Assessment

Purposes of Assessment—did the student learn what you thought you were teaching?

Types of Assessment

·  “Authentic” assessments—projects, observations, checklists, anecdotal records, portfolios, self-assessment, peer assessment

·  Teacher-made tests—paper and pencil (multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer—you know this drill). Playing tests in music classrooms.

·  Standardized tests—you know this drill as well. Norm-referenced (bell curve) and criterion-referenced (e.g., SAT).

·  Performance-based Assessments—some states are moving in this direction, such as requiring children to submit writing portfolios to be assessed.

Test Construction

·  The test needs to relate to the objectives you wanted students to achieve.

·  It should reflect the knowledge and skills students were to acquire and should be proportional (more points for the more important stuff).

·  The type of test item used should be related to the best way for students to show what they know.

·  Length is influenced by how much time you have.

Types of Test Questions

·  Essay—requires more student time to answer. Should be stated clearly and not too complex. The book recommends that you write an ideal response to your own question after you have written it.

·  True/False—Statements should be clearly true or false—not just sometimes or mostly always. Avoid “always” and “never.” With this type of question, students have a 50% chance of guessing correctly, so it is not the best assessment of their knowledge.

·  Multiple choice—This is a stem followed by several alternatives. Very efficient form of assessment. Can be based on a short narrative (e.g., a reading test) or can be free-standing. Make sure the question is very clear. Also, make sure that the stem and the alternatives fit grammatically and that there are no clues such as “an” in the stem suggesting that the correct answer will begin with a vowel. Experts on this sort of thing suggest having four alternates and also keeping that consistent

·  Recall items (short answer and fill in the blank)—these require students not just to recognize the answer but to actually put the answer in. Be careful with what you expect to see on the answer part of this. Some of these can be answered correctly but miss the point you were trying to get. For example, Abraham Lincoln had the reputation for being very _____. You might be trying to get “honest,” but “tall” is also correct.

·  Matching items—two lists and students match up items between them (e.g., capitals and states).

Grading Tests

Once you give them, you need to grade them. Then you have to decide if you want to adjust the scores based on how well your best student did. You can also grade on a pass/fail basis.

Evaluating Tests

More important than grading the test is evaluating what the test showed you in terms of student learning. Look at the range of scores as well as the average. A high average is good if you were expecting students to master certain kinds of information (e.g., scales and how many sharps or flats they have).

Look to the individual items on the test to find out which ones were answered correctly by whom. If no one answered a particular item correctly or if everyone answered an item correctly, there has been no discrimination between the “good” students and the “poor” students.

Then divide the class in half—the kids who scored the highest vs. the kids who scored the lowest. Look at each item in relation to who scored how on it. Any item that has a lower percent correct by the best students should be reviewed for errors.

Also look at your multiple choice questions in terms of which alternates were chosen. Alternates that were chosen by nobody are not plausible alternates, so you will need to rewrite them.

Preparation for Testing

During instruction—help students to know what knowledge is the most important to learn. Focus the learning on critical elements. Don’t try to trick students by testing for obscure information (such as the guy who supplied Handel with his manuscript paper, which is in a footnote in Grout and is an example of a question that was on a music history test I took).

Pay attention to the details of administering the test. Don’t put off printing it out until the last minute because there may be something you have to fix on it. Make sure you have enough copies. Make sure the room is well lit, etc. Also, don’t schedule a test when there is going to be a fire drill. Bring extra pencils and paper. Put a note on the door, “Do not disturb.” Make sure the seating is such that students work independently. Be sure you are actually proctoring and not just focused on your plan book.

Orient students to the testing situation. Be positive. Explain the purpose of the test and how the test results will be used. Let them know when they will get the results and how this will be reported.

If there are special considerations in taking the test, let the students know (e.g., that there is an essay question, so they need to make time for that). You can suggest how much time they spend on each section.

Test Administration

Let students know about the time remaining. Also, tell students to move to another section of the test when appropriate and let them know beforehand that you will be doing this.

Don’t delay the test—most students want to get it over with. Delays just add to anxiety. You can go over test procedures the session before and just briefly remind them on the day of.

Don’t hover, but do pay attention. Tell students not to go to the pencil sharpener but to inform you that their pencil has broken and you will provide another one. Have a policy about answering student questions. Generally, informational questions should not be answered. If you stay in the back of the room, that minimizes cheating. You can also create different forms of the same test if you have a small room.

Formative Feedback

Give students the results as quickly as possible. Provide some overall information such as the class average and the range. Take time to identify common errors and to discuss them. Students can challenge answers, but don’t let it degenerate into an argument.

Recording Student and Class Progress

·  Gradebooks—keep the dates of assignments, type, grade, total grade points for the assignment and comments or notes. Organize it by the way you will calculate grades.

·  Checklists and scales—make a list of students and check off those who can do a particular task (e.g., play a certain scale on their instruments or sing a certain solfege pattern accurately)

·  Portfolios—a collection of student work over time. A collection of playing test tapes would be nice to review across a few years to show progress. A musical portfolio could have tapes, concert programs, copies of music performed, a list of scales mastered, etc. In examining portfolios, look for student strengths and weaknesses.

·  Anecdotal records—write down little things that happen in the classroom. Try to collect these records with all the kids—things you observe them doing, comments they make, etc. These are helpful for when you are speaking with parents. They are also helpful when you are trying to solve a problem.

Reporting Student and Class Progress

·  Report cards—typically you will have to provide a grade for a report card. Sometimes you will also get to provide a comment (although space for comments may be very brief).

·  Parent-Teacher Conferences—a way of discussing child progress. Can happen at any time of the year and you can initiate them (or sometimes parents initiate them). It is helpful to have good records of student work in your class so you can be specific about what each child is doing. Anecdotal records are very helpful here.

·  Narrative reports—some schools use these or sometimes teachers use these when parents are unable to attend conferences. These are written assessments of student strengths, weaknesses, and goals. These are also helpful if the report card is not a good assessment of a student (e.g., extremely hard working learning disabled child who has a good work ethic even if the grades are mediocre).

Maintaining School Records

These are legal documents that the school must take care of very carefully. They contain various types of information such as name of parent/guardian, attendance and tardiness, immunization records, pertinent health information and needs, academic, past teachers, grade point averages and transcripts, standardized test scores, other specialized test reports (IQ), narrative comments from school professionals, information on custody where that is an issue. These are confidential. Comments in these can influence other people who will teach the child, so those comments must be made thoughtfully.

Finally, the information you have about a child can be share with other teachers and administrators but not with parents other than those of that child and also not with other students.