Assessment Tools in Education

Study Notes

Assessment Tools

Checklists, rating scales, and rubrics are tools that state specific criteria to collect data about specific behaviors, knowledge, and skills.

Checklists

A checklist is an assessment tool that sets out specific criteria to gauge skill development or progress.
It usually offers a yes/no format in relation to student demonstration of specific criteria.
Checklists can be used to record observations of an individual, a group, or a whole class.
They are great for both teachers and students.

Rating Scales

A rating scale is a tool used in research, evaluation, or assessment to measure subjective characteristics or attitudes.
There are different types of rating scales, including:
- Likert Scale: measures attitudes, opinions, and perceptions.
- Numeric Rating Scale: uses numeric values to represent different levels of a characteristic.
- Graphic Rating Scale: uses a visual representation, such as a line or a series of boxes.
- Descriptive Rating Scale: provides a description or label for each level on the scale.
- Smiley Rating Scale: uses emoji faces to measure satisfaction levels.

Rubrics

A rubric is a performance-based assessment tool that clearly indicates achievement criteria across all components of student work.
Rubrics can be both formative (ongoing) and summative (final) assessment tools.
There are two types of rubrics:
- Holistic Rubric:
  - Groups several assessment criteria together under grade headings or achievement levels.
  - Evaluates all criteria simultaneously.
  - Advantages: provides diagnostic information, gives formative feedback, links instruction, adaptable, and ability to combine scores.
  - Disadvantages: takes more time to evaluate when scoring multiple items.
- Analytical Rubric:
  - Separates different assessment criteria and addresses them comprehensively.
  - Awards a designated number of points to each part, adding up to the student's final score.
  - Advantages: faster scoring, good summative assessment.
  - Disadvantages: does not communicate what to improve, not good for formative assessment.

Description

Learn about checklists, rating scales, and rubrics as tools to assess student performance and development. Understand how they provide a systematic way to collect data about specific behaviors, knowledge, and skills.