Classroom Assessment: Foundations & Key Factors

Foundations of Effective Classroom Assessment

• Assessment helps teachers gauge progress, identify gaps, and refine teaching methods.
• Assessments are a tool for educators to shape learning experiences and provide support.
• Dylan Wiliam stated assessment is central to effective teaching, helping teachers determine student knowledge and adjust teaching.
• Formative assessment provides ongoing feedback, while summative assessment evaluates learning at the end of a period.

Key Factors in Developing Assessment Tools

• Assessments must be fair and accurate.
• Key factors in developing assessment tools are validity, reliability, fairness, and alignment with learning outcomes.
• Lorrie Shepard highlighted the necessity for teachers to grasp these principles to ensure assessments are meaningful and reflective of learning.
• Assessments should test knowledge and cultivate deep understanding and skill development.
• A well-designed assessment should account for the diversity in Philippine classrooms, providing an equitable measure.

Validity

• Validity refers to the extent to which an assessment tool measures what it intends to measure.
• A Mathematics test assessing problem-solving skills should incorporate complex, real-world problems.

Reliability

• Reliability refers to the consistency of assessment results.
• A reliable test yields similar scores when given to the same students under similar conditions.
• Teachers must ensure test items are carefully constructed and scoring criteria are standardized to address reliability issues.

Fairness in Assessment

• Fairness means ensuring no student is disadvantaged due to biases in test design, administration, or scoring.
• In Philippine classrooms, fairness involves providing language accommodations for non-native English speakers and culturally relevant examples.
• Using Philippine-based case studies can make Social Studies assessments relatable and accessible.

Alignment with Learning Objectives

• Assessments must be aligned with learning objectives.
• The Department of Education (DepEd) emphasizes aligning assessments with the curriculum.
• A science assessment should evaluate the ability to apply the scientific method rather than just recall steps.
• Ambiguous questions impact a tests validity and clarity, leading to misinterpretations
• Scoring criteria needing to be reliable ensures fairness in evaluation.

Establishing Validity and Reliability of Tests

• Validity ensures tests measure intended content.
• Reliability ensures score consistency over time and settings.
• In multilingual classrooms, reading tests should assess skills, not just language proficiency.
• Math tests should focus on analytical skills over English comprehension.

Validity of a Test

• Validity ensures test scores lead to sound interpretations.
• Messick stated validity is based on interpretation of test scores, not the test itself.
• Establishing validity involves expert reviews, pilot tests, and statistical analysis.
• Educator and expert involvement enhances content validity.

Types of Validity

• Construct validity measures assessment of theoretical constructs like intelligence or creativity.
• Criterion validity evaluates predictions based on other measures, including concurrent and predictive validity.
• Content validity determines test representation of taught material, using expert judgment.

Factors Affecting Validity

• Clarity of test items affects validity
• Poor or ambiguous phrasing reduces validity.
• Alignment with learning objectives: tests not matching goals cannot assess learning outcomes.
• Characteristics of test-takers like prior knowledge, language, and socioeconomic status.

Factors that Reduce Validity

• Unclear wording of questions leads to misinterpretation.
• Test content bias can disadvantage specific cultural groups.
• Assessing beyond instruction compromises validity.
• A validity coefficient quantifies test score correlation, ranging from 0 to 1.

Reliability of a Test

• Reliability ensures consistent results under stable conditions.

Factors Affecting Reliability

• Test length: longer tests offer better measurement
• Item quality: unclear items lower reliability.
• Test administration conditions: time limits and environment.
• Test-taker characteristics: motivation or anxiety.

Methods of Establishing Reliability

• Test-retest reliability correlates scores from the same test given at different times.
• Alternate-form reliability compares scores from equivalent test versions.
• Internal consistency reliability measures item consistency.
  • Cronbach’s Alpha is a statistic used for internal consistency.
• Reliability coefficients range from 0 to 1.

Analyzing the Test

• Item analysis involves evaluating individual test items to assess student knowledge and skills.
• Item analysis help educators measure item difficulty, discrimination power, and the effectiveness of responses
• Item analysis helps educators develop better diagnostic tools which provides feedback on learning and instructional effectiveness.

Uses of Item Analysis

• Item analysis assesses effectiveness of test items and the entire test.
• Provides revision insights to enhance validity/reliability
• Ensures test items align and measure learning objectives.
• Helps identify areas students struggle with; allows for targeted interventions.

Types of Quantitative Item Analysis

• Item difficulty measures the facility index of a test item.
  • A balanced test should have a mix of easy/moderate and difficult items.
• Item discrimination distinguishes between high and low-performing students.
  • Items with high discrimination indices effectively distinguish between the students in question.
• Distractor analysis evaluates effectiveness of incorrect distractor choices in multiple-choice questions
  • Good distractors should be plausible for students that do not know the answer.

Item Difficulty Index (Facility Value, the P Value)

• The difficulty index indicates a ratio of students whom answered the test correctly.

Item Discrimination Index (the D Value)

• The discrimination index measures how well an item differentiates between high and low scorers.

Analysis of Response Options (Distractor Analysis) Purposes

• A distractor analysis examines the effectiveness of an item’s incorrect options in multiple choice questions.
  • Good distractors should be plausible
  • Good distractors should be incorrect but not misleading.
  • Good distractors should Have a balanced distribution among lower-performing students.

Categories of Distractors

• Effective distractors attract students unaware of the correct answer.
• Less effective options are rarely chosen.
• Ineffective options are not chosen at all.
• Dysfunctional options attract high-performing students signalling a problem in test items.

Improving Test Items Based on Items Analysis

• Revise items with low discrimination indices.
• Replace ineffective distractors with better alternatives.
• Ensuring that items are aligned with learning adjectives can improve over score and results.
• Before applying new tests conduct pilot testing.
• Use multiple forms of assessment to reduce test bias and increase validity.

Foundations of 21st-Century Assessment

• The 21st-century learning necessitates innovative, adaptive assessments
• Traditional tests should go beyond just pen and paper.
• The Philippine MATATAG curriculum emphasizes the use assessment policies which highlight student-centered/ based evaluation.
• Modern evaluations should reflect how well students understand, adapt, and use knowledge to solve real issues.
  • Assessors should make evaluations integrative, responsive, technically sound etc.

Characteristics of 21st-Century Assessments

• Assessments must be adapted to the diverse needs of learners.
• A teacher modifying an online quiz when students have limited computer in rural Philippines high school is an example of scenario of effective assessment.
• Assessments should allow for varied formats (tasks, projects, digital assessments).
• Assessments should be combined with the curriculum standards.
  • Senior high school students creating a business and selling the project during school events.
• Assessments should be used towards for student learning and improvements.
• Feedback should be provided in the local language (for example Cebuano) in order for learning to improve

Types of Educational Decisions

• Identifying the level prior knowledge sets the scene for placing students in appropriate level of instruction.
• Evaluations can identify school trends based on the result of standardised test.

Types of Assessment and their Applications

• Assessment is critical in guiding instruction decisions and improving student learning capabilities.
• In the Philippines, teachers are to use different styles of evaluation in order to align curriculum to DePed's standards.
• Diagnostic evaluations are given before to prepare for the coming lesson, formative assessments allow teacher to track and guide students, summative allows for students achievements to be determined.

Types of Assessment

• Formative assessment is a method which helps increase instruction for both students/teachers.
• Summative assessment is at the end of the instructional period to test students again the standards.
• Diagnostic assessment administered before assessing knowledge, skills so that teachers can tailor their classes effectively.
• Interm assessments are benchmarks and acts as a bridge between the summative style lessons

Norm-Referenced and Criterion-Referenced Assessment

• Norm-referenced measures how well an Individual performs compared to others in their cohort.
• Criterion-referenced measures personal performance against a specific standard.

Analytic and Holistic Assessment

• Analytic assessment breaks down individual success metrics.
• Holistic assessments assess performances as an over all output.

Authentic Assessment

• This refers to when evaluations measures students capability to use their knowledge in the real time.

Traditional Assessment

• Tradition analysis relies on tests, responses and relies on providing objective assessment measures.

Essential Characteristics of Performance Based Assessments

• Performance allows testers to demonstrate the knowledge learnt.
• Performance checks can also be various forms, including presentations and projects.
• With authenticity students find it easier to relate to their learning and want to engage more deeply
• The use of multiple integrated kills promotes integrates approaches improving overall learning.
• Enhanced student engagement gives students more real world activities to gain experience.

Development of 21st-Century Skills

• PBAs promotes development, communication, creativity which allows people to be successful today and are asses through methods.
• Allows teachers to tailor work to individual needs and interests.
• Subjectivity can make test results inconsistent
• A helpful way to help ease this issue is for Educators to use clear Rubrics.

Applying Principles of Performance-Based Assessment

• Performance allows assessment in which students knowledge can be evaluated through real world applications.

Defining the Purpose of Assessment

• Performance analysis is designed to assess values, skills, real world applications this promotes deeper understanding.
• This encourages analytical and problem solving.
• Learning evaluation can be categorised accordingly skills, knowledge, disposition and performance.

Process and Product-Oriented Performance Assessment

• Perform process evaluations focuses how one can work at a task.
• Performing producted oriented tasks emphasis the quality of the work.
• Good performance tasks are both relative.

Rubrics are an Assessment Tool

• Rubrics provide a structural frame work for what students are trying to archive.
• Rubrics can be split into 2 categories
  • Holistic which assign over scores based on performance.
  • Analytical breaks the performance and allows for feed to be returned.

Rubric Development

• When designed rubrics ensure assessment goals are defined, perform needs are established and try to involve the students in this process to have a transparent approach.
• using rubrics supports fair and consistent evaluations.

Understanding Affective Learning and Competency Development

• Allows for emotions to be connected to the students learning.

Importance of Affective Targets

• Allows for people to build empathy and engage with student.

Affective Traits of Learning Targets is an evaluation which takes in to account student feelings, attitudes and engagement.

• Attitude traits are what motivates and relates to people's academic abilities.

The Blooms taxonomy highlights affective domains that can change hierarchical

• An example highlights the 5 categories which can effect personal growth of character.
• Evaluations should align with the level.
• A good exercise is to encourage respect with different interactions.

Benefits of Effective Learning is a positive effect on development

• Benefits of this kind of learning includes improvements with communication skills for example.
• Building this into educational experience will see them improve over time.

Development of Affective Assessment Tools-

• Good assessment tools promotes educational approaches which supports students emotional and social development
• Teaching observations uses data to gather qualitative info that evaluates student success