TOBAGO WORKSHOP ON EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENTDay 1, Session 1©JEROME DE LISLE, REAIG, 2013

DAY 1: INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT

PLENARY: DEFINITIONS & MEANINGS OF ASSESSMENT AND ASSESSMENT RELATED CONSTRUCTS/VIDEOS-OBSERVING ASSESSMENTSURVEY/FEEDBACK: WHAT IS MY ASSESSMENT LITERACY-RPLENARY: FORMATS & PURPOSES OF ASSESSMENT/THE ASSESSMENT CYCLETUTORIALS: THE FIRST STEP IN THE ASSESSMENT CYCLE-HOW TO PLAN FOR A TEST/LEADING ASSESSMENTS IN SCHOOLSVOLUNTARY AFTER WORKSHOP SESSION: TEST PLANNING

DEFINITIONS & MEANINGS OF EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

The Latin root assidere means to sit beside (as someone assisting a judge to gather and document evidence in a court of law).

What is educational assessment?

Educational assessment is about evidence and inference.

In all cases it involves collecting evidence of student learning. That evidence may be used to make a judgment for different purposes.

Assessment may be formal or informal and include processes such as observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information on student learning.

The process of assessing

Evidence

Inference

Judgment

Decision

Questions for Reflection

Do teachers confuse evidence and judgment at times?

Under which assessment situations might the evidence we used be scanty or weak?

What type of decisions might result from our judgments?

A definition from evidence based assessment design

An assessment is a machine for reasoning about what students know, can do, or have accomplished, based on a handful of things they say, do, or make in particular settings.

An assessment is more than this, of course. All assessments are embedded in a cultural setting and address social purposes both stated and implicit

A definition from evidence based assessment design

Assessments communicate values, standards, and expectations. Some assessments are opportunities to extend learning. Others don’t even look like assessments as we usually think of them; they look like conversations between a student and a teacher or between two students.

Reasoning about what students know, can do, or have accomplished

A handful of things students say, do, or make in particular settings

embedded in a cultural setting and address social purposes both stated and implicit

Assessments communicate values, standards, and expectations

Words related to assessment

Evaluation-is the process of making a judgment on the value of some event or entity. By convention evaluation is used for programmes, policies, and institutions and the word assessment is restricted to the process of student learning

Measurement-is the process by which attributes are quantified. Assessment may involve measurement philosophy and processes.

Testing is a process in which the skills and abilities of a student is measured. Assessment is broader than testing.

See http://www.adprima.com/measurement.htm

Different aspects of assessment

Formal Assessment

Informal Assessment

Student Centred Assessment

Formative Assessment

Continuous Assessment

Assessment as, for and of learning

Informal vs formal assessments

Informal assessment is an ongoing process that takes place during teaching and learning in which the teacher uses various devices and strategies such as questioning to get a sense of the progress students are making.

Formal assessments are constructed artefacts with a specific focus on a range of objectives in the syllabus.

Student Centred Assessment

Student or learner centred assessment is different to teacher centred assessment because it is focused on the learner and the learner in turn is fully engaged in the process.

Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative assessment is a process in which data is collected on the degree to which students know or are able to do a given learning task, and which identifies the part of the task that the student does not know or is unable to do. Feedback as a part of the process is used to suggest future steps for teaching and learning.

Formative and Summative Assessments

Summative assessment is the process of making a judgment of student learning at the conclusion of a unit or units of instruction, or an activity or plan to determine student skills and knowledge, or the effectiveness of a plan, or an activity.

Continuous Assessment

A continuous assessment system includes both formative and summative assessments used in the classroom, with data or evidence obtained from students over several points during the curriculum experience.

Continuous assessments usually involve externally mandated policy and may be in high stakes public examination systems. When used in this manner, they are also called internal assessments and contrasted with external assessments.

Assessments of, as, and for learning

Assessment FOR learning are formative & diagnostic assessments.  Assessment FOR learning is the use of a task or an activity for determining student progress during a unit or block of instruction.  Teachers can adjust classroom instruction based upon the needs of the students and students are provided with valuable feedback on their own learning. 

Assessment OF learning is the use of a task or an activity to measure, record and report on a student's level of achievement in regards to specific learning expectations.  These are often known as summative assessments.

Assessments of, as, and for learning

Assessment AS learning is the use of a task or an activity to allow students the opportunity to use assessment to further their own learning.  Self and peer assessments allow students to reflect on their own learning and identify areas of strength and need.  These tasks offer students the chance to set their own personal goals and advocate for their own learning.

More Assessment Terms

Authentic Assessment-is a popular term in the US since the 1990s and refers to assessments, usually performance-based, which assesses real life situations or which contain an ill-structured problem. Authenticity is a quality of an assessment.

Alternative Assessment applies to assessments that are different to traditional US assessments in standardized testing (MC)

Performance Assessment is the correct term for any assessment which involves a product or process and in which the test-taker must respond to some activity or task. It is not equivalent to alternative or authentic assessments.

More Assessment Terms

Standardized Testing is a term referring to any assessment which is standardized in providing the same assessment situation and scoring schemes to all students. Standardized testing usually involves detailed reporting schemes and often employs the multiple-choice formats. Public examinations and national assessments are not standardized tests. Standardized testing is not equivalent to high stakes, large-scale, or multiple choice tests.

Focusing on assessment systems

An assessment system is a group of policies, structures, practices, and tools for generating and using information on student learning and achievement. Marguerite Clarke, World Bank, 2012

Effective assessment systems are those that provide information of sufficient quality and quantity to meet stakeholder information and decision-making needs in support of improved education quality and student learning outcomes.

Types of Assessments in Assessment Systems

Public Examinations

International Assessments

National Assessments of Educational Achievement

Classroom Assessments

Different Assessments, Different Purposes

CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

To promote Student Learning

NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS

To measure institutional & System quality

PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS

To select & certify

INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENTS

To measure and compare system quality

CLASSROOM ASSESSMENTTo promote & measure

Student Learning

NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS

To measure institutional & system quality

PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS

To select & certify

INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENTSTo measure and compare system quality across nations

Definitions Public examinations are high-stakes assessments

used for selection, certification, or qualification. (traditionally at 11+, 16+, & 18+).

Classroom assessment includes all the assessment and measurement strategies (formative & Summative (Assessment of, as and for learning) used by the teacher within the classroom.

National assessments of Educational Achievement (National Learning Assessments) are large scale assessments used for monitoring a nation al system or parts of that system.

International assessments are large scale assessments used for comparing performance across several nation systems or within a region.

Examples

Public Examinations- SEA, CAC, CSEC, CAPE

International Assessments- PISA, PIRLS

National Assessments- National Tests, NCSE

Classroom Assessment- CAP

In Class Assignment

Discuss the current Assessment System in Trinidad and Tobago

Highlight the different types and uses made of assessment

Indicate which assessments are given priority

Judge the quality of evidence provided in different components and identify the common decisions made based on the evidence

Explain what you might do to change the assessment scheme