2. Current trends in assessment
Assessment is the process of collecting and analyzing
data for the purpose of measuring student
achievement.
Enables teachers to discover student’s strengths and
weaknesses
Plan appropriate instruction
Evaluate the effectiveness of teaching strategies
Should involve multiple measures
Observations
Conferences
Interviews
Work samples
Formal means
3. Formative Assessment Summative
Assessment
assessment
Continuous and End of an instructional
ongoing period
Feedback on progress Summarize progress of
for both teacher and students
learner
Formal- standardized
tests
Observation records
4. Current Trends in Assessment
Curriculum standards- statements or descriptions
of expectations outlining what students should
know and be able to do at a particular grade
level and in specific content areas
AYP- adequate yearly progress- a component of
NCLB that requires states and school systems to
collect annual data that represent the progress
of students in meeting established assessment
goals or progress
Disaggregated data-scores that show progress
of subgroups including racial/ethnic groups, SES,
students with disabilities, ELL. Goal of NCLB all
students will demonstrate proficiency by 2013-
2014
5. Current Trends –
Standards movement
Standards Movement- education movement
aimed at getting all students to a specified
level or stage.
Purpose of movement – to challenge schools
to improve
Academic- core subject knowledge and
performance
Content –basic agreement of the body of
education knowledge for all students
Performance- what level is good enough for
students to be described as advanced,
proficient, basic, below basic
6. Current trends-
no child left behind act (NCLB)
4 Pillars-
1-Stronger accountability
2-More freedom for states
3-Proven education methods
4-More choices for parents
The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(NCLB), a major reform of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), was passed
by Congress and signed into law by the
president on January 8, 2002
Long term goal of NCLB- all students will
demonstrate academic proficiency by the
2013-2014 school year
7. Current trends in assessment-
high stakes testing
Emphasis on accountability created an
environment of high-stakes testing
Teachers prepare students to demonstrate
progress on tests mandated by their states and
school districts
Creates a climate that encourages “teaching
to the test”
Greater emphasis on reading and math leads to
less emphasis on other subjects
Testing has resulted in higher qualifications for
teaching
8. Formal Assessment
Formal assessment-The use of a testing instrument
based on extensive normative data for which
reliability and validity can be verified.
Standardized tests-a formal assessment that has
been constructed by experts in the field and is
administered, scored, and interpreted according
to specific criteria.
Norm-referenced tests-standardized tests that
measure a student’s standing in relation to
comparable groups of students across the nation
or locally.
9. Formal assessment
Validity- the extent to which a test measures what
it claims to measure
Reliability-the consistency of scores students would
receive on alternate forms of the same test
Grade equivalent- grade level in years and months
for which a given score was the average score in a
standardization sample.
Percentile rank- score in terms of its position within
a set of 100 scores
Stanine- scores are divided into 9 equal parts with
5 as the mean
10. Limitations of standardized
tests
Do tests really reflect what we know about the
reading process today?
Is the test fair to diverse learners?
How are test scores being used?
11. Criterion-referenced tests
Criterion referenced tests- designed to yield
measurements interpretable in terms of specific
performance standards
Designed to match standards or expectations of what
students should know at successive points or benchmarks
Intended to be used as guides for developing
appropriate instruction
Students do not compete with other students but only try
to achieve mastery of each objective
Can make reading appear to be a series of skills taught
Difficult to set appropriate standards- too high or low
12. Alternative
authentic assessments
Alternative-
all types of assessment
other than standardized tests
Authentic- a measurement of a
student’s performance on activities
that reflect real-world learning
experiences
13. Alternative assessments-
informal
Observation-
>Anecdotal Records- written accounts of
specific incidents in the classroom
>Checklists and rating scales-a quick glance
on accomplishments and weaknesses
Conferences and Interviews-scheduled or
spontaneous
Retellings-a student’s retelling of a story can be
done oral or written response
Rubric
Portfolio-enables students and teachers to
reflect on student work to evaluate progress
14. Informal tests- reading skills
Informal tests of specific skills- worksheet type
format
Cloze procedure- a method of estimating
reading difficulty by omitting every nth word
(usually 5th) in a reading passage.
Multimedia and computer approaches-video
recordings, presentations, on-line testing
Informal reading inventories (IRI)-designed to
help teachers determine a child’s independent
(on his or her own), instructional (read with help),
frustration (baffles), and listening comprehension
levels (comprehend when read to).
15. Informal tests- reading skills
Miscue analysis-reading miscue inventory
(RMI) considers both the quantity and quality
of miscues (unexpected responses)
Running records- detailed account of a
student’s reading behavior. Used to record
miscues during a student’s oral reading and
gain information to guide further instruction.
16. Alternative assessment
Subjective- the teacher’s personal biases may
influence judgment
Can be time consuming it takes longer to write
narrative reports about each student than it
does to grade a test
Teachers must know how to interpret and apply
information gained
Collect alternative assessments from multiple
sources
17. Assessment of emergent
literacy
NAEYC- National Association for the
Education of Young Children sets guidelines
and recommendations for assessments that
are developmentally appropriate for young
children.
Marie Clay- Concepts About Print-1st 2 years
of literacy instruction- provides observation
data An Observation Survey of Early Literacy
Achievement – another component used in
early literacy assessment
18. Using assessment to guide
intervention
Teachers use information collected on student
performance data to identify instructional
needs for each student and implement an
intervention plan of strategies to scaffold
student learning.
An intervention plan includes:
What is to be taught
How it is to be taught
What will provide evidence that learning
occurred
19. RTI
Response to Interventions
The RTI model provides a framework for a
responsive classroom where the learning
environment is modified by three tiers of
differentiated instruction
Tier 1- Primary Instruction-classroom level
Tier 2- Secondary Intervention- involves
instruction delivered to those students who are
not making adequate progress in Tier 1, the
interventionist delivers instruction in small
focused groups
Tier 3- individual/small-group instruction-
students who fail to make progress in Tier 2 are
placed in an individual or small group for
instruction by a specially trained educator
20. Assessing text difficulty
Methods of identifying text difficulty include
the use of readability formulas, cloze tests,
and text-leveling techniques.
Readability-the difficulty of written material
Cloze tests-teachers create a cloze passage
from a particular text to determine text
difficulty
Text leveling techniques-a process that
organizes texts according to a defined
continuum of characteristics so that students
may be matched with appropriate materials
21. Assessment is-
A process not an event
Ongoing
A necessary part of an instructional
program
Key way to analyze
strengths/weaknesses
Best done in a variety of ways