Classroom Assessment (1)

EDU 330: Educational Psychology

Daniel Moos

What do you see? Please do not say it out loud…

Rubrics…• With a neighbor/neighbors discuss (based

on reading):– What is a rubric?– Why use a rubric?– What characteristics define effective rubrics?– What do you think a teachers needs to think

about when designing a rubric?– Questions about designing a rubric?

• A rubric is:–A public declaration of expectations

–A communication tool

–A self-assessment tool for learners

–A gauge for examining performance– Articulates gradations of quality for each

criterion, from excellent to poor

Classroom Assessment: Creating Rubrics

Constructing a Rubric (1):• Identify goals and specific skills you want student

to develop– What are the learning outcomes?

• Determine the levels of performance– Are there levels of performance specific to each

criteria?• “Backward design” (important that learning

activities, learning goals, and assessment all align)• Share the rubric with your students

– Students should have an opportunity to see, discuss, or even design the rubric prior to the performance, project, activity, assignment, etc.

What makes a quality RUBRIC?

• An even number of standards of excellence

• Clear essential criteria

• Realistic number of criteria

• Explicit, observable indicators

• If points… clear to students upfront

• Deliberate sequence of criteria

• High interjudge reliability

• Tested out with students

Rubric Activity• With a partner or partners:(1) Select a student assignment you would like to

evaluate. Here are some suggestions (does not have to be academic):

a.Students must create and bake a pizzab.Students must…(2) Follow the steps of creating a rubric…

Classroom assessment involves two major types of activities:

Collecting information about how much knowledge and skill students have learned/acquired (measurement)

Making judgments about the adequacy or acceptability of each student’s level of learning (evaluation)

Why Should We Assess Student Learning?

Why Should We Assess Student Learning? continued

Summative evaluation To provide a summary judgment of student

performance over time and different tasks Formative evaluation To monitor student progress for remedial or

supplementary instruction Diagnosis To diagnose specific strengths and weakness in an

individual’s learning Effects on learning

To motivate further learning Feedback

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning

Strengths and Weaknesses of Norm-Referenced Grading Strengths

– System is useful for evaluating advanced levels of learning

– System is useful for selecting students for limited enrollment programs

Weaknesses– There are few situations in which the typical school teacher can appropriately use it

Ways to Evaluate Student Learning Strengths and Weaknesses of Criterion-

Referenced Grading Strengths

– Provides more specific and useful information about student strengths and weaknesses

– Promotes the motivation to learn because it holds out the promise that all students can master most of a teacher’s objectives

Weaknesses– Performance standards are arbitrary and

may be difficult to justify– Standards may fluctuate as a result of

unnoticed variation

Lack of consistency of grading

Focus on verbatim memorization?

Focus on verbatim memorization

Recognition v. Recall

Disadvantages

Assess higher-level abilities

Relatively easy to write; Allow for breadth

Efficiency Advantages

Ask to discuss one or more related ideas according to certain criteria

Objective; Ask to supply info from memory; Assess foundational knowledge

Objective; Choose among alternatives;

Assess foundational knowledge

Characteristics

Essay TestsShort-Answer Tests

Selected-Response Tests

How Can We Assess Student Learning?

Classroom Assessment: Testing Issues

Teachers’ test items commonly include many technical errors, such misleading information.   Teachers rarely analyze their items after having given them, and they rarely exam validity.   Teachers reuse items without revision.   Teachers state that higher-order objectives are important, but items are rarely written above the knowledge recall level.   Very few teachers use the essay format in areas other than English.   The short-answer format is most common.