EDUC 451
Educational Assessment for Classroom
Teachers
Spring 2004
Tuesday, Thursday, 2:00-3:15 p.m.
Room 110 Willard
Hall
|
||
Objectives ||
Readings and Resources ||
Course Requirements ||
Grading ||
Policy on Cheating || Honors
Section ||
Schedule of reading
and P/F writing
assignments:
|| Unit 1 ||
Unit 2 ||
Unit 3 ||
Unit 4 ||
Test 1 ||
|| Unit 5 ||
Unit 6 ||
Unit 7 ||
Unit 8||
Test 2 ||
|| Unit 9 ||
Unit 10 ||
Unit 11 ||
Test 3||
Review||
||
Test construction project ||
Course Objectives
Tests and assessments are an essential part of the
instructional
process. When properly done, they can not only effectively evaluate
but also enhance students' learning and teachers' instruction. When
poorly done, they can confuse and alienate students, distort
the curriculum, and hinder good instruction. Test scores and grades sometimes
affect "high-stakes" decisions about students, prompting
intense concern that they be accurate and fair.
Educational testing has become a national issue in the last two decades,
and tests at the district, state, or national level are now often used as
a tool to improve instruction and hold schools accountable for
the quality of their instruction. These test-based reform efforts have
stirred much controversy. New trends in educational
measurement are also causing educators to rethink assessment. For example,
to
what extent,
if any, should individual teachers or schools shift from traditional
tests and grading systems to "authentic" assessment and portfolios of
student work? In short, testing and assessment is not only important--and
publicly perceived as such--but it is also
in flux.
Recognizing the link between good assessment and good instruction, the
profession has
adopted standards for teacher competence in educational assessment. This
course is designed to help you meet those professional standards. It is
also designed to help you understand the public pressures as well as
instructional need for good assessment.
The course will cover the following general content areas:
- Public debate over tests and assessments
- Relation of assessment to instruction
- Purposes and forms of classroom assessment
- Process of planning a classroom assessment
- Advantages and limitations of different item types (true-false, essay, etc.)
- Strategies for constructing good test items
- Compiling and administering classroom assessments
- Evaluating and improving your classroom assessments
- Grading and reporting systems
- Uses of standardized tests
- Interpreting standardized test scores
My aim is that, by the
time you leave this course,
you will be able to demonstrate the following intellectual skills in each
of the
foregoing areas of
educational testing
and assessment:
- Knowledge (e.g., define and describe different purposes and
forms of assessment)
- Comprehension (e.g., distinguish appropriate from
inappropriate item types for measuring a given learning outcome)
- Application (e.g., construct a two-way table of specifications
for planning a test)
- Analysis (e.g., select key learning objectives for a
chapter on, say, American history)
- Synthesis (e.g., create a classroom test that meets
professional standards)
- Evaluation (e.g., interpret
standardized test scores for parents).
In
short, this course aims to teach you a
set of well-developed
principles and to help you learn to apply them with good judgment.
There is no cookbook for good assessment, just as there is no cookbook for
helping students learn. Both require that you be a
reflective, informed
practitioner of your art.
I encourage class discussion. I also encourage you to share your
questions, concerns,
suggestions, and insights with me, whether via email,
anonymous web
suggestion box, telephone, or a visit to my office.
I
use email a
lot, so
please check your mail regularly.
Readings and Resources
Note: Schedule and readings may be altered somewhat during the course of
the semester.
- Required materials available at UD bookstore
-
Linn, R. L., & Gronlund, N. E. (2000). Measurement and Assessment in
Teaching (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill (Prentice Hall).
- Edupress quick flip questions
- Recommended workbook available at UD bookstore
-
Linn, R. L., & Gronlund, N. E. (2000). Student Exercise
Manual to Accompany Measurement and Assessment in
Teaching (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill (Prentice Hall).
- Recommended supplemental text (for the early
elementary grades) available at UD
bookstore
-
McAfee, O., & Leong, D. J. (2002). Assessing and guiding young
children's development and learning (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
- Recommended website
- www.prenhall.com/linn
This website was created specifically for your textbook. It contains
exercises,
practice quizzes, and supplementary links and other material.
- Three multiple-choice examinations (13% each). Each consists
of 60 multiple-choice questions, some of which are "interpretive
exercises." You will have the full class period for each test.
Each
covers the material covered since the previous test (that is,
none
of
the three tests is cumulative).
I will
do item analyses of scores on the exams in order to demonstrate how
item analyses can be used to evaluate whether test questions are "working"
properly (as well as to identify any "bad" items that should be deleted or
rescored in calculating your test grade). We will go over, in class, the
item statistics for the tests.
- Take-home test on standardized testing (5%). The assignment
will begin by having you read a psychologist's report about a child who
was
tested in the public schools. Attached to the report will be a series of
multiple-choice questions that relate to the interpretation of
standardized-test scores. You will read the report and answer all
questions attached to the report. You will have until the next class
period to complete the
test.
You will have already examined a similar case study and answered
questions
about it, all of which we will go over in class. The take-home test will
be
much the same as that prior exercise.
- Test-construction
project (30%). You will select some 2-3 week unit of instruction
and develop a classroom test for it. The project will be due at the
end of the semester. You may do the project by yourself or in
collaboration with one or two other students in the class. You will get
the same grade.
The test should be for an instructional unit in
Grade 5 or above. (By
fifth grade, most children can
answer the kinds of questions you will be writing.)
The test will include 40 multiple-choice items
and
3
restricted-response essay questions (one of them "performance
based") with appropriate scoring rubrics.
The items will target the specific
learning outcomes (SLOs) that you specify in a table of specifications.
There
should be a least one SLO at each Bloom level.
NOTE: Everything in your test--questions and scoring
rubrics--revolves
around your table of specifications, so pay particular attention to it in
doing your project. Follow
the
Test Construction Directions carefully so that you get maximum credit
for your
project. Also study the
Scoring Guide that I will be using to grade
your project.
You should start working on your project immediately by identifying a
textbook with an appropriate instructional unit. Most weeks'
homework
assignments will involve working on some aspect of the project (outlining
your
learning objectives, writing sample questions, etc.).
This schedule is designed so that you can complete the project gradually
during the course of the semester rather than facing a huge job as the end
of the term.
- Pass-fail assignments for each unit (10%). A pass-fail writing
assignment is due on the second class period for each of Units 2-11.
They relate either to the unit's readings or the test
construction project. The assignment need not be typed, but it should be
neat and legible. A few of them are time-consuming (recall that some are
pieces of your test construction project), so do not wait to the
last minute to see what they involve.
- Cumulative final examination (16%).
The final exam will have the same format as the three prior tests but
have 80 questions. You will have two hours to complete
it. It covers all course material; that is, it is cumulative.
-
I use the plus-minus grading system.
- I prosecute cheating and have won all cases so far.
- Please
familiarize yourself with the University's statement on academic
dishonesty in the Student Code of Conduct. You may neither receive
help from nor give help to others during an in-class exam.
- During exams, you may not sit next to friends, leave the room, talk,
or use
cell phones or programmable calculators. You may bring a non-programmable
calculator if you show it to me before the exam. And please keep your eyes
on your
own work.
INTRODUCTION: WHY SUCH DEBATE OVER
EDUCATIONAL TESVTING?
Unit 1
(2/10)
-
Topics
- Public interest in assessment: history of test-based
reform, performance assessments, national and international assessments,
current trends in educational assessment, concerns about testing
- Reading
- Overheads
CLARIFYING OUR GOALS FOR CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT: WHY IS IT
SO CRUCIAL?
Unit 2
(2/12, 2/17)
-
Topics
-
Goals of assessment: principles of classroom assessment, relation
of assessment to instruction, differences in four functions of assessment
(placement, formative, diagnostic, summative), two standards for
interpreting test scores (criterion-referenced and norm-referenced),
different types of tests (mastery vs. survey, speed vs. power, etc.)
- Tying assessment to instruction: focus on learning outcomes
rather than learning
process, three domains of learning (cognitive, affective, psychomotor),
selecting appropriate instructional objectives, stating general
instructional objectives, stating clear and specific learning outcomes
- Reading
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment Note: P/F assignments are always due on the 2nd day of
the
unit.
Unit 3
(2/19, 2/24)
-
Topics
- Validity as the sine qua non of assessment: meaning of
validity, strategies for assessing validity (content, construct,
criterion, consequential), meaning of correlation, expectancy table,
factors influencing validity
- Validity depends on reliability: comparison of validity and
reliability, methods for determining reliability (test-retest, equivalent
forms, etc.), picking the right form
of reliability for your purpose, two basic methods for expressing degree
of reliability (reliability coefficient and standard error of
measurement), factors influencing reliability and inter-rater consistency,
practical considerations in test usability
- Reading
- Chapter 4: Validity
- Chapter 5: Reliability and Other Desired Characteristics
- Appendix A: Elementary Statistics
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment
TEACHER-MADE TESTS: WHICH TYPES FOR WHICH
PURPOSES?
Unit 4
(2/26, 3/2)
-
Topics
- Tailoring assessments to informational needs:
determining general type of information needed (placement,
diagnostic, etc.), specifying learning outcomes to be assessed (table of
specifications), deciding
which item types are most appropriate (objective items vs. performance
tasks), general principles for constructing relevant and fair test items,
constructing assessments that also improve learning and
instruction
- Reading
- Chapter 6: Planning Classroom Tests and Assessments
- Appendix H: Relating Assessment Procedures to Instructional Objectives
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment
Test 1
(3/4)
DIFFERENT ITEM TYPES: WHICH TYPES FOR WHICH
PURPOSES?
Unit 5
(3/9)
-
Topics
- Short-answer, true-false, and matching items: characteristics
of three simple forms (short-answer, true-false, and matching items),
advantages and limitations of each, suggestions for constructing items of
each type, evaluating and improving items.
- Multiple-choice items: characteristics of multiple-choice
items, advantages and limitations, evaluating stems of multiple-choice
items, evaluating their
alternative answers, avoiding and correcting defects in items
- Readings
- Chapter 7: Constructing Objective Test Items: Simple Forms
- Chapter 8: Constructing Objective Test Items: Multiple-Choice Forms,
pp. 193-203
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment
Unit 6
(3/16, 3/18)
-
Topics
- Multiple choice--cont.
- Interpretive exercises: Uses of interpretive
exercises in measuring complex achievement, advantages and limitations of
interpretive exercises,
suggestions for constructing them
- Readings
- Chapter 8: Multiple Choice, pp. 203-216
- Chapter 9: Interpretive Exercise
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment
Unit 7
(3/30, 4/1)
-
Topics
- Essay questions: characteristics of essay questions,
evaluating and improving essay questions, constructing restricted-response
essay questions, constructing extended-response essay questions,
developing scoring criteria (holistic vs. analytic), suggestions for
scoring
essay questions
- Readings:
- Chapter 10: Measuring Complex Achievement: Essay Questions
- Overheads
-
P/F Writing
Assignment
Unit 8
(4/6, 4/8)
-
Topics
- Performance-based assessments: characteristics of
performance-based assessment tasks, constructing restricted-response
performance-based tasks, constructing extended-response performance-based
tasks, developing scoring criteria (rating scales and
checklists), principles of effective rating
- Portfolios: purposes, strengths and weaknesses, guidelines
for portfolio entries, evaluation criteria, portfolio construction
- Readings:
- Chapter 11: Measuring Complex Achievement: Performance-Based
Assessments
- Chapter 12: Portfolios
- Overheads
- P/F
Writing Assignment
Test 2
(4/13)
EVALUATING TESTS AND USING TEST SCORES WISELY--BOTH
TEACHER-MADE AND STANDARDIZED TESTS
Unit 9
(4/15, 4/20)
-
Topics
-
Assembling, administering, and appraising classroom tests:
reviewing and arranging items and tasks in the test, preparing
test directions, principles for administering and scoring tests, item
analysis procedures
for norm-referenced classroom tests, applying item analysis principles to
performance-based assessment tasks, developing item banks
- Some helpful statistics: rank, central tendency, variability, correlation
- Reading
- Overheads
- P/F
Writing Assignment
Unit 10
(4/22, 4/27, 4/29)
-
Topics
- Selecting and using standardized tests: sources of
information on published tests, selecting and evaluating
published tests, administering published tests, uses and misuses of
published tests
- Interpreting test scores and norms for published tests: proper
interpretation of
criterion-referenced and norm-referenced scores, characteristics of
different types of derived scores (percentile ranks, grade equivalents,
standard scores), appropriate and inappropriate interpretations of grade
equivalent scores, relationships among different scoring systems, guides
and cautions in interpreting scores on published tests
- Reading
- Chapter 18: Test Selection, Administration, and Use
- Chapter 19: Interpreting Test Scores and Norms
- Glutting's Guide to Interpreting Test
Scores
- Hills
Handy Hints on how to interpret derived scores. These short articles
are not
required, but you might like to keep them for your files. They are
excellent for helping you spot (and avoid) common misinterpretations of
different kinds of test
scores.
- Overheads
- Handy standard score conversion tables:
- P/F
Writing
Assignment due 4/27: PLEASE NOTE DUE DATE
- Answers
to P/F assignment
- Take-home test handed out 4/27
- Take-home test due on 4/29
GRADING AND REPORTING
Unit 11
(5/4, 5/6, 5/11)
-
Topics
- Grading and reporting: types of grading and reporting
systems, assigning relative letter grades, assigning absolute grades,
parent-teacher conference, reporting results of published tests to parents
- Reading
- Overheads
- P/F Writing
Assignment due on 5/6 NOTE THE DUE DATE
Test 3
(5/13)
- What
to study for Test 3
- Review session: Wednesday, May 12, 6-8 p.m., 110 WHL
- You may bring a non-programmable calculator.
Review Session
(5/18)
Final examination:
Monday, May 24, 1:00-3:00 p.m., in 110 Willard (our regular classroom).
You may bring a
non-programmable calculator.
Test
Construction Project Due: Friday, 5/21, 4:00 p.m. in
my office
or mailbox.
Table of Contents
Linda S. Gottfredson
219b Willard Hall
School of Education
College of Human Services,
Education, and Public Policy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
(302) 831-1650 (phone)
(302) 831-6058 (fax)
gottfred@udel.edu