Classroom Assessment in Action

559 Pages·2011·4.15 MB·English

by  Mark Shermis

C L A S S R O O M A S S E S S M E N T
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I N AC T I O N
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C L A S S R O O M
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A S S E S S M E N T
I N A C T I O N
Mark D. Shermis and
Francis J. Di Vesta
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
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Published by Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.rowmanlittlefi eld.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission
from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shermis, Mark D., 1953–
Classroom assessment in action / Mark D. Shermis and Francis J. Di Vesta.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-0836-0 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4422-0837-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-1-4422-0838-4 (electronic)
1. Educational tests and measurements. I. Di Vesta, Francis J. II. Title.
LB3051.S47 2011
371.27—dc22 2010051258
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO
Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
A Note to the Reader: Theory to Practice xiii
1 Orientation to Assessment 1
A Defi nition of Assessment 2
The Components of Assessment 3
Who Uses Classroom Assessment and Why? 4
Policy Makers’ Use of Assessment: The No Child Left Behind Act 11
How You Will Incorporate Assessment in Instruction 12
Your Knowledge about Assessment 14
The Consequences of Poor Assessment Practices 19
Contemporary Classroom Assessment 22
Summary 23
2 Planning Assessments 27
Scores and Their Interpretation 27
Criterion-Referenced Assessments 28
Norm-Referenced Assessments 30
Making Plans for Assessments 34
Steps in Assessment and Reporting 36
Creating Blueprints for Specifi c Assessments 39
Test Blueprints 46
Assessment Modalities and the Role of Observation 50
Summary 51
3 Observation: Bases of Assessment 55
Making Observations 55
Direct Observation 60
■ V
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VI ■ CONTENTS
Teachers as Observers 63
Components and Purposes of Observation 70
Making Observations 73
Summary 79
4 Formative Assessment: Using Assessment for
Improving Instruction 83
Distinctions between Summative and Formative Assessment 85
Formal and Informal Formative Assessment 88
Interpretation of Feedback in Formative Assessment 90
Using Assessments as Evidence of Progress 94
The Dynamics of Formative Assessment 95
Feedback 95
Asking the Right Questions in Assessment 102
Implementing Formative Assessment 105
Designing Appropriate Formative Tests 108
Summary 112
5 Performance Assessment 119
Defi nitions 120
Performance Assessments 121
Behavioral Objectives Redux 130
Creating Rubrics 133
Advantages of Using Rubrics 140
Improving Consistency of Ratings 143
Portfolio Assessment 144
Summary 149
6 Developing Objective Tests 153
Considerations in Choosing a Test Format 153
True-False Tests 157
Multiple-Choice Tests 161
Fill-in-the-Blank (Completion) Tests 172
Matching Tests 176
The Challenge of Assessing Higher-Order Thinking 179
Summary 181
7 Developing Subjective Tests 185
Constructed-Response Tests 185
Short-Answer Questions 190
Essay Questions 192
Evaluating Essays 198
Summary 207
8 Selecting Standardized Tests 209
Objectives 210
Principles for Selecting Standardized Tests 211
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CONTENTS ■ VII
Sources to Guide Selection of Standardized Tests 218
Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print 218
The ETS Test Collection 225
ERIC 225
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing 226
Standardized Tests and Classroom Assessments 230
Summary 233
9 Technology in Assessment 237
Technological Formats for Instruction: Emergence of
Formative Assessment 237
Technology and Assessment 243
Some Available Testing Software 249
Measurement and Reports of Problem Solving 253
Expansion of Computer-Based Assessment Technology 256
Observations 262
Summary 264
Appendix: Resource List of Websites Pertaining to Assessment 266
10 Improving Tests 273
The Context of Test Improvement 273
Item Improvement 277
Testing for Mastery 289
Keep an Item Bank or Item Pool: Putting It All Together 295
Some General Guidelines for Improving Test Items 297
Summary 300
11 Domain-Specifi c Assessment and Learning 305
Perspectives on Subject-Matter Instruction and Assessment 306
Constructivism in Assessment 313
Assessment at Instructional Phases 324
Constructing and Using Questionnaires to Measure Dispositions,
Metacognitions, and Affect 338
Summary 342
Helpful Readings 344
12 Grading 347
On the Nature of Learning in Public Schools 347
Technology Applied to Grading 357
Reporting Grades: The Report Card 361
Beyond Grades 365
Summary 367
13 Supplementary Assessments of Individual Differences 371
A Classroom Model Underlying Assessment 371
Using Measures of Individual Differences 376
Categories of Individual Differences 377
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VIII ■ CONTENTS
Culture as a Source of Individual Differences 378
Measuring by Use of Self-Reports: Assessment of Affect
and Learner Motivations 378
Graphic Organizers of Course Content Achievement 388
Assessment Based on Multiple Intelligences 391
Self-Reports of Preferences: Assessment of Learning Styles 398
Response to Intervention (RTI): A System for
Instruction-Based Assessment 399
Dynamic Assessment: Measuring Change and Potential for Learning 404
Integrating Assessments: The Case Study 409
Summary 414
14 High-Stakes Testing: Policy and Accountability 419
An Overview 420
Policy and Accountability 422
Assessment for Educational Policy and Accountability:
The National Assessment of Educational Progress 427
Assessment in Policy for Accountability: The No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) Legislation 433
Summary 452
15 Assessment and Best Practices 457
Purposes Served by Best Practices Studies 458
Teacher Preparation for Assessment Practices 459
Benchmarking as a Component of Best Practice Studies 461
Best Practices Research 463
Best Practices for Educational Improvement 468
Using Best Practices in Teacher Education 475
Summary 479
16 Test Bias, Fairness, and Testing Accommodations 483
Obtained Scores, True Scores, and Error 484
Student Characteristics and Normative Comparisons 486
Bias in the Construction of Assessments 488
Bias through Question Formats 490
Bias in the Administration of Assessments 494
Fairness 499
Testing Accommodations 502
Summary 516
Index 523
About the Authors 543
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Preface
THIS BOOK EVOLVED because it had to. We had both
been teaching assessment courses to young, enthusiastic
teacher candidates, but had been subjecting them to one
of two kinds of texts. The fi rst kind of textbook arose out of
the traditional psychometric approach. It was chock full of for-
mulas and distinctions that seemed unimportant (or seemingly
irrelevant) to the construction of a fi fth-grade social studies
exam. Sure, classroom teachers need to know something about
the consistency of scores their students receive on the assess-
ments they construct, but mastery of this concept probably
doesn’t require the memorization of KR-20 or coeffi cient alpha
formulas. Yes, classroom teachers should understand how stu-
dent scores relate to a test they just administered, but whether
these teacher candidates need to comprehend the defi nition of
consequential validity is a slightly different matter. These texts
tended to emphasize the content domain of testing.
At the other end of the spectrum were those textbooks that
focused primarily or solely on the processes associated with
assessment. For example, one challenge for aspiring teachers is to
develop expectations as to what constitutes excellent, good, fair,
and poor performance levels for the grades they might be teach-
ing. Would they know a good seventh-grade essay if they saw it?
Should a fifth grader be expected to incorporate perspective in
a pencil drawing? These texts tended to emphasize the relation-
ships between the curricula being taught and how assessments in
those areas might be conceived or calibrated, but sometimes at
the expense of ignoring the actual mechanics of testing.
What we were looking to create was a text that provided a
strong rationale for integrating assessment and instruction into a
functional process, one that offered concrete guidelines on how
■ IX
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