in measuring how students accomplish their learning goals (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They enable teachers and students to share the responsibility for setting learning goals and for evaluation progress toward
meeting those goals (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They give students the opportunity to have extensive input into the learning process (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They facilitate cooperative learning activities, including peer evaluation and tutoring, cooperative learning groups, and peer
conferencing (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They provide a process for structuring learning in stages (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They provide opportunities for students and teachers to discuss learning goals and the progress toward those goals in structured
and unstructured conferences (Scherba de Valenzuela, 2002).
They enable measurement of multiple dimension of student progress by including different types of data and materials (Scherba
de Valenzuela, 2002).
They offer valuable data about student improvement and skill mastery (McDonald, 2011).
The data provides valuable information about how each student learns and what is important to him or her in the learning
process (McDonald, 2011).
 Summative assessments: What are they?
They are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know
They occur after instruction every few weeks, months, or once a year (Garrison & Ehringhaus, 2011).
They serve to measure student growth after instruction and are generally given at the end of a course in order
to determine whether long term learning goals have been met (Coffey).
Summative assessments can take the form of
Performance task
Written product
Oral product
Test
Standardized test
State assessments
District benchmark or interim assessments
End-of-unit or chapter tests
End-of-term or semester exams
Selected response: Multiple choice, True/false, Matching
Short answer: fill in the blank, one/two sentence responses
Extended written response
Performance assessment
 Summative assessments: Importance & Purpose
It can shape how teachers organize their curricula or what courses schools offer their
students (Coffey)
They are proof of what the students have learned during that process (Bilash, 2011).
The scores are typically used for accountability for schools (AYP) and students
(report card grades (Garrison & Ehringhaus, 2011).
They are a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to
content standards (Garrison & Ehringhaus, 2011).
They help evaluate the effectiveness of programs, school improvement goals,
alignment of curriculum, or student placement in specific programs (Garrison &
Ehringhaus, 2011).
 Trajectory: Assessing Appropriateness
It is critical that the educator analyzes the skills of the students before selecting a method
of assessment. For instance, it is very unlikely that a kindergarten student can articulate
reflections of their mathematical thinking and understanding in sentences due to lack of
exposure to such a task, and also because of their beginning writing skills. Therefore, with
this taken into consideration, more information could be gathered through an exit slip at
the end of the lesson that requires the students express their conceptual understanding in a
more abstract manner than the concrete activity they were involved in. This is a single
example of the mindset the teacher should maintain such that skills in all subject areas are
reflected upon because they are often interrelated. Therefore, the assessments can be
designed with the best interests of the students and how to test their abilities to gather the
most useful data in mind.
 For Students: Engaging Them In The Process
Self Assessment: Students are required to rate their own performance against a standard (Falchikov).
Peer Assessment: They rate the performance of their peers (Falchikov).
Include some degree of collaboration between staff and students (Falchikov).
Intra- and Inter-Group peer assessment
Move from a teacher-directed assessment process to an assessment process in which students play an active
role (Silver, 2013).
Move from assessment as evaluation to assessment as a means of advancing teaching and learning (Silver,
2013).
Assessment is done with the student, not to the student (TKI).
Teachers should always involve students in assessment decision-making (TKI) such as timing, design, and
assessment criteria.
Plan to share the data with the students (TKI).
 For Students:
Encouraging Growth and Reflection for the Futures
For Teachers: Assessing to make school a better place.

To maintain the ideal mindset towards assessing that allows one to establish a clear vision
of the usefulness of assessments, ask yourselves the following while teaching:

Am I teaching what I think I am teaching?

Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?
Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?
 Personal Reflections: Experiences
As a child I never liked tests. Did you? Perhaps the teachers were gathering data about the students, but they were
consistently stressful activities. I always felt as though the teachers were keeping the content a secret as to trick us
and cause us to do poorly. This goes against what a resource stated saying that this is an inappropriate approach to
assessment. Research from this assignment and experiences in the role as a student teacher has helped me to develop
an alternative and improved perspective of this task. Assessments are good! They provide the teacher with
information about the progress of students, individual areas of struggle, and instructional strategy successes. In the
lessons that I have conducted I have used techniques such as thumbs up/thumbs down and child-centered rubrics to
engage them in self-reflection that is a critical skill for children to be introduced to. Additionally, child-centered
rubrics to grade assignments, anecdotal recording, and a teachers rubric to assess focus, safety, accuracy, and other
developmental areas have been used. Through checking in with students within lessons and following up at the end
to check for understanding, I have gathered very helpful data about the children that could be utilized to design
lessons on the following days, guide individualized attention for students, and modify approaches that did not fare
well with the students. By involving children in the process and helping them understand the purpose, they are more
reluctant to fully engage in the task and value the information it provides. Make them fun. Vary the assessment
approaches. Include students. Make the most use out of these instructional tools!
 Personal Reflections: Tools
I presented to you general ideas for these various types of
assessments in design and organization, but when it comes to
creating them, you do not have to go into the task blindly. In all of
my experiences of establishing assessments to use in my lessons, I
have sought ideas from both Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers.
On both sites one can find pre-designed assessments created by
other teachers in the country and world who wanted to share their
ideas. Perhaps you may not even have to start from scratch and can
simply print out the assessment for use. One example is the student
reflection rubric that I use on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. You
can see this image on the slide. I loved that it included pictures,
numbers, and written explanations that would be understandable for
elementary students. There are plenty of more options on both of
these sites that one can search for with the chosen phrasing.
 Additional Resources
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com
https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/10-innovative-formative-assessment-examples
http://www.supportrealteachers.org/types-of-assessment-with-examples.html
https://www.nwea.org/blog/2016/take-three-55-digital-tools-and-apps-for-formative-a
ssessment-success/
https://www.odu.edu/about/univassessment/news/10-Facts-Student-Learning
http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/SingTeach_Issue40.pdf
 Works Cited
Monroe County Intermediate School District. (n.d.). Three Types of Assessment. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://www.monroeisd.us/departments/curriculum/instructionalservices/assessment/typesofassessment/
This source was useful because it summarized the defining characteristics of formative, interim, and summative assessments.

What is Ongoing Assessment? - Definition & Examples. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-ongoing-assessment-definition-examples.html
This source was useful because it associated formative with ongoing assessments, and provided helpful details about their purpose.

Edutopia. (2008, July 15). Why Is Assessment Important? Retrieved October 31, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance
This source was useful because it explained the general importance of assessments as to generate a relevance for their repetitive implementation.

Gusty, T. R. (2003, February). How Classroom Assessments Improve Learning. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb03/vol60/num05/How-Classroom-Assessments-Improve-Learning.aspx
This source was useful because it described how to utilize assessments in the classroom in a manner that is conducive to growth and development for all parties.

Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2007, January). Formative assessment and selfregulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Retrieved October
31, 2017, from http://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075070600572090?scroll=top&needAccess=true#.WevHwEy3lPM
This source was useful because it detailed the impact that formative assessments can have on students if they are utilized and implemented in the proper manner.

Boston, C. (2002, September 30). The Concept of Formative Assessment. ERIC Digest. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED470206
This source was useful because it included information about the goals teachers should maintain when implementing formative assessments.
 Works Cited
Valenzuela, J. D. (2002, July). Defining Portfolio Assessment. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/portfolio.html
This source was useful because it explained the structure, process, and advantages of portfolio assessments.

McDonald, E. (2011). Student Portfolios as an Assessment Tool. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/mcdonald/mcdonald025.shtml
This source was useful because it expanded upon the discussion of how to proper implement the portfolio assessment process in the classroom in order for students to get
the most out of it.

Garrison, C., & Ehringhaus, M. (2011, November). Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://ccti.colfinder.org/sites/default/files/formative_and_summative_assessment_in_the_classroom.pdf
This source was useful because it generally described the forms and purposes of using summative assessments.

Coffey, H. (n.d.). Summative Assessment. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5233
This source was useful because it detailed additional forms and purposes of summative assessments that the educator should consider when selecting assessments to
implement.

Bills, O. (2011, January). Summative Assessment. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of%20Bilash/summativeassess.html
This source was useful because it explained how to create and analyze summative assessments.

Falchikov, N. (n.d.). Involving students in assessment. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/engageinassessment/Involving_students_in_assessment_-_Nancy_Falchikov.pdf
This source was useful because it provided suggestions for how the educator can design an assessment process that is interactive and engaging for the students.
 Works Cited
Silver, H. F. (2013, May). Tools for Actively Engaging Students in Assessment Processes. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol8/817-silver.aspx
This source was useful because it detailed guidelines for the mindset that the educator should develop when using assessments for the students.

TKI. (n.d.). Involving students in assessment processes. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from
http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Using-evidence-for-learning/Gathering-evidence/Topics/Involving-students
This source was useful because it continued to discuss the intentions that a teacher must have when using assessments in the classroom in order for growth and
development to result.