Chapter 3. Development of Classroom Assessment Tools
General Principles of Testing (Ebel & Frisbie, 1999)
- guide teachers in assessing the learning progress of the students & in developing their own assessment tools. 1. Measure all Instructional Objectives. 2. Cover all the learning tasks 3. Use appropriate test items 4. Make test valid & reliable 5. Use test to improve learning
Principles of High Quality Assessment
“Assessing the performance of students is a critical task for teachers, therefore, it should prepare the assessment tool appropriately.” Teacher-Made Tests – developed to assess the learning progress of students w/in the classroom. Strength – its applicability & relevance in the setting where they are utilized. Weakness – limited time & resources for the teacher to utilize the test & technicalities. Most common technical concepts in assessment are the validity & reliability.
Clarity of the Learning Target
When a teacher plans for his classroom instruction, learning target should be clearly stated and must be focused on student learning objectives. Learning outcomes must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time- Bound (SMART) Performance Task should be presented to accurately demonstrate what supposed to do & how the final product should be done. Discuss clearly the evaluation procedures, criteria to be used & skills to be assessed in the task.
Appropriateness of Assessment Tool
- type of test used should match the instructional objective or learning outcomes of the subject matter posed during the delivery of the instruction. 1. Objective Test – requires student to select the correct response or to supply a word. – “objective” refers to the scoring, it indicates that there is only one correct answer. eg. True/False, Matching Type, Multiple-Choice 2. Subjective Test – permits the student to organize & present an original answer. It has no specific answer, hence, it is scored on an opinion basis, though there will be certain facts & understanding expected in the answer. 3. Performance Assessment (Mueller, 2010) – asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate essential knowledge & skills. 4. Portfolio Assessment – based on the systematic, longitudinal collection of student work created in response to specific, known instructional objectives & evaluated in relation to the same criteria. – “Portfolio” is purposeful collection of student’s work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress & achievements on one or more areas over a period of time. – It measures the growth & development of students. 5. Oral Questioning – used to collect assessment data by asking oral questions. 6. Observation Technique – the teacher will observe how students carry out certain activities either observing the process or product. “Formal Observation” – planned in advance “Informal Observation” – done spontaneously 7. Self-Report – responses of the students may be used to evaluate both performance & attitude. It includes sentence completion, likert scales, checklists or holistic scales.
Different Qualities of Assessment Tools
1. Validity – appropriateness of score-based interferences; or decisions made based on students’ test results. The extent to w/c a test measures what it is supposed to measure. 2. Reliability – consistency of measurement; how consistent test results from one measurement to another. A test is reliable when it can predict practically the same scores when test administered twice or w/ a reliability index of 0.61 above. 3. Fairness – the test item should not have any biases. It is fair to all examinees. 4. Objectivity – agreement of two or more raters concerning the score of the student. 5. Scorability – the test should be easy to score, direction for scoring should be clearly stated. 6. Adequacy – test should contain a wide range of sampling of items to determine the educational outcomes so that the resulting scores are representatives of the total performance in the areas measured. 7. Administrability – the test should be administered uniformly to all students so that the scores obtained will not vary due to factors other than differences of the students’ knowledge & skills. 8. Practicality & Efficiency – teacher’s familiarity w/ the method used, time required for the assessment, complexity of the administration, ease of scoring, ease of interpretation of the test results & the material used must be at the lowest cost.
Steps in Developing Assessment Tools
1. Examine the instructional objectives of the topics previously discussed.
“The 1st step in developing an achievement test is to examine & go back to the instructional objectives so that you can match w/ the test items to be constructed.” 2. Make a Table Of Specification (TOS) – is a chart or table that details the content & level of cognitive level assessed on a test as well as the types and emphases of test items. - It is very important in addressing validity & reliability of the test items. - It provides the test constructor a way to ensure that the assessment is based from the intended learning outcomes. - It is also a way of ensuring that the no. of questions on the test is adequate to ensure dependable results that are not likely caused by chance. Preparing a TOS - Selecting the learning outcomes to be measured. Identify necessary instructional objectives needed to answer the test items correctly. - Make an outline of the subject matter to be covered in the test. - Decide on the no. of items per subtopic. No. of Items = (no. of class sessions x desired total no. of items)/total no. of class sessions - Make the two-way chart of a TOS. D.O. 33, s. 2004 60% - factual information 30% - moderately difficult or more advanced questions 10% - higher order thinking skills 3. Construct the test items. General Guidelines for Constructing Test Items (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2007) - Begin writing items far enough or in advance so that you will have time to revise them. - Match items to intended outcomes at appropriate level of difficulty to provide valid measure of instructional objectives. Limit the question to the skill being assessed. - Be sure that the item deals with an important aspect of the content area & not w trivia. - Be sure the problem posed is clear & unambiguous. - Be sure that the item is independent w/ all other items. The answer to one items should not be required as a condition in answering the net item. A hint to one answer should not be embedded to another item. - Be sure the item has one or best answer on which experts would agree. - Prevent unintended clues to an answer in the statement or question. - Avoid replication of the textbook in writing test items. - Avoid trick or catch questions in an achievement test - Try to write items that require higher order thinking skills. Determining the No. of Items Two Factors: (1) Length of Time & (2) Type of Item Used
Assessment Format Ave. Time to Answer
True-False 30 sec. Multiple-Choice 60 sec. Multiple-Choice HOTS 90 sec. Short Answer 120 sec. Completion 60 sec. Matching 30 sec. per respond Short Essay 10-15 min. Extended Essay 30 min. Visual Image 30 sec.