KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY Department of Elementary Education

KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY Department of Elementary Education

EDU 523 Assessment: Issues and Concerns For Teachers COURSE DESCRIPTION

Participants will focus on a variety of issues regarding the assessment and evaluation of students. The course provides an opportunity for in-service teachers to study in-depth an issue of personal relevance in their teaching field. A wide range of techniques to develop skills to address the many components of assessment will be explored, in keeping with Kutztown's model of "teacher as lifelong learner," the course is structured to provide pedagogical foundations, demonstrate various strategies, and examine exemplary materials for use in professional teaching and classroom implementation. 3 c.h. 3 s.h

RATIONALE

Evaluation processes and activities flow through all aspects of school life. In formal and informal ways, teachers, students, parents, administrators, along with district, state, federal, and international institutions are stakeholders in various components of assessment and evaluation. As learning communities work toward developing new instructional delivery systems, the assessment program must also reflect current research about learning and evaluation of the learner. Product oriented materials, such as standardized tests scores and traditional forms of tests, are sources that provide authentic numbers that reflect achievement. However, with the emphasis on process learning, new methods of assessment must be employed in the evaluation of students. Having a variety and range of strategies will allow for a greater number of examples in which students may express their acquisition of knowledge.

OBJECTIVES

Upon the successful completion of this course, the learner should be able to:

1.Identify the problems, advantages, and applications that the assessment process
provides for parents, pupils, teachers, and administrators.

2.Classify examples of evaluation procedures and/or techniques as placement,
formative, diagnostic, or summative.

3.Classify evaluation instruments as criterion-referenced or norm-referenced.

4.Distinguish between tests that are classified as: informal or standardized;
individual or group mastery; survey, supply or selection; speed or power;
objective or subjective; authentic performance or task.

5.Specify appropriate methods for relating testing and non-testing procedures to
specific learning outcomes as stated in performance objective.

6.Identify the essential elements of validity in relation to evaluation instruments and the
results of evaluation.

7.Explain and distinguish among examples of the following types of validity:
Content, construct, criterion-related, concurrent, and predictive.

8.Explain and use the standard error of measurement to interpret test scores.

9.Identify the cultural bias, strengths, and weaknesses of essay, short answer,
multiple choice, matching, true-false, and performance/task test items in
making educational decisions.

10.Indicate which type(s) of standardized test(s) would be appropriate to a given set of
judgments and decisions based on reviews of standardized tests.

11.Explain and apply basic statistical concepts and procedures of test interpretation,
including the following: raw scores, age, grade, and percentile norms, z-scores, T-
scores, deviation IQs, and stanines, mean, median, mode.

12.Identify the characteristics, uses, and advantages of the following types of
informal evaluation: anecdotal records, rating scales, ranking methods, rubrics,
checklist, sociometric techniques, and self-reporting techniques.

13.Identify the purposes for various ways in which formative and summative evaluation
may be used to monitor pupil's progress.

14.Identify and/or describe the procedures, virtues, and flaws of grading with regard to:
standards, comparison with other students, comparison with aptitude, improvement,
combination of referents.

15.Select, construct, and explain the use of various types of portfolio assessment
including projects, learning logs/journals, graphic organizers, observation
checklist and interview.

16.Explain the philosophy of standards based education and describe possible
methods of implementing it.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION

A combination of lectures, exploration of constructs through multi-media, and participant participation will be used to meet the objectives of this course.

ASSESSMENT

Assessment of each student's level of accomplishment with reference to the course objectives will be based upon the following:

1.Participation in classroom projects and discussion

2.Participation in debate on the role of testing

3.Creation of a worst case teacher made test

4.Objective review of a multiple choice test used by the graduate student in his/her
teaching

5.Pre-test on role of assessment, evaluation, testing, measurement in a paper pencil
formal

6.Post-test on role of assessment, evaluation, testing, measurement in a performance
assessment using the student's strongest multiple intelligence mode of expression

7.Oral presentation to peers on a topic relevant to the course which includes a rubric for
scoring

8.Creation of a multiple choice, true-false, and performance assessment based on the
same objective

9.Jigsaw on court cases relative to assessment

10.Jeopardy game format for final culminating activity

COURSE OUTLINE

I. The Role of Assessment in Teaching

A.Definitions of assessment from various citations

B.Tests, measurements and evaluation definitions

C.Basic principles of assessment

D.Assessment and the instructional process

E.Types and use of testing and evaluation.

11.Formal Evaluation

A.Overview of descriptive statistics used by teachers

1.Scales of measurement

2.Distributions

3.Basic notations

B.Nature of validity

1.Approaches to test validation

2.Content validity

3.Criterion-related validity

4.Construct validity

5.Factors influencing validity-sources of measurement error

C.The Nature of reliability

1.Types and uses of reliability

2.Standard error of measurement

3.Factors influencing reliability

III. Planning the Classroom Test

A.Developing test specifications

1.Types and uses of instructional objectives

2.Selecting appropriate item types

3.Considerations in preparing relevant test items.

B.Constructing Objective Test Items

1.Characteristics of multiple-choice and matching items

2.Uses of multiple-choice and matching items

3.Advantages of multiple-choice and matching items

4.Constructing multiple-choice and matching items

5.Critiquing multiple-choice and matching items

C.Constructing Quasi-objective Test Items

1.Characteristics of completion and short answer items

2.Uses of completion and short answer items

3.Advantages of completion and short answer items

4.Constructing completion and short answer items

5.Critiquing completion and short answer items

D.Subjective Test Items

1.Characteristics of restricted essay and extended essay items

2.Uses of restricted essay and extended essay items

3.Advantages of restricted essay and extended essay items

4.Constructing restricted essay and extended essay items

5.Critiquing restricted essay and extended essay items

E.Standardized Formal Measures

1.Characteristics of achievement and aptitude tests

2.Uses of achievement and aptitude tests

3.Advantages of achievement and aptitude tests

4.Constructing achievement and aptitude tests

5.Critiquing achievement and aptitude tests

6.Review of individual, group, sensory, content, perceptual-motor, and
social-emotional tests

IV.Informal Assessment

A.Anecdotal records

B.Rating scales

C.Checklists

D.Sociometric techniques

E.Self-reporting techniques

F.Observation

V.Grading and Reporting

A.Types of grading and reporting systems

B.Advantages and limitations of grading and reporting systems

C.Procedures for implementing grading and reporting systems

VI.Performance-Based Assessment

A.Issues about performance assessment

B.Selecting appropriate portfolio assessments

C.Constructing appropriate portfolio assessments

D.Explaining the use of various portfolio assessments

E.Trends or requirements from local, state and/or national agencies

VII.Legal and Ethical Considerations in Assessment

A.Laws

B.Court cases

C.Pupil records: Collection, maintenance and dissemination

D.Adapting tests to accommodate students with disabilities

E.Making entitlement decisions.

Instructional Resources

Airasian, P. (2000). Assessment in the classroom. NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Batzle, J. (1992). Portfolio assessment and evaluation. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching

Press, Inc. Bernhardt, V. (1994). The school portfolio: A comprehensive framework for school

improvement. Princeton Junction, NJ: Eye On Education, Inc. Borich, G., & Tombari, M. (2004). ^Educational assessment for the elementary and middle

school classroom, 2nd ed. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Brookhart, S. (2004). Grading. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Burke, K. (1994). The mindful school: How to assess authentic learning. Palatine, IL:

IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing, Inc. California Mathematics Council. (1996). Constructive assessment in mathematics. San

Diego, CA: California Mathematics Council.

Dick, W., & Carey, L. (1990). The systematic design of instruction, 3rd ed. HarperCollins. Fair, R., & Tone, B. (1994). Portfolio and performance assessment: Helping students

evaluate their progress as readers and writers. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace. Griffin, P., Smith, P., & Burrill, L. (1995). The American literacy profde scales: A

framework for authentic assessment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Guskey, T. (1996). Communicating student learning: ASCD year book 1996. Alexandria,

VA: ASCD. Isaac, S. & Michael, W. (1990). Handbook in research and evaluation, 2nd ed. San Diego,

CA: EdlTS Publishers. Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. (1993), Educational testing and measurement: Classroom

application and practice, 4th ed. NY: Harper Collins. Kulm, G. (1990). Assessing higher order thinking in mathematics. Washington, DC:

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Linn, R., &Gronlund, N. (2005). Measurement and assessment in teaching 9" ed. Upper

Saddle River River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. Meisels, S., Harrington, H., McMahon, P., Dichtelmiller, M., & Jablon, J. (2002) Thinking

like a teacher: Using observational assessment to improve teaching and learning. Allyn

& Bacon, Boston. Nitko, A. (2004). Educational Assessment of students, 4'h ed. Pearson, UpperSaddleRiver,

NJ. Oosterhof, A. (2003). Developing and using classroom assessments. Person Education,

Upper Saddle River, NJ. Payne, D. (2003). Applied educational assessment, T ed. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning,

Belmont, CA. Popham, W.J. (1995). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know. Needham

Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Rhodes, L. (1993). Literacy assessment: A handbook of instruments. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann. Sax, G. (1989). Principles of educational and psychological measurement and evaluation,

3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Salvia, J., & Ysseldyke, J. (1995). Assessment, 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Company. Shearer, A., &Homan, S. (1994). Linking reading assessment to instruction: An application work text for elementary classroom teachers^ NY: St. Martin's Press.

Taylor, C, S. &Nolen., S. B. (2005) Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in real classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall. Tchudi, S., (1991). Planning and assessing the curriculum in English language arts.

Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Webb, N., & Coxford, A. (1993/ Assessment in the mathematics classroom. Reston, VA: NCTM.

Wollman-Bonilla, J. (1991). Response journals. NY: Scholastic Professional Books.

Revised 08/2005