Assessment In The Classroom: Constructing And Interpreting Texts

Book Cover......Page 1
Half-Title......Page 2
Title......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of Appendices, Tables and Figures......Page 6
Preface......Page 7
1 Introduction......Page 8
Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students......Page 10
The Importance of Assessment in Decision Making......Page 12
Instructional Decisions......Page 13
Formative Instructional Decisions......Page 14
Requirements for Good Assessment Procedures......Page 15
Related Terminology......Page 16
Domain Sampling and Constructs......Page 17
Summary......Page 18
Suggested Readings......Page 19
Descriptive Statistics......Page 20
Inferential Statistics......Page 21
Mode......Page 22
Median......Page 23
The Standard Deviation......Page 24
The Normal Distribution......Page 25
Correlation......Page 26
Positive and Negative Correlations......Page 27
Interpreting Correlations......Page 28
Index of Determination......Page 29
Third Factors......Page 30
Factors that Affect the Size of Correlations......Page 31
Derived Scores......Page 32
Limitations of Grade Norms......Page 33
Percentiles Ranks......Page 34
Standard Scores......Page 35
T-scores......Page 36
Intelligence Quotients (IQs)......Page 37
Stanines......Page 38
Reliability and Validity......Page 39
Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)......Page 40
Test-retest Reliability......Page 41
Single Administration Methods......Page 42
The Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) and Reliability......Page 43
Methods of Determining Validity......Page 44
Criterion-related Validity......Page 45
Changing Definitions of Validity......Page 48
Suggested Readings......Page 50
Formative and Summative Evaluation......Page 52
Criterion-referenced Tests......Page 53
The Role of Criterion-referenced Measurement......Page 55
Measurement Driven Instruction (MDI)......Page 56
Using Criterion-referenced Tests......Page 57
Writing Instructional Objectives......Page 58
Constructing a Table of Specifications......Page 60
Relative Emphasis on Content......Page 62
Determining the Total Number of Items for the Test......Page 63
Determining the Appropriate Level of Difficulty for Items......Page 66
Cognitive/Constructivist Approaches......Page 67
Suggested Readings......Page 68
4 Objective Test Items......Page 70
Characteristics of the Objective Item......Page 71
Advantages of Objective Tests......Page 72
Guessing......Page 73
Testing Styles......Page 74
True-False Items......Page 75
Using True-False Items......Page 76
Writing Better True-False Items......Page 77
Improving the True-False Item Format......Page 80
The Structure of Multiple-choice Items......Page 83
Maintaining Appropriate Levels of Difficulty......Page 84
Avoiding Characteristics That Make Items Too Easy......Page 85
Characteristics of Items That Make Them Inappropriately Difficult......Page 89
Writing Items That Assess Higher Level Cognitive Skills......Page 94
An Example of Higher Level Assessment......Page 95
Cautions About Higher Level Testing......Page 96
Matching Items......Page 97
Suggestions for Constructing Better Matching Exercises......Page 98
Preparing the Objective Test for Use......Page 100
Scoring the Objective Test......Page 102
The Reasons for Conducting Item Analyses......Page 103
The Item-discrimination Method for Item Analysis......Page 104
Item-total Score Correlation Method of Conducting an Item Analysis......Page 106
Additional Readings......Page 107
5 Constructed Response Items......Page 108
Comparing Short Answer and Multiple-choice Items......Page 109
Writing Good Short Answer Items......Page 110
Preparing the Test for Use......Page 113
Scoring the Test......Page 114
Essay Format Questions......Page 115
Disadvantages of Essay Tests......Page 116
The Extended Knowledge Item......Page 117
Application and Problem Solving Item......Page 118
Constructing Better Essay Questions......Page 119
Evaluating Essay Question Responses......Page 121
Suggestions for More Effectively Evaluating Responses to Essay Questions......Page 123
Summary......Page 124
Additional Readings......Page 125
6 Alternative Assessment......Page 126
A conventional approach to assessing a student’s ability to make change......Page 127
An Alternative to Conventional Assessment......Page 129
Concern about the Negative Effects of Using Standardized Tests for Minimum Competency Assessment......Page 130
Dissatisfaction with Existing Psychometric Theory......Page 131
Growing Influence of the Social Constructivist Model of Learning......Page 132
The Rationale for Alternative Assessments......Page 133
Using Performance Tests for Large Scale Testing......Page 136
Suggestions for Constructing Better Performance Tests......Page 137
Safety......Page 140
The Use of Checklists......Page 141
The Construction of Rating Scales......Page 142
The Use of Primary Traits......Page 143
Content-related Validity......Page 144
Modifying the Concept of Validity......Page 145
Variability among Raters......Page 146
Conventional Methods of Computing the Reliability of Performance Assessments......Page 147
Portfolios......Page 148
The Portfolio as an Assessment Tool......Page 151
Suggested Readings......Page 152
Eliminating or Changing Traditional Grading Systems......Page 154
A Perspective for Examining Grades......Page 155
On What Should Grades Be Based......Page 156
Ipsative Grading......Page 157
Subject Matter Areas Where Incoming Ability Level Is Important......Page 158
Reference-to-Perfection-Grading......Page 159
Norm-referenced Grading......Page 161
Comparing Norm-referenced Grading with Other Methods of Assigning Grades......Page 162
Using Norm-referenced Grading......Page 163
The Limits Imposed by the Teaching Setting......Page 164
Combining Scores......Page 165
Summary......Page 168
Suggested Readings......Page 169
8 Standardized Achievement Tests......Page 170
Available Standardized Achievement Tests......Page 171
TerraNova—The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills......Page 173
Norming......Page 174
Validity......Page 175
Teacher-made Versus Standardized Tests......Page 176
Academic Aptitude vs. Achievement......Page 177
Feedback to Parents about Student Performance......Page 178
Using Standardized Achievement Test Results for Making Instructional Decisions......Page 179
Using Standardized Test Results to Make Placement Decisions......Page 180
Using Standardized Tests to Make Evaluative Decisions about Students, Teachers, Schools, and School Districts......Page 181
Summary......Page 183
Suggested Readings......Page 184
9 The Ethics of Student Assessment......Page 186
Establishing What Is Ethical......Page 187
Legal Restrictions on Testing......Page 188
Student Assessment Should Not Be Biased......Page 189
Types of Bias......Page 190
timate Need to Possess Them .........Page 191
Accurately Reflect the Achievement of the Students Taking Them .........Page 192
Summary......Page 195
Suggested Readings......Page 196
Scales......Page 198
Nominal Scales......Page 199
Interval Scales......Page 200
Assigning the Appropriate Scale to Data......Page 201
Continuous and Discrete Data......Page 202
Appendix B: Computation of the standard deviation......Page 204
Estimating Populations from Samples......Page 206
Appendix C: Description of the normal curve......Page 208
Characteristics of the Normal Curve......Page 210
Variations in the Normal Distribution......Page 211
An Example of a Positive Correlation......Page 212
An Example of a Near-zero Correlation......Page 213
An Example of a Negative Correlation......Page 214
Computational Formula......Page 215
Appendix E: Computation of percentiles......Page 216
Appendix F: Computing normalized T-scores......Page 218
Appendix G: Computation of coefficient alpha and KR-21......Page 220
References......Page 222
Index......Page 226