OSIAS COLLEGES INC.

San Nicolas, Tarlac City

Language
And Literature Assessment

Standards-based
Assessment

Mr. Lyndon Macanas

Instructor
 1.
Adrian L. Brongan
BSED II
July 08, 2019

I. Introduction
What is standards-based assessment?
In education, the term standards-based refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading,
and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating understanding or mastery of the
knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education. In
schools that use standards-based approaches to educating students, learning standards—i.e.,
concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to know and be able to do at a
specific stage of their education—determine the goals of a lesson or course, and teachers then
determine how and what to teach students so they achieve the learning expectations described in
the standards.

II. Vocabulary
Vanguard (noun): a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas.
Inequity (noun): lack of fairness or justice.
Connotation (noun): an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary
meaning.
Benchmark (noun): a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared or
assessed.
Continuum (noun): a continuous sequence in which adjacent elements are not perceptibly
different from each other, although the extremes are quite distinct.
Correlation (noun): a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.
Infatuation (noun): an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something.
Stringent (adjective): (of regulations, requirements, or conditions) strict, precise, and exacting.
Extrinsic (adjective): not part of the essential nature of someone or something; coming or
operating from outside.
Infallible (adjective): incapable of making mistakes or being wrong.
Concordance (noun): an alphabetical list of the words (especially the important ones) present in
a text, usually with citations of the passages concerned.
Plethora (noun): a large or excessive amount of (something).
Advent (noun): the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.
Pedagogical (adjective): relating to teaching.

III. Discussion
Standards-based Assessment
 An approach that compares students’ performances to the standards rather than
comparing them with the other students.
 The measurement of student’s learning performance according to predetermined
educational content and performance standards.
 The standards define the skills and knowledge content which will need to be mastered by
each student in a certain time frame.
 Assessment is aligned to the attainment of standards through the defined skills or
competencies.

The key principles of effective assessment and the common weaknesses of the assessment
systems are primarily concerned with:
 Linkages between outcomes
 Design of assessment tasks
 Criteria
 Marking procedures
 Feedback
(Brown, 2001)

ELD (English Language Development) Standards

English Language Development (ELD) Standards represent the social, instructional and
academic language students use to engage with peers, educators and the curriculum in schools.
The Standards highlight the language needed to meet academic expectations as described
by state, college and career readiness standards, and other content standards
 2.
• Promote and guide students’ English language development.
• Aid in the development of curriculum, instruction and assessment
• Encourage and maximize the use of multiple language resources in the classroom
• Support and frame the collaboration among educators of multilingual learners and
instructional teams who serve them to ensure educational equity for all students.

ELD Assessment
A battery of tests to help ELD teachers determine if students are learning, and when to move
on. 
3 types of assessment:
1. Initial
2. Formative
3. Summative
 Initial assessment consists of the measures undertaken by the teacher to determine what
students already know about a topic or what they can do. Initial assessment is often used
to place students in a particular course or level.
 Formative assessment comprises the ongoing checks that the teacher makes to
determine if the students are acquiring the knowledge and skills that are the objectives of
the unit. Formative assessment allows the teacher to adjust the focus of forthcoming
instruction.
 Summative assessment is the evaluation conducted at the end of a unit to determine how
well the students have learned the content and skills they have been taught. Summative
assessment is often the basis for a report or grade that is conveyed to the student's
parents.

Other ways of categorizing assessment which overlap with the three categories discussed above
include: formal / informal, alternative, authentic, peer, and self-assessment.
• Formal assessment includes written examinations or classroom presentations, and usually
results in a grade. Informal assessment includes observations, interviews and checklists.
• The term alternative assessment is most commonly used to differentiate it from
traditional assessment by pen-and-paper tests. Portfolio assessment is a popular form of
alternative assessment.
• Authentic assessment is the term to describe the use of real-world tasks to demonstrate
how far the student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills that are the focus of
the unit of instruction. As such, an authentic assessment task differs from, for example, a
traditional multiple-choice format.
• Peer-assessment is the evaluation by a peer of another student's work in progress. This is
most often conducted using a checklist provided by the teacher, at a stage where the
student can act on the feedback to improve the work.
• Self-assessment is the assessment by the students themselves of their understanding and
skills. It can take place during the course of a unit (formative) or at the end (summative).
• Feedback is an integral part of the assessment process. Indeed, many types of formative
assessment can themselves be regarded as feedback. Robust research tells us that
feedback is essential to development, provided that it is timely, relevant and action-
oriented.
• Summative feedback usually involves grading according to a set of criteria determined
by the teacher.

Casas (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) & SCANS (Secretary's

Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills)
 CASAS assessment instruments are used to measure functional reading, writing,
listening, and speaking skills, and Higher Order Thinking Skills.
 CASAS scales score reports learners’ language ability levels in employment and adult
life skills contexts.
 The competencies cover language functions in terms of:
• Resources (allocating time, materials, staff, etc.)
• Interpersonal skills, teamwork, customer service, etc.
• Information processing, evaluating data, organizing files, etc.
• Systems (e.g. understanding social and organizational systems); and
• Technology use and application
 3.

Teacher Standards
Importance of Teacher Standards in 3 domains:
1. Linguistic and Language Development.
2. Culture and the interrelationship between language and culture.
3. Planning and managing instruction.

TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages)

TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and encompasses what

used to be called TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English
as a Second Language). Generally, TEFL emphasizes aspects of teaching English in countries
where English is not widely used in daily life, such as Russia, China, France and Brazil.
The term TESL tends to emphasize the needs of learners who will use English in their daily
lives, in addition to their mother-tongue. In many countries, such as Zambia and India for
example, English is used as an official language in government, in business, in newspapers, TV
and radio as well as being the main medium of educational instruction in schools and colleges, as
well as universities.
Good teachers of English, whether they are TESOL, TEFL or TESL-qualified, adapt their
teaching methods, their expectations of students, their teaching materials and their classroom
activities to their local environment and the needs of their learners.

TESOL’S standards committee advocates performance-based assessment of teachers for

the following reasons:

 Teachers can demonstrate the standards in their teaching

 Teaching can be assessed through what teachers do with their learners in their classrooms
or virtual classrooms (their performance).
 This performance can be detailed in what are called “indicators” examples of evidence
that the teachers can meet a part of a standard.
 The process used to assess teachers need to draw on complex evidence of performance.
In other words, indicators are more than simple “how to” statements.
 Performance-based assessment of the standards is an integrated system. It is neither a
checklist nor a series of discreet assessments.
 Each assessment within the system has performance criteria against which performance
can be measured.
 Performance criteria identify to what extents the teacher meets the standard.
 Student learning is at the heart of the teacher’s performance.

The consequences of standards-based and standardized testing

 Test Bias
It is no secret that standardized tests involve a number of test biases which comes in
many forms: language, culture, race, gender, and learning styles.
 Test-driven Learning
When students and other test-takers know that one single measure of performance will
determine their lives, they are less likely to take a positive attitude toward learning.

Ethical Issues: Critical Language Testing

o Psychometric traditions are challenged by interpretative, individualized process for
predicting success and evaluating ability.
o Test designers have a responsibility to offer multiple modes of performance to account
for varying styles and abilities among test-takers.
o Tests are deeply embedded in culture and ideology.
o Test-takers are political subjects in a political context.

Problems with test-oriented culture

 Carefully constructed standardized tests designed by reputable test manufacturers
are infallible in their predictive validity. One standardized test is sufficient;
follow-up measures are considered to be too costly.
 4.
 We ignore the fact that tests may by nature be culture-biased. Test givers are in a
position of power over test takers and can impose their social and political
ideologies through standards of acceptable and unacceptable items;
 We ignore the fact that answers to real-world problems in such tests are in the
form of right and wrong responses and there is no shades of grey;
 Some say language tests are less susceptible than general knowledge tests to such
sociopolitical overtones.

IV. Importance/ Significance of the topic

In order to ensure that the student is given clear and precise instructions, it becomes necessary
to align instruction with standards.
Standards ensure better accountability – holding teachers and schools responsible for what
goes on in the classrooms. The practice of aligning learning to standards also helps ensure that a
higher level of learning is attained, guides teachers in the process of assessment and helps keep
them on track.
Standards based instruction helps guide the planning, implementation, and assessment of
student learning. The use of standards to streamline instruction ensures that teaching practices
deliberately focus on agreed upon learning targets. Expectations for student learning are mapped
out with each prescribed standard.

V. Summary
Standards-based assessment allows us to make judgments about the level of an individual's
learning with respect to shared benchmarks of expected performance, supported by exemplars.
It is a type of assessment which makes direct and extensive use of teachers' qualitative
judgments. It requires external, visible standards for the use of both teachers and students,
defined by exemplars and verbal descriptions.
This type of assessment shows what a student can do in relation to broad descriptions of the
standard, supported by exemplars of expected achievement. Each standard has a number of
components that students need to bring together to achieve the standard. Teachers’ judgments are
a judgment on the work as a whole, as opposed to the result from a single snapshot assessment.
In standards-based systems, teachers improve the consistency of their judgments through
engaging in moderation practices. Moderation of judgments enables teachers to develop a shared
understanding of the meaning of standards and how to apply them in a range of cases.

VI. Evaluation
Test 1.Directions: In the space at the left, write the letter of the best answer.

__1. In education, this term refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic
reporting that are based on students demonstrating understanding or mastery of the knowledge
and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education. 

a. Standards-based c. Formal Assessment

b. English Language Development d. Informal Assessment

__2. This is the evaluation conducted at the end of a unit to determine how well the students
have learned the content and skills they have been taught.

a. Authentic Assessment c. Summative Assessment

b. Peer Assessment d. Formal Assessment

__3. This consists of the measures undertaken by the teacher to determine what students already
know about a topic or what they can do.

a. Peer Assessment c. Formal Assessment

b. Initial Assessment d. Informal Assessment

__4. ________usually involves grading according to a set of criteria determined by the teacher.

 5.
a. Summative Assessment c. Summative Feedback
b. Authentic Assessment d. Formative Assessment

__5. ______ standards represent the social, instructional and academic language students use to
engage with peers, educators and the curriculum in schools.

a. TESOL c. TESL
b. TEFL d. ELD

__6. This is the integral part of an assessment process.

a. Feedback c. Evaluation
b. Grading d. Standard

__7. Which of the following doesn’t fall under the Teacher Standards domains?

a. Teachers can demonstrate the standards in their teaching

b. Linguistic and Language Development
c. Culture and the interrelationship between language and culture.
d. Planning and managing instruction.

__8. This is a graded assessment which includes written examinations and classroom
presentations, what type of assessment is this?

a. Summative Assessment c. Formal Assessment

b. Informal Assessment d. Authentic Assessment

__9. The following are true about Standards-based Assessment except:

a. An approach that compares students’ performances to the standards rather than comparing
them with the other students.
b. The measurement of student’s learning performance according to predetermined educational
content and performance standards.
c. The standards define the skills and knowledge content which will need to be mastered by the
teachers in a certain time frame.
d. Assessment is aligned to the attainment of standards through the defined skills or
competencies.

__10._____ is the assessment by the students themselves of their understanding and skills. It can
take place during the course of a unit (formative) or at the end (summative).

a. Peer Assessment c. Evaluation

b .Self-Assessment d. Formal Assessment

Test 2. True or False

__1. ELD Assessment is a battery of tests that help ELD teachers if students are learning.
__2. Formal Assessment includes observations, interviews, and checklists.
__3. Initial assessment consists of measures undertaken by the teacher to determine what
students already know about a topic or what they can do.
__4. Peer Assessment is most often conducted using a checklist provided by the teacher, at a
stage where the student can act on the feedback to improve the work.
__5. CASAS assessment instruments are used to measure functional reading, writing, listening,
and speaking skills, and Higher Order Thinking Skills.
__6. Formal Assessment usually involves grading according to a set of criteria determined by
the teacher.
__7. ELD stands for English Learning Development.
__8. Authentic assessment is the term to describe the use of real-world tasks to demonstrate how
far the student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills that are the focus of the unit of
instruction.
 6.
__9. Formal assessment includes written examinations or classroom presentations, and usually
results in a grade.
__10. TESOL or TEFL emphasizes aspects of teaching English in countries where English is
widely used in daily life.

Test 3.Enumiration
The key principles of effective assessment and the common weaknesses of the assessment systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

3 types of ELD assessment

1.
2.
3.

The consequences of standards-based and standardized testing

1.
2.

Answers
Test 1
1. a 6. a
2. c 7. a
3. b 8. c
4. c 9. c
5. d. 10. B

Test 2
1. True 6. False
2. False 7. False
3. True 8. True
4. True 9. True
5. True 10. False

Test 3

The key principles of effective assessment and the common weaknesses of the assessment systems
1. Linkages between outcomes
2. Design of assessment tasks
3. Criteria
4. Marking Procedures
5. Feedback

3 types of ELD assessment

1. Initial
2. Formative
3. Summative

The consequences of standards-based and standardized testing

1. Test Bias
2. Test-driven Learning

VII. References
Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices by H. Douglas Brown
https://www.slideshare.net/mfarahnynia85/standards-based assessment