Instructional leardership chpt.8

Assessing Student Learning :
Chapter 8

Definitions
• Assessment -- The process of measuring
something with the purpose of assigning a
numerical value.
• Scoring -- The procedure of assigning a
numerical value to assessment task.
• Evaluation -- The process of determining the
worth of something in relation to established
benchmarks using assessment information.

Chapter 8 : Assessing Student Learning
•All teaching involves assessing and
evaluating learning.
•The word evaluating is derived from the
word “ valoir ” which means “to be worth”.
•How do we assess students?
•Answer : By collecting information and
making judgments about student
performance.

What is Assessment?
The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin
verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’.
In assessment one is supposed to sit with
the learner. This implies it is something
we do ‘with’ and ‘for’ students and not
‘to’ students (Green, 1999).

Evaluation, Measurement, and
Assessment
• At the heart of assessment is judgment, making
decisions based on values.
• Therefore, principals and teachers must make all
kinds of judgments. For example:
#Should we use a different text book for next
year ?
# Will John do better if he repeats the first
grade ?
# Are the students ready for the proficiency test?

Formative and Summative Assessment
• Formative Assessment (FA) occurs
before and during instruction.
• What is the purpose of FA ?
- to guide the teacher in planning and
improving instruction and to help
students improve learning.

Summative Assessment (SA)
•Occurs at the end of the instruction.
•What is the purpose of SA ?
•To let the teacher and the students
know the level of accomplishment
attained.
•It provides a summary of
accomplishment.
•For example: Final exam.

If we think of our children as plants …
Summative assessment of the plants is the process of simply
measuring them. It might be interesting to compare and
analyze measurements but, in themselves, these do not affect
the growth of the plants. (Assessment OF Learning).
Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent of
feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs -
directly affecting their growth. (Assessment FOR learning).
The Garden Analogy

Source : Advisory Committee for Academic Assessment
Office of Academic Assessment
Kent State University

What Do Test Scores Mean ?
• Standardized tests are called standardized
because “ the same directions are used for
administering them in all classrooms and
standard procedures are used for scoring
and interpreting them” (Carey, 1994).

Types of Scores
• Percentile Rank Scores – each student’s raw score
is compared with the raw scores of the students in
the norming sample.
• A percentile rank of 50 means that a student has
scored as well as or better than 50 % of the
norming sample and has achieved an average
score.
• One problem with percentile ranks is the difficulty
in making comparisons among ranks.

Grade-Equivalent Scores (GES)
• GES are obtained from separate norming samples
for each grade level.
• For example : The average of the scores of all the
3rd graders in the norming sample defines the 3rd-
grade equivalent score.

Standard Scores
• Standard scores are based on the standard
deviation.
• A very common standard score is called the z score.
• A Z-score is a statistical measurement of a score's
relationship to the mean in a group of scores.

Stanine Scores
• Stanine (STAndard NINE) is a method of scaling
test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a
mean of five and a standard deviation of two. Some
web sources attribute stanines to the U.S. Army Air
Forces during World War II.

Types of Standardized Tests
There are three broad categories of
standardized test in USA.
1. Achievement test
2. Diagnostic test
3. Aptitude test

Achievement Test
• The most common standardized tests given to
students are “achievement tests”.
• What does it measure ?
• It measures how much a student has learned in
specific content areas such as reading
comprehension , math or science.
• Individual achievement tests are given to
determine a child’s academic level more precisely
or to help diagnose problems.

Diagnostic Tests
• The purpose of diagnostic test is to find out the
student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Aptitude Test
• Both achievement and aptitude tests measure
developed abilities.
• So, how are they different ?
• Achievement test measure final performance.
• Aptitude test PREDICT how well people will do in
particular programs like college or professional
school (Anastasi, 1988)

The Dangers and Possibilities of High-
Stakes Testing
• Principals and teachers increasingly
expected to use standardized test scores.
• So, it requires teachers to be far more
knowledgeable about every aspect of these
tools.
• Example of high-stakes tests:

The Dangers and Possibilities of
High-Stakes Testing
• Because the decisions affected by the test score are
so critical, many educators call this process “ high-
stakes testing ”.
• What is your comment about this kind of tests?
Have they affected you in the past ? Are they fair
tests ?
• What do teachers comment about high-stakes tests
?
The results often come too
late to help them plan
instruction or remediation.

Advantages in Taking Tests – Fair
and Unfair (p.282)
• There are three basic issues :
• 1. Are standardized tests biased against minority
students?
• 2. Can students gain an advantage on admission
tests through coaching ?
• 3. Can they be taught test-taking skills?

Bias and Fairness in Testing
• Research on test bias shows that most standardized
tests predict school achievement equally well
across all groups of students.
• Even though standardized aptitude and
achievement tests are not biased against minorities
in predicting school performance, many people
believe that the tests still can be unfair.

Here are a few example:
• Tests may not have “ procedural fairness ” that is ,
some groups may not have an equal opportunity to
show what they know on the test.
• 1. Language
• 2. Answers that support middle class values are
often rewarded with more points.
• 3. On individually administered intelligence tests,
being very verbal and talking a lot is rewarded.

New Directions in Standardized Testing
and Classroom Assessment
• As traditional standardized tests became the basis for high-
stakes decisions, pressure to do well led many teachers and
schools to “teach to the test.”
• In addition, what is even more troubling, say critics, is that
the traditional tests assess skills that have no equivalent in
the real world.
• Students are asked to solve problems or answer questions
they will never encounter again.
• They are expected to do so alone, without relying on any
tools or resources, and while working under extreme time
limits.
• Real life just isn’t like this.

Authentic Assessment
• In response to these criticisms, the “ authentic
assessment ” movement was born.
• The goal was to create standardized tests that assess
complex, important, real-life outcomes.
• The approach is called direct assessment, performance
assessment, or alternative assessment.
• Because authentic assessment is a new area, it will take
time to develop high-quality alternative assessment to
be used by whole school districts or states. For now it
can be only used in classroom level.

Informal Assessment (IA)
• Is IA a formative or summative assessment ?
• Informal assessments are ungraded ( formative )
assessments that gather information from multiple
sources to help teachers make decisions (Banks,
2005).
• Formative assessment (provide feedback, but not
count toward a grade), saving the actual graded
assessment for later in the unit when all students
have had chance to learn the material (Tomlinson,
2005).

• Grades and high standards have both positive and
negative consequence for students, but grades do
not necessarily motivate students to learn.
• Thus, there is a difference between working for a
grade and working to learn.
• Ultimately, the task of the school is not to identify
talent, but, rather, to develop it.

Instructional leardership chpt.8

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