The how, why and when of assessment

5 year assessment workshop

Science Done Right Conference

Teaching

Assessment

Learning goals

Curriculum alignment

When curriculum, assessment and teaching are all aligned with overall goals

Why?

Curriculum alignment is …

“a primary predictor for student achievement in

math and science”Schmidt et al, 2005

Why?

Why? To check progress (teacher and student)

To collect data (SLT and parents)

Summative

Why? To develop independent learners

Students need the opportunity to evaluate and reflect on their own scientific understanding and ability.

Formative

Understand the goals for learning scienceThrough self-reflection, students clarify ideas of what is important to learn. They realise that they ‘can do science’.

"Assessment should be deliberately designed to improve and educate student performance, not merely to audit as most school tests currently do.” GRANT WIGGINS

How?

Practice exams

Transfer tasksQuizzes

MCQ

Extended response

Short response

FormativeSummative

Oral questioningObservation

FormalInformal

Teacher assessedSelf assessed

How? Balanced

Assessments must be consistent with the decisions they are designed to inform

• Assessments are deliberately designed.

• Assessments have explicitly stated purposes.

• The relationship between the decisions and the data is clear.

How?

Assessment needs to be:• ValidThe feature that is claimed to be measured is measured

• ReliableA student’s performance is similar on two or more tasks that claim that use the same criteria

How?

When?• Effective assessment is

ongoing and continuous

• This gives students frequent opportunities to gain feedback, modify their learning approached and methods and observe their progress.