ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING 1

Joerigene Odette C. NeriAssessment of Student Learning 1

Mr. Azel ValleLiceo de Cagayan University

Basic Concepts of Assessment

1. Define the terms: assessment, evaluation, measurement, test, testing, formative assessment, placement assessment, diagnostic assessment, summative assessment,portfolio assessment and performance assessment•2. Differentiate between assessment, testing, measurement, and evaluation•3. Discuss the different purpose of assessment.•4. What are the different roles of assessment in the instructional decisions?•5. How does diagnostic assessment differ from placement assessment?•6. Identify some characteristics that differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced interpretation.•7. Compare the different types of assessment.•8.Present and discuss the different guidelines for effective student assessment.•9. Differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced interpretation•10. What are the issues related to the assessment of students' learning.

ASSESSMENT

• assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skill, attitudes, and beliefs. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), the institution, or the educational system as a whole (also known as granularity)

EVALUATION

• Evaluation refers to the process of judging the quality of what is good and what is desirable.

MEASUREMENT

• Measurement is a process of quantifying or assigning number to the individual's intelligence, personality, attitude and values and achievement of the student.

TEST• Test is formal and systematic instrument,

usually paper and pencil procedure designed to assess the quality, ability, skill or knowledge of the student by giving a set of question in uniform manner.

TESTING

• Testing is one of the different methods used to measure the level of scoring and interpretation of the procedures designed to get information about the extent of the performance of the students.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTFormative assessment - Formative assessment is generally carried out throughout a course or project. Formative assessment, also referred to as "educative assessment," is used to aid learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work and would not necessarily be used for grading purposes. Formative assessments can take the form of diagnostic, standardized tests, quizzes, oral question, or draft work. Formative assessments are carried out concurrently with instructions. The result may count. The formative assessments aim to see if the students understand the instruction before doing a summative assessment.

PLACEMENT ASSESSMENT

• placement assessments provide a convenient starting place for determining a student’s level of academic skill mastery within a specific domain. However, using placement assessment scores as the sole data point for placing incoming college students into courses can lead to both over- and under-placing students into developmental education classes.

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT

• A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves. Forward-looking assessment asks those being assessed to consider themselves in hypothetical future situations.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTSummative assessment - Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course grade. Summative assessments are evaluative. The summative assessments are made to summarize what the students have learned, to know if they understand well. This type of assessment is graded and often counts, it can be in form of tests, final exams, projects, etc. These assessments are important because they decide if the student passed or fails the class. If teachers only do summative assessments, the learners will know how well they acquired too late.

TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT• Traditional assessments usually produce a written document, such as a paper, test,

or quiz.Traditional assessments usually take place at the end of a chapter, unit, or course of study.Traditional assessments often use the following types of questions – true/false, multiple choice, matching, short-answer, fill-in-the-blank, and essay.Students are usually tested individually.Students receive a numerical score or grade which often contributes to a student’s final grade.Subject areas are usually tested in isolation.Also known as standardized assessment or summative assessment.Classroom assessment should consist of a balance between traditional and alternative assessment.

PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT• A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that tells

the story of achievement or growth (Arter, Spandel, & Culham, 1995). Portfolios benefit instruction by developing student skills in self-reflection, critical thinking, responsibility for learning, and content area skills and knowledge (Arter et al., 1995). They benefit assessment because collecting multiple samples of student work over time enables educators to 1) develop an in-depth look at what students know and can do, 2) base assessment on authentic work, 3) supplement standardized tests, and 4) communicate student progress (Arter et al., 1995).

PERFORMANCE• Performance-based assessment is similar to summative assessment, as it focuses

on achievement. It is often aligned with the standards-based education reform and outcomes-based education movement. Though ideally they are significantly different from a traditional multiple choice test, they are most commonly associated with standards-based assessment which use free-form responses to standard questions scored by human scorers on a standards-based scale, meeting, falling below or exceeding a performance standard rather than being ranked on a curve. A well-defined task is identified and students are asked to create, produce or do something, often in settings that involve real-world application of knowledge and skills. Proficiency is demonstrated by providing an extended

2. Differentiate between assessment, testing, measurement, and evaluation

• The final purpose of assessment practices in education depends on the theoretical framework of the practitioners and researchers, their assumptions and beliefs about the nature of human mind, the origin of knowledge, and the process of learning.

3. Discuss the different purpose of assessment.

4. What are the different roles of assessment in the instructional decisions?

5. How does diagnostic assessment differ from placement assessment?

• Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide instructors with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed. While placement assessment is designed to improve your chances for success. When you are starting college, it is important to be placed in the right courses. Placement assessment helps to place you in courses matching your current abilities.

6. Identify some characteristics that differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced

interpretation.

• The essential characteristic of norm-referencing is that students are awarded their grades on the basis of their ranking within a particular cohort. Norm-referencing involves fitting a ranked list of students’ ‘raw scores’ to a pre-determined distribution for awarding grades. Usually, grades are spread to fit a ‘bell curve’ (a ‘normal distribution’ in statistical terminology), either by qualitative, informal rough-reckoning or by statistical techniques of varying complexity. For large student cohorts (such as in senior secondary education), statistical moderation processes are used to adjust or standardize student scores to fit a normal distribution. This adjustment is necessary when comparability of scores across different subjects is required (such as when subject scores are added to create an aggregate ENTER score for making university selection decisions).

6. Identify some characteristics that differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced

interpretation.

• In contrast, criterion-referencing, as the name implies, involves determining a student’s grade by comparing his or her achievements with clearly stated criteria for learning outcomes and clearly stated standards for particular levels of performance. Unlike norm-referencing, there is no pre-determined grade distribution to be generated and a student’s grades is in no way influenced by the performance of others. Theoretically, all students within a particular cohort could receive very high (or very low) grades depending solely on the levels of individuals’ performances against the established criteria and standards. The goal of criterion-referencing is to report student achievement against objective reference points that are independent of the cohort being assessed. Criterion-referencing can lead to simple pass-fail grading schema, such as in determining fitness-to-practice in professional fields. Criterion-referencing can also lead to reporting student achievement or progress on a series of key criteria rather than as a single grade or percentage.

7. Compare the different types of assessment.

7. Compare the different types of assessment.

• Assessment can be divided into three stages: baseline assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. Baseline assessment establishes the "starting point" of the student's understanding. Formative assessment provides information to help guide the instruction throughout the unit, and summative assessment informs both the student and the teacher about the level of conceptual understanding and performance capabilities that the student has achieved.

8.Present and discuss the different guidelines for effective student assessment.

• There are seven practices to effective learning, one of them is about showing the criteria of the evaluation before the test. Another is about the importance of pre-assessment to know what the skill levels of a student are before giving instructions. Giving a lot of feedback and encouraging are other practices

9. Differentiate norm-referenced interpretation from criterion-referenced interpretation

• Criterion-referenced assessment, typically using a criterion-referenced test, as the name implies, occurs when candidates are measured against defined (and objective) criteria. Criterion-referenced assessment is often, but not always, used to establish a person's competence (whether s/he can do something). The best known example of criterion-referenced assessment is the driving test, when learner drivers are measured against a range of explicit criteria (such as "Not endangering other road users").Norm-referenced assessment (colloquially known as "grading on the curve"), typically using a norm-referenced test, is not measured against defined criteria. This type of assessment is relative to the student body undertaking the assessment. It is effectively a way of comparing students. The IQ test is the best known example of norm-referenced assessment. Many entrance tests (to prestigious schools or universities) are norm-referenced, permitting a fixed proportion of students to pass ("passing" in this context means being accepted into the school or university rather than an explicit level of ability). This means that standards may vary from year to year, depending on the quality of the cohort; criterion-referenced assessment does not vary from year to year (unless the criteria change).

10. What are the issues related to the assessment of students' learning.