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First Edition
‫ﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟ‬

ASSESSMENT IS ESSENTIAL

Susan K. Green
Winthrop University

Robert L. Johnson
University of South Carolina
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Green, Susan, 1949–
Assessment is essential / Susan Green, Robert L. Johnson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-07-337872-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-07-337872-0 (alk. paper)
1. Educational tests and measurements. I. Johnson, Robert L. (Robert Lewis), 1958– II. Title.
LB3051.G673 2010
371.26—dc22
2009012378

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a
Web site does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill, and McGraw-Hill does not
guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

www.mhhe.com
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‫ﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱡﱣ‬
For our students and our mentors, past,
present, and future.

Learning is not attained by chance, it

must be sought for with ardor and
attended to with diligence.
–Abigail Adams
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬ ‫ﱲ‬
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface x Chapter Review Questions 29

References 30

CHAPTER 1 Why Is Assessment Essential? 3

A Broad View: Assessment and Democratic
CHAPTER 2 Learning Goals: The First Step 33
Values 3 Introduction 33
The Key Question—Will This Help My Students Defining and Using Learning Goals 33
Learn? 3
Backward Design 36
Equal Access to Educational Opportunity 4
Benefits of Specifying Learning Goals 37
Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a
Democracy 5 Where Do Learning Goals Come From? 39
Traditional Functions of Schools: Sorting and State and National Content Standards 39
Performance 6 District Curriculum Guides 41
Transforming Functions of Schools: Helping All Children Teacher Editions 41
Learn with Mastery Goals 7 Too Many Learning Goals, Too Little Time:
Assessment Tasks That Enhance Mastery Goals 9 Selecting Learning Goals 41
Promoting Mastery Goals through Assessment: How Do I Write Good Learning Goals? 43
Examples 11
Selecting the Verb 43
The Importance of Critical Thinking 14 Writing the Noun Phrase 44
An Overview of Assessment 14 Specificity of Learning Goals 44
Purposes of Assessment 15 Simplifying Learning Goals 45
Action Research and the Inquiry Stance 19 Student Input to Learning Goals 45
Inquiry Stance 19 Learning Goals, Critical Thinking Skills,
Inquiry Stance and Action Research 20 and Taxonomies 45
Ethics and Assessment 23 Cognitive Taxonomies 45
Do No Harm 24 Affective and Psychomotor Taxonomies 51
Avoid Score Pollution 24 Tables of Specifications 53
Examples from Classrooms and Headlines 25 Benefits of a Table of Specifications 55
Judgment Calls 26 Using a Modified Table of Specifications for
Harder Judgment Calls 26 Test Design 56
Your Turn 27 Challenges in Using a Table of Specifications 56
Final Thoughts on Ethics and Assessment 27 Case Study Applications 58
Key Chapter Points 28 Key Chapter Points 61
Helpful Websites 29 Helpful Websites 61
iv
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Table of Contents v

Chapter Review Questions 62 CHAPTER 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing

References 62 Assessment to Promote Student
Success 95
Introduction 95
CHAPTER 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Formative Assessment: The Essential Link
Ensuring Student Success Between Teaching and Learning 95
from the Beginning 67 Element 1: Make Students Aware of the
Learning Goals and Evaluation Standards 96
Introduction 67 Element 2: Provide Formative Tasks That Involve
Before You Begin: High Expectations and Understanding and Application 98
Behaviors That Convey Them 68 Element 3: Provide Students with Feedback to
Choose Your Sources of Information Close Any Gaps 108
Wisely 70 Element 4: Avoid Grading Formative Tasks 111
Before Classes Start 70 Element 5: Offer Students an Opportunity to
After You Meet Your Students 74 Close Any Gaps 112
As You Begin a New Unit of Instruction 75 Element 6: Use Formative Assessment for
Enhancing Instruction 112
Key Steps in Designing Pre-Unit Diagnostic
Assessments 76 Accommodations for Diverse Learners for
Formative Assessment 113
1. Prioritize Content from Your Learning Goals 76
2. Design and Administer Brief Measures of Case Study Application 114
Top Priority Content 77 Key Chapter Points 117
3. Gather Other Useful Information 80 Helpful Websites 117
4. Analyze Results of Preassessment to Chapter Review Questions 117
Determine Unit Content and Instructional
References 118
Strategies 80
Making the Most of Your Diagnostic
Assessments 82
Accommodations for Diverse Learners in CHAPTER 5 Progress Monitoring:
Diagnostic Assessment 83 Assessment as a
Students with Fine Motor Difficulties 84 Motivational Tool 121
Students Learning English 85 Introduction 121
Students Who Have Already Mastered the Goal Setting as the First Key Step 122
Learning Goals 86
Commitment 122
Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing
Specific, Shorter-Term Goals 123
Attention 87
Students with Literacy Skills Below Typical Formative Tasks as the Foundation for
Peers 87 Monitoring Growth 124
Students Who Lack Familiarity with U.S. School Two Approaches to Progress Monitoring 126
Culture 87 Mastery Monitoring 126
Final Thoughts on Accommodation for Diagnostic General Outcome Measurement 129
Assessment 89
Issues to Consider: Progress Monitoring 134
Case Study Application 89 Summarizing Data for Groups 136
Key Chapter Points 91 Frequency Distributions 136
Helpful Websites 91 Measures of Central Tendency 138
Chapter Review Questions 92 Building a Useful Table: An Analysis and
References 92 Communication Tool 139
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vi Table of Contents

Disaggregation Uncovers Hidden Trends 144 CHAPTER 7 Teacher-Made Assessments:

Case Study Application 145 Multiple-Choice and Other
Key Chapter Points 149
Selected-Response Items 185
Helpful Websites 149 Introduction 185
Chapter Review Questions 149 Aligning Items with Learning Goals and
References 151 Thinking Skills 186
Selected-Response Formats 186
Multiple-Choice Formats 186

CHAPTER 6 Essential Characteristics True-False Formats 189

of Assessment 153 Matching Formats 190
Interpretive Exercises and Assessing Higher-Level
Introduction 153 Cognitive Levels 191
Reliability: Are We Getting Consistent Guidelines for Item Development 194
Information? 154 General Guidelines for All Selected-Response Formats 195
Sources of Error 154
Guidelines for Specific Item Formats 204
Sufficiency of Information 157
Pitfalls to Avoid: Top Challenges in Designing
Improving Reliability in Classroom Selected-Response Items 213
Assessments 157
Constructing the Assessment 213
Validity: Will Scores Support Us in Making
The Value of Student-Generated Items and Critical
Good Decisions? 159
Thinking 216
Importance of Purpose in Considering Validity 159
Accommodations for Diverse Learners: Selected-
Evidence for Validity 160
Response Items 217
Improving Validity in Classroom Students with Fine Motor Difficulties 217
Assessments 167
Students with Sensory Challenges 217
Relationship Between Reliability and Students Learning English 217
Validity 168
Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning
Avoiding Bias in Assessments 168 Goals 219
Unfair Penalization 169 Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing Attention 219
Opportunity to Learn 170 Students with Literacy Skills Below Those of
Teacher Bias 171 Typical Peers 219
Representing the Diversity of the Classroom 174 Students Who Lack Familiarity with School Culture 219
Stereotypical Representation 174 Case Study Application 220
Contextual Invisibility 176 Key Chapter Points 221
Historical Distortions 176 Helpful Websites 221
Keeping the Three Democratic Values Chapter Review Questions 222
in Mind 177 References 222
Equal Access to Educational Opportunity 177
Skills for Democratic Participation 178
Development of Critical Thinking Skills 178 CHAPTER 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short
Case Study Application 178 Answer and Essay 225
Key Chapter Points 181 Introduction 225
Helpful Websites 181 Aligning Items with Learning Goals and
Chapter Review Questions 181 Thinking Skills 226
References 183 Constructed-Response Formats 226
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Table of Contents vii

Short-Answer Formats 226 Scoring the Assessment 274

Essay Formats 227 Weighting Performance Criteria 276
Guidelines for Item Development 230 Attaching a Grade Scale 276
General Guidelines for All Constructed-Response Pitfalls to Avoid: Top Challenges in Performance
Formats 230 Assessments 278
Guidelines for Specific Item Formats 232 Keep the Task Related to Learning Goals 278
Constructing the Assessment 242 Provide Practice Before Assigning the Task 279
Scoring the Assessment 242 Limit the Number of Performance Criteria in
Scoring Short Answers 242 the Rubric 279
Scoring Essays 242 The Value of Student-Generated Items and
Developing a Scoring Guide 248 Critical Thinking 279
Factors Contributing Error to Essay Scores 251 Accommodations for Diverse Learners:
Performance Tasks 280
Pitfalls to Avoid: Top Common Challenges
in Constructed-Response Items and Students with Fine Motor Difficulties 281
Scoring Guides 253 Students with Sensory Challenges 282
Essay Pitfalls 253 Students Learning English 282
Scoring Guide Pitfalls 254 Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning
Goals 282
The Value of Student-Generated Items and
Critical Thinking 255 Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing Attention 282
Students with Literacy Skills Below Those of Typical
Accommodations for Diverse Learners:
Peers (e.g., Learning Disability) 282
Constructed-Response Items 255
Students Who Lack Familiarity with School Culture 283
Case Study Application 256
Case Study Application 283
Key Chapter Points 258
Key Chapter Points 286
Helpful Websites 259
Helpful Websites 287
Chapter Review Questions 259
Chapter Review Questions 287
References 288
CHAPTER 9 Teacher-Made Assessments:
Performance Assessments 263
Introduction 263
CHAPTER 10 Grading and Communicating
About Student Achievement 291
Aligning Items with Learning Goals and
Thinking Skills 264 Introduction 291
When to Use Performance Assessments 265 Why Does Grading Cause So Many Problems? 291
Advantages and Disadvantages of Performance Advocate Versus Evaluator 292
Assessments 266 Symbolic Value of Grades 293
Guidelines for Task Development 266 Lack of Agreement on the Judgment Process 294
Specify the Understanding and Skills to Ambiguous Meaning of Grades 294
Be Addressed 266 The Grading Decision Process 295
Build Meaningfulness into the Task 268 Follow School District Grading Policy 296
Determine the Response Format 270 Base Grading on Summative Assessments 296
Consider the Materials and the Resources Required 272 Ensure Quality of Assessment 297
Address the Degree of Structure for a Task 272 Involve Students 298
Monitor the Reading Demands 272 Weigh Recent and Consistent Performance Most
Address Logistics in Task Directions 272 Heavily 299
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viii Table of Contents

Avoid Unduly Weighting Factors Unrelated to Preparation for Tests 338

Mastery of the Learning Goals 300 Administration of Large-Scale Tests 340
Avoid Using Grades as Rewards and Punishments 304 Large-Scale Test Accommodations for Diverse
Review Borderline Cases Carefully 304 Learners 341
A Special Case: Students with Disabilities 305 Reliability and Validity in Large-Scale Tests 342
Grading as a Skill 306 Reliability 342
Types of Grading Approaches 306 Validity 343
Basis for Comparison 306 Interpreting Norm-Referenced Tests 343
Types of Summarizing Systems 307 Foundational Issues in Interpretation of Test Scores 344
Portfolios and Communicating About Importance of the Norm Group 344
Achievement 309 Comparing the Individual to the Norm Group 346
Portfolio Purposes 309
Interpreting Criterion-Referenced Tests 350
Implementation Issues 312
Interpreting Large-Scale Tests for Students and
Portfolio Advantages and Limitations 317 Parents 350
Key Chapter Points 318 Explain Purpose and Content 351
Helpful Websites 318 Explain the Basis for Comparison 351
Chapter Review Questions 319 Explain the Influence of Error on Scores 351
References 319 Choose One Type of Score to Explain All Parts of
the Test 352
Put the Scores in the Larger Context 352
CHAPTER 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests Work as Partners to Determine the Next Steps 353
and the Classroom 323 Using Large-Scale Test Results in the
Classroom 353
Introduction 323
Key Chapter Points 354
Definitions Related to Large-Scale Standardized
Testing 324 Helpful Websites 355
Criterion-Referenced Scoring and Norm-Referenced Chapter Review Questions 355
Scoring 324 References 356
Achievement Tests and Aptitude Tests 326
Misconceptions Related to Large-Scale Testing 327
CHAPTER 12 Tying It All Together 359
Misconception 1. Obtained Score Represents the
True Score 328 Introduction 359
Misconception 2. Only Commercially Published Six Essential Guidelines 359
Multiple-Choice Tests Can Be Standardized 328
Guideline 1: Begin with the End in Mind 360
Misconception 3. Norm-Referenced Tests Compare
People Who Took the Test at the Same Time 332 Guideline 2: Find Out What Students Know 362

Misconception 4. Standardized Tests with Multiple- Guideline 3: Check as You Go 362

Choice Formats Address Basic Facts Only 332 Guideline 4: Teach Students to Check as You Go 363
Misconception 5: Using Large-Scale Tests to Address Guideline 5: Use Rubrics to Reinforce Attainment of the
Individual Student Needs 332 Learning Goals 363
Benefits and Pitfalls of Large-Scale Assessments 333 Guideline 6: Assess Yourself 364
Comparisons 333 Assessment Effectiveness and Efficiency 365
Curriculum Concerns 334 Choose Assessment Opportunities Selectively 366
Addressing Improvement 336 Selectively Analyze Student Work 366
Preparation for and Administration of Carefully Target the Feedback You Provide 367
Large-Scale Tests 337 Build in Time for Self- and Peer Review 368
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Table of Contents ix

Structure Record Keeping to Encourage Student Now It’s Your Turn: Setting Personal Goals for
Self-Monitoring 368 Classroom Assessment 383
Develop an “Assessment Bank” 369 Personal Goal-Setting Steps 383
Enlist Students in Assessment Design 370 Key Chapter Points 385
Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Chapter Review Questions 385
Classroom Examples 370
Helpful Websites 386
Center for Inquiry 371
References 386
Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) 375
Key to Assessment in the Context of Democratic Glossary 388
Participation 380
Index 392
Formative Assessment and Equal Access 381
Formative Assessment and Self-Governing Skills 381
Formative Assessment and Critical Thinking 381
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬ ‫ﱲ‬
PREFACE

ssessment Is Essential is designed for teacher candidates and practicing teachers.

A The text can be used for a course that addresses classroom assessment as a major
component or in a standalone assessment course. The level of this course varies with
different programs, but the text is accessible to candidates at all levels in their teacher
education program. Because of its practical focus and numerous examples, it is also
intended for continued use as a reference guide for practicing teachers.
The text describes key elements of quality assessment and provides many exam-
ples from classroom contexts to ensure accessibility for teachers and teacher candi-
dates with varying amounts of experience. These discussions and examples aim to
help them grasp that assessment is an integral part of instruction impacting student
motivation and central to improving teaching and learning. This text fills an impor-
tant gap by drawing the reader into a new mindset that places assessment at the
forefront of teaching.
A key assumption guiding our work is that instructors of this course will be
preparing teacher candidates to demonstrate their impact on P–12 learners, as well as
to carry this capability into their classrooms as practicing teachers. This perspective
dovetails with current National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
(NCATE) guidelines for accreditation that require teacher candidates’ documentation
of this capability. Implementing these guidelines requires candidates to develop com-
petencies in classroom assessment, as well as facility in interpreting these data to
enhance learning. To address these assessment needs, an additional groundbreaking
chapter is included, describing methods for determining student academic progress
across time for individuals, classes, and disaggregated groups.
A second assumption guiding this text is that assessment should also be looked
upon as a process for developing skills that contribute to the mission of educating
students in a democracy. The National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER), a
supporter of this series of texts, promotes several core principles as part of this mis-
sion. These include providing students with the skills to become fully engaged par-
ticipants in a democratic society, providing equal access to quality learning for all
students, and continual renewal of educational institutions. As part of the series, this
text shows how these principles can be lived in the concrete reality of the classroom,
and they provide teacher candidates with a thoughtful answer to the “Why are we
doing this?” question about classroom assessment. By addressing the why of assess-
ment, we believe teachers will be more inclined to make good assessment an integral
part of their teaching.
To elaborate, our first theme is that schools must teach children skills to be
active participants in a democracy. Schools are the only public institution expected
to teach children to value and take part in our democratic society. Producing a well-
informed citizenry requires cultivating students who take responsibility for their own
learning in school and beyond. Taking on this responsibility involves development of

x
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Preface xi

self-governing skills such as setting goals and working toward them, taking the initia-
tive to gather and analyze information, and critically applying appropriate standards
to one’s own work.
Many teacher candidates do not realize the power their assessment can have to
transform students into active learners and critical thinkers. We discuss assessment
methods that can be employed to help students to internalize criteria for optimal per-
formance and to set their own goals. For example, students who regularly help design
rubrics or other evaluation criteria for their work are more likely to become active,
independent learners.
Similarly, other assessment practices we describe can also motivate students to
internalize the desire to learn and take charge of their own learning, particularly when
they can reflect on and keep track of the skills they have mastered in a systematic way
by using graphs, journals, or portfolios. These kinds of activities can lead to student
confidence and judgment that can be showcased and reinforced by such practices as
setting aside time for student authors to share strategies they have found helpful so
that other students can learn from them, among others.
A second major way to use assessment for promoting participation in a democ-
racy is teaching students to think critically. A key element for promoting critical
thinking is replacing assessments that merely measure rote knowledge with assess-
ments that engage students in critical thinking. Each chapter addressing assessment
design includes practical ways to get beyond measurement of facts. Methods for
developing thoughtful questions and classroom discourse, application of concepts to
new situations, and synthesis of information from many sources are stressed because
they are essential aspects of equipping students with critical thinking skills for active
engagement in democracy.
Third, the text emphasizes ways that assessment can be used to reduce barriers
to providing equal access to knowledge for all students. All people, regardless of
family background, have a right to equal access to education as the source of equal
opportunity. Efforts to provide equal education to all students regardless of their
demographic origins are currently inadequate, particularly for poor and minority
children. Students who lag behind in reading in their early elementary years, for
example, predictably get further and further behind as they progress through
school.
Specific assessment techniques are described in the text to help teachers assist
lower-achieving students. As a first step, methods for disaggregating and analyzing
assessment results are presented to provide the means for exposing achievement
gaps, because a key to teaching for equal access to knowledge is awareness of dif-
ferential performance of subgroups of students. Formative assessment is described
in terms of concrete teacher actions, such as strategically administered “quick
writes,” to let a teacher know who has and who has not mastered a concept, allow-
ing for additional instruction if needed. Setting goals and tracking progress toward
them across time with graphs is another featured technique that has been shown to
help struggling learners catch up. For equal opportunity to materialize, these strat-
egies to ameliorate the achievement gap must be incorporated into classroom
assessment.
The marginalization or negative portrayal of underrepresented groups in assess-
ment can engender other barriers to equal access to knowledge. For example, to estab-
lish a context for an assessment, multiple-choice items and performance tasks often use
narrative and art to portray people in their physical appearance, dress, environment,
and activities. These portrayals may bring a multicultural perspective to instruction and
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xii Preface

assessment, or they may promote biases. Helping teachers represent the diversity of the
classroom and avoid stereotypical representations and other forms of bias in their
assessments is an important component of fair assessment. This text emphasizes ways
teachers can discover and address inequities and provide equal access to knowledge for
all students.
Finally, teachers must be critical thinkers able to evaluate alternative points
of view effectively while keeping in mind the goals of education in a democracy
and ongoing educational renewal for themselves and their schools. They must also
serve as models of critical thinking for their students. The importance of critical
thinking and exercising good judgment when designing and choosing assessment
is stressed, particularly in a section on using action research with assessment data
as a tool for the reflective practitioner. Additionally, discussions of interpreting and
using assessment, issues of ensuring fairness in assessment, and an ongoing focus
on ethics and assessment all highlight the importance of critical thinking for
teachers in their role as models of democratic values and agents of educational
renewal.
Several other innovative features of this text are notable:
• Discussions of specific accommodations for students with several characteristics
(e.g., short attention span, learning English, lower reading skills) are provided
for each type of assessment design (e.g., multiple choice, essay, performance
assessment). This placement allows for more explicit recommendations tailored
to type of assessment and type of student need rather than a chapter with
abstract suggestions spanning all assessment types. It also promotes the “equal
access” theme.
• Each chapter describing assessment design includes a section detailing the five
most common errors made by novices when first attempting to devise that type
of assessment. This feature assists students in separating major issues from minor
details and helps prevent information overload.
• As an additional aid to understanding, case studies describing three teachers’
instructional units, one for elementary science, one for middle level math, and
one for high school English, make concrete the ideas about assessment presented
in each chapter. They are carried throughout the text, providing continuity across
chapters and tangible applications of key themes. At the end of each relevant
chapter, examples from one of these case studies are described to provide context
and concrete illustrations of major assessment concepts.
• A practical section on ethics and assessment in the first chapter focuses on basic
principles connected to classroom practices, with “ethics alerts” throughout the
text to tie ethics to common occurrences in relevant contexts.
• A final chapter pulls together themes from the text and creates a vision of
assessment excellence for teachers. The chapter proposes six key guidelines for
assessment that foster equal access to knowledge, promotion of self-governing
skills, and development of critical thinking. These are illustrated by descriptions
of assessment practices at two schools with contrasting teaching philosophies.
This chapter also provides practical suggestions for efficient use of assessment
and for setting goals related to assessment practices so that teacher candidates
have specific, concrete ideas to apply immediately in their classrooms.
We hope this book will inspire future teachers to discover all the ways their
classroom assessment can help them achieve their goals in preparing knowledgeable,
discerning, active students ready to take their place in a democratic society.
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Preface xiii

Acknowledgments
This book has been a collaborative effort, not only between the two of us, but also with
numerous colleagues across university and public school settings. We gratefully
acknowledge the willingness of the following people to have dialogues with us about
classroom assessment and to share their hard-earned expertise based on countless
years of working with students of all ages: Kelley Adams, A. J. Angulo, Angela Black,
Barbara Blackburn, Keith Burnam, Bob Cattoche, Susan Chapman, Stevie Chepko,
Tracie Clinton, Beth Costner, Sharon Craddock, Susan Creighton, Olive Crews, Denise
Derrick, Minta Elsman, Caroline Everington, Rebecca Evers, Chris Ferguson, Tiffany
Flowers, Rodney Grantham, Meghan Gray, Stephen Gundersheim, Connie Hale, Gloria
Ham, Lisa Harris, Frank Harrison, Jo Ellen Hertel, Lisa Johnson, Marshall Jones, Shannon
Knowles, Carol Marchel, Stephanie Milling-Robbins, Heidi Mills, Debi Mink, Mark
Mitchell, Carmen Nazario, Marg Neary, Tonya Moon, Tim O’Keefe, Linda Pickett,
Aaron Pomis, Nakia Pope, Frank Pullano, Jim Ross, Kevina Satterwhite, Jesse Schlicter,
Elke Schneider, Seymour Simmons, Julian Smith III, Tracy Snow, Dana Stachowiak,
Tenisha Tolbert, Carol Tomlinson, Jonatha Vare, Enola West, Jane White, Brad Witzel,
and Karen Young.
We want to express our appreciation to the South Carolina Department of Edu-
cation (SCDE) for sharing examples of assessment items. We also thank Scott Hockman
at the SCDE and Ching Ching Yap at the University of South Carolina for the use of
items from the South Carolina Arts Assessment Program.
Our students have also contributed important insights and examples that have
helped us convey some of the important principles and concepts in classroom assess-
ment. They have taught us much about teaching and learning. We want, in particular,
to thank Angie Alexander, Laura Clark, Leslie Drews, Graham Hayes, Lynn McCarter,
Laura McFadden, Krystle McHoney, Maria Mensick, Diana Mîndrilă, Grant Morgan,
Meredith Reid, and Elizabeth Schaefer. The influence of countless other unnamed stu-
dents is also present throughout this book.
As we developed Assessment Is Essential, we received valuable feedback from
faculty who prepare teacher candidates to implement classroom strategies in their
classrooms. The reviews were constructive and guided our fine-tuning of the chapters.
We want to thank the following reviewers:

Robert Carpenter, Eastern Michigan University

Irene Linlin Chen, Ed.D., University of Houston Downtown
Ann Dargon, Ed.D., Stonehill College, MA
Margaret Golden, Ed.D., Dominican University of California
Jessica N. Gomel, Ph.D., California State University, Fullerton
Dennis M. Holt, Ph.D., University of North Florida
Jason Jiandani, Northern Illinois University
David W. McMullen, Ph.D., Bradley University, IL
Naomi Jefferson Petersen, Ed.D., Central Washington University
Glenn E. Snelbecker, Ph.D., Temple University, PA
Dr. Neal H. Schnoor, University of Nebraska, Kearney
Ahmed M. Sultan, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Michael S. Trevisan, Washington State University, Pullman
John Venn, Ph.D., University of North Florida
Rhea Walker, Ph.D., Winona State University, MN

We also want to thank the public school educators who diligently read drafts
of most or all of our chapters with an eye toward helping us keep them sensible and
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xiv Preface

useful for practicing teachers: Bob Cattoche, Jo Ellen Hertel, and Dana Stachowiak.
Nick Mills also read several chapters, enhanced our logic and organization, and
provided important suggestions from a college student perspective. Finally, we want
to single out William Mills for special appreciation. He edited every draft of every
chapter, helped us maintain our vision, provided moral support, and made countless
suggestions that improved our efforts to communicate our conviction that assess-
ment is essential.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬ ‫ﱲ‬
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Susan K. Green is currently a professor of educational psychology in the Richard

W. Riley College of Education at Winthrop University. She teaches classroom assess-
ment and educational psychology, and she collaborates with teachers in local public
schools as part of professional development school initiatives. She brings to educa-
tion a point of view shaped by expertise and experience in basic and applied psychol-
ogy. She served as a school psychologist in Oregon and South Carolina for 10 years,
focusing on academic interventions to enhance student achievement. She earlier
taught introductory and social psychology for 10 years at George Washington Uni-
versity in Washington, DC. She holds Ph.D.’s in social psychology and in educational
psychology and research. Her research interests include classroom assessment, strat-
egies to enhance student achievement, applications of theories of learning and moti-
vation in classrooms, and other aspects of applied psychology.

Dr. Robert L. Johnson is an associate professor of applied measurement at the Uni-

versity of South Carolina, where he teaches courses in classroom assessment and survey
design. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.
Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Robert was an elementary teacher. During his 13 years
in the public schools, he taught language arts and mathematics. Robert conducts
research on ethics in classroom assessment practices and on the scoring of essays and
portfolios. He is lead author of Assessing Performance: Developing, Scoring, and Validating
Performance Tasks, and co-author of Put to the Test: Tools and Techniques for Classroom
Assessment and Assessment in the Literacy Classroom.

xv
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2
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 1

WHY IS ASSESSMENT
ESSENTIAL?
An informed citizenry is the bulwark of democracy.
–Thomas Jefferson

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Describe similarities and

At the conclusion of this chapter, differences among the three
the reader should be able to do the purposes of assessment.
following: • Apply the use of an inquiry stance
• Explain why assessment is essential to a range of classroom assessment
to success as a teacher. practices.
• Explain three ways assessment can • Use two overarching ethical
be used to promote democratic principles to judge a variety
values. of assessment practices.

 DAEMOCRA
BROAD VIEW: ASSESSMENT AND
TIC VALUES
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about the word
assessment? The last test you took in history class? That nasty pop quiz in psychol-
ogy? Most of our students think about a recent test or quiz. And that is one of the
main reasons we wanted to write this book. We think assessment has negative con-
notations and is therefore undervalued and pushed to the background in a lot of
people’s thinking about teaching. People equate assessment with tests, and not many
people enjoy being tested.
Teachers know testing is important, but they often feel it takes away from
valuable instructional time. But we have come to see assessment as an amazingly
flexible and comprehensive tool that has measurably improved our own teaching.
Even more important, we believe that learning to design good assessments also
helps teachers prepare their students for participation as citizens in a democracy.
That sounds like a lofty claim, but as we show you all the ways you will use assess-
ment in your classroom, you will gradually come to see its wisdom.

The Key Question—Will This Help My Students Learn?

We want to make some of our assumptions clear about teaching and learning in a
democracy. A democracy is a form of government in which the people exercise
power directly or through elected representatives based on free and fair elections.
Like Thomas Jefferson, we believe that to participate effectively and to make good
choices, citizens must be well educated. In the United States, public education is
intended to provide the skills and knowledge all students need so we can live up to
3
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4 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

TA B L E 1 . 1
Democratic Themes Related to Teachers’ Assessment Practices
Theme Assessment Practices Examples

Equal access to educational • Use assessment to keep track of different rates of

opportunity learning so you can provide differentiated instruction
tailored to individual needs.
Development of self-governing • Encourage self-assessment so students internalize
skills for democratic aims of learning and take responsibility for their
participation, such as own learning.
independent thought and • Encourage students to track their own progress across
a sense of responsibility time rather than comparing themselves to others.

Development of critical • Design assessments that require critical thinking rather

thinking skills that enable than rote memorization.
good decision making • Encourage self-assessment that requires critical
thinking.

our ideal that “all [people] are created equal.” Public education is the single most
important element to ensure a level playing field for children who don’t come from
families of privilege. As a teacher you will make hundreds of decisions every day, and
you will find it easier if you weigh all you do against one important question: “Will
this help my students learn?” If you are constantly thinking about the best ways to
help your students learn more, you are moving them toward their highest potential for
participating as citizens in our democracy. In the following sections we discuss three
key themes that appear throughout the text that link preparation for democratic par-
ticipation to teachers’ assessment practices. These themes are shown in Table 1.1.

 EQUAL ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Over the past few years you have probably heard about the focus of educators on clos-
Achievement Gap ing the achievement gap. Students who are African American, Hispanic, and espe-
The disparity in performance cially those who are poor have consistently performed lower than other demographic
between student groups (e.g., groups in terms of academic achievement and graduation rates, although the gaps
ethnicity, gender, and/or socio-
economic status) on achievement narrowed in the 1970s and early 1980s (Lee, 2008). Furthermore, the United States has
measures such as large-scale tests the highest average rate of children in poverty (25 percent) among Western democratic
or graduation rates. countries, with rates above 40 percent in African American and Hispanic communities
(Banks et al., 2005). The current achievement gaps have begun to erode our belief that
anyone who conscientiously tries hard, regardless of race, color, creed, or wealth, can
succeed in our schools and in our country. Equal access to educational opportunity
often doesn’t seem to be happening the way it was intended.
The underlying factors contributing to the achievement gap are varied and com-
plex and start long before a child enters school. In fact, researchers have found that
the achievement gap already exists when students enter kindergarten (Lee, 2008). You
won’t be able to directly change what neighborhood your students come from, whether
they are from a single-parent home, or whether schools in your city or county are
adequately funded. As teachers, we must work with the children who come in our
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Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a Democracy 5

door, and we must do what is in our power to maximize learning for all our students
and provide equal access to educational opportunity.
We contend that good assessment practices provide the opportunity for teachers,
working in the realm where they have primary impact—their own classroom—to
maximize learning for their students. Teacher actions are crucial for providing equal
access to educational opportunity (Stiggins & Chappuis, 2005). That’s because equal
access does not mean that every student should receive exactly the same instruction.
Instead, equal access means that some students may need extra accommodations or
differentiated resources and instructional opportunities to be able to reach mastery on
the learning goals for the class. For example, many middle-class children learn the
mechanics of spoken and written language implicitly from their parents, whereas some
poor children may not have these opportunities. Teachers must address these differ-
ences in the classroom so that all students acquire the foundational skills and common
knowledge as well as the more complex understanding and skills necessary for demo-
cratic participation (Poplin & Rivera, 2005). So, we can’t provide equal access without
maximizing learning opportunities, and we can’t maximize learning opportunities
without assessment that lets us know where students are now in relation to where we
want them to go.
Here’s an example of assessment practices that moved some students toward
more equal access. A student teacher we know was interested in encouraging her kin-
dergarteners to read more books. On different days, the student teacher decided to try
different strategies and then see if those strategies caused more students to visit the
reading center. To see if she was making any difference, she started keeping records of
attendance at the reading center. After a week, she was looking at the data and discov-
ered three of the four children who had not been to the reading center at all that week
were also the students with literacy skills lagging behind those of the other children.
This discovery allowed her to see an achievement gap in the classroom and to focus
on those students who weren’t exposed often enough to books at school. She and the
teacher worked hard to draw those students to the reading center with books and
activities tied to their interests. By the end of the semester, those students were visiting
the reading center as much as or more than other children, and their reading skills
were accelerating. If the student teacher hadn’t done a simple assessment—keeping
track of voluntary center attendance—she might not have noticed one of several strat-
egies needed to help close the learning gap for these children.
We strongly believe teachers’ assessment practices play a large role in their
efforts to do their part to help all students have access to the education that is a basic
right in this country. Knowing where students are in the curriculum and what they
need next is a key focus for assessment. Such knowledge is critical for differentiating
your instruction to meet the range of needs your students bring to your classroom.
We will return to this theme in future chapters as we explore further how teacher
assessment practices in the classroom contribute to the fundamental right of equal
access to education.

 SINELFA-GDOVERNING
EMOCRACY
SKILLS FOR PARTICIPATION

The founders of our form of government had to assume that all citizens could be
and would be educated enough to make good decisions and to be capable of gov-
erning their own lives. All citizens need to develop responsibility for independence
in their thinking, and they must take responsibility to do their part to participate
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6 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

in society. They must, then, be interested in learning and critically analyzing new
information for the rest of their lives. Our government wouldn’t function well if
people couldn’t think for themselves and didn’t expect to have some control over
decisions that affect them. Self-governing skills don’t necessarily come naturally.
Instead, we as teachers must help students develop these capabilities. We believe
your assessment practices can help your students become more active participants
in their own learning and, by extension, more active in making other decisions for
themselves that will prepare them to participate as full citizens in a democracy. To
explain how, we must first look at some of our changing assumptions about the
purpose of schools and learning.

Traditional Functions of Schools: Sorting and Performance

One of our friends remembers only one thing from his first day of college. He was a
little nervous sitting in an auditorium with hundreds of other freshmen. In the middle
of a speech, he remembers the college president commanding students to “Look at the
person on your right. Now look at the person on your left. One of the three of you
will be gone by the end of the year.” This administrator’s comment illustrates the sort-
ing function that schools at all levels have often implicitly or explicitly served (Stiggins,
2007). In the past, education was often used to separate the “brighter” learners from
the “duller” learners. The assumption was that intelligence is an innate capacity that
can’t be changed, so we should make sure students are placed into different courses of
study to match their intellectual capabilities.
In a not-so-distant time in this country, this kind of sorting was considered by
many to be a primary function of education (Gordon, 2008). Assigning grades, decid-
ing who gets into gifted programs, and college entrance decisions are all sorting func-
tions that still occur in schools. Many school systems give all students “intelligence”
tests and track students into more or less demanding courses, especially at the high
school level. Under this sorting approach, a key purpose of assessment is judgment.
Tests are used to separate achievers from non-achievers. Educators decide who makes
the grade and who doesn’t. Thomas Jefferson, whose quotation introduced this chapter,
might have disagreed with this elitist notion.
This judgment approach to assessment can produce what psychologists call
Performance Goals performance goals in students (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006). Students with strong
Academic goals held by students performance goals are motivated to perform well in the eyes of others. In a school
that focus on performing well in setting that promotes performance goals above all else, students focus on their level of
front of others and that assume
ability is fixed. ability. To prove how smart they are, students at the top brag about how little studying
they did to ace the test. They enjoy competing with others and comparing grades. They
eagerly await the class rankings that appear once a semester on their report card to
see if they’ve moved up a notch. Their learning focus ties their self-esteem to their
high ability and to public recognition.
Unfortunately, students with performance goals who are not at the top suffer.
Students toward the bottom of the grade distribution give up early and label themselves
as poor students and losers. Often they begin to disrupt class and have behavior prob-
lems because, as one student once said to us, “It’s better to be bad than dumb.” Because
of the bad grades, negative labels, and poor self-concept, many of these students never
reach their full potential. Chances are, you know or remember students who were
disengaged or disruptive, perhaps victims of the educational sorting mechanism. You
could tell they didn’t enjoy learning in school and probably would not end up as the
inquisitive lifelong learners a democracy requires. Table 1.2 presents characteristics of
students with a performance-goal orientation.
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Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a Democracy 7

TA B L E 1 . 2
Student Characteristics Associated with Performance Goals and
Mastery Goals
Performance Goals Mastery Goals

Compare themselves to others to determine Focus on their own progress

progress

Confirmation of learning comes from Confirmation of learning comes from within

judgments of others

Not willing to attempt challenging tasks Willing to attempt challenging tasks and
and give up more easily persist longer
Assume ability is more important than effort Assume effort is more important than ability
Believe that intelligence is a fixed trait Believe that intelligence can be increased

Use shallow cognitive processing strategies Use deeper level cognitive processing
strategies

Transforming Functions of Schools: Helping All Children

Learn with Mastery Goals
More recently, educators have come to see the harmful effects of solely using the judg-
ment approach to assessment that sorts students in terms of achievement and success.
You have probably seen mission statements of schools that include the idea that “all
children can learn” as one manifestation of a different mindset that adds another dimen-
sion to the role of assessment. People are beginning to realize how important it is for
all students to reach their potential, rather than letting some fall through the cracks.
Boosting high school graduation rates, for example, could save this country $45 billion
every year (Belfield & Levin, 2007). This newer approach sees teachers as advocates
of students. They use their assessment practices to enhance every student’s learning
and to experience academic success. They work with all students, regardless of their
initial academic level, to kindle a love of learning and a belief that they can succeed
and keep learning more. They structure their classroom and assessment tasks to nurture
mastery goals in students. When students have mastery goals, they focus less on show- Mastery Goals
ing how smart they are (or avoiding showing how “dumb” they are), and more on their Academic goals held by students
desire to understand and master the task before them. They focus on their own learn- that focus on a desire to under-
stand and accomplish the task and
ing and improvement over time and less on the judgments of others, developing a sense that assume ability can increase.
of independence. In Figures 1.1 and 1.2, a teacher candidate in art education has drawn
“Ms. Sorter” and “Ms. Gapcloser” to illustrate her conception of the difference between
the traditional approach and the more recent approach to assessment.
Research has shown that students who have strong mastery goals react very dif-
ferently from students who have only performance goals in the classroom (Urdan &
Schoenfelder, 2006). They tend to learn for the pleasure of learning. They keep trying
even when the work gets harder. They expend a lot more effort to get the job done
because they know their effort makes a difference in their learning. They assume that
intelligence is not a fixed trait, and they know they can get smarter. They have more
positive feelings about school and school work. Perhaps most important for our
discussion, they become more autonomous and look inward rather than outward for
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8 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

FIGURE 1.1 Teacher Focused on Earlier Model of Assessment as

Judgment
Reprinted with permission of Krystle McHoney.

FIGURE 1.2 Teacher Focused on Newer Model of Assessment as

Helping All Students Learn
Reprinted with permission of Krystle McHoney.

confirmation of their learning. You can compare the characteristics of students with a
mastery-goal orientation to those with a performance-goal orientation in Table 1.2.
Naturally, every teacher would want a class full of students with mastery goals.
They sound like dream students! But in our competitive society, promoting mastery goals
takes extra effort. The good news is that teachers can play a large role in helping their
students to become more mastery oriented (Ames, 1992; Butler, 2006; O’Keefe et al.,
2008). Becoming more mastery oriented does not mean students give up performance
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Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a Democracy 9

goals entirely—both kinds of goals can be positively related to achievement, depending

on the context (Witkow & Fuligni, 2007). In fact, sometimes students manifest both
kinds of goals. For example, a student can care about being at the top of the class but
also love history and go beyond course requirements in pursuing that interest.
Many students, however, need some encouragement to develop mastery goals.
This is especially true for students who aren’t at the top of the class. Encouraging
mastery goals may increase their motivation and help them see school in a new light.
Carole Ames (1992) has summarized the research on what teachers can do to structure
their classrooms to promote mastery goals among their students. Her ideas as they
relate to assessment are shown in Figure 1.3.

Assessment Tasks That Enhance Mastery Goals

As you can see in Figure 1.3, teachers can help foster mastery goals in several ways by
designing assessment strategies with specific characteristics.

Varied, Meaningful, and Challenging Tasks

First, if students find assessment activities interesting and relevant, they are more likely
to develop mastery goals. They see a reason—besides getting a good grade—to do those

Ames’s
Classroom
Element Assessment Strategies Outcome

1. Varied, Many different types of assessment (e.g., papers, projects,

Meaningful, brief oral and written check-ups)
Challenging Challenging, novel, relevant assessments (e.g., using data
Tasks ➔ students collect on their friends for math, writing
persuasive letters to politicians for social studies) ➔
2. Students Provide choices for ways for students to show what they
Participate have learned
in Decision Use student participation in designing scoring guides for
Making ➔ assessments Students with
Have students engage in self-assessment and peer Mastery Goals
and High
assessment ➔
Motivation for
3. Students Keep assessment results private rather than public Academic
Focus on Focus on individual improvement across time using Tasks
Personal benchmarks
Goals, Own Allow students to develop goals and keep track of their
Improvement progress using a graph or chart
➔
Develop assignments where mistakes are an expected
part of learning and improvement is expected across
time (e.g., turn in first drafts for feedback)
Recognize student effort. ➔

FIGURE 1.3 Assessment Strategies That Foster Mastery Goals

Adapted from Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology
84(3): 261–271. Reprinted with permission.
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10 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

assignments. They value the activity because it is useful or relevant to their lives. They
are more willing to give it their full attention and effort because they find it worthwhile.
For example, demonstrating calculation skills through designing a monthly budget
based on the salary made by people in an interesting career can be more compelling
than completing abstract calculation problems. Similarly, a Spanish teacher who
involves students in projects such as writing and performing scenes from a popular
Spanish novel rather than simply drilling on the questions at the end of the chapter is
also using a meaningful and challenging assessment task.

Student Participation in Decision Making

Next, teachers can use assessment strategies that help students participate in decision
making so they develop responsibility for their learning and self-governing skills. If you
think back to papers you had to write in English class, perhaps you remember being
more engaged with the paper where you got to choose the person whose biography you
read and used for a report. When students have meaningful choices, and these choices
are tied to their preferences and interests, they are more likely to be engaged in the
assessment and have something meaningful to say.
Another important way for students to participate in decision making in the
assessment of their learning is through helping to design scoring guides. During the
development of a scoring guide, when students take part in describing what a good
paper looks like, they learn the standard they are aiming for (e.g., factual accuracy
when writing about a biography) and feel like they have more say over the outcome
of their own efforts (Andrade, 2008). The next step is to connect the assessment to the
learning process. This occurs by encouraging students to assess themselves, to monitor
what they are learning, and to use feedback to modify their understanding (Earl, 2003).
They begin to internalize the standard and not just see it as something arbitrarily
imposed by the teacher.

Focus on Personal Goals and Improvement

Finally, the way a teacher uses assessments has a big impact on fostering mastery goals.
If teachers help students focus on personal goals and track their own progress instead
of comparing themselves to other students, then teachers cultivate mastery goals in their
classrooms. A choir director can have students record themselves alone in a practice
room singing several songs at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. He can
then use the same scoring guide to analyze each performance and examine progress
over time with students individually. Such a practice is much easier on the ego than
more competitive ones such as performing in front of the whole class for a grade. In
addition, it allows for all students to see their progress and doesn’t simply focus on the
best singers. When people see they are making progress, they are more likely to keep
trying hard and to learn more, distinguishing traits of students with mastery goals.
The other part of this guideline involves helping students focus on the importance
Effort Optimism and value of their effort. Students must be able to develop effort optimism in each class.
The idea that effort brings rewards. Effort optimism is the idea that effort has a payoff—if you work hard you will learn
For example, if you work hard in more. Usually students start out in kindergarten with the belief that effort pays off. Over
school you will learn more.
time this belief can erode. Students’ experiences with failure, discrimination, or other
negative circumstances can eliminate effort optimism. They no longer have the convic-
tion that their effort will be rewarded, which usually reduces self-reliance and effective
coping strategies, ultimately lowering academic achievement (Scott & Brown, 2003).
In the classroom, teachers must make the connection explicit and strong between
student effort and academic success. One thing that weighs heavily in effort optimism
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Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a Democracy 11

is how the teacher treats mistakes. If children are embarrassed or made fun of for their
mistakes, they will be afraid to try new things and will participate only if they are sure
they know the answer. As a teacher, you need to help students see that learning takes
hard work and practice, and that mistakes are a valuable part of learning. For example,
think back on important times you have learned new things. Didn’t a lot of your
breakthroughs come from making mistakes first?
In one of our recent classes, the need for teachers to convey the value of mistakes
in learning came up. One student raised her hand and told the class about the fourth-
grade teacher she would never forget. This teacher had a slogan, “We don’t make mistakes,
we make discoveries!” She used this slogan several times a day to promote effort optimism
in her students. It certainly had worked for this student. She would always answer a ques-
tion in class when no one else would give it a try because she knew she would make a
discovery (and not a mistake) about whatever concept the class was trying to master.
All three of these recommendations—varied, meaningful, and challenging tasks,
encouraging student participation in decision making, and evaluation that focuses
on individual progress and values effort and improvement—are strongly linked to the
classroom assessment strategies that we describe in this book. All the research that we
have seen suggests these assessment strategies can have direct impact on the motiva-
tion of students, and they may especially benefit students who are the most likely to
be at risk for school failure (Shepard, 2008). If you want students to love learning, to
persist in the face of obstacles, and to care about their own progress rather than how
they do compared to others, you will want to use assessment practices that have the
characteristics we have just described. You will also be fostering self-governing skills
such as independent thinking and a personal sense of responsibility crucial for citizens
engaged in democratic participation.

Promoting Mastery Goals Through Assessment: Examples

As we have discussed earlier, students need to acquire self-governing skills and a sense
of responsibility to participate appropriately in a democracy. When we look at ways to
foster self-governing skills in the area of classroom assessment, one of the most often
recommended strategies is encouragement of student self-assessment.

Self-assessment
The ability to assess oneself is one of the primary goals of education. We as teachers
must teach our students to function autonomously. Ultimately, they must deal on their
own with making decisions about life in all of its complexity. Only relatively recently,
however, has the strategy of explicit self-assessment been introduced, probably as a
result of the weakening rationale for the traditional sorting function of schools. You
can easily see why self-assessment is important. It teaches objectivity—being able to
get beyond your own point of view and look at yourself in relation to a standard. It
also teaches empowerment—if you eventually understand the standard yourself, you
are not as dependent on an authority to make judgments about your own work. You
can do it yourself. The process of self-assessment also helps you to become open to
feedback from a variety of sources. Gradually, you will be able to decide which sources
of information are valuable and which are not.
Student self-assessment is a key to enhance learning because it requires students to Metacognition
become active in connecting their work to the criteria used for evaluating it (Earl, 2003; The process of analyzing and think-
Pelligrino et al., 2001). The requirement that students self-assess activates what psycholo- ing about one’s own thinking and
enabling skills such as monitoring
gists term metacognition. Metacognition is the ability to step back from merely listening progress, staying on task, and self-
to a lecture or doing an assigned task, to thinking about what is happening in a more correcting errors.
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12 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

critical way. It involves directing your awareness to a bird’s-eye view of what you are doing.
This heightened level of self-awareness allows students to monitor whether they are under-
standing a lecture point and then to take action by asking a question if they aren’t. Or, it
pushes them to notice when they calculate an answer that doesn’t make sense, and to
self-correct it. Metacognitive skills such as monitoring progress, staying on task, and self-
correcting errors can and should be taught by teachers (Pelligrino et al., 2001).
We can see the development of these self-assessment skills occurring in the class-
room of Tracie Clinton, a third-grade teacher. To encourage self-assessment, she holds
writing conferences with individual students every nine weeks. First, students respond to
a writing prompt (e.g., “If I could visit anywhere in the United States I would visit . . .”).
They use a writer’s checklist to monitor themselves as they are writing. During the indi-
vidual conferences, Tracie encourages students to critique their own writing. She has them
focus on only one or two areas each time (e.g., staying on topic, using vivid vocabulary).
She finds that students want to improve, and they can identify problem areas on their
own with a little guidance. Next, they discuss how to get the paper back on track, and
Tracie writes down pointers on “sticky” notes for the student to refer to later. She has
found that students are able to transfer what they discuss during writing conferences to
other work. As she says, “I have found that my students get extremely excited when they
catch a mistake in their writing on their own. Writing conferences are a long process, but
it is worth every moment when I see my students blossoming into exceptional writers.”
As shown in this example, when students self-assess, the teacher doesn’t give up
responsibility for assessment but rather shares it with the students. Students learn and
eventually internalize the standards and goals they are working toward. Researchers
have found that students who participate in self-assessment improve the quality of their
work, have a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and have higher
motivation (Andrade, 2008).

Focus on Individual Progress Across Time

Another example directly related to assessment and promotion of mastery goals
occurred when we were working with an elementary teacher who wanted to help six
of her students become more fluent readers. We sat down with all six individually and
encouraged each student to set a goal for the next 10 weeks—a specific number of
words the student would read correctly in one minute. We also had each student make
a list of the things he or she would do each day to help achieve that goal. For the next
10 weeks, we met with each student once a week and they would do a timed reading.
We would also talk about how the student’s strategies for each day were going. We
then plotted the student’s score on a graph to show progress over time.
After the first week, an identical graph was sent home to put on the student’s refrig-
erator. We would call the students’ homes each week with the new score to add to the
refrigerator graph as well as the one kept at school. By the end of the 10 weeks, all six of
these students had increased their reading fluency by a significant amount more than their
teacher had seen in the previous 10 weeks. Based on the students’ comments, we found that
using the graphs helped students focus on their own progress rather than on how they
were doing compared to the rest of their class. The whole process was private rather than
public and provided weekly opportunities to show improvement. The home graph also
helped the family to see the improvement each week and then provide encouragement
and support to their child. The teacher reported that as the children made gains, they be-
came more interested in reading and they started taking more books home from her class-
room library. These behaviors definitely exemplify developing a mastery goal orientation.
Throughout the book, we discuss other assessment practices that illustrate recom-
mendations for promoting mastery goals. We believe teachers should foster mastery goals
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Self-Governing Skills for Participation in a Democracy 13

B O X 1 . 1

Letter from a Student Observer. In contrast, Ms. R gave a summative test in her senior
Are These Teachers Encouraging English class, today, that seemed to be the antithesis of every-
Mastery or Performance Goals? thing we have learned about assessment. To begin with, the test
was poorly designed. It was a matching test on characters from
Recently, I have had an opportunity to observe how two dif-
the Canterbury Tales that not only had several typos, but also
ferent teachers have used assessment in their classroom. For
had over thirty premises and more than fifty responses, far
the past month, I have been volunteering at a high school.
more than could be handled at one time by most students. The
Two mornings a week I help in Ms. Q’s freshman English
students were allowed to use their notes. To have more space,
class, and one morning a week I help in Ms. R’s senior English
seven students went with me to a spare room where I proc-
class. Aside from the age difference, the classrooms seem to
tored their test. Ms. R had collected their notes for a grade, and
be fairly similar; both have twenty to twenty-five students,
right before the test, she returned the notes to the students.
both have a comparable ethnic make-up, and both are “regu-
Unfortunately, there did not seem to be any feedback on the
lar” English classes. I really enjoy helping the students, but
notes, and even if there had been comments, the students
right now I may be getting more from my volunteer hours,
would not have had an opportunity for addition or revision. I
because I have the chance to observe two different teachers
do not know Ms. R’s learning goals, but if they were knowledge
and the instructional decisions they make, particularly in
based, then I suppose a matching test was appropriate; how-
regard to how they assess their students.
ever, since the students were allowed to use their notes, the test
Ms. Q’s freshman class has been working on a research/
did not really seem to be an assessment of their knowledge, but
writing unit in which the students pick products, research
rather their ability to take notes. The seven students whose test
two different brands of that product, write short comparison/
I proctored did not do well on the test (one of them may have
contrast papers, create PowerPoint presentations of their pa-
passed), and it was obvious while they were taking the test that
pers, and then, finally, make oral presentations. First of all, I
they were frustrated. I saw that their notes were skimpy, and
am impressed with Ms. Q’s ability to pack so much into a
the points they had pulled out about the characters were fre-
single, comprehensive unit. Secondly, I like the way that her
quently irrelevant. Since Ms. P had seen the notes, she had to
different activities gave all her students various opportuni-
know that their notes were insufficient, so it seems that these
ties for success. I know that several students had trouble
students had no real chance of doing well.
with some of the writing aspects of their papers and that
I understand that teachers make mistakes, and so I hope
their paper grades probably reflected some of those issues,
I just happened to catch Ms. R. on a bad day. Still though, it
but many of those same students put together very eye-
reinforces the importance of appropriate assessment. The
catching PowerPoints. Ms. Q assessed the same information
seven students from Ms. R’s class were frustrated. They knew
several times, which should give her a much more reliable
within five minutes that they had no hope of doing well on
picture of each student (it also gave students the opportunity
that test, and in another five minutes they were ready to give
to revise at each stage). Further, since the final activity in the
up, saying the test was too hard and was stupid. All I could tell
unit was a performance, Ms. Q used an analytic rubric to
them was that the test looked tough, but that they needed to
assess the students’ oral presentations. Her rubric had about
keep working and fill in every blank. I wanted to tell them
six criteria (content, number of slides, grammar, speaking,
that, regardless of their notes, the test was just bad. In con-
etc.) and was less than a page in length. Even though it was
trast, the students in Ms. Q’s class who were not doing as well
an oral presentation, Ms. Q focused more on the content
did not complain or exhibit the same level of frustration. They
than the actual speaking since most of the students were
realized, if only at a subconscious level, that they had had
unfamiliar with making presentations. I am sure that she
several chances to exhibit their abilities. We have read and
gave them an assignment with some kind of criteria, but I
discussed the fact that assessment needs to be thoughtful and
am not sure that she gave them the actual rubric that she
planned along with instruction, and recently I have seen ex-
used for grading, which would be my only criticism.
amples that prove those important points.

as one foundational element for helping students acquire the skills needed to function
well as citizens in a democracy. You can begin to see the difference in student reactions
when mastery goals are encouraged by comparing the two classrooms described in Box 1.1
by one of our own students who volunteered in these classrooms. We believe good assess-
ment practices are essential for promoting mastery goals, and so the connection between
assessment and mastery goals is another recurring theme in this text.
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14 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

 THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITICAL THINKING

In addition to promoting equal access and self-governing skills for democratic par-
ticipation, the third theme related to educating children for their roles as citizens in a
democracy is the need to acquire the ability to think critically. The most obvious use
of critical thinking in our society is in the voting booth. Those who can’t effectively
sift through the campaign ads and news stories about candidates will make poor
choices, which undermine the democratic process and the foundation of our society.
Analyzing arguments, seeing both sides of an issue before choosing a position, and
discerning what is left unsaid are key critical-thinking skills related to democratic
participation that must be taught. In our view, providing opportunities to learn these
skills is one of the essential functions of schools.
By now you won’t be surprised to learn that we think good classroom assessment
is one of the crucial methods for developing critical-thinking skills. If you want your
students to learn these skills, you must design your assessment to require them. In
many tenth-grade government classes, one area of content is understanding the func-
tion of the federal government’s three branches. Maybe you decide to liven up class
with skits showing how the three branches function together. Maybe you have interest-
ing discussions about bills in the legislature right now and how they are faring. But
students ultimately remember and study what they think will be on the test. When it
comes to test time, if you signal interest only in the specific facts about the three
branches, we guarantee you that the students will learn specific facts and little else.
Typical students (unless you have already succeeded in instilling unusually strong mas-
tery goals) invest their energy where it counts—getting a good grade on the test.
Designing assessment questions that address only basic concepts and definitions
is a common problem in the teacher-made assessments that we see. Questions about
facts and definitions are the easiest kinds of questions to design, and they are also
easier to grade. But if you want your students to learn more than the facts, if you want
them to learn critical-thinking skills and master the requirements of the standards you
are teaching, you need to develop assessments that do this, too. In forthcoming chap-
ters, designing assessments of all types that foster critical thinking is the third theme
related to equipping students for democratic participation.
As you can see from this discussion, we take a broad view of assessment. It’s not
just about testing degrees of knowledge with often punishing consequences. The prac-
tice of classroom assessment encompasses a wide array of activities that foster student
learning, from keeping track of student activity preferences to holding individual writ-
ing conferences that encourage self-assessment. Many educators now talk about a
distinction between assessment of learning, which is the more traditional type of
assessment, and assessment for learning. Assessment for learning promotes democratic
values by guiding the development of tools to help teachers address achievement gaps,
by promoting skills such as independence and responsibility, and by designing assess-
ments that foster students’ critical thinking. We believe that, like us, you will find these
tools essential in your classroom. We next turn to organizing these different types of
assessment into an overview to illustrate their purposes and uses.

Assessment
 AN OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENT
First, let’s lay out a definition of assessment that is broader than the tests we usually
The variety of methods used to think of: Assessment is the variety of methods used to determine what students know
determine what students know and
are able to do before, during, and and are able to do before, during, and after instruction. In fleshing out this definition,
after instruction. we will provide an overview of assessment covering three central purposes.
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An Overview of Assessment 15

Purposes of Assessment
From our definition, you can see that you will be interested in what your students know
and are able to do at many different points during the school year and, more specifically,
during each instructional unit you teach. Now that you also know that the purpose of
assessment is broader than tests or quizzes for grades, we want to describe the other major
purposes teachers have for doing assessments. Keeping your purpose for any assessment
in mind is very important because your purpose dictates the specific kinds of assessments
you will do. For example, as an art teacher, if your purpose is to do a quick check that
your students understand how the color wheel works, you will do a different assessment
than if your purpose is to determine whether they have mastered the concepts in the unit
on perspective drawing. If your purpose is to compare your social studies class to other
ninth graders across the country, you will use a different assessment than if your purpose
is to see how much they learned from the Civil War unit you just completed. Table 1.3
illustrates the three general purposes of assessment with some examples.

TA B L E 1 . 3
The Three Major Purposes of Assessment
Purpose of the
Assessment:
Why Do You Do It? When Do You Do It? How Do You Do It? Examples

Purpose 1: Before instruction School records. Math: Strengths in math skills from
Diagnosic assessment previous statewide testing.
Teacher observations.
Getting a sense of Language arts: Observation of student
Teacher-made questionnaires
strengths and needs level of analysis during first look at a
and pre-tests.
for planning poem in class.
instruction
Music: Last year’s performance rankings
of students at all-state band auditions.

Purpose 2: Formative During instruction Teacher observations. Math: Checklist of new algebra skills
Assessment demonstrated during class or homework.
Quizzes.
Monitoring growth Language arts: Quick write summarizing
Skill checklists.
as you teach key issues in differentiating similes from
(assessment for Homework. metaphors.
learning) Student self-assessments. Music: Self- and teacher-ratings of
Systematic teacher individual performance of a selection
questioning. for an upcoming concert.

Purpose 3: After instruction End of unit test for assigning Math: Final algebra exam that uses novel
Summative grades. problems based on skills taught.
Assessment
Statewide tests at the end of Language arts: Booklet containing a
Determining what the year. student’s poems that incorporate figures
students have learned of speech learned in a poetry unit.
after instruction or Statewide achievement test scores in
for accountability math and language arts.
purposes (assessment
Music: Final graded performance for the
of learning)
semester in band class.
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16 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

Purpose 1: Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnosis is a word we usually associate with the medical field in the negative sense
of figuring out what is wrong with a patient. But we use it more broadly in education.
When you start a new year as a teacher, you want to know many things about your
students. One of the most important is their current level of basic skills. For example,
right now we have three elementary teachers in a graduate assessment class. All three
of them have students who read material ranging from the first-grade level to the
ninth-grade level. Accurately understanding what your students know and are able to
do from the beginning of the year is crucial in designing instruction for them that
challenges but does not overwhelm them (Earl, 2003; Moon, 2005). This process is
Diagnostic Assessment termed diagnostic assessment.
Assessment at the early stages of An example of the importance of understanding what your students know and
a school year or unit that provides are able to do is provided by Jocelyn Beaty-Gordon, a teacher of high school biology
the teacher with information about
what students already know and in a high-needs school. At the beginning of the year, she discovered that many of her
are able to do. students had never passed an end-of-grade test in reading. Based on this information,
she decided that she would alter how she taught biology. Rather than require students
to read the text independently, she spent class time reading to students and having
them draw pictures and diagrams to express their understanding. She also encouraged
students to ask questions about words they did not understand, telling them they were
doing a service for the class because many others didn’t understand those words either.
She put these words on the bulletin board with their definitions. She reported that by
the midpoint of the year, most of the students were grasping the most difficult bio-
logical concepts, thanks to her clear understanding of their low basic-reading skills
and her accommodations for their skill level.
As you can see from this example, diagnostic assessment is critical to designing
instruction that meets the needs of your students. Many educators have termed this
Differentiation process differentiation or differentiated instruction. The basic idea of differentiation
Using students’ current under- is that you find out student needs and readiness before you teach so you can use this
standing, readiness levels, skills, information to tailor, or differentiate, your instruction for them. They suggest that
and interests to tailor instruction
and meet individual needs. these procedures are critical because of the wide range of student cultures, abilities,
and needs in every classroom today. Diagnostic assessment must be the first step in
differentiating instruction because you use diagnostic assessments to learn what your
students’ varying needs are (Moon, 2005; Tomlinson, 2008).
At the beginning of each school year, you will also be interested in learning
about your students’ likes and dislikes, from food and music to academic interests.
Understanding student preferences about types of assignments can help you work
from their strengths to address their needs. For example, you may discover that your
students hate to write essays, but writing strong persuasive essays is an important
part of your learning goals for the year. This information can help you pay particular
attention to designing assignments that more gradually move students toward the
goal and incorporate topics most relevant to their interests. And, yes, those food and
music preferences can be worked into the assignments. You might have students
write a persuasive essay on why their favorite band should be considered for the next
Grammy Awards.
Another important time for diagnosis is when you begin a new unit. Psycholo-
gists tell us that students’ new learning is usually dependent on their prior knowledge
(Pelligrino et al., 2001). One of the most important ways you can help close
the achievement gap between lower and higher performing students is to check to
make sure your students have the prior knowledge necessary to begin a new unit. If
you are teaching your students long division, for example, you first need to check to
make sure they can multiply with ease. We once observed a student teacher who was
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An Overview of Assessment 17

teaching a math unit on measurement. Rather than checking first, she assumed her
students had all used rulers. Partway through the lesson, when they had difficulty with
one of her planned activities and started using the rulers as weapons, she discovered
that they had not worked with rulers before. She quickly had to interrupt her plans
and teach them what rulers were for and how they worked. You can see how assess-
ment for the purpose of diagnosis is crucial.

Purpose 2: Formative Assessment

As shown in Table 1.2, the second major purpose of assessment is monitoring of stu-
dent progress during instruction. This type of assessment is usually called formative Formative Assessment
assessment. A key aspect of formative assessment is giving students feedback on their Monitoring student progress
growth toward the learning goals they need to master (Black & Wiliam, 1998). It helps during instruction and learning
activities that includes feedback
students understand where they are now compared to where they should be going, and opportunities to improve.
and it gives them suggestions for getting there. Formative assessment is, therefore,
assessment for learning.
Teachers have always checked on student progress informally during instruction
by asking questions or checking out puzzled facial expressions. These actions definitely
fall under the heading of formative assessment. Recent discussions of formative assess-
ment have suggested that more systematic checkup and feedback during instruction
can have a significant impact on student learning and also on student motivation
(Shute, 2008; Stiggins, 2007). These activities also influence the teacher’s later instruc-
tion. Homework, quizzes, and class assignments can be used for formative assessment.
The key is that these activities do not result in grades that penalize students for “wrong”
answers. The purpose of these activities is for feedback for students and teacher before
more official assessment for a grade.
Many of our students have a difficult time with the distinction between formative
assessment and assessment for grades (summative assessment). After explaining forma-
tive assessment and its use to enhance learning, we often have students write a para-
graph for homework explaining how they saw a concept we discussed in class
demonstrated in the classroom in which they are currently observing. The first time
we use this type of formative assessment each semester, we write comments on their
examples, correct misconceptions, indicate where more information on the concept
can be found in the text, and suggest other examples. However, we put no grade or
point value on these papers. When we hand these papers back, there is always a cho-
rus of “But what did I get on this?” even though students knew the assignment was
for formative purposes. After we remind them about formative assessment and how it
works, students see the value of this feedback—especially later when they do well on
a summative test question covering the same concept.

Purpose 3: Summative Assessment

Summative assessment is the conventional purpose of assessment that we all grew up Summative Assessment
with. It is assessment of learning, a summing up of what the students know and are A summing up of what students
able to do after instruction has taken place. Examples include exams, projects, and know and are able to do after
instruction is completed.
term papers. Grading is based on information from summative assessment, and grad-
ing is often the major function of summative assessment at the classroom level. As you
can see in Table 1.4, the other type of summative assessment is large-scale state or
national tests administered infrequently and used by local, state, and national decision
makers. If you took the SAT, ACT, or a high school exit exam, you have participated
in summative assessment at the large-scale level. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
also mandates large-scale testing. Each state accepting federal assistance is required to
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18 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

TA B L E 1 . 4
Differences Between Summative Assessment at the Classroom
and Large-Scale Levels
Differences Classroom Level Large-Scale Level

Function Grading Accountability, planning, resource

allocation

Frequency Often, at least once per week Usually once per year

Focus Narrow: Individual mastery of Broad: Group performance in relation

elements in a unit of instruction to a number of standards

Design Designed by teachers Designed by state or national

assessment authorities

User Teacher, student, parents Policy makers, citizens

Conditions
of Testing Heavily dependent on context Standardized across contexts
Metaphor Close-up snapshot Panoramic view

assess students in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 each year and once in high
school. They are also required to assess students annually in science at least once in
grades 3–5, 6–9, and 10–12.
One of the key implications of the two different kinds of summative assessment
is that they serve very different functions and must be designed to match their func-
tion. The needs of large-scale assessment users require assessments covering a wide
range of content. Most of these tests are designed to cover material across one or more
years of instruction. To assess this broadly requires that you can ask only a few items
on each concept. This approach is akin to the panoramic view—the details of the
scenery are necessarily fuzzy. And because large-scale tests cover so much ground, they
primarily give a general picture rather than any specific information classroom teach-
ers could use for designing their instruction. We will discuss large-scale assessments
and their strengths and weaknesses at greater length in Chapter 11.
In contrast, for the end-of-unit summative test, classroom teachers want a more
close-up snapshot of a narrower landscape. They want to know what students have
learned from the unit. They need information for a grade. And based on possibly poor
scores on some of the essay questions chosen for this test, they might also decide to
change their instruction the next time they teach the unit. These teacher needs are
quite different from those of the users of large-scale tests. Because the requirements of
the users are so very different, the SAT would not work as an end-of-unit test, and an
end-of-unit test would not be helpful for making college admissions decisions.
Another important difference between the two kinds of summative assessments
is the way they are administered. Teachers can vary the conditions of summative
assessments in their classrooms to make sure all students can show in different ways
what they know and can do. For example, some children may need extra time, other
children may need to have all items read to them, and others may need to talk their
way through a problem. In several later chapters, we discuss more about the accom-
modations that teachers can use for all their assessments.
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Action Research and the Inquiry Stance 19

Because large-scale tests often are used to compare students across schools, dis-
tricts, and even countries, the way they are administered must be standardized. That Standardized
is, they must be administered, scored, and interpreted the same way for everyone tak- Administered, scored, and inter-
ing the exam. The proctor who is administering the tests must read the directions preted exactly the same for all
test takers.
carefully; the time given for students to complete the assessment must be exact. If you
are taking the SAT in New Mexico, it wouldn’t be fair if a college admissions officer
compared you to a student in Iowa who got 10 more minutes to complete the exam
than you did. Review Table 1.4 to compare these two types of summative assessment.

 ACTION RESEARCH AND THE INQUIRY STANCE

From our discussion so far, you have an inkling of the different purposes for assess-
ment and some of the ways you will be using it in your classroom. Now we want to
offer you a framework for problem solving in your classroom that uses assessment as
its foundation.
When working in an elementary school, we were talking with a first-grade
teacher before the school year started. During the conversation, the teacher mentioned
that she had been reading about “invented spelling” (i.e., letting students spell words
as they sound) in the early grades and was wondering whether she should scrap her
spelling lessons that year. This teacher usually arranged her children into four groups,
each containing students at various skill levels, for literacy instruction. We suggested
that the teacher might want to try invented spelling with two of the groups, do her
usual spelling curriculum with the other two, then compare the progress of the two
groups at some point later in the fall. By the strange and dubious look on her face, we
could tell she thought the idea was ridiculous. But we had been trained in graduate
studies to look for an answer to any question in terms of finding solid information to
support one side or the other. Once you “gather the data,” you can make a sound
decision. The teacher had a clear difference in world view, and it definitely did not
involve systematic data collection from her students.

Inquiry Stance
Long after that meeting, we went to a conference where B. J. Badiali (2002) discussed
an “inquiry stance” as something important for teachers’ work in schools. Badiali
pointed out that colleges of education cannot prepare teacher candidates for every
possible classroom situation, so they must give them the tools for problem solving in
the classroom. In contrast to a “caring stance” or a “best practices stance,” an inquiry Inquiry Stance
stance prepares teacher candidates to identify problems, collect relevant data, make An approach to dealing with
judgments, and modify practices to bring about improvement in teaching and learning. challenges in the classroom that
involves identifying problems,
In 1910, John Dewey, one of the founders of modern educational practices, described collecting relevant data, making
a similar process for dealing with problematic situations. He suggested designing a judgments, and then modifying
solution, observing and experimenting to test the solution, and then accepting or practices to improve teaching
and learning.
rejecting it (Dewey, 1910).
One key use of the inquiry stance and problem-solving process is analyzing and
then improving student learning outcomes in each classroom. As discussed in the early
paragraphs of this chapter, we believe all you do should be aimed toward helping your
students learn. You can see that assessment in all of its manifestations is the founda-
tional tool for an inquiry stance. This is because assessment gives you information
every step of the way on what your students know and are able to do and whether
your instructional strategies are working.
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20 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

Inquiry Stance and Action Research

The process of examining and improving our teaching practices and our student
Action Research outcomes using an inquiry stance is often termed action research. Using systematic
The process of examining and collection and analysis of data, action research has been used by teachers to examine
improving teaching practices and their practice and to solve problems in their own classrooms (e.g., Green & Brown,
student outcomes using an inquiry
stance. 2006; Salmon, 2008). Individual teachers and classrooms, not just educational theories
and “best practices,” are valuable sources of information for improving student learn-
ing. Taking this more personal approach, teachers can tailor data gathering and inter-
ventions to their own environment and their own students. The student teacher in
kindergarten mentioned earlier who encouraged attendance at the reading center in
her classroom offers an example of action research.
Some people are not comfortable with the term data. It implies to them complex
statistical analyses and confusing numbers. But as we pointed out, collecting data can be
as simple as systematically noting which students visit a center, or asking students about
their reading preferences. You use numbers to summarize the information for yourself
so you can notice patterns more easily. These patterns can then help you make decisions
about how to change your practices or whether something you try is working the way
you want it to in your classroom. Data can help you identify the needs of your students
and can uncover problems that might otherwise remain hidden. In Chapter 5 we talk
more about methods to summarize information so that patterns become visible.
But even without these methods, you can easily see the value of simple data
collection. As a teacher, you will probably assign homework. You may not notice any
patterns in terms of who does and doesn’t do the homework because you have so many
other details and decisions to make about your classes and instruction. But then you
notice one day that several students can’t answer questions based on the readings
assigned for homework the night before. Using an inquiry stance, you might start
keeping close tabs on who has and has not turned in homework during a particular
two-week period. You might notice that the same seven of your students tend to have
problems in completing the homework. This pattern will naturally prompt you to think
about why these students are having problems and what you might do to encourage
homework completion. For example, one student teacher chose exactly this problem
for an action research project. The student teacher talked with the students about issues
that made homework difficult for them, she provided incentives for homework com-
pletion, and she was able to help them all begin completing homework more regularly.
The students then participated more actively in class and their grades improved.
Simple projects like this one allow you to use information that you already col-
lect from your students to improve their learning. Noticing a problem, looking for
patterns in the data you are already collecting, and then trying out different solutions
to see if they have the desired impact is a basic, but often powerful, action research
approach. Small projects like this can lead to important changes in student learning
that can help close the achievement gap. If all teachers in their own classrooms solved
problems in this manner, we might see great learning gains.

Gathering New Information

Sometimes the problem you see can also encourage you to start collecting information
you haven’t been collecting. Elizabeth Mills works with children with autism, who
often have difficulty with fine motor skills. She is always looking for new ways to help
her students achieve more and had recently read about hand-strengthening exercises.
She wondered whether these types of exercises might help improve the students’ writing
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Action Research and the Inquiry Stance 21

(A) (B)
FIGURE 1.4 One Student’s Work Samples (A) Without hand-strengthening exercises and
(B) with hand-strengthening exercises on the same day.
Reprinted with permission.

skills. She set up two new daily writing activities. Students did the hand-strengthening
exercises before one of them and did nothing before the second. She used students’
tracing quality as her new measure of student learning (see Figure 1.4). As you can
see, when students used the exercises, their writing was much more controlled than
when they did not. She also saw general improvement over several weeks, so she
decided to continue to incorporate the exercises.
In Table 1.5, you can see a sample of action research projects recently completed
by teachers in their classrooms. Problems range from enhancing literacy skills to
reducing transition times so more instruction could take place. These teachers chose
projects based on their own interests and passions connected to specific problems they
saw in their own classes. For example, Janelle Smith recently read that 85 percent of
students who appear in court are illiterate. The article also mentioned that officials
should plan jail cells 15 years from now equal to the number of current third graders
who cannot read. She decided to involve parents as partners in her classroom reading
instruction. She sent a questionnaire home and found that many parents wanted to
help but lacked strategies and were afraid they would do the wrong thing. Each week
she designed and sent home to these parents several strategies to help their children
in the coming week. She subsequently saw much improvement in her kindergarten
students’ reading levels and knowledge of the alphabet.

Broader Uses of Action Research

Many educators have suggested that action research and the inquiry stance can go
beyond the individual teacher and classroom level (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Barrell
& Weitman, 2007). They believe these processes can prepare teachers to work together
in communities to develop systematic inquiries about teaching and learning in their
schools and to become school leaders. For example, most of the teachers mentioned
in Table 1.5 have shared their results with other teachers in their schools in an effort
to use the new knowledge gathered from the projects to enhance student learning in
other classrooms. Cochran-Smith and Lytle also suggest the inquiry stance can “bring
about fundamental change in classrooms” and a broader agenda of empowerment of
students and teachers.
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22 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

TA B L E 1 . 5
Recent Action Research Projects Conducted by Teachers in Their Classrooms
Teacher Problem Intervention Data Collected Outcome

Elizabeth Mills Fine-motor deficits Hand-strengthening Work samples of activities Exercises increased
in children with exercises before some with and without legibility and accuracy.
autism. fine-motor tasks and hand-strengthening
not before others. exercises.

Dana Stachowiak Students’ literacy Read alouds 5–7 times STARS levels, end of grade Most students enjoyed
skills below per day. scores, students’ read alouds.
grade level and attitudes on read alouds Most showed more growth
not showing before and after. than in prior 18 weeks.
growth.

Janelle Smith Parents want to Family homework packet Alphabet knowledge, Increased parent
help with with activities; leveled word recognition, participation, increased
reading but books sent home each parent questionnaire, alphabet and word
lacked strategies week. weekly reading logs, recognition.
to assist. completion of activities.

Jocelyn Beaty- Students unable to Guided reading Compared this year’s test Significant increase in test
Gordon read biology and students scores to last year’s. scores, improvement of
text. designing concept student confidence,
posters to illustrate student and teacher
comprehension. attitudes.

A good example of student empowerment came out of the action research project
of Dana Stachowiak (see Table 1.5). Dana had recently attended a staff development
session about the value of reading aloud to students seven times per day. She did not
believe such a simple act could impact her students’ literacy skills, so she set out to do
an action research project to prove the presenter was wrong. She started reading brief
items from the newspaper, poems, and even “The Way I See It” quotes from Starbucks
paper coffee cups, as long as the excerpts were related to a lesson she was about to teach.
One student noticed that the Starbucks quotes were all from famous people. Her class
had a discussion about the quotes and the fact that they had no quotes from children.
Because Dana was doing a unit on activism and persuasive writing at the time, she and
the class decided to write letters to Starbucks supported with good arguments suggest-
ing that Starbucks use quotes from children. She wanted to instill in her students the
knowledge that they could act to change things they didn’t agree with. She was inter-
ested in promoting civic engagement as one skill important to citizens in a democracy.
An example of the letters students sent and quotations they offered appear in Box 1.2.
Incidentally, Dana also found that the frequent readings had a positive impact
on her students’ literacy skills. These findings bring up another advantage of data col-
lection. Data gathered fairly and objectively can help you make decisions in your class-
room that might allow you to get beyond your own perspective and biases and use
some effective practices you never dreamed could work.
From the projects we have discussed, you can also see that action research uses
data addressing all three of the purposes of assessment described in the previous section
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Ethics and Assessment 23

B O X 1 . 2

Letters and “The Way I See It” Suggestions from

Ms. Stachowiak’s Class
Dear Starbucks Corporate, The Way I See It. . . .
My name is Crissy Megill, and I am in Miss Stand up for what’s right
Stachowiak’s 4th grade classroom at Benton Heights even if you’re standing alone.
Elementary School in Monroe, NC. I am writing to let Like if there is a gang that hates you or bullies you.
my voice and my classmates’ voices be heard on your Tell them, “Back off and leave me alone!”
cups in “The Way I See It” series. Leave them standing there in shame.
Our goal is to let kids’ voices and feelings be heard Bullies are people who
because our minds might be fresher about the things in call you names or pick on you.
the world. We might see things different than an adult I have experienced it all.
or famous person. Plus, it would be something different –Kendra Covington, 4th grader
because I bet you sometimes get tired of using famous Benton Heights Elementary School
people.
Thank you for your time!
–Crissy Megill

of this chapter. For example, you can use diagnostic assessment to get a clear sense of
what the problem might be. Janelle Smith needed a concrete picture of what literacy
skills her children needed to work on so that she could send assignments home with
effective suggestions for parents. Similarly, Jocelyn Beaty-Gordon needed to understand
her students’ literacy levels to design appropriate activities for her biology classroom.
Formative assessment is useful during an intervention to see whether it has the
hoped for impact during implementation. If it does not, the formative assessment gives
you information to tweak the intervention. For example, Janelle found that when scis-
sors or crayons were needed for one of the activities she sent home, the book bags
came back with those activities unfinished. When asked, the children told her they did
not have those supplies at home. When she started sending home supplies as well as
activities, the book bags came back with completed projects.
Finally, summative assessment is needed to determine the overall value of the
project. Janelle used a knowledge of the alphabet test and the final literacy assessments
at the end of the year to see how much progress her students made. Similarly, Jocelyn
found that her techniques were working with her biology students when she compared
their scores on biology tests to those of students in previous years.
So action research and an inquiry stance are part of a mindset that many teach-
ers employ to empower themselves to problem solve about their practice and to help
their children learn more. At the heart of all action research projects is the enhance-
ment of student learning, and assessment for all three purposes—diagnostic, formative,
and summative—provides the data to make the decisions.

 ETHICS AND ASSESSMENT

As we all can attest from memories of our own childhood experiences, teachers have
pervasive and long-lasting influence. They have the potential to do both great good
and great harm. Because assessment plays such a significant role in the lives of stu-
dents, teachers must use assessment practices that are ethical. Ethical practices benefit
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24 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

and enhance student learning and avoid potential harmful effects. They promote well-
being, and they are based on basic beliefs about right and wrong.

Do No Harm
As a starting point for generating principles widely applicable to the various types of
assessment that occur in classrooms, we have found that two general guidelines seem
to address many of the ethical questions raised by teachers (Green et al., 2007). The
first one, dating back to the ancient Greeks, is to do no harm. Avoiding suffering is a
basic, broad ethical principle that people use to govern their lives. It summarizes eth-
ical principles handed down through the centuries, such as the Golden Rule (or “Assess
as Ye Would Be Assessed” [Payne, 2003]). In the realm of the classroom, this principle
manifests itself as the basic duty that teachers have to their students. Teachers must
fulfill the needs of each student as a learner, preserving the dignity of both the student
and the teacher. Teachers must remember that they serve in loco parentis (in the place
of parents), another factor that lends support to the principle that assessment should
protect students and do no harm to them.
For educators to fulfill this obligation, they must be well-versed in the potential
impact of the practices they use, because their assessments and evaluations may have
a variety of unintended consequences for their students. Protecting students from
harm is a general principle that no one contests in the abstract. However, thinking
about causing harm focuses the discussion on implications for everyday practice. So
when we talk about harm, we must emphasize that teacher judgment must be involved.
The first judgment comes in defining what harm is. For example, a teacher who, on a
test, uses surprise items that did not appear on the study guide may do harm by break-
ing the implicit bond of trust between teacher and student. A teacher who passes out
tests from highest grade to lowest may do harm by breaching confidentiality. Such
actions erode the dignity of students.

Avoid Score Pollution

The second general guideline for classroom assessment is to avoid score pollution. This
is a specific manifestation of the do no harm principle applying to assessment. If scores
from an assessment do not reflect the level of a student’s mastery of the instructional
content represented by that assessment, then harm has been done. Score pollution is akin
to lying. This guideline is adapted from recommendations for teachers preparing their
students for standardized tests. The basic idea is that any practice that improves perfor-
mance on an assessment without also increasing actual mastery of the content tested
produces score pollution and harms students (Haladyna et al., 1991). For example, a
teacher who has the class practice beforehand with actual test content would produce
score pollution. The score on that assessment would no longer measure mastery of a
body of knowledge, but would simply show the ability to memorize specific test items.
The score on the test does not represent actual student achievement in the content area
and is “polluted,” or determined partially by factors unrelated to academic achievement.
Practices designed to produce high test scores, no matter what the cost in terms of
integrity, do harm. Decisions and choices made on the basis of erroneous scores could
have many adverse consequences for students and schools, including the eventual emo-
tional ramifications of student placement in the wrong program, increased teacher stress,
or parents who are unaware of exactly how far behind their child may really be.
We believe this ethical principle can be extended to everyday classroom assess-
ment and not just to high-stakes tests. Any official assessment, including grades, should
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Ethics and Assessment 25

reflect only the extent to which students have mastered the goals of instruction. When
teachers modify grades or scores because of student effort, late work, or behavior
problems, for example, the scores do not accurately communicate the level of mastery
and can eventually harm students. Similarly, many teachers do not use a blind grading
system and may unconsciously prefer certain students. Such educators may uninten-
tionally engage in score pollution by giving less-favored students lower grades than
they deserve. Everyone has stories about a teacher with biases—the one who won’t ever
give males an A or the one who is always lenient with the kids who play sports. Class-
room grades sometimes seem to be “polluted” by these other factors. Such actions can
result in harms such as mistrust between student and teacher, discouragement, and
lack of student effort.
We had a memorable experience during graduate training that illustrates the
harm that can be done with score pollution. A group of us were asked to listen to
individual students read aloud who were in a special education class for students with
learning disabilities. We were checking to see if any of the students might be getting
closer in literacy skills to those in general education in the same grade. We were sur-
prised when one boy, poorly dressed, unkempt, and a tad defiant, read aloud fluently
and expressively at a level well above typical students in his grade. Our only conclusion
could be that he had been labeled as a student with a learning disability and placed in
that class based on very “polluted” scores of his achievement level. After the testing
information came to light, we were relieved to learn that this student was chosen to
be reintegrated into a general education classroom. Students, their families, and other
stakeholders in the education system need unbiased and factual information regarding
academic achievement to make good decisions about each step in their education.

Examples from Classrooms and Headlines

The all-too-frequent unpleasant accounts from our own students about unfair treat-
ment have also highlighted for us the need for consistent guidelines for ethical assess-
ment. For several years we have asked students to write down a time when they were
graded unfairly. Very few of them have difficulty coming up with an incident that
they vividly remember. For example, one student described her science teacher who
always handed out tests after they were graded from highest to lowest score, so every-
one knew exactly where they fell in the pecking order. She found this practice trau-
matizing even though she usually did fairly well. Another student remembered
receiving a “0” for a homework grade in her physical education class when she failed
to bring a permission slip signed by her parent (who was out of town) on the due
date. You can easily see the harm done to the first student and the pollution of the
grade of the second student.
The necessity for guidelines on ethical assessment practices is also evident in
frequent events taken from news headlines. In one incident, a biology teacher in the
midwestern United States decided to assign students failing grades for the science
course after the students were caught cheating on a class project. The decision split the
community and the teacher resigned. In another instance, the state law enforcement
division in a southern U.S. community investigated a teacher after she used in her
classroom some commercially available test preparation materials designed to simulate
the type of items and subject matter in the state test. Finally, the president of a south-
eastern U.S. college fired two professors for their refusal to adhere to a policy awarding
freshmen 60 percent of their grade based on effort (which amounted to simply show-
ing up for class). The dismissal of the professors brought unfavorable national attention
to the administrator’s misguided policy on effort and grades.
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26 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

Judgment Calls
We believe that do no harm and avoid score pollution are two basic guidelines you
can apply when facing real-life decisions about assessment in your classroom. In our
own research, we have asked teachers and teacher candidates for their judgments
about whether a variety of classroom assessment practices are ethical (Green et al.,
2007). We found strong agreement in several areas of assessment (see Table 1.6). For
example, protecting confidentiality of students’ assessment results was judged impor-
tant. Most agreed with our student that a teacher who passed out scored tests to
students in order of points earned was unethical. Communication about grading was
another area with high levels of agreement. Explaining how a task will be graded and
letting students know what material will be on a test are examples of items judged
ethical. Finally, this group agreed on some grading practices, for example, indicating
that lowering report card grades for disruptive behavior was unethical. Although not
all situations you face will be easily resolved, there is general agreement about the
most common ones.

Harder Judgment Calls

At times, making ethical assessment decisions emerges in practice as a choice between
harms. As we have said, teacher judgment is required, not only to define harms but to
determine which harm is greater. A teacher may have to choose between a high-stakes
exam that yields important data about student performance and the emotional stress
such exams cause in students (and teachers). We have also talked to many teachers who
agonize over choosing between harms when grading struggling students. They have to
decide whether to give a low grade that reflects the student’s actual mastery level ver-
sus a higher grade that reflects the student’s effort but doesn’t truly reflect their level

TA B L E 1 . 6
Judgments About the Ethicality of Classroom Assessment Practices
with Strong Agreement by Teachers and Teacher Candidates
Scenario Ethical Unethical

A teacher states how she will grade a task when she assigns it. 98% 2%

A teacher tells students what materials are important to learn in 98% 2%

preparing for a class test.

To motivate students to perform better, a science teacher always 6% 94%

announces that he is passing out scored tests to students in
order of points earned, from the top score to the bottom score.

A teacher spends a class period to train his students in test-taking 90% 10%
skills (e.g., not spending too much time on one problem,
eliminating impossible answers, guessing).

A second-grade teacher uses observations as the sole method to 15% 85%

assess what students have learned.

A teacher lowers report card grades for disruptive behavior. 15% 85%

Adapted from Green, S., Johnson, R., Kim, D., & Pope, N. (2007). Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues
and attitudes. Teaching and Teacher Education 23: 999–1011. Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
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Ethics and Assessment 27

of understanding. You can see why teacher judgment is so important in determining

and avoiding harm.

Your Turn
When we questioned teachers and teacher candidates about their views about whether
a variety of classroom assessment practices were ethical, we found several areas of
disagreement. Table 1.7 shows a sample of some of the scenarios we used. Cover the
“Ethical” and “Unethical” columns and take a few minutes to write down your own
rating of each practice as ethical or unethical. You can then compare your answer
choices with those of our group of teachers and teacher candidates.
One area that our group disagreed about was grading practices—the area that
created the firestorm in a Midwestern community. You can see we found mixed results
in the grading items shown in Table 1.7. We believe one reason we saw disagreement
about these practices is the complexity and nuance facing teachers involved in making
ethical judgments. For example, teachers often include dimensions not directly related
to the mastery of the learning goals in their grading schemes, such as neatness or class
participation. If the percentage devoted to such factors has minimal impact on the
overall grade, such practices do not pose an ethical dilemma. However, if such factors
are weighted heavily enough to change a grade, they may result in score pollution. As
you can see, score pollution is one issue where theory meets reality in the classroom.

Final Thoughts on Ethics and Assessment

We believe that the scenarios we designed can create an opening for discussion between
you and your colleagues about the ethics of your classroom assessment practices. We

TA B L E 1 . 7
Judgments About the Ethicality of Classroom Assessment Practices
with Disagreement by Teachers and Teacher Candidates
Scenario Ethical Unethical

A teacher always knows the identity of the student whose essay 49% 51%
test she is grading.
To enhance self-esteem, an elementary teacher addresses only 41% 59%
students’ strengths when writing narrative report cards.

A physical education teacher gives a student a zero as a 43% 57%

homework grade for not returning a form requiring a parent’s
signature.

A teacher weights homework heavily in determining report card 57% 43%

grades.

As a teacher finalizes grades, she changes one student’s course grade 37% 63%
from a B⫹ to an A because tests and papers showed that the
student had mastered the course objectives even though he had
not completed some of his homework assignments.

Adapted from Green, S., Johnson, R., Kim, D., & Pope, N. (2007). Ethics in classroom assessment practices: Issues
and attitudes. Teaching and Teacher Education 23: 999–1011. Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
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28 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

TA B L E 1 . 8
Recommendations for Making Ethical Assessment Decisions
1. Familiarize yourself with and follow your district’s and your school’s practices regarding
classroom assessment and standardized testing.
2. Discuss potential ethical issues or conflicts with teachers and administrators with whom
you work.
3. Use do no harm and avoid score pollution as guidelines for your actions.
4. Think things through from all perspectives before you act.

also believe that do no harm and avoid score pollution are two useful basic principles
you can apply when faced with making ethical decisions about assessment in your
classroom. Unfortunately, not all situations you face will be easily resolved. You will
develop your professional judgment about ethics and assessment through experiences
in your classroom, discussions with peers and administrators, and analysis of more
news stories that are sure to arise. Our advice is to make sure you first familiarize
yourself with and follow your district’s and school’s practices. Also, as you become
aware of potential ethical issues or conflicts, explicitly discuss them with other teachers.
Finally, make your own practices and decisions around assessment with the benefit of
the students in your care in mind, and make sure you clearly think things through
before you act. Seeing things from students’ or administrators’ perspectives, as well as
your own, can help you clarify your decisions. These recommendations are summarized
in Table 1.8.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we have tried to show you why assessment is essential. First, we
explained how integral assessment is in preparing students to function in a democracy.
We outlined how assessment is the key to providing equal access to educational oppor-
tunity. Assessment that gives teachers a clear sense of how their students are doing can
help them maximize those students’ opportunities for learning. Next we talked about
self-governing skills, such as independent thinking and a sense of responsibility, needed
in a democracy. We discussed how these skills can be fostered by using assessment
strategies promoting mastery goals. The third theme linking assessment to democratic
functioning is the promotion of critical thinking. Assessments that go beyond rote
memory and basic concepts and definitions will enable students to think for themselves
and become discerning voters and public-spirited citizens.
We provided you with an overview of assessment organized by the purposes
assessments can serve. Diagnostic assessment helps you understand your students’
strengths and needs at the beginning of the year and before new instruction. Formative
assessment allows you to monitor students during the learning process to help them
learn more. It is often thought of as assessment for learning. Summative assessment,
in contrast, is assessment of learning, the more conventional understanding of assess-
ment with which most of us grew up. Summative assessment for classroom purposes
usually serves the function of marking assignments for a grade. Summative assessment
for large-scale purposes serves the accountability function at the district, local, state,
national, and even international levels.
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Chapter Review Questions 29

Next, we acquainted you with the inquiry stance, which orients teachers to iden-
tify and solve problems in their classrooms. This problem-solving process is often
called action research. We offered several examples of the kinds of questions teachers
ask and the kind of assessment data they can collect to answer them. You saw how
these assessments served the diagnostic, formative, and summative functions. These
examples should help you see a number of the ways that assessment was essential in
these teachers’ classrooms and will become essential in yours.
Finally, we discussed the importance of ethics and assessment, providing two key
guidelines for making ethical decisions regarding assessment. The first was do no harm,
and the second was avoid score pollution. We also emphasized the importance of
teacher judgment when making ethical decisions grounded in the intention to help
students learn.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/
This site on action research provides background, resources, examples, and a step-by-step
approach for getting started.
http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/achievement-gap/
This site on the achievement gap provides background information as well as links to data bases,
web resources, and relevant articles from Education Week.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What do you think are the most important skills for preparing students for
democratic participation? What classroom assessment practices would help
foster these skills?
2. Give examples of teacher assessment practices that you have observed or
experienced that exemplify the sorting (or judgment) approach to education.
3. Give examples of teacher assessment practices that promote mastery goals in
terms of meaningful and challenging tasks, student participation in decision
making, and student focus on personal goals and individual progress.
4. Compare times in your life as a student when you know you had “effort
optimism” and times when you know you lacked “effort optimism.” What
teacher assessment practices may have contributed to your beliefs in each
situation?
5. Discuss the assessment practices of the two teachers in Box 1.1. Which
teacher would you rather have? Explain your answer in terms of mastery
and performance goals.
6. Give examples of assessments in your discipline that exemplify each of the three
major purposes of assessment.
7. Compare classroom-level and large-scale-level summative assessments. What
similarities and differences do you see? Why is it likely that most statewide
summative assessments cannot yield detailed practical information for teachers
to use in teaching?
8. What is an inquiry stance? Why is an inquiry stance useful?
9. Give examples of data that are routinely collected in classrooms that could be
used to answer questions and solve problems that teachers see as important.
10. Describe a way that you might incorporate action research and an inquiry
stance in your classroom in relation to your assessment practices.
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30 Chapter 1 Why Is Assessment Essential?

11. Describe a time you or someone you know was graded unfairly. Was a violation
of either of the two ethical guidelines, do no harm or avoid score pollution,
involved? Explain.
12. Examine the practices described in Table 1.7. Which do you believe are ethical?
Which do you believe are unethical? Explain your reasoning.
13. As a teacher, what do you think will be your most difficult ethical dilemma
related to assessment practices? Why do you think so?

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Pelligrino, J. W., N. Chudowsky, and R. Glaser. 2001. Knowing what students know: The science
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 2

Learning Goals:
The First Step
Begin with the end in mind.
–Stephen Covey

❖ Chapter Learning Goals

At the conclusion of this chapter, the
reader should be able to do the • Set priorities in the selection of
following: learning goals to address in
• Describe learning goals and their instruction.
importance. • Use taxonomies as an aid in
• Develop a planning chart to align writing and revising
learning goals, instruction, and learning goals.
assessment. • Construct a table of specifications
• Locate resources that outline key for planning instruction and
subject-area content and strategies. assessment.

 INTRODUCTION
As a teacher you have the awesome responsibility to chart a course of learning that
will prepare the students in your class to be productive citizens in our society. As
you prepare for the school year, you will establish broad goals your students should
achieve. For example, suppose you want your students to be able to comprehend,
interpret, analyze, and evaluate what they read. You set these goals mentally and
perhaps commit them to paper. In planning a unit or a lesson, you realize that for
the goals to be helpful they must be stated more specifically. For example, to com-
prehend means what? Your reading goal now becomes more tangible, possibly includ-
ing the ability of students to summarize and paraphrase texts, draw conclusions,
make predictions, analyze cause and effect, or interpret figurative expressions.
Clear statements of the aims you have in mind will assist you in systematically
addressing the key understanding and skills your students should know and be able
to do. Without such learning goals, instruction may be a hit-or-miss approach that
will address some key points, but neglect others.

Learning Goals
 DEFINING AND USING LEARNING GOALS
Learning goals are referred to with many terms, such as learning outcomes, objec-
Learning objec-
tives, targets, and tives, aims, and targets. Some educators make a distinction between broad learning
outcomes. goals for a unit, and narrower learning objectives for specific lessons. What these
33
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34 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

terms all have in common is that they specify what students should learn as the result
of classroom experiences such as instructional lessons and units. We refer to these
statements of instructional intent as learning goals.
Learning goals consist of a verb and a noun phrase. The verb specifies the type
of response students will exhibit to show they have achieved a goal. For example, a
learning goal in language arts might require that a student

explain the figurative use of words in context

Noun Phrase (Content)

Verb (Response)
Figures of speech (e.g., metaphor,
Student must explain
simile, hyperbole, personification)
(translate the meaning) of . . .
within a text.

Frequently, the verb reflects the cognitive process (e.g., recalling, classifying, cri-
tiquing) that is the intended learning outcome. The noun phrase refers to the subject-
area content that students should learn. In our example, then, as teachers plan
instruction and assessment, they focus on students recognizing figurative expressions
and using the context of the narrative to interpret the meaning of such expressions.
Examples of learning goals from mathematics, social studies, and science are shown
in Table 2.1. Notice that the goals use the verb/noun structure described.
You may be wondering why we include a discussion of learning goals in a book
on assessment. Learning goals allow you to start a unit and each lesson with a clear
understanding of what you ultimately want to achieve in your instruction. As you plan
instruction, you need a fairly concrete mental image of the learning you want students
to accomplish. As Figure 2.1 shows, the learning goals provide a guide for teachers as
they plan learning experiences and prepare the student assessment. The learning goals
clarify what students will do to demonstrate their learning. To continue our example,

TA B L E 2 . 1
Examples of Learning Goals in Various Subject Areas
Structure of Learning Goals
Subject Area Grade Verb Noun Phrase

Social Studies K Compare . . . . . . the daily lives of children and their

families in the United States in the
past with the daily lives of children
and their families today (South
Carolina Department of Education
[SCDE], 2005b, p. 7).
Mathematics 6 Organize . . . . . . data in frequency tables, histograms,
or stem-and-leaf plots (SCDE, 2007,
p. 53).
Science HS Balance . . . . . . chemical equations for simple
synthesis, decomposition, single
replacement, double replacement,
and combustion reactions (SCDE,
2005a, p. 80).
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Defining and Using Learning Goals 35

Assess student achievement

State the learning goal and Provide a variety of learning
of the learning goal using a
define it in terms of student experiences directed
variety of assessment
performance. toward the learning goal.
methods.

FIGURE 2.1 Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Instruction, and Assessment

Adapted from Gronlund & Brookhart, 2009, p. 7. Reprinted with permission.

a learning goal that states that students will explain the figurative use of words in context
requires a teacher to develop a lesson or unit that involves the class in the interpretation
of figurative expressions the students find in their readings. Then the assessment would
similarly require students to analyze figurative language within the context of new
readings, such as stories or a poem.
Using learning goals as a starting point is the key to alignment in the instruc- Alignment
tional process. Alignment occurs when elements that are interrelated (i.e., learning The congruence of one element or
goals, instruction, and assessment) are positioned so that the elements perform prop- object in relation to others.
erly. Aligning your instruction and your assessment with your learning goals ensures
that instruction addresses the content and strategies that you want students to learn.
It also ensures that students are properly assessed on that specific content.
A planning chart offers a teacher further support for alignment of goals, instruc-
tion, and assessment (Gronlund & Brookhart, 2009). As illustrated in Table 2.2, a
planning chart sketches out the learning experiences a teacher might use to develop a
lesson or unit on a topic, such as figurative language. The focus of this lesson is the
learning goal related to interpretation of metaphors. Notice that the activities in the
Teaching Methods column both follow from the learning goal and prepare students
for assessment tasks showing they have accomplished the learning goal.
Misalignment occurs when instruction or assessment tasks are not congruent Misalignment
with learning goals. In our example, misalignment would occur if we haven’t prepared The lack of congruence of learning
students with learning experiences to meet the goal. It would also occur if we required goals, instructions, and/or
assessment.
students to write poems in which they use figurative expressions as the assessment.
Instructionally we have only prepared students to interpret figurative expressions.
Similarly, we have misalignment if an assessment requires students only to list and
define the types of figurative expressions. In this instance, we could not determine
whether students can use context to understand the meaning of figurative expressions
encountered in their readings.

TA B L E 2 . 2
Planning Chart to Align Teaching and Assessment Tasks with the
Learning Goals
Learning Goal Teaching Methods/Learning Experiences Assessment Tasks
Interpret devices Read Carl Sandburg’s “Fog” and other Determine whether
of figurative poems that use metaphor. Discuss the students can
language such meaning of the metaphors. highlight and
as similes, Break into small groups and read interpret new
metaphors, and examples of metaphors and discuss instances of
hyperbole. meaning. Report back to the full class metaphors in
the examples the group found and the poems.
meaning of the examples.
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36 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

We have noticed misalignment problems in the lessons and units our teacher
candidates design. They develop interesting ideas for lessons and units (e.g., a zoo
unit or a lesson incorporating cooking), but these lessons or units do not necessarily
relate clearly to the learning goals in the subject area they are teaching. If a teacher
spends the bulk of instructional time making cookies for a lesson with a learning goal
related to understanding fractions, the students will learn more about baking cookies
than about fractions. The teacher’s instructional activities were not aligned with the
learning goals. Students learn what they spend their time attending to or doing. For
alignment of learning goals, instruction, and assessment, you must make sure your
instruction and your assessment guide students to attend to the content of the learn-
ing goals.
A lesson about learning goals comes to us from an article about integrating video
games into instruction (Sandford et al., 2007). As might be expected, the authors
learned that video games were not a panacea for generating student interest and boost-
ing achievement. They discovered that the teachers who had the most success integrat-
ing the games into instruction were those who had clear learning goals in mind and
thought of specific ways they could use these games to reach those goals. Teachers
without clear goals were not able to capitalize on the games or plan ways to use them
to further specific kinds of learning needed. These findings illustrate that learning goals
are the touchstone for your instruction and assessment.

 BACKWARD DESIGN
Wiggins and McTighe (1998) also zero in on the importance of alignment by offering
Backward Design a slightly different approach for planning unit lessons. In their backward design pro-
A process of planning in which a cess, the learning goals are identified first (see Figure 2.2). These authors, however,
teacher identifies the learning remind us that those learning goals are the desired end results. The learning goal
goals and the forms of evidence
(assessment) that would indicate a expresses what student outcome is desired. Thus, as Stephen Covey (1989) states, you
student has attained the learning “begin with the end in mind.”
goals. Instruction is then planned In the backward design process, the middle stage differs from our typical thoughts
to address the knowledge and skills
addressed in the goals and about planning a lesson or unit. Instead of designing instruction in this stage, the
assessment. teacher identifies the forms of evidence (performances or other assessment results) that
would indicate a student has attained the desired knowledge, skills, or strategies. At
this stage the teacher asks, “How will we know if students have achieved the desired
results and met the standards?” (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). Here the authors are
advising us that in the planning stages we should ask ourselves how we will determine
whether students have accomplished the learning goals. Thus, if we consider interpret-
ing figurative language a critical understanding for students, how will we know stu-
dents have mastered this goal? Will students read poems and speeches that employ
figurative language and write brief interpretations of the meaning of the materials?
After specifying these learning outcomes, the final stage involves planning instruc-
tion to prepare students to meet the learning goal, such as interpreting figurative language.

Plan learning
Determine acceptable
Identify desired results. experiences
evidence.
and instruction.

FIGURE 2.2 Sequence for Planning Using Backward Design Process

Wiggins & McTighe, 1998, p. 9. Reprinted with permission.
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Benefits of Specifying Learning Goals 37

TA B L E 2 . 3
Questions That Assist in Planning Instruction to Address Learning Goals
Key Questions Answers to Key Questions
What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, and principles) Understanding and skills required for learning goal mastery:
and skills (procedures) will students need to achieve Describe how racism and intolerance contributed to the
desired results? Holocaust.
Locate information using both primary and secondary
sources.
Determine the credibility and bias of primary and secondary
sources. (Arizona Department of Education, 2006)

What activities will equip students with the needed Small group work inspecting primary sources to examine
knowledge and skills? the prejudice associated with the Holocaust.

What will need to be taught and coached, and how should Concepts of racism, intolerance.
it best be taught, in light of performance goals? Use of primary sources to infer social conditions.
Types of bias in primary sources.

What materials and resources are best suited to Photocopies of primary sources. Website of the United
accomplish these goals? States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Is the overall design coherent and effective? Varied range of instructional and assessment activities
provide opportunity to master the learning goals.

Wiggins and McTighe suggest that planning for instruction should focus on the questions
in Table 2.3.
The table provides an example based on a learning outcome related to the Holo-
caust in which the end goal is Students will use primary sources to reconstruct the
experiences of persecuted groups. In the right-hand column are the answers to the key
questions as they apply to the learning goal related to the Holocaust. In answering each
of the key questions, you can plan instruction to help students achieve the desired
outcomes.

 BENEFITS OF SPECIFYING LEARNING GOALS

Clear statements of learning goals provide the potential to guide student learning,
especially if you share the goals with students. Such a practice is consistent with the
principle that producing a well-informed citizenry requires cultivating students to
begin to take responsibility for their own learning in school and beyond. Sharing
learning goals provides students with guideposts in the learning process (Guskey,
1997). One school district with which we work has a policy that each day teachers list
the learning goals on the board and review them with students at the beginning of
class. This practice reflects the importance of students understanding learning goals.
Sharing learning goals with students also offers them criteria to develop a clear
conception of quality performance (Gronlund & Brookhart, 2009). Students can start
using the learning goals to self-assess and become more independent in their learning.
To foster this, learning goals should be the source of the criteria that you use for
evaluating performance. Figuring out how to score an assignment can create uncertainty
for a teacher. For example, if students develop a presentation, how should points be
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38 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

allocated? The learning goals are the best source for criteria for scoring students’ per-
formances. As shown in Table 2.4, a set of communications learning goals can lead
directly to criteria that would be included in a checklist (see Table 2.5) to evaluate
students’ communication skills.

TA B L E 2 . 4
Content Standards for Communication Skills
Communication The student will recognize, demonstrate, and analyze the qualities of
Goal (C) effective communication.

7-C1 The student will use speaking skills to participate in large and small
groups in both formal and informal situations.

7-C1.1 Demonstrate the ability to face an audience, make eye contact, use the
appropriate voice level, use appropriate gestures, facial expressions,
and posture when making oral presentations.

7-C1.2 Demonstrate the ability to use language, vocabulary, and presentation

techniques appropriate for the purpose and audience. (SCDE,
2003a, p. 60)

From South Carolina Department of Education. 2003a. South Carolina English language arts curriculum standards 2002.
http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/standards/ela/.

TA B L E 2 . 5
Example of a Checklist Based on Learning Goals for Communication
Standards
Student: Hassan Brown Date: June 10, 2011
✓ Criteria Comments

✓ Faces the audience.

✓ Makes eye contact.

Uses appropriate gestures.

✓ Uses appropriate facial expressions.

✓ Uses appropriate posture.

✓ Uses language and vocabulary appropriate

for the purpose and audience.

Uses visual aids, such as props and

technology, to support his meaning.

✓ Expresses ideas orally with fluency.

Expresses ideas orally with confidence.

✓ Uses effective organizational strategies in

oral presentations.
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Where Do Learning Goals Come From? 39

Criteria Tally Marks Percentage Mastery

Faces the audience. 100%

Makes eye contact. 100%

Uses appropriate gestures. 50%

Uses appropriate facial expressions. 100%

Uses appropriate posture. 100%

Uses language and vocabulary appropriate 100%

for the purpose and audience.

Uses visual aids, such as props and 60%

technology, to support his meaning.

Expresses ideas orally with fluency. 70%

Expresses ideas orally with confidence. 75%

Uses effective organizational strategies 100%

in oral presentations.

FIGURE 2.3 Class Summary for Learning Goals Related to Communications

In addition, if a teacher notes which students mastered the skills and which have
not, that information can point to strengths and weaknesses of instruction and guide
plans for further instruction. Figure 2.3 shows the results of a teacher using tally marks
to record the number of students who demonstrated achievement of each learning
goal. The right-hand column shows the percentage of students who mastered each
topic. In the case of the goal faces the audience, 100% of the students achieved this
skill. In contrast, only 10 of the 20 students appropriately use gestures. Thus, when
students are preparing for a subsequent speech, the teacher may want to offer more
examples and provide students time to practice using gestures. We expand on the use
of class summary data in Chapter 5.

 WHERE DO LEARNING GOALS COME FROM?

Many resources are available for teachers in developing learning goals. In planning a
unit and developing its learning goals, you will review state and national content stan-
dards for the subject area, your district curriculum guides, and the teacher edition of
the textbook.

State and National Content Standards

A key source for learning goals is your state content standards for each subject area.
Content standards are skills, strategies, and bodies of knowledge that students should
learn. Some educators consider the phrase content standards to be interchangeable with
learning goals, curricular goals, instructional objectives, or curriculum standards
(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Popham 2003). Examples of content standards for
various content areas are shown in Table 2.6.
Identification of the subject matter to be included in content standards is accom-
plished by convening committees that include teachers in the content area, curriculum
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40 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

TA B L E 2 . 6
State Content Standards for Various Grade Levels and Subject Areas
Grade
Level Subject Area Standard State

K English Language Arts: Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page California (2006)
Reading of a book.

1 Mathematics Use patterns to skip count by twos, fives, and tens. Texas (2006)

2 Social Studies: Economics Give examples of people in the school and community Massachusetts (2003)
who are both producers and consumers.

3 Science Describe several functions of bones: support, North Carolina (2004)

protection, and locomotion.

4 Theatre Adapt a classroom dramatization to reflect a South Carolina (2003b)

particular historical period or culture.

5 Physical Education Analyze fitness data to describe and improve Virginia (2001)
personal fitness levels (e.g., apply data to own
plan for improvement in at least two components
of health-related fitness).

6 Technology Use a computer system to connect to and access New York (1996)
needed information from various Internet sites.

7 Visual Arts Apply the principles of design to interpret various New Jersey (2004)
masterworks of art.

8 Foreign Language Comprehend and interpret the main ideas and details Florida (2005)
from television, movies, videos, radio, or live
presentations produced in the target language.

9 English Language Arts: Establish a clear, distinctive, and coherent thesis or Georgia (2006)
Writing perspective and maintain a consistent tone and
focus throughout.

10 English Language Arts: Evaluate relationships between and among character, Illinois (1997)
Literature plot, setting, theme, conflict and resolution and their
influence on the effectiveness of a literary piece.1

11 Social Studies: History Compare and evaluate competing historical Washington (n.d.)2
narratives, analyze multiple perspectives, and
challenge arguments of historical inevitability.1

12 Music Explain how music reflects the social events of Ohio (2003)
history.

1
High school standards
2
Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (n.d.)

specialists, politicians, and educational policy makers (e.g., International Reading

Association [IRA] & National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE], 1996; National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000). This process occurs at the national
and state levels. Typically, the development of national content standards precedes the
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Too Many Learning Goals, Too Little Time: Selecting Learning Goals 41

development of state standards; subsequently, the national standards inform the work
on state-level content standards.
Content standards do not always translate directly into learning goals. Instead,
they sometimes describe competencies at a general level that requires further definition
of the instructional goal. In Table 2.4, for example, the communications goal is speci-
fied at a very general level: The student will recognize, demonstrate, and analyze the
qualities of effective communication. Often standards are accompanied by indicators or
benchmarks that clarify the outcome stated in the standard. One learning outcome
associated with the communication goal is Demonstrate the ability to face an audience,
make eye contact, use the appropriate voice level, use appropriate gestures, facial expres-
sions, and posture when making oral presentations. Such a statement does have clear
implications for instruction and assessment.

District Curriculum Guides

Another resource for teachers in developing learning goals is your district curriculum
guide for each subject area. Generally, the district guides are based on state-level con-
tent standards. However, the learning goals in district curriculum guides are typically
more specific in their description of student outcomes than are state content standards.
Often in the development of curriculum guides, teachers in the same content area or
grade level work together to clearly define the goals for their students.

Teacher Editions
Learning goals are also found in the teacher editions of textbooks used in the class-
room. These learning goals may serve as examples of the strategies and content knowl-
edge expressed in the state standards and district curriculum guides.
As a teacher, you should not rely solely on the learning goals in teachers’ manu-
als. They may not address the key content identified in your state content standards
and district curriculum materials. The state and district content standards describe the
skills and concepts that your students will experience in the state test. As a teacher,
your responsibility to the student is to develop the knowledge, skills, and strategies
outlined in state and district content standards. Only then will your students have
equal access to educational experiences that prepare them to meet the challenges they
will face on the state test and in life beyond the classroom.
Some teachers take this responsibility to mean they cannot go beyond the con-
tent standards in the state and district documents and expose their students to other
important ideas, but this is not true. The concepts, skills, and strategies in the content
standards should be central to the learning experiences you plan. But teachers often
go beyond these to introduce students to other important ideas. For example, teaching
students to integrate figurative expressions into their writing would be an appropriate
extension of the goal of interpreting figurative language.

 TTOO MANY LEARNING GOALS, TOO LITTLE

IME: SELECTING LEARNING GOALS
Popham (2003, 2006) notes that in any given subject area, teachers are faced with more
learning goals than can be covered in a year. A teacher has to make decisions about
which should be the focus of instruction. In developing the learning goals, you should
understand that selection of these goals involves sampling from all possible learning
outcomes. The selection process, then, should seek a representative sample of learning
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42 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

goals. For example, review the following brief list of some possible learning goals for
figurative expressions:
1. Demonstrates knowledge of the meaning of terms used to describe types of
figurative language.
2. Identifies figurative expressions in a text.
3. Comprehends the meaning of figurative expressions using context.
4. Incorporates figurative language into writing.
An English language arts teacher would quickly be overwhelmed given a similar
list of learning goals for every new concept—central idea, cause and effect, fact and
opinion, drawing conclusions, making predictions. So, in thinking about the learning
goals that are appropriate for your class, you need to select those of most importance
to your students.
Given the need to sample learning goals, how does one select which should be
addressed? Wiggins and McTighe (1998) offer us a series of filters to guide the selec-
tion of learning goals (see Table 2.7).
The first filter notes that in selecting learning goals, we should focus on the big
ideas. For example, in reading, a critical strategy is for students to identify the main
idea of a text and the details that support the central idea. Such a skill is important in
reading across narrative and expository texts and across subject areas. As shown in

TA B L E 2 . 7
Filters to Aid in the Identification of Key Learning Goals
Filter Description Example
To what extent does the Enduring understanding Importance of
idea, topic, or process focuses on the larger understanding graphic
represent a “big idea” concepts, principles, and representation of data.
having enduring value processes within a field.
beyond the classroom?
To what extent does the Enduring understanding Summarizing data reveals
idea, topic, or process involves students in patterns and trends
reside at the heart of applying the knowledge, across a variety of
the discipline? skills, and procedures used content areas.
by professionals in their
fields.
To what extent does the Enduring understanding Students do not realize
idea, topic, or process requires assisting students that graphs can be
require uncoverage? in uncovering abstract manipulated to deceive
ideas, counterintuitive the reader.
ideas, and misconceptions.
To what extent does the Enduring understanding Use bar graphs to
idea, topic, or process should provoke and document the number
offer potential for connect to students’ of biographies in the
engaging students? interests. school media center
that portray each
ethnic group.

Adapted from Wiggins, G., and J. McTighe. 1998. Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development. Used with permission.
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How Do I Write Good Learning Goals? 43

Table 2.7, in mathematics and social studies a critical skill is for students to be able to
interpret graphic representations of data and to summarize data graphically.
The second filter addresses the degree to which the new idea or strategy is cen-
tral to the discipline. For students of history, reviewing and interpreting primary
sources is a process central to historical inquiry (VanSledright, 2004). Thus, this second
filter would suggest that students’ time would be well spent working in small groups
to review journal entries, political cartoons, and advertisements for a historical period.
Making meaning from these documents models for students the process that historians
engage in as they research historical periods.
The third filter focuses on the need for instruction to uncover key ideas because
of the abstract quality of the new concepts, common misperceptions of students, or
counterintuitive quality of the new principles. For example, students are familiar with
mixing red and blue paint to develop the color purple. This knowledge, however, may
contribute to student misperceptions about the formation of white light. Thus, in phys-
ics, a demonstration may be a useful method to assist students in the counterintuitive
understanding that white light is formed by the overlap of red, green, and blue light.
Similarly, in foreign languages the demands of learning irregular verbs that do not
follow standard rules of conjugation may require special attention, with well-articulated
learning goals to address this challenging area.
The fourth filter relates to the potential for the concepts to engage students.
Wiggins and McTighe (1998) note that seemingly dry ideas can be more appealing if
the learning activities engage students and relate to their interests. They note that big
ideas may connect for students if presented as questions, issues, simulations, or debates.
For example, Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962) is a science fiction book
about a group of children who travel through a wrinkle in time to a planet where the
father of two of the children is held prisoner. On arriving at the planet, the children
find a society in which everyone does everything at the same time, in the same way.
All children bounce balls in rhythm and skip rope in rhythm. The book was quite
challenging for the fifth graders we taught; however, we personalized the book by
exploring the theme of conformity. To engage students, we promoted discussion with
questions such as, “Do we in America prize people who are different, or do we try to
make everyone conform?” Students became more interested as they related the book
to current issues about conformity that they, themselves, were encountering.
Integrating learning goals across subject areas may also promote student engage-
ment. Consider, for example, the integration of social studies and dramatization in
theater. Students may not be interested in learning the characteristics of specific his-
torical periods during social studies; however, incorporating such information into a
dramatization might promote student engagement.

 HOW DO I WRITE GOOD LEARNING GOALS?

The learning goals you find in state standards and district curriculum guides will not
all be expressed in a way that makes specific the knowledge and strategies students
need to learn. In revising available goals, or in writing a new learning goal, you should
select the appropriate verb and noun phrase.

Selecting the Verb

Begin the learning goal with an action verb. The selection of the verb is a crucial step in
developing learning goals. The verb you select specifies the type of response students will
exhibit to show achievement of the learning goal. Revisit Table 2.1 and look at the verbs
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44 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

and how each implies the way students will demonstrate achievement. Building on the
idea of alignment of goals, instruction, and assessment, a verb should be selected consis-
tent with instructional intent. For example, if during a lesson on figurative expressions,
instruction focuses on matching expressions with their actual meaning, the relevant verb
is matching. However, if you intend for students to learn to use the context of a story to
explain the figurative use of words, the relevant verb is explaining or translating.
To continue our example of data representation in graphs (Table 2.7), the instruc-
tional intent might be for students to interpret tables and graphs or to summarize data
in tables and graphs. The choice of verbs has implications for student learning experi-
ences. In the case of interpreting tables and graphs, students will require practice in
reviewing graphics and making statements based on the data. In the instance of sum-
marizing data, students will need instruction and practice in compiling data and rep-
resenting the information in tables and graphs.

Writing the Noun Phrase

Following the verb is a noun phrase describing the relevant content. This leads us back
to the content standards developed at national and state levels. Important understand-
ing and skills in each subject area are identified in these documents. Refer back to the
examples shown in Table 2.6. These learning goals identify the important subject-area
content for students, and they describe how the students should be able to use the
information. Look at the standard for theater in fourth grade. Can you begin to imag-
ine a lesson that would prepare students to meet this goal? Would the lesson include
identifying cultural aspects of a historical period? Would you teach students to consider
such cultural aspects as types of shelter, food, and clothing? Students will need practice
in locating information about the historical period. Students also need experience using
the information in an adaptation of a dramatization. Only then will they be prepared
for demonstrating they have met the learning goal through an assessment.

Specificity of Learning Goals

One important element to consider as you write learning goals is specificity. In devel-
oping learning goals for a lesson, you want them specific enough to establish in your
mind what learning experiences are necessary for students and for the content of the
assessment. The learning goals should also clearly communicate to students what they
will be learning. The fourth-grade reading goals in Table 2.8 demonstrate several levels
of specificity for learning goals. The most general level, Reading Goal (R), indicates

TA B L E 2 . 8
Three Levels of Learning Goals in Reading
Reading Goal (R) The student will draw upon a variety of strategies to comprehend,
interpret, analyze, and evaluate what he or she reads.
4-R2 The student will use knowledge of the purposes, structures, and elements of
writing to analyze and interpret various types of texts.
4-R2.6 Demonstrate the ability to identify devices of figurative language such as
similes, metaphors, and hyperbole and sound devices such as alliteration and
onomatopoeia. (SCDE, 2003a, p. 35)

South Carolina Department of Education. 2003a. South Carolina English language arts curriculum standards 2002.
http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/standards/ela/
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Learning Goals, Critical Thinking Skills, and Taxonomies 45

that students will use various strategies to comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evalu-
ate text. Such a statement is useful in thinking about outcomes of student learning over
a school year. However, for the teacher, this broad statement is not helpful in planning
a unit or a lesson plan. The next level (4-R2) focuses on “knowledge of the purposes,
structures, and elements of writing,” but does not guide us about the meaning of “pur-
poses, structures, and elements of writing.” At the third level (4-R2.6), we find that one
area in which we should develop student understanding is figurative language such as
similes, metaphors, and hyperbole. At this level of specificity, the implications for
instruction are clear. So as you review the learning goals in state standards or district
curriculum guides, select learning goals that provide enough specificity for you to
understand the implications for planning instruction.

Simplifying Learning Goals

On occasion you will need to simplify a content standard or indicator for it to be use-
ful in planning instruction and assessment. You can break indicators into their elements
to simplify them. The communications indicator Demonstrate the ability to face an audi-
ence, make eye contact, use the appropriate voice level, use appropriate gestures, facial
expressions, and posture when making oral presentations (see Table 2.4) is specific, but
multifaceted. The learning goals that you develop from this indicator would be based
on its elements. For example, you might decide that one lesson and assessment should
focus only on students learning to face an audience and make eye contact. Notice each
of these elements is listed separately in the assessment checklist in Table 2.5.

Student Input to Learning Goals

Consider refining the learning goals with students. After describing the state or district
standards associated with your unit, you can ask students to put the learning goals in
their own words. You can revise the goals to reflect student language and, thus, pro-
mote student understanding. For example, in Jo Ellen Hertel’s middle-school computer
class, she provides students before each unit with the state learning goals for the unit,
reworded into student-friendly language (see Figure 2.4). She and her students discuss
all the skills they will learn. Then the students write additional personal goals for that
unit that focus on elements of most interest to them. She reports that this process helps
focus students’ attention and gets them involved.

 LAND
EARNING GOALS, CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS,
TAXONOMIES
Learning goals direct everything, so that is where you need to begin in the task of
promoting critical thinking skills. As we have explained, these higher-level skills are
important for optimal participation in a democratic society. Several authors have
devised taxonomies, or classification frameworks, that detail thinking strategies impor- Taxonomy
tant to develop in our students. These taxonomies help teachers consider from several A classification framework.
angles what should be the focus of a lesson or unit.

Cognitive Taxonomies
Frameworks that can help you in thinking about the skills and strategies that are impor-
tant for students to learn include Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy (1956); Anderson and
Krathwohl’s revised Bloom’s taxonomy (2001); Gagné’s framework (1985); Marzano’s new
taxonomy (2001); or Quellmalz’s reading taxonomy (1985). These frameworks share in
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46 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

January

Database Unit of Instruction

As a result of this unit, I will . . .

Understand key vocabulary terms, including:

database electronic print database relational record

database database

field file criteria entry filter

operators inequalities form view list view report

sort ascending descending

I will . . . Recognize how and why databases are used to collect, organize, and analyze
information

I will . . . Understand how to plan and develop a database report

I will . . . Understand how to manipulate a database using edit/find, sorting, and filter/search

Personal Learning Goals: During this unit, I will . . .

FIGURE 2.4 Learning Goals Written in Student-Friendly Language with Space for Related
Personal Goals

Cognitive Domain common a focus on skills in the cognitive domain that you should incorporate into learn-
Processes related to thinking and ing goals. In this section we have chosen two commonly used cognitive taxonomies—
learning. Bloom’s taxonomy and the revised Bloom’s taxonomy—to show you how such taxonomies
can assist you.

Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy

First published in 1956, Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy has been around the longest. This
taxonomy lists six categories of thinking skills (Table 2.9). The cognitive category of
“knowledge” requires only that students recall information, such as the definition of met-
aphor; whereas “comprehension” requires they demonstrate an understanding of material,
such as inferring the meaning of a metaphor. “Application” involves the use of rules in
solving a problem, such as using the characteristics of metaphors to complete a figura-
tive expression. “Analysis” involves separating material into its components, as a stu-
dent might do to classify figurative usage as a metaphor, simile, or hyperbole.
“Synthesis” occurs when a student combines elements to form a new pattern or struc-
ture, as would be the case if a student wrote a poem that incorporates figurative
 TA B L E 2 . 9
A Continuum with Bloom’s Cognitive Categories and Examples of Learning Goals
Cognitive Knowledge—the Comprehension— Application—the use Analysis—the Synthesis—the Evaluation—the
Categories recall of specifics, the understanding of abstractions, separation of combining of judgment of the
gre78720_ch02_032-065.indd Page 47

universals, of the meaning such as rules, in material into its elements to form degree that
methods, and intent of particular elements in such a pattern or materials satisfy
processes, material. situations. a way that the structure that was criteria.
patterns, relationships not evident
3/21/09

structures, or between the previously.

settings. elements are
made evident.
Verbs for Learning define, identify, categorize, change, apply, arrange, analyze, associate, assemble, build, appraise, argue,
Goals label, list, locate, classify, conclude, complete, break down, combine, assess, conclude,
match, name, convert, describe, compute, categorize, classify, compose, critique, debate,
recall, recognize, dramatize, draw, demonstrate, compare, contrast, construct, create, defend, dispute,
remember, repeat, explain, extend, generalize, debate, diagram, design, devise, evaluate, judge,
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select, state, tell, infer, interpret, operate, organize, differentiate, formulate, justify,
underline outline, predict, solve, use discriminate, hypothesize, prioritize, rate,
paraphrase, dissect, invent, plan, recommend,
predict, rephrase, distinguish, group, produce, propose, revise, support,
restate, retell, investigate, outline, write validate
summarize, relate, separate,
translate, subdivide
transform
Examples of Define metaphor, Explain the meaning Complete the Indicate which of Use metaphor to Read the following
Learning Goals simile, and of the following following the following write a poem poem and
hyperbole. metaphor. statement as a statements are modeled after identify the
simile. metaphors, Sandburg’s poem various forms of
similes, and “Fog.” figurative
hyperboles. language and
the effectiveness
of the author’s
usage.

Based on Bloom et al., 1956; Gronlund, 2003; Metfessel, Michael, and Kirsner, 1969.

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48 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

language. “Evaluation” occurs when a student determines whether the materials meet
relevant criteria, as in critiquing the use of figurative language in a poem.
Because we present each cognitive strategy in its own category, you might assume
that the different cognitive skills do not overlap. This is a common misconception. If
students develop the research design for an experiment (synthesis), they must remember
the meaning of subject-specific terms (knowledge), apply their understanding of research
designs in general to the specifics of the study (application), and evaluate drafts of the
design as they finalize the product (evaluation). Higher-level cognitive processes auto-
matically require students to use several other thinking skills in achieving the learning
goal. Thus, your learning goals need not state every cognitive process. Instead, the thinking
skills associated with the focus of the particular lesson should be the only ones stated.
Although we learned about Bloom’s taxonomy in college, it took years of experi-
ence in schools to appreciate it as a valuable tool in planning for instruction and assess-
ment. A taxonomy like Bloom’s allows you to focus on the possible kinds of learning
you want for your students. An array of choices helps you move beyond the basic facts
that so often get the attention in classrooms. For example, in history classes, when we
studied wars, we always seemed to focus on memorizing battles and dates—definitely
a knowledge-level focus. Using a thinking skills taxonomy to get past that, you can build
learning goals requiring other kinds of cognitive skills. How about comparing and con-
trasting different elements of the cultures of the two sides that might have led to war
(analysis)? How about applying the lessons learned from this war to examine the later
foreign policy of that nation (application)? Knowing the array of possible thinking skills
helps you think outside the box of knowledge-level learning goals.
When your learning goals become more complex and interesting, your instruction
and assessment must follow. As we have already mentioned, alignment among learning
goals, instruction, and assessment is the key to making sure students learn what they need
to learn. So, the other important function of a taxonomy is assisting with alignment. For
example, if you have learning goals that require students to compare elements of the
cultures on two sides of a war, you must be sure that you include classroom activities
involving learning about the cultures as well as practicing the skills of comparison and
contrast. You can’t just give lectures every day—you must involve the students in practicing
the skills they need to be able to demonstrate. In addition, you must design your assessment
to include these higher skills. As you will see in Chapter 4, you can design really good
questions that tap key elements of your learning goals using verbs associated with Bloom’s
taxonomy. Your assessment and your instruction must mirror the skills and knowledge
in the learning goals, and a taxonomy of thinking skills helps you maintain that focus.
Here’s another example. If you have a learning goal stating that students must be
able to apply their knowledge of multiplication to finding the area of different spaces,
you must go beyond instructional activities such as having them memorize their mul-
tiplication tables. Memorizing multiplication tables is at the knowledge level of Bloom’s
taxonomy. Finding area includes knowledge of multiplication tables, but it goes beyond
that to also require students to apply their multiplication knowledge to a different task.
For learning goals, instruction, and assessment to be aligned, each of them must address
the same levels of the taxonomy. In the case of finding area, the learning goal, the
instruction, and the assessment must all address the application level. Having the skills
readily available to consult in the taxonomy allows you to check alignment.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

The revised Bloom’s taxonomy is shown in Table 2.10, illustrated with learning goals
from a poetry unit. We have included it because some states require standards to be
based on this taxonomy. Notice that the cognitive process dimension across the top of
 TA B L E 2 . 1 0
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy with Examples of Learning Goals in Poetry
Cognitive Process Dimension
Type of Knowledge Remember—retrieve Understand— Apply—implement Analyze—break Evaluate—make Create—bring
Dimension knowledge from construct a procedure in a material into its judgments based elements
gre78720_ch02_032-065.indd Page 49

memory. meaning from given situation. parts and on criteria. together to

communications. determine how form a new
parts relate to pattern or
3/21/09

one another structure.

and an overall
structure.
A. Factual Knowledge—of Recall forms of poetry
basic elements associated and definitions. (10%)
with a discipline. Recall origins of
forms of poetry. (5%)
B. Conceptual Knowledge— Interpret the Analyze elements
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of interrelationships among meaning of of poems to

the basic elements within poems. (20%) identify the
more complex structures. forms. (20%)

C. Procedural Knowledge— Apply elements of Write poems with

of how to do something, a specific form appropriate
skills, methods, techniques of poetry to stylistic
used to do something and complete a elements.
criteria for such and when poem. (10%) (25%)
to use such.

D. Meta-Cognitive Discuss in an
Knowledge—of how to use authors’
cognition and self-awareness conference the
of one’s own cognition. strengths
and areas for
improvement of
poems she/he
wrote. (10%)

Adapted from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, by Anderson, L., and D. Krathwohl (eds.). Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright 2001. Used with permission.

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50 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

the revised taxonomy covers the same thinking skills as were in the original taxonomy.
However, the thinking skills are now all expressed as verbs rather than nouns (e.g.,
“analyze” instead of “analysis”). The use of verbs emphasizes what the student is
expected to be able to do. Also, “create” (formerly “synthesis”) is now at the highest
level of the taxonomy, and “evaluate” is at the second-highest level. This change reflects
the greater cognitive complexity associated with creating.
The newly added dimension down the left side of Table 2.10 describes the differ-
ent kinds of knowledge or content to which these cognitive strategies can be applied
(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The authors identify four types of knowledge: factual,
conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Factual knowledge is composed of the basic
elements of a content area or discipline. Conceptual knowledge addresses the interre-
lationships of the elements within a more complex structure. Thus, knowing the forms
of poetry associated with the poetry unit and the definitions of terms (e.g., sonnet,
rhyme, meter) is factual knowledge. Students use this body of factual knowledge as they
interpret the meaning of poems, a learning goal placed at the intersection of conceptual
knowledge and the cognitive skill of understanding (see Table 2.10).
Procedural knowledge is concerned with students’ ability to do something,
and metacognitive knowledge centers on students’ self-awareness of their thinking and
problem-solving strategies. So learning goals related to procedural knowledge address
writing poetry. Metacognitive knowledge is developed when students self-assess the
strengths and areas for improvement in the poetry they have written. Recall that meta-
cognition is key to developing students’ self-governing skills that are critical in par-
ticipating in a democracy.
We believe that for most classroom purposes, these four types of knowledge
can be distilled into two major types. The content (or what is learned) is covered in
knowledge/understanding, which encompasses factual and conceptual knowledge.
The techniques and skills you teach students (the how to use) are skills/strategies/
procedures, addressing procedural and metacognitive knowledge. See Table 2.11 for
examples from several fields of study.
Knowledge/understanding covers factual knowledge that consists of the basic infor-
mation associated with a field. Examples include basic facts such as technical vocabulary
in economics (supply, demand), musical notation (quarter notes, treble clef ), and types of
rocks (igneous, sedimentary). Knowledge/understanding also covers conceptual knowledge
or the interrelationships among the basic information within more complex structures such
as theories or models. Examples include economic principles such as comparative advan-
tage, musical forms (symphonies, folk songs), and periods of geological time.
In contrast, skills/strategies/procedures address the techniques and skills acquired
in different fields of study. Within this category, procedural knowledge deals with methods
and techniques employed in a field, such as learning how to analyze the geographic impact
on the economics of a region, learning to sing a song, or learning how to classify rocks.
It also includes metacognitive knowledge such as analytical skills related to cognition in
general as well as one’s own cognition. This subset of skills/strategies/procedures includes
skills such as knowing when to use a particular strategy for analysis, knowing how to
monitor yourself as you perform, knowing how to catch yourself when you make a mis-
take, and knowing how to work from your strengths and improve your weaknesses.
Most of your units will have both knowledge/understanding learning goals and
skills/strategies/procedures learning goals. You will be teaching your students specific
content, and you will also be teaching your students specific skills to use when manip-
ulating that content. In Chapter 3 we begin to link these two types of knowledge with
specific kinds of assessments, one of the key early steps in aligning assessments with
learning goals.
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Learning Goals, Critical Thinking Skills, and Taxonomies 51

TA B L E 2 . 1 1
Examples of the Two Basic Types of Knowledge
Knowledge/Understanding (What) Skills/Strategies/Procedures (How)
Factual Conceptual Procedural Metacognitive
Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge

Economics: Technical Economics: Principle of Economics: How to calculate Economics: Choosing the
vocabulary such as comparative advantage growth curves correct mathematical
supply and demand formula for a given
problem
Music: Musical notation such Music: Musical forms such as Music: How to sing a song; Music: When practicing,
as quarter notes, treble sonatas, symphonies, folk how to determine in knowing how to build on
clef songs which period a symphony strengths and adjust for
was written weaknesses

Geology: Types of rocks such Geology: Periods of geological Geology: How to classify rocks Geology: How to determine
as igneous, metamorphic, time and land forms where and when to get
sedimentary additional information to
draw a conclusion about
from which geological
period an artifact comes
Literacy: Letter names and Literacy: Phonemic awareness Literacy: How to read a Literacy: Self-correction
sounds; sight words passage when a word does not
make sense in context

Affective and Psychomotor Taxonomies

The taxonomies we have discussed so far focus specifically on cognitive strategies as they
apply to the different kinds of knowledge. Two other taxonomies that teachers may find
useful focus on the affective and psychomotor domains of student learning. The affec- Affective Domain
tive domain deals with different categories of students’ emotional or internal responses Responses related to students’
to subject matter. The psychomotor domain addresses perceptual and motor skills. We emotional or internal reactions to
subject matter.
present taxonomies for the affective and psychomotor domains in this section.
Psychomotor Domain
Processes related to perceptual
Affective Domain and motor skills.
The categories of the affective taxonomy are presented in Table 2.12. The affective catego-
ries range from least to most committed. At the most basic level, a student pays attention
to an idea (“receiving”). At the highest level of commitment (“characterization”), a stu-
dent would adopt and internalize an idea or value and would always act consistently with
that value. So the affective taxonomy could be particularly useful for developing learning
goals that encourage students to internalize and then act on specific values.
In our conversations with physical education teachers, we have found that they are
particularly committed to helping students become active and health conscious for the
rest of their lives. Thus they often develop learning goals based on the affective domain.
For example, among the physical fitness goals developed by Jim Ross at Orchard Elemen-
tary School, you will find students will discuss the importance of regular physical activity,
a learning goal at the “valuing” level. Similarly, students will develop a health-related fitness
goal and use technology to track their fitness status, is at the affective level of “organization.”
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52 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

TA B L E 2 . 1 2
A Continuum with Krathwohl’s Affective Categories and Examples of Learning Goals
Affective Receiving— Responding— Valuing—attaches Organization— Characterization—
Categories attends to participates and worth or value to brings together a behaves in a
stimuli. reacts to stimuli. stimulus (e.g., object, complex of manner that is
phenomenon, values, resolves pervasive,
situation, or differences consistent, and
behavior). between them, predictable.
and develops an
internally
consistent value
system.
Verbs for follows, listens, answers, articulates, accepts, appreciates, alters, argues, acts, demonstrates,
Affective locates, contributes, commits, defends, displays,
Learning points to, discusses, finds, cooperates, integrates, maintains,
Goals receives greets, interacts, demonstrates, modifies practices, seeks
marks, recites, devotes, praises,
states, tells selects, shares
Examples of Follows text of Participates in Selects various genres Formulates and Demonstrates
Affective poems as discussions for reading during records learning intellectual
Learning others read. of the meaning sustained silent goals in journal. curiosity in
Goals Tracks with of various reading. Argues the basis writing.
eyes the metaphors. Shares collection of for evolution. Maintains interest in
movement Uses Spanish to rocks and minerals music styles.
of the ball. answer questions with class.
in foreign
languages class.

Based on Krathwohl, D., B. Bloom, and B. Masia. 1984. Taxonomy of educational objectives: Book 2, Affective domain. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon; and Gronlund,
N., and S. Brookhart. 2009. Writing instructional objectives for teaching and assessment, 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

To achieve this goal, students at Orchard Elementary integrate complex information to

modify behaviors contributing to their fitness across time. This process could also help
increase students’ commitment to a physically healthy lifestyle.
Similarly, teachers in related arts fields, such as theater, music, and visual arts,
also aim to instill a lifelong commitment to aspects of culture by ensuring that students
take an active rather than a passive role throughout their instruction. For example, over
the course of a semester, a theater teacher may use students’ personal stories to teach
and create monologues. By comparing their characters to monologues that actors per-
form in plays, they address learning goals related to projection, emotional recall, and
empathy. These goals touch on “receiving,” “responding,” and “valuing” in the affective
taxonomy. By later performing monologues they write, they move toward “organization”
and “characterization” with learning goals related to character creation and performance
of a role. The goal of lifetime commitment is addressed through participatory classroom
activities that allow students to experience what is compelling about participating in
and watching theater performances. Music and visual arts teachers also take a similar
“hands-on” approach to developing an affective commitment among students.
Another example related to the arts occurs at the valuing level in the visual arts
when learning goals include students in sharing reasons for preferring one artist’s work.
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Tables of Specifications 53

Notice the potential overlap of cognitive and affective domains in this last example. In
stating their preferences in a particular artist’s style, the students attach worth (i.e.,
value) to the artist’s work and justify (i.e., evaluation) their choices based on their
understanding of artistic elements.

Psychomotor Domain
The psychomotor domain has primarily been used in physical education. But teachers
in arts-related fields, special education, and technical education also find it useful
because it can directly address perceptions and physical movements and skills that are
a part of mastering these disciplines. As you can see in Table 2.13, the categories of
behavior move from “perception” to “origination.” Each category involves increasing
the complexity of decision making related to physical actions. This continuum also
requires increasingly higher-level thinking. For example, a student would move from
“perception,” or understanding the demonstration of a single kick, which requires only
one decision, all the way to “adaptation” and “origination” of kicks during a soccer
game, which involve multiple decisions and problem-solving strategies depending on
positions of teammates and opponents, placement on the field, and other consider-
ations. In music, students in band learn to follow a melody line (i.e., mechanism)
established by lead players, who maintain a steady beat (i.e., complex overt response)
for others to follow.
We show you these various taxonomies to acquaint you with the range of frame-
works available for use in developing learning goals for your students. Cognitive, psy-
chomotor, and affective outcomes are important to consider in promoting the full
educational development of students.

 TABLES OF SPECIFICATIONS
In your planning, you are likely to identify numerous learning goals that might be the
focus for learning activities and assessment in a unit. Your next challenge is to find a
way to organize these learning goals to make sure that you have appropriate coverage
of the types of knowledge and cognitive strategies. One way to organize the learning
goals that you’ve identified is to place them into a table of specifications. Thomas Table of Specification
Guskey (1996) describes a table of specifications as “a relatively brief, compact, and yet A chart that lists the test content
concise description of what we want students to learn and be able to do as a result of and specifies the number or
percentage of test items that
their involvement in a particular learning unit.” If kept concise, the table can serve as cover each content area.
an organizer for our development of a unit or our lesson plans.
In developing a table of specifications for instruction, Guskey reminds us to ask,
“What should students learn from this unit?” and “What should students be able to
do with what they learn?” Table 2.10 provides an illustration of the use of these dimen-
sions in a table of specifications for instruction. In the cells of the table, we placed
learning goals that might be relevant in a poetry unit. Placement of the learning goals
in the cells reveals that instruction in the poetry unit requires students to apply the
full range of cognitive skills—from remembering information about poetry forms to
creating poems based on the styles they learned. In addition, the learning goals are
fairly evenly distributed across the forms of knowledge.
The percentages listed with each goal indicate approximately the amount of time
to be allocated to instruction and learning activities. These percentages also guide teach-
ers as they plan the amount of coverage the learning goal should have on a test. The
percentages should be based on the importance of the learning goal as well as the time
required for students to learn the information or skill. Also, the percentages should not
54
TA B L E 2 . 1 3
gre78720_ch02_032-065.indd Page 54

A Continuum with Simpson’s Psychomotor Categories and Examples of Learning Goals

Psychomotor Perception— Set—prepares to Guided Response— Mechanism— Complex Overt Adaptation—modifies Origination—
Categories uses senses take a imitates an action performs Responses— movements to fit a creates new
3/21/09

to guide particular modeled by an movements performs problem situation. movement

motor action. instructor or uses at a habitual complex patterns to fit
activities. trial and error to level. movements at a problem
approximate the a habitual situation.
action. level.
Verbs for describes, enters, moves, adapts, attempts, calibrates, demonstrates, adjusts, changes, choreographs,
Psychomotor relates reacts, shows copies, mimics, operates, shows modifies, varies composes,
Learning Goals replicates prints improvises
12:37:34 AM user-s172

Examples of Relates music Enters and exits Copies hand Prints legibly. Carves sculpture Modifies running Improvises simple
Psychomotor to a dance stage on cue. position for Speaks fluently from wood. speed for terrain in rhythmic
Learning movement. Enters into a chords on a in Spanish. Conducts an a marathon. accompaniments
Goals Moves head debate. guitar. Styles hair. orchestra. Varies strokes to using body
toward Imitates parents’ Gestures to achieve textures in percussion.
sound vocalizations. emphasize a painting.
(infant). points in
speech.

Based on Simpson, E. 1972. The classification of educational objectives in the psychomotor domain. Washington, D.C.: Gryphon House; and Gronlund, N., and S. Brookhart. 2009. Writing instructional
objectives for teaching and assessment (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
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Tables of Specifications 55

be considered rigid time allotments for teaching the learning goal. They are guideposts
that remind you to spend the majority of instructional time on preparing students to
write poems and relatively less time on teaching the origins of each poetry form.
After completion of the table of specifications for instruction, the planning chart
that we introduced earlier can now be used with each learning goal to align the learn-
ing goals, instructional experiences, and assessments. Notice the alignment here:

Table of specification with Planning chart with instructional

learning goals activities and assessments

As shown in Table 2.14, the learning goals have implications for teaching. In this
instance, the learning goals require the teacher to plan instruction that involves students
in learning about the characteristics of types of poetry and using those characteristics
to determine the types of poetry when new examples are offered. Notice that these two
learning goals are taught together. A teacher might consider it essential that students
are making meaning of the poetry as they determine the forms of the poems. Also
notice that the integration of these two learning goals provides a teacher with some
flexibility because the goals combined account for 40 percent of the time for the unit.

Benefits of a Table of Specifications

One benefit of a table of specifications is that it provides you with a compact view of
concepts that are the focus of instruction, promoting a close match between unit mate-
rials and activities and learning outcomes. The table of specifications allows you to
review the level of cognitive strategies called for in the learning goals. It also prompts
you to move beyond knowledge level to higher-order thinking because any empty cells
toward the right allow you to notice the lack of learning goals encouraging students
to analyze, evaluate, or create.
Another major benefit of the table of specifications is its potential to inform your
instructional planning. Instruction will change across learning goals in several ways,
such as different learning activities, different curricular materials, and different roles for
the teacher and student. To consider instructional implications, contrast learning goals
in the Remember column and the Evaluate column in Table 2.10. Learning activities

TA B L E 2 . 1 4
Planning Chart
Learning Goal Teaching Methods/Learning Experiences Assessment Tasks

Analyze elements of Read examples of haiku, limericks, and Students distinguish

poems to identify cinquains. Discuss similarities and between types of
the forms. differences. Discuss the meaning of the poetry in new
poems and the authors’ intent (e.g., to reading selections.
create an image, to tell a humorous story).
Interpret the meaning Break into pairs, read a selection, and use Students write the
of poems. think, pair, share to determine the type meanings of a set
of poem and its meaning. of new haiku,
limericks, and
cinquains.
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56 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

must differ when students (a) read a text to learn the names of the poems and their
origins or (b) share the draft of a poem in a writer’s conference. Instructional materials
change from examples of poems in reading texts to the draft of a poem. Also, the roles
of the teacher and students are likely to change when a student is learning some factual
information about the stylistic elements versus when the student leads the discussion
in an author’s conference.

Using a Modified Table of Specifications for Test Design

Another valuable use of a table of specifications is in designing a test. In the table of
specifications we have seen thus far, we list all cognitive levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
across the top and the types of knowledge down the left side (see Table 2.10). Many
teachers do not get this specific when designing a blueprint for aligning their tests with
their instruction, and a more streamlined approach can be as effective (McMillan,
2007). We believe the key to designing a successful test is to use a modified blueprint,
such as the one depicted in Table 2.13, to keep track of the distribution of questions
across learning goals. Notice that the table collapses the cognitive strategies into two
levels: Remember and Higher Order Cognitive Strategies. This modification allows
teachers to monitor their use of higher order cognitive strategies but not become
trapped in deciding whether, for example, an item requires applying concepts or ana-
lyzing concepts.
Development of assessments should be guided by the degree of importance of
each learning goal, as represented by the percentage of the unit devoted to it. Basically,
the percentage covered in an assessment should be consistent with the coverage in the
learning goal. Table 2.15 shows the classification of test items that would be written
for each learning goal for a 40-item assessment. A teacher would write approximately
four items (10% of 40 = 4 items) for the learning goal of Recall forms of poetry and
definitions. If a teacher develops an assessment in which 50 percent of the items address
poem forms and definitions, then this goal is overrepresented in the assessment. Use
of a table of specifications in test design ensures that you will address all the learning
and won’t include superfluous assessment items or tasks.
Another benefit of the table is that any empty cells will cue a teacher that criti-
cal concepts or cognitive strategies might have been overlooked in the assessment
items developed so far. Teachers sometimes emphasize subject matter of interest to
them and may overlook concepts in less-favored subject areas. This does not mean that
every unit must have all the knowledge and cognitive levels covered in your table of
specifications. Not every unit will necessarily have learning goals at all levels.

Challenges in Using a Table of Specifications

The use of a table of specifications or taxonomy might appear too demanding consider-
ing everything you must do as a teacher. However, in the past, a common criticism of
teaching was the perceived overreliance on instruction and assessment using knowledge-
level cognitive strategies to the exclusion of challenging students with higher-level think-
ing skills (recall our example of memorizing battles and dates in history classes). Using
a table to make the cognitive levels explicit enables you to design instruction and assess-
ment at higher levels of cognitive skills, even though it may involve some deliberate
complex judgments.
One mistake that teachers sometimes make is becoming overly concerned
about the exact cell in the table of specifications in which a learning goal or an
assessment item belongs. In fact, we have seen disagreement about such classifications
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Tables of Specifications 57

TA B L E 2 . 1 5
Streamlined Table of Specifications for Planning a Test
List Items in Appropriate Column
Higher Order Cognitive
List Each Learning Goal and Percent Strategies
of the Unit It Covers Remember Understand Create

1. Recall forms of poetry and definitions. Items 1–4

10%

2. Recall origins of forms of poetry. Items 5–6

5%
3. Interpret the meaning of poems. Items 7, 8, 11, 12, 15–18

20%

4. Analyze elements of poems to identify Items 9, 10, 19–24

the forms.

20%

5. Apply elements of a specific form of Items 13, 14, 25, 26

poetry to complete a poem.

10%

6. Write poems with appropriate stylistic Items 27–36

elements.

25%

7. Discuss in an authors’ conference the Items 37–40

strengths and areas for improvement
of poems she/he wrote.

10%

in textbooks and in tables on various websites. For example, we have found that
generating examples of a concept is sometimes placed at the “comprehension/under-
stand” level and sometimes at the “application/apply” level. These nuances and con-
tradictions may frustrate you if you dwell on them too much. The key requirements
are (1) you are addressing skills above the knowledge level in both your instruction
and your assessment, and (2) your learning goals, instruction, and assessment are
all aligned. We advise our students not to obsess about classifying goals or items in
the table. Instead, we advise them to be able to justify their method of classification
to themselves and to ensure that their lessons and assessments cover the range of
cognitive and knowledge levels.
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58 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

 CASE STUDY APPLICATIONS

In this section we introduce three case studies that will provide examples of the assessment
methods throughout this text. We discuss these case studies in this chapter in terms of
the lessons they provide about learning goals. We will revisit the case studies to see appli-
cations of new assessment strategies presented in those chapters. As shown in Table 2.16,
in the unit by Maria Mensik, high school students in an English class explore the char-
acteristics of ideal societies (utopias) and dysfunctional societies (dystopias). Students read
Utopia, by Thomas More; 1984, by George Orwell; and The Giver, by Lois Lowry. They
view films, such as Pleasantville, and I, Robot. In terms of assessment, students complete
tests and work in small groups to formulate their own ideal society, using PowerPoint to
develop a persuasive presentation to recruit new citizens for their country.

TA B L E 2 . 1 6
Descriptions of Three Case Studies
Subject Area Grade Level Focus/Theme Learning Goals Forms of Assessment
Maria Mensik’s High School Utopia and The students will compare and contrast Multiple-Choice,
English Class Dystopia characteristics of a utopia and dystopia. Modified True/False,
The students will compare and contrast Performance Tasks
multiple works concerning utopia/
dystopia, paying particular attention to
the role of the government and the role
of the individual.
The students will use persuasive language
in writing and/or speaking.

Lynn McCarter’s Middle Level Solving The students will use geometric concepts Journal Prompts;
Mathematics Problems and modeling to interpret and solve Essays, Multiple-
Class Related to problems.1 Choice, Performance
Proportions The students will solve problems related Task
to similar and congruent figures.
The students will select appropriate units
and tools for measurement tasks within
problem-solving situations; determine
precision and check for reasonableness
of results.

Ebony Sanders’s Early Childhood Distinguishing The students will recognize matter in Fill-in-the-Blank,
Science Class between their daily surroundings. Performance Tasks,
Solids and The students will describe the Journal Prompts
Liquids characteristics of solids and liquids
based on their explorations.
The students will demonstrate the
appropriate steps to test an unknown
solid or liquid.
The students will use the writing process
to describe solids and liquids.

1
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 1998. K–8 Mathematics Competency Goals and Objectives, p. 41.
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Case Study Applications 59

Solving problems related to proportions is the focus of Lynn McCarter’s math-

ematics unit. In this unit, middle-level students use proportions to solve problems
similar to those in real life, such as reading a map, enlarging or reducing a photograph
or a poster, and determining heights of very tall objects. Assessments used by Lynn
include multiple-choice items, journal entries, essays, and a performance task.
Ebony Sanders’s science unit focuses on first-grade students’ learning about the
characteristics of solids and liquids. Activities include students predicting the outcome
of “a race” between two liquids and determining the “rule” the instructor uses to sort
objects into a solids pile. Assessments include students touching a solid in a “feely”
box and writing in their journals about how they could tell the object was a solid and
taking a photograph of a solid or liquid found in their school and completing a writ-
ing task about solids or liquids.
Maria’s unit on utopia and dystopia illustrates several important aspects of learn-
ing goals. Table 2.17 shows Maria’s use of content standards to develop her unit goals.
For example, the learning goal The students will compare and contrast characteristics
of a utopia and dystopia addresses the content standard Demonstrate the ability to
analyze the origin and meaning of new words by using a knowledge of culture and
mythology. Maria’s use of the content standards reminds us that they may require revi-
sion prior to being used as learning goals.
Maria’s unit also reminds us about applying filters in determining how to address
learning goals. In terms of the engagement filter, students might lose interest if the

TA B L E 2 . 1 7
English Learning Goals and Content Standards
Learning Goals State Standards: Reading (R), Writing (W), Communication (C), and Research Goals (RS)
The student will compare and R3.1 Demonstrate the ability to analyze the origin and meaning of new words by using a
contrast characteristics of knowledge of culture and mythology.
a utopia and dystopia. C3.8 Demonstrate the ability to make connections between nonprint sources and his or
her prior knowledge, other sources, and the world.

The student will compare R1.2 Demonstrate the ability to make connections between a text read independently and
and contrast multiple his or her prior knowledge, other texts, and the world.
works concerning utopia/ R1.9 Demonstrate the ability to read several works on a particular topic, paraphrase the
dystopia, paying particular ideas, and synthesize them with ideas from other authors addressing the same topic.
attention to the role of the R2.9 Demonstrate the ability to present interpretations of texts by using methods such as
government and the role Socratic questioning, literature circles, class discussion, PowerPoint presentations, and
of the individual. graphic organizers.
W1.3 Demonstrate the ability to develop an extended response around a central idea, using
relevant supporting details.
W1.6.3 Demonstrate the ability to write essays, reports, articles, and proposals.
C3.6 Demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast the treatment of a given situation or
event in nonprint sources.

The student will use W2.3 Demonstrate the ability to use writing to persuade, analyze, and transact business.
persuasive language in W3.1 Demonstrate the ability to respond to texts both orally and in writing.
writing and/or speaking. C1.3 Demonstrate the ability to use oral language to inform, to explain, to persuade, and
to compare and contrast different viewpoints.
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60 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

discussion lacks relevance to their lives. However, the learning goal to compare and
contrast multiple works dovetails with instruction that uses currently popular works as
well as classic literature. Using these broad resources offers potential for students to
make connections with their lives.
Lynn McCarter’s math class shows how the teacher uses problems based on real-
life situations to promote engagement. Students are more likely to be interested when
the learning goals are applied to situations they encounter. Also, Lynn indicates that
student performance will be documented by using a checklist providing her with a
breakdown of student learning levels to be used later for cooperative groups. Students
will also use the checklist to find areas of weakness and explore those areas further in
individual projects. Here, Lynn reminds us of our earlier statement that students begin
to learn to self-assess when provided with the learning goals for a lesson and when
given a scoring guide (e.g., a checklist) based on those learning goals. As we mentioned
in Chapter 1, the development of self-assessment, or self-governing skills, is critical to
prepare students for participation in a democracy.
A review of Ebony Sanders’s learning goals and state standards in Table 2.18
shows how to integrate subject matter, such as science concepts, and writing skills.
Notice that in addition to students learning the characteristics of solids and liquids,
Ebony also has learning goals related to students using the writing process to com-
municate their understanding of solids and liquids.

TA B L E 2 . 1 8
Learning Goals and Content Standards for Ebony Sanders’s Unit
Learning Goals Corresponding State Standard(s)
Physical Science
The students will recognize I.A.2. Compare, sort and group concrete objects according to observable properties.
matter in their daily
surroundings.
The students will describe I.A.1. Use the senses to gather information about objects or events such as size, shape, color,
the characteristics of texture, sound, position, and change (qualitative observations).
solids and liquids based IV.A.3. Objects can be described by the properties of the materials from which they are made,
on their explorations. and those properties can be used to separate or sort a group of objects or materials.
IV.A.4. Materials can exist in different states.
a. Explore and describe characteristics in solids.
b. Explore and describe characteristics in liquids.
The students will demonstrate I.B.1.b. Employ simple equipment, such as hand lenses, thermometers, and balances, to gather
the appropriate steps to test data and extend the senses.
an unknown solid or IV.A.2. Properties of matter can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and
liquid. thermometers.
Writing
The students will use the 1-W1.2. Begin using prewriting strategies.
writing process to describe 1-W1.3. Demonstrate the ability to generate drafts using words and pictures that focus on a
solids and liquids. topic and that include relevant details.
1-W1.6. Demonstrate the ability to write in a variety of formats.
1-W1.6.1. Demonstrate the ability to write simple compositions, friendly letters, and expressive
and informational pieces with peer or teacher support.
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Helpful Websites 61

Our review of the case studies reinforces several points. First, revising content
standards may be necessary when using them as learning goals. Also, because the
number of standards is greater than a teacher’s time to cover them, we should consider
the importance of the learning outcome and the instructional time we allocate to it.
In addition, student engagement may be improved by the use of resources based on
relevant real-life experiences. Finally, the integration of learning goals (e.g., writing and
science observations) can “create” time for coverage of multiple subject areas.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

Learning goals are a formal statement of the end results that you intend for your stu-
dents. We have learned that learning goals consist of a verb and a noun phrase:
Organize data in charts, pictographs, and tables.
Verb Noun phrase
The verb tells what the students will do and the noun phrase describes the subject-area
content knowledge the students will learn.
We reviewed resources for writing learning goals, including taxonomies, subject-
area content standards, district curriculum guides, and teacher manuals. We examined
the use of Bloom’s taxonomy and the revised Bloom’s taxonomy to guide the develop-
ment of learning goals related to cognitive skills (e.g., analyze, evaluate, create). Con-
tent standards, district curriculum guides, and teacher manuals provide information
about the knowledge that students should learn. Content standards are documents that
outline key subject-area knowledge, skills, and strategies that teachers must develop in
their students. Learning goals in district curriculum guides often are written at a level
that is more specific in their description of student outcomes than are state content
standards. Goals in teacher manuals are usually specific to the lesson; however, a
teacher must ensure that state and district standards are covered.
In our discussion of tables of specifications, we examine the use of a two-way
table (i.e., Type of Knowledge by Cognitive Skill; see Table 2.10) to organize the learn-
ing goals in an instructional unit. Each learning goal is categorized in a cell of the table
according to the goal’s knowledge type and cognitive process. Organizing learning
goals in such a table allows a teacher to see which cognitive skills and types of knowl-
edge have been addressed. Empty cells in the table also cue the teacher to consider
whether additional learning goals need to be developed.
The learning goals in the table of specifications can be put into a planning chart
for you to sketch out the learning experiences and assessment tasks that are required.
This process ensures the alignment of learning goals, instruction, and assessment. In
addition, planning the assessment will be assisted by using a modified table of speci-
fications for assessment. This simplification of the instructional table of specifications
allows you to classify each assessment item by learning goal and cognitive skill.
In this chapter, we have presented methods for you to systematically develop
learning goals that will guide your instruction and assessment. In the following chap-
ters we explore methods for assessing student achievement of learning goals.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.ccsso.org/Projects/State_Education_Indicators/Key_State_Education_Policies/3160.
cfm#S. Provides links to content standards at state department of education websites. Use
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62 Chapter 2 Learning Goals: The First Step

this site to locate your state content standards—the best place for you to begin learning
about content standards and learning goals.
http://www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm (English language arts)
http://standards.nctm.org/document/appendix/numb.htm (Mathematics)
http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/6a.html (Science)
http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands/ (Social Studies)
Provide content standards developed at the national level.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Complete a web search to locate the state content standards for your subject area.
Select five learning outcomes that are specific enough for you to describe the
appropriate instruction and assessment.
2. Describe at least two examples of appropriate instruction and two examples of
appropriate assessment for one learning goal from Item 1 above.
3. In which cognitive process dimension and knowledge dimension of Bloom’s
revised taxonomy would you categorize the foreign languages learning goal,
“Comprehend and interpret the main ideas and details from television, movies,
videos, radio, or live presentations produced in the target language”?
4. Review the affective categories in Table 2.12. Use a verb from the middle row,
Verbs for Affective Learning Goals, to develop a learning goal for a subject area
(e.g., reading, mathematics, visual arts).
5. Review the psychomotor categories in Table 2.13. Using a verb from the row
labeled Verbs for Psychomotor Learning Goals, develop a learning goal for an
arts-related subject area (e.g., dance, music, theater).
6. The following mathematics standard requires revision to specify what students
must do to show achievement of the goal: Understand fractions as parts of a
whole. Hint: Make the verb more specific.
7. Choose one of the three case studies discussed in the chapter and describe where
you believe the learning goals would fit in Bloom’s revised taxonomy.
8. Look at the learning goals provided by a textbook chapter in your content area.
How are they similar to or different from your state’s standards for that subject
matter and grade level?
9. Design a learning goal for some aspect of the content of this chapter. Then
describe instructional activities and types of assessment that would be aligned
with this learning goal.

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Arizona Department of Education. 2006. The social studies standard articulated by grade level.
Retrieved June 2, 2007 from http://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/sstudies/articulated/.
Bloom, B. (ed.), M. Engelhart, E. Furst, W. Hill, and D. Krathwohl. 1956. Taxonomy of
educational objectives: Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.
California State Board of Education. 2006. Kindergarten English-language arts content standards.
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Covey, S. 1989. The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 95.
Florida Department of Education. 2005. Foreign languages grades 6–8. Retrieved June 2, 2007
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mststa5.pdf.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 1998. K–8 mathematics competency goals and
objectives. Retrieved June 9, 2007 from http://community.learnnc.org/dpi/math/archives/
K8-98.pdf.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 2004. Science standard course of study and
grade level competencies: K–12. Retrieved June 2, 2007 from http://www.ncpublicschools.
org/docs/curriculum/science/scos/2004/science.pdf.
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CurriculumInstruct/SocStudies/historyEALRs.aspx.
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aspx?page⫽3&TopicRelationID⫽336&ContentID⫽1388&Content⫽12661.
Popham, W. J. 2003. Trouble with testing: Why standards-based assessment doesn’t measure up.
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Popham, J. 2006. Content standards: The unindicted co-conspirator. Educational Leadership,
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66
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 3

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT:
ENSURING STUDENT SUCCESS
FROM THE BEGINNING

Evaluation is creation.
–Friedrich Nietzsche

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Understand differences in

At the conclusion of this chapter, the measuring skills/strategies/
reader should be able to: procedures and knowledge/
• Choose, design, and interpret understanding.
diagnostic assessments for • Accommodate diverse learners
planning instruction. during diagnostic assessment.

 INTRODUCTION
The public and the press focus on and therefore emphasize formal standardized
large-scale state testing at the end of each year. But we believe that assessments at
the beginning and during each year are actually more important when it comes to
fostering student learning. In this chapter we address diagnostic assessments. Intro-
duced in Chapter 1, diagnostic assessments are the assessments used at the begin-
ning of the year and the beginning of units to help you understand and respond to
the wide range of needs, backgrounds, and attitudes that your students bring to
your classroom. They also show you how students think and what misconceptions
they have. You must understand the varying needs of your students so you can
provide differentiated instruction that helps to close achievement gaps. Different
students will need different strategies to profit from your classes. We chose
Nietzsche’s quotation to begin our chapter because diagnostic assessments are the
foundational evaluation methods for creating learning in your classroom.
Determining what your students know at the beginning of the year and at the
beginning of a new unit allows you to design lessons to meet their needs. We don’t
want students getting discouraged from the first day of class. As you recall, Jocelyn,
the biology teacher described in Chapter 1, discovered that none of her students’
reading skills were adequate for tackling her biology textbook. This knowledge
helped her design instruction that addressed biology. But she also addressed her
students’ need for intensive vocabulary work and encouraged them to demonstrate
their learning through means other than traditional writing tasks and tests, rather
than assuming they simply weren’t equipped to meet the class goals. Diagnostic
assessment was crucial for Jocelyn to figure out how best to teach her students and
tailor activities to their needs.
67
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68 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

 BAND
EFORE YOU BEGIN: HIGH EXPECTATIONS
BEHAVIORS THAT CONVEY THEM
In developing diagnostic assessment, you must start by holding high expectations for
your students. Even though Jocelyn’s students’ basic reading skills were not at grade level,
she designed her instruction to hold them fully accountable for the complex biology
content she would teach them. To design appropriate instruction, she had to base her
diagnostic assessment on the assumption that they could meet the learning goals.
All of us support and give lip service to high expectations, but they are often
quite difficult to internalize and implement in a classroom. Researchers have found
that some teachers unconsciously communicate differently with students, depending
on whether they believe those students are high or low achievers (Schunk et al., 2008).
These teachers convey high—or low—expectations to their students through their
behaviors and, in particular, through their actions during ongoing, informal assess-
ment activities that begin the very first day of the school year. Often teachers are not
even aware that they convey such notions to students.
Table 3.1 illustrates some of the behaviors that teachers engage in during ongoing
classroom assessment and interaction with students for whom they have low expecta-
tions. For example, if a student gives an incorrect response or no response to a teacher’s
oral question, a teacher can quickly move on to someone else, or the teacher can provide
a few seconds for the student to think, clarify the question, repeat the question, or give
the student additional information that could help make a connection more prominent.
If the teacher has low expectations for a student, the most likely response is to move
quickly on to another student. Such behavior can be particularly noticeable for students
who are learning English (Rothenberg & Fisher, 2007). Teachers don’t want to put them

TA B L E 3 . 1
Some Teacher Behaviors Related to Assessment That Communicate Low Expectations
Waiting less time for low achievers to answer a question.

Giving answers to low achievers or calling on someone else rather than trying to improve responses by giving clues or rephrasing.

Rewarding incorrect answers by low achievers.

Criticizing low achievers more often for failure.

Praising low achievers less often for success.

Providing briefer and less informative answers to questions of low achievers.

Failing to give feedback following public responses of low achievers.

Generally paying less attention to low achievers and interacting with them less frequently.

Calling on low achievers less often, or asking them only easier, nonanalytic questions.

Generally demanding less from low achievers (e.g., accepting low-quality or incorrect responses).

Not giving low achievers the benefit of the doubt as much as high achievers when grading tests or assignments.

Showing less acceptance and use of low achievers’ ideas.

Adapted from Brophy, J. 1998. Motivating students to learn. Copyright McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Used with permission.
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Before You Begin: High Expectations and Behaviors That Convey Them 69

on the spot or embarrass them, but then they end up not requiring the same level of
participation and accountability from their English learners.
In contrast, a teacher who has high expectations is more likely to probe for an
answer, clarify the question, or do something to communicate that the teacher expects
the student to be able to answer correctly. These teacher behaviors then influence the
learning process. The latter student will feel encouraged and be more likely to answer
correctly more often and thus probably will learn more.
Different teacher behavior patterns toward low and high achievers can help us
understand the connection between student performance and teacher expectations.
You can see how gradually across time, students get discouraged when they are ignored,
criticized, or skipped over. A year’s accumulation of less attention, easier work, and
more criticism has a major impact on a student’s learning. Often teachers’ perception
of students heavily influences the pupils’ perceptions of themselves. Students buy into
the teacher’s perceptions and don’t try as hard and don’t see themselves as successful
or competent. Such perceptions then lead to student behaviors that result in lower
achievement, fulfilling the teacher’s original expectations.
Figure 3.1 shows how teacher expectations could translate into different out-
comes for two groups. If teachers tend to believe a particular type of student (perhaps
the poor or minority children on the wrong side of the achievement gap) won’t do
well, their own instructional behaviors could in fact lead to lower achievement for
those less-favored groups.
Researchers have indeed uncovered a strong link between teacher expectations,
which can be formed very early in the school year, and student achievement. One early
study illustrating this point well was done with first-grade teachers (Palardy, 1969). At
the beginning of a school year, a researcher asked a group of teachers about whether
boys were likely to make as much progress in reading as girls during first grade. Ten
of these teachers felt that boys tend to do as well as girls, and ten felt that boys usually
do significantly worse than girls in reading in first grade. In this study, according to
scores on aptitude tests, all students had equivalent ability to do well. At the end of
the school year, the researcher looked at the achievement levels in reading of first-grade
girls and boys who had been students in these teachers’ classrooms. He found that the

Teacher Behaviors Related

Teacher Expectations to Assessment Student Achievement Level

More criticism, less praise

Unfavored groups will be Less teacher attention during Unfavored group’s academic
less successful than
favored group 1 questioning
Fewer demands for high-quality
work
1 achievement is lower than
favored group’s

Similar levels of praise, criticism

for all groups
All groups will be Equal teacher attention during Equivalent academic achievement
successful 1 questioning for all groups
Equal demands for high-quality
1 for all groups

work

FIGURE 3.1 How Teacher Expectations May Influence Student Achievement

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70 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

girls’ achievement was no different for all teachers. The boys’ achievement was differ-
ent depending on which teacher they had. If they had a teacher with high expectations
for boys, their scores did not differ from the girls’. If they had a teacher with low
expectations for boys, their scores were significantly lower than the girls’.
Remember that these differences in teacher behaviors are not necessarily conscious
and deliberate. Teachers care about their students and want them to learn as much as they
can. But we all have some unexamined biases or stereotypes and assumptions that can
influence our behavior about certain students. For example, one African American teacher
we know was observed by her principal her first year of teaching. He marked on a seating
chart whom she called on over a 20-minute period. When he showed her the results, she
was horrified to see that she called on her European American children more often than
on her African American children, even though her class had equivalent numbers of each.
From that day forward, she has made a concerted effort to be mindful of her behaviors
toward students and has developed a strategy for calling regularly on all students.
Careful efforts by a teacher to convey high expectations through her behavior
toward her students is captured in one boy’s remark to a new student in his class (cited
by Eggen & Kauchak, 2004): “Put your hand down. Mrs. Lawless calls on all of us. She
thinks we’re all smart.” If you are making an effort to close the achievement gap, you will
not only take deliberate, conscious steps to make sure you avoid behaviors such as pro-
viding briefer and less informative answers to questions of low achievers, or rewarding
incorrect answers by low achievers (see Table 3.1) as you engage in informal assessment
practices in your classroom. You will also design your more formal diagnostic assess-
ments based on the assumption that all students will meet the class learning goals.

 CHOOSE YOUR SOURCES OF INFORMATION WISELY

When deciding on what information to examine and use, make sure you have several
kinds of information to draw from so you don’t jump to hasty conclusions based on
one piece of data. You want to see a pattern emerge across several sources before you
draw any firm conclusions (Chapman & King, 2005). Scores on tests, for example, look
very official, and their technical aspects have usually been carefully researched. This
often leads us to assume they are always accurate and precise in the information that
they provide. However, a student could have been ill on the day of the test and attained
a low score that does not represent her knowledge and skills accurately. You must check
whether other information suggests a different conclusion. This process of developing
Triangulation an accurate conclusion based on several sources is often called triangulation. The term
The process of developing an comes from the series of steps seagoing navigators would take to pinpoint an unknown
accurate conclusion based on position in their journey based on two or more known positions. Now the term is
several sources.
commonly used to characterize the process of using several types of information to
get a more accurate picture of a complex concept, such as a student’s achievement.
When getting a sense of student skills and knowledge, you must look for convergence
from several sources of information, as shown in Figure 3.2. The student’s achievement
level in the figure is probably more accurately represented, in this case, by measures
other than the standardized test.

Before Classes Start

Teachers often disagree on which sources to use and how much information to gather
before classes start, especially from past teachers, school records, and previous testing.
Many don’t want to be biased by information from previous years because they know
the impact that unwarranted teacher expectations can have on student achievement.
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Choose Your Sources of Information Wisely 71

Sources of Information in an English Class Skill Level

Low
Essay from first day of school

Portfolio from previous year

Medium
Standardized test score from previous year

Contribution to first class discussion

High
Reading from story

FIGURE 3.2 Using the Process of Triangulation to See a Pattern in Achievement for a
Student Who Did Not Score as Well on a Standardized Test as on Other Measures

Table 3.2 provides a list of sources of information that are usually available to teachers
at the beginning of the school year.

Grades
End-of-term grades can be a particularly limited source of information because they
are a fairly crude summary of a student’s performance. Most students don’t perform
consistently across all the learning goals in one semester. A grade is an average that
can obscure information needed about the skills and knowledge that students bring to
your classroom. Examining the pattern of grades across years and subjects, though,
can give you a rough idea of a student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Large-Scale Test Scores

Many schools use widely available summative assessments such as the Stanford
Achievement Tests, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, or the Metropolitan Achievement

TA B L E 3 . 2
Sources of Information Available to Teachers at the Beginning
of the School Year
Nonacademic Records Academic Records

Attendance records Portfolios of student work

Discipline records Large-scale test scores (e.g., End of Grade

[EOG] Tests, State Test Scores)

Health records Previous grades and report cards

Written comments from previous teachers Eligibility for and records from special
programs (Special Education, Gifted,
English as a Second Language)

Classroom conduct checklists (work habits,

independence, social skills)
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72 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

Test. These tests are useful for comparing a student’s performance to a national
sample of students on broad knowledge across several fields such as language arts,
math, and reading. In addition, all states require achievement tests in grades 3
through 8 to determine annual yearly progress of schools for the No Child Left
Behind Act. Score interpretation for large-scale tests is explained in Chapter 11.
These scores can give you a picture of which of your students are in the typical range
in the content areas tested.
Scores from any of these large-scale tests are not usually useful for targeting
specific skills that children need to work on, unless wide discrepancies appear. Stan-
dardized tests are useful for giving you clues about additional information you might
want to gather yourself. Remember that most published standardized achievement tests
provide a panoramic view, with only one or two items examining each skill. To get the
close-up snapshot needed for designing specific instruction, you need to gather more
detailed information yourself.

Portfolios of Student Work

Some schools have portfolios of student work that move up the grades with the stu-
dent, and we will discuss portfolios further in Chapter 10. Portfolios are especially
useful for documenting student development of complex skills and strategies, such as
a student’s ability to organize ideas in writing or use problem-solving skills in math-
ematics. For example, an essay on each student’s goals for a class might be included
from the beginning of each year. An essay on the most important person in each
student’s life might be inserted in mid-year, and an essay on how that student would
change the world might be added at the end of each year. Such a collection across the
elementary years could show student growth in thinking and writing skills in a com-
pelling way.

School Records
Other schools devise forms such as the one from Cotton Belt Elementary School in
Figure 3.3. These forms are designed to give helpful information gathered from a cur-
rent teacher’s experience for use by the next year’s teacher. These forms have academic
and social information that offer clues about students. To avoid bias, remember the
need for triangulation as you gather this information and check it against other sources
about the student.

Eligibility for Special Programs

Before school starts you will want to know whether any of your students are eligible
for and participate in special programs. Knowing as much as possible about your
students’ strengths and needs related to these special programs will help you determine
the assessment strategies and instruction you will use.

Special Education The federal government requires public schools to provide a free
and appropriate education to students with disabilities who qualify under the Indi-
viduals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Each student has an Individualized
Education Program (IEP) tailored to that student’s needs. All teachers who work with
that student must be aware of and implement that IEP. Many students have accom-
modations for both instruction (e.g., preferential seating, large-print texts) and assess-
ment (e.g., extended time for assessments, oral administration of an assessment) that
each teacher must honor.
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Choose Your Sources of Information Wisely 73

Student Information Sheet

Student Name Teacher Gender Race

Academic Performance

Reading Math Spring Map Scores

Grades K–4 DRA Level Below Grade Level Reading (RIT)
(The numbers below are the end of On Grade Level (Percentile)
the year DRA benchmarks for each Math (RIT)
grade level.) Above Grade Level
(Percentile)
K - (3) 3rd - (38)
1st - (16) 4th - (40) Lang. Usage (RIT)
2nd - (28) 5th - (44) (Percentile)

Conduct (Circle) A B C D F Circle if applies: Frequently - Absent Tardy

(“A” is excellent behavior.
“F” is bad behavior.)

Individual Time Required of Teacher

Independent Worker Some Teacher Assistance Dependent on Teacher
Work Habits Slow Average Quick

Please check those that apply for CURRENT school year.

Reading Assistance (1st grade only)
Reading Recovery (1st grade only)
Gifted program
After-school Program
Speech Academic Plan (R, M, Sc, SS) ESL
IEP (Circle model) R M W Medication (type)/Health concerns
(Please list on back)
Frequent discipline referrals Student study team information available

Please check those that apply for the UPCOMING school year.
Recommended for Reading Assistance Qualifies for ESL
Qualifies for speech therapy Qualifies for gifted
Qualifies for Special Services–Explain

If possible, separate from

On the reverse side, provide as much information as possible that would help in placing the child for next year. For example,
does he/she need structure/flexibility, have unique learning style, etc.?

FIGURE 3.3 Student Data Form from Cotton Belt Elementary School

English as a Second Language Programs for students who are learning English as a
Second Language (ESL) vary from state to state and even from district to district. Often
these students have some time each day with an ESL instructor, but they are also
expected to function in their regular classes. With students who are learning English,
your nonverbal cues and gestures are very important for the learning process. Know-
ing you have ESL students will allow you to plan to amplify this dimension of your
teaching. Getting a clear sense of the level of these students’ English language skills in
consultation with the ESL instructor will also allow you to plan your instruction and
assessment to accommodate their needs.
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74 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

Gifted Programs Ideally, a continuum of services is provided for gifted learners, or

students who show evidence of strong capabilities in intellectual, creative, or artistic
fields. Sometimes a program will pull students into a special classroom. Often, regular
teachers modify the level, pace, or content of their instruction for gifted learners. In
planning ahead for gifted students in your classroom, you will want to consider varia-
tions you can build into your instruction that will provide different levels of challenge
while focusing on the key learning goals for your units.

After You Meet Your Students

Many teachers, including college professors, like to start classes by getting a general
sense of their students’ basic skills. Do you remember, on the first day of fourth or
fifth grade, having to write a theme about what you did on your summer vacation?
Your teacher was probably using it to check on your vocabulary, your writing fluency,
and the sophistication of your sentence structure. Similarly, planning early class-wide
or small-group discussions gives teachers an informal sense of their students’ level of
thinking and ability to communicate ideas coherently. For example, Kevina Satterwhite,
a high school English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, plays a game in which each
student receives an index card with either a question about their school (principal’s
name, mascot, history) or an answer to one of the questions. Students have to match
questions and answers with other students. This activity gives Kevina an idea of who
understands written English, who speaks English to ask questions, and who is already
familiar with the school. She also has students participate in dialogue discussions in
pairs to determine listening and speaking abilities. She might give them a photo and
ask them to describe in English what is happening, or have them write dialogue among
characters in a picture.
Dana Stachowiak, a fourth-grade teacher who wants her children to become
student activists, gives her children a chance to respond to posters around her room.
These posters have artwork and quotes related to civic responsibility and activism.
During the entire first week of school, she and her students talk about what the ideas
mean to them personally. Then the students write a reflective paper about their discus-
sions. These papers allow Dana to see students’ levels of critical thinking, how they
organize their thoughts, and how they make decisions.
Other teachers develop writing activities about student interests, families, dreams,
and accomplishments, or they have students write about a good time with their best
friend. These activities supplement a published test on speaking, listening, reading, and
writing. You should design these informal activities to be enjoyable to students. To
lower your students’ anxiety levels, you should never grade these assignments. Provid-
ing feedback and using such work as a jumping-off point for later assignments can be
useful, however.
For math classes at the elementary level, diagnostic assessment is particularly
important because most math texts through the sixth grade begin with review chapters
on addition and subtraction. If you find that your students do not need a review of
these skills, you can move beyond these chapters quickly. Some math teachers often
have the students make graphs of class preferences (e.g., favorite music group, favorite
sports team, most admired person) or calculate averages of class characteristics (e.g.,
average height, average distance between home and school). These activities allow
teachers to get a sense of a variety of student skills (including the ability to follow
complex directions).
Such activities also provide an opportunity to observe how students interact with
one another. Your observations will give you an idea about how much effort you must
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Choose Your Sources of Information Wisely 75

invest in explicitly teaching social skills, such as showing respect for others, sharing
materials, and handling disagreements. Finally, these activities also help you get to
know your students’ interests and preferences, which will come in handy as you design
your future instruction and your assessment.

As You Begin a New Unit of Instruction

For the past five years, we have kept track of the different assessments that our teacher
candidates use during their student teaching. One of the most common assessment
mistakes they make, especially with younger students, is to overestimate what the stu-
dents already know. When you are designing a pre-unit assessment to see if students
are already familiar with any of the content, you must also be sure to check whether
they have mastered the foundational skills on which your unit is based. For example,
if you plan to teach a unit on fables, you must make sure that the vocabulary level of
the fables you will use is appropriate for your students. If you are teaching long divi-
sion, students must have mastered their multiplication tables. If they struggle with
multiplication, they may need instructional aides, such as a multiplication facts chart
or simple calculator, to use in the division exercises.
An initial assessment will allow you to differentiate instruction and assessment.
For example, if you are teaching a second-grade language arts/social studies unit on
the five regions of the United States, some of your students may already be familiar
with the major cities and landmarks of these areas but may not be familiar with the
culture and customs. Others may never have seen a map of the United States before.
You need to understand where each student is starting.

Informal Assessment Methods and Their Pitfalls

Several teachers we know have favorite ways to assess what students have learned previ-
ously and remembered related to a unit of study they are beginning. One science teacher
favorite is called “The In and Out Game.” When preparing to teach a unit, the teacher
will first list two or three items that fit the concept, and one that does not. For example,
when starting a unit on mammals she might say, “Dogs, cats, and bears are in. Frogs are
out. What am I looking for?” Then she would ask a series of other questions, such as,
“What else is in? What else is out?” By probing student understanding with this informal
guessing game, she could get a good sense of what students already knew and how well
they could distinguish features and examples of the concept “mammal.”
You can think of many variations of games like this for assessing student under-
standing related to almost any unit you are preparing to teach. It can work for language
arts concepts, such as adjectives or even literary periods; geographic concepts, such as
land forms; food groups in nutrition; or art concepts, such as texture. For example,
with a life science unit on producers and consumers, you could begin with salaman-
ders, people, and insects as “in,” and trees, algae, and grasses as “out,” and follow the
same procedure to elicit the level of student understanding.
Teachers also use the “Always, Sometimes, Never Game.” With this game, stu-
dents are asked to indicate whether a concept has a certain property always, some-
times, or never. For example, do rainbows always, sometimes, or never form after a
storm? These games allow the teacher to gauge student levels of thinking in a non-
threatening and enjoyable way.
Pitfalls with such games can occur, however. Children who need to be kept track
of the most can fall through the cracks during these class-wide games or other infor-
mal checks a teacher may try. Students who are learning English may be reticent to
participate because people might make fun of the way they speak. Students who are
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76 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

TA B L E 3 . 3
Questions Systematic Preassessment Can Address
What is students’ current level of knowledge about this unit? Do they have common
misconceptions?

Have all students mastered the foundational skills and knowledge necessary for this unit?

Have some students mastered some or all of the unit goals?

What are particular student interests related to the unit?

introverted may never raise their hand. Students who take more time to process infor-
mation may not have a chance to get an answer out fast enough. As a result, most
teachers also use more systematic ways to gather information about student under-
standing before a unit begins to make sure they get a clear picture of all of their
children’s understanding.

More Systematic Pre-unit Assessment Methods

Systematic preparation gives you solid information for instructional decision making.
It can help you decide whether to begin with review or to start with new material. It
also allows you to decide which content you will need to emphasize most and which
you can cover more superficially.
You will also need some systematic evidence of what your students know at the
beginning of a unit for accountability purposes. For example, we require our teacher
candidates during their final college semester to show that they have had an impact
on the preschool–12th grade students they teach during the unit where they have full
responsibility for the class. They often design a brief assessment that can be quickly
and easily administered before the unit to establish and prioritize their students’ learn-
ing needs. This assessment serves several purposes, as shown in Table 3.3.
Your pre-unit assessment can also serve a motivational function (Chapman &
King, 2005). Your diagnostic questions and activities can create student interest in the
upcoming topic. Students can begin to notice items in their environment or online
articles related to the new unit and can bring these to class to enrich their exploration
and generate anticipation, for example.

 DKEY STEPS IN DESIGNING PRE-UNIT

IAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS
A few simple steps for designing pre-unit diagnostic assessments are shown in Figure 3.4.
These procedures will help you choose simple and efficient methods for gathering the
information you need to design instruction that works for all your students.

1. Prioritize Content from Your Learning Goals

As we noted in Chapter 2, your learning goals and the standards for your discipline
are the foundation for every unit. Because both your assessment and your instruction
flow from the learning goals, your first step in designing your preassessment is to
consult these goals and prioritize the content. If a learning goal has several parts, you
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Key Steps in Designing Pre-unit Diagnostic Assessments 77

1. Prioritize content from your learning goals

2. Design and administer brief measures of top priority content

If content is skills/procedures: If content is knowledge/understanding:

Develop scoring guide or checklist to differentiate among Develop 2–3 brief open-ended questions that capture top
students at different levels priority content

Have students perform the skill/procedure and rate Interview students orally or have them write the answers to
the questions and score

3. Gather other useful information

4. Analyze results of assessment to determine unit content and instructional strategies

FIGURE 3.4 Steps in Designing Brief Pre-unit Diagnostic Assessments

will probably focus on the most central or important for your preassessment. For
example, suppose you have one learning goal: the students will be able to distinguish
the five cultural regions of the United States, including language, customs, culture, and
geography. For the preassessment you might want to determine whether students have
any understanding of cultural regions and can distinguish among regions in any way.
You wouldn’t want to give a long preassessment of 50 multiple-choice questions with
minute details about each region’s specific customs, culture, and geography, especially
if you suspect your students don’t even know what a cultural region is.

2. Design and Administer Brief Measures

of Top Priority Content
Next, you must decide what method or methods of assessment capture your prioritized
learning goals best. These measures should be brief but focused on key concepts and
skills for the unit (Moon, 2005; Rakow, 2007). For example, directly assessing common
misconceptions held by students can be helpful. The purpose of the preassessment is
to provide general patterns of gaps and mastery so you can get the unit’s instructional
sequence started.
As we discussed in Chapter 2, you can usually focus on two kinds of learning—basic
knowledge or understanding students hold, and student ability to perform a skill, strategy,
or procedure. A math example can illustrate the difference: If you want to know whether
students understand place value (which is knowledge about how numbers work), you can
ask them a question such as How does the number of zeroes help you explain the difference
between 100 and 1,000? A student who can explain how the ones, tens, and hundreds
columns function differently has general knowledge of place value. They don’t need to
work any problems to show you they understand this basic concept.
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78 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

If you want to know whether your students can use their knowledge to perform
a desired skill, you will be assessing the skill or procedure that you expect them to
master. Asking math students to solve a specific problem taps this kind of skill. For
example, To the nearest hundred, calculate the sum of 87,500, 912 and 92,431,331. Solv-
ing this problem correctly will show the teacher that the students can use their under-
standing of place value in a mathematical procedure.

Measuring Knowledge/Understanding
If you are measuring knowledge and understanding, you can have students answer
questions orally (if you note their answers on a checklist) or on paper. Usually two or
three questions per learning goal are sufficient, especially when you are quite certain
that students are not likely to have encountered the content of the unit before, such as
in advanced math or physics.
In returning to the earlier example, let’s suppose you are getting ready to
preassess the level of knowledge students have of your learning goal on the five
regions of the United States. You might give students a map of the United States
and ask them to color the five regions with different colors and then, at the bottom,
list all the things they can think of that each region is known for. They could also
briefly list any similarities or differences they see across regions. Such an assessment
is brief, covers the key content, and allows students who may already be familiar
with culture, geography, or customs to demonstrate their specific knowledge. It also
allows students who don’t know much to avoid suffering through numerous detailed
questions about culture, geography, and customs. Other examples of brief, system-
atic preassessments for knowledge and understanding appear in Table 3.4. Notice
that each of the measures goes beyond rote knowledge to address the “comprehen-
sion” and “analysis” levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Using higher order questions allows
the teacher to get a sense of the way students think about the topic and provides
a challenge for all students. It also enables the teacher to access multiple levels of
understanding. Ideally, no student should get all of the items correct or all of the
items wrong (Chapman & King, 2005).

Measuring Skills/Strategies/Procedures
If your learning goal requires students to perform skills, strategies, or procedures,
before instruction begins you need to set up a method for observing them perform
the key skills or a representative subset of skills. You then rate their level of perfor-
mance with a scoring guide. Measuring skills is crucial in disciplines where most learn-
ing is centered on performing specific skills, such as physical education, art, music, or
dance. If you decide on one or more basic skills or procedures, you will design a
checklist or other scoring guide that captures the crucial differences in student levels.
For example, if a physical education teacher is teaching second graders how to catch
a ball, she will have them take turns throwing and catching a ball a few times. As she
scans the group, she will note the children’s skill level, starting with those who don’t
have the skill at all. A scoring chart that lists the three levels of skill down one side
and the names of the students across the top (as in Table 3.5) is useful for completing
this task quickly.
This activity will help the teacher determine which aspects of the catching pat-
tern (e.g., arm position) need to be worked on most with the students. In addition, if
she finds that many students already have a mature catching pattern, she will revise
her goals for the unit and move on to a more difficult skill. Table 3.6 shows several
examples of diagnostic measures for key skills and procedures.
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Key Steps in Designing Pre-unit Diagnostic Assessments 79

TA B L E 3 . 4
Examples of Knowledge/Understanding Diagnostic Measures Before Instructional Units
Learning Goal Diagnostic Measure Sample Scoring

Social studies: Student will be able to Give students a U.S. map and ask them 1 point for each correct region, 1 point
distinguish the five cultural regions to color the five cultural regions. Then for each item associated correctly
of the United States, including list things associated with each region with a region, up to 5. 1 point for
language, customs, culture, and at the bottom, and list similarities or each similarity or difference up to 2.
geography. differences between regions.

Algebra: Student will be able to Ask students to describe the difference Develop a scoring guide that lists the
understand and represent relations between a relation and a function and key distinctions and misconceptions.
and functions in math. give an example of each. Score each answer on a 1 to 4-point
scale based on the list.

Secondary English: Student will be able Have students write the definition of 1 point for each correct definition,
to compare and contrast utopias and utopia and dystopia. Then provide any 1 point for each example.
dystopias in literature. examples they can think of from
previously read literature.

Music: Student will be able to explain Ask students to listen to two different 1 point for each distinction (e.g.,
distinguishing characteristics of pieces of music and write down rhythm, melody, harmony,
musical genres. distinctions between them. expression, and timbre).

Vocabulary for multiple subjects: Provide students a list of vocabulary 1 point for each correctly matched
Students will be able to understand words relevant to the unit and ask word.
and use key terms of the discipline them to match words with their
in writing and speaking. definitions.

TA B L E 3 . 5
Scoring Guide for Catching a Ball
Level Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5

ONE
• Arms are outstretched, elbows extended and palms upward.
• Ball is contacted with arms and elbows flexed.
• Object is trapped against the body.

TWO
• Arms are in front of body, elbows slightly flexed.
• Arms encircle the ball against the chest.
• Hands, arms hold the ball to chest.

THREE
• Arms are slightly ahead of body, elbows flexed.
• Ball is contacted with hands and is grasped with fingers.
• Palms are adjusted to size and flight of ball.

From Chepko, S.F., and R.K. Arnold. 2000. Guidelines for physical education programs: Standards, objectives, and assessments for Grades K–12. New York: Allyn &
Bacon. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education.
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80 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

TA B L E 3 . 6
Examples of Skills/Strategies/Procedures Diagnostic Measures Before Instructional Units
Learning Goal Diagnostic Measure Sample Scoring

Physical education: Student will be Have students throw the ball in pairs. Check off their skill level on a scoring
able to execute a mature overhand guide with elements of a good throw
throwing pattern. listed.

Music: Student will be able to maintain Have students listen to recorded song Use the class list to check off each
a steady beat in 44 time. and clap a steady beat. student who maintains a steady beat
for four or more measures.

Theater: Student will be able to write a Provide a paragraph describing a new Develop a scoring guide that addresses
script for a play based on personal play. Have students develop the first the level of quality of the dialogue
experience, heritage, imagination, five lines of dialogue for the opening in reference to the two elements.
literature, and history. scene based on two elements (e.g.,
personal experience and literature) of
the learning goal.

Elementary language arts: Student will Have students take turns reading aloud Teacher circulates and notes number
be able to read grade-level material to a partner. and kinds of miscues per sentence
fluently. on clipboard chart.

3. Gather Other Useful Information

You may also want to use other information you gain in less systematic ways for
designing your unit and your individual lessons. For example, many teachers use KWL
charts (K ⫽ what we know, W ⫽ what we want to know, L ⫽ what we have learned).
They start a unit by asking students as a group what they already know about the
content of a learning goal. Then they ask what else they would like to know. This
information can be helpful to a certain extent for unit planning because it provides
some ideas about how students are thinking currently about a topic, what kind of
background knowledge they have, some of their preferences, or the level of enthusiasm
they have for the topic. Although it does have informal uses, we do not recommend
this method for more formal preassessment. Developing a KWL chart often misses
input from less-confident or less-talkative students. And sometimes knowledgeable
students stop talking after providing one or two suggestions. In addition, some stu-
dents can go off on unrelated tangents and take others with them. So KWL charts
usually do not provide an accurate, systematic picture of each student’s level of under-
standing before instruction begins (Rakow, 2007). They also can have limited utility
when you are teaching skills and procedures because students are talking about the
skill and not showing you whether they can do the skill. You need information on
every student related to the key learning goals to provide the best instruction.

4. Analyze Results of Preassessment to Determine Unit

Content and Instructional Strategies
After you have collected the preassessment information, you must find a way to sum-
marize it for yourself in a meaningful way. We recommend assigning points so that
each student ends up with a total score. These scores are not for grading purposes.
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Key Steps in Designing Pre-unit Diagnostic Assessments 81

TA B L E 3 . 7
Preassessment Information on Five Cultural Regions Ordered
from Least Knowledgeable to Most Knowledgeable Student
Regions Similarities Differences
Indicated Associations Between Between
on Map? with Region? Regions? Regions?
Student 100% ⴝ 5/5 100% ⴝ 5/5 100% ⴝ 2/2 100% ⴝ 2/2

1 0% 0% 0% 0%

2 0% 0% 0% 0%

3 0% 0% 0% 0%

4 20% 0% 0% 0%

5 20% 20% 0% 0%

6 40% 20% 0% 0%

7 40% 20% 0% 0%

8 60% 40% 0% 0%

9 80% 40% 0% 0%

10 100% 100% 50% 50%

They are only a way for you to get a rough picture of where the members of your class
fall in relation to the learning goals you will be addressing. These scores are just an
estimate to help you get a sense of where you will probably need to put the most energy
and instructional time on the unit.
We recommend assigning scores based on percentage correct. You can interpret
a score of 25 percent more quickly than a score of 3 out of 12 or 6 out of 24. Table 3.7
shows the preassessment information in percentages from one class of second graders
related to the five cultural regions learning goal, arranged from lowest to highest scores.
You can see from looking at the first question in the table that the last three students
have an emerging factual understanding of the boundaries of U.S. cultural regions, but
the first three students in the table appear to have no understanding of this most basic
element of the unit.
Furthermore, these first three students had 0 percent correct across all items.
Seeing 0 percent correct across all questions should function as a red flag for you.
Students who attain a score of 0 percent on a preassessment need additional preas-
sessment attention. If students have no prior knowledge or skill, the learning goal,
as it stands, may be too difficult for them. At this point, you need to drop back to
check whether they have the prior knowledge and skills needed for the unit you are
preparing. For example, in the unit on the five geographic regions, you would want
to check on whether these three students have worked with maps before and whether
they understand how maps represent places. You would want to find out if they
understand the relationship between individual states, regions, and the United States.
You would want to ask them questions about what they know about their own state
and region. If they have only recently arrived in the United States, you may need to
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82 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

provide additional background information before they are ready for the learning
goals associated with this unit.
In Table 3.7 you will also note that all students except Student 10 had difficulty
comparing and contrasting regions, even if they showed some basic knowledge about
region facts. This finding should let you know that you need to focus on higher-level
thinking skills, such as analysis, as you teach this unit. Encouraging comparisons
across regions as you study each new region could help your students develop facility
with analysis.
For students who perform significantly better than others on the preassess-
ment, such as Student 10, you need to make sure that they are not bored and have
new challenges. You may decide to differentiate activities to include more depth or
breadth. For example, with the regions unit, Student 10 will need different tasks (not
just more tasks) than some of the other students. This student could be given tasks
that emphasize higher-level thinking skills and could go beyond the grade-level
learning goals, such as analyzing how the geography of each region influences its
culture and economy.

M AKING THE MOST OF YOUR

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS
We’d like to summarize this section by offering three suggestions for efficiently gather-
ing information that will be useful for helping your students learn. These are displayed
in Table 3.8. First, hold high expectations for all of your students and engage in behaviors
that convey high expectations. You can do this by avoiding negative information from
previous years that may no longer apply. We recently talked to a student who decided
to turn over a new leaf when he started his junior year of high school. Over the sum-
mer he had worked with a counselor at camp who had helped him see the error of his
ways and kindled in him the desire to attend college. He had been a troublemaker and
a poor student since elementary school, and his records showed it. He knew he had
to work hard to change his path, and so he put many hours into his first paper for
English that fall. The paper was so well written that the teacher accused him of pla-
giarism. He, along with his parents, had a tough job convincing his teacher that he
was making an effort to start fresh. The teacher’s assumptions about him almost sank
his new determination to become a serious student.
Second, choose brief measures that focus on the most important knowledge and
skills for your learning goals before beginning a unit. Your preassessment measures
should be brief. You don’t want to use valuable instructional time unnecessarily, and
you don’t want to discourage your students about what they don’t know yet with

TA B L E 3 . 8
Three Rules to Guide Your Diagnostic Classroom Assessment
Hold high expectations for all your students and engage in assessment behaviors that
convey high expectations from the first day of school.

Choose brief measures that focus on the most important elements of your learning goals,
including higher-order thinking, before beginning a unit.

Rely most on the information you gather systematically yourself across time.
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners in Diagnostic Assessment 83

lengthy pretests. You are not conducting a research study where you are trying to keep
pre- and post-tests perfectly consistent and where you are controlling all variables.
Instead, you are collecting some basic information to help you plan your unit and to
be able to document what your students know and don’t know beforehand. After the
unit, you can do more extensive assessment to demonstrate how much they have
learned, using your preassessment as baseline information.
Because these measures must be brief, you want to design them economically so
that a broad range of knowledge and skill levels can be demonstrated by students. You
want to make sure you are getting at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, as well as
assessing the most basic principles. If your unit focuses on both knowledge and skills,
be sure to find ways to measure both, and not just one or the other. For example, some
of the best math teachers tell us that students can work lots of problems using a par-
ticular algorithm, but they have a much harder time with the more basic understand-
ing of knowing when that procedure should and should not be used.
Third, rely most on the information you gather systematically yourself across time.
You should weight most heavily the information you collect that is current and observ-
able. Last year’s information can be outdated or erroneous unless you can detect strong
patterns through triangulation of different sources. Because your fleeting impressions
can be distorted, erroneous, or forgotten if they don’t conform to your first impres-
sions, you should gather information in a systematic way. Writing samples, documen-
tation of contributions to discussion, pretests, early homework, and journal entries are
all useful sources of information.

 AINCCOMMODA TIONS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
Classroom diagnostic assessments can be flexible and informal. They allow multiple
methods for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills related to the learning
goals using a variety of formats and methods of expression. Given the wide range of
skills and knowledge of the students in any classroom, this flexibility is crucial. You
will want to accommodate your diagnostic assessments in ways that allow students to
perform at their best and demonstrate all they know.
Universal design for learning (Rose & Meyer, 2002) is an important framework Universal Design for Learning
for understanding accommodations for diverse learners. The concept of “universal A framework for understanding the
design” originated in engineering and architecture in the 1950s. Designers began build- types of accommodations that
should be considered for diverse
ing environments that from the outset eliminated obstacles or barriers for people with learners. Instruction and assessment
physical disabilities (e.g., curb cuts in sidewalks for crossing streets). As the widespread is designed to reduce barriers by
benefits (e.g., for joggers and parents with strollers) became apparent, the idea gained addressing multiple means of
representation, multiple means
strength and popularity. More recently it has been applied to proactively designing of expression, and multiple means
instruction and assessment to reduce barriers for diverse learners. of engagement.
In education, three types of considerations must be kept in mind anytime you
design your instruction and assessment (CAST, 2008). The first is multiple means
of representation, or the methods by which material is presented to students. For
example, Jocelyn, the biology teacher, used symbolic as well as print representations
of science concepts in both her instruction and assessment to make complex con-
cepts more accessible to her students. The second is multiple means of expression,
or the methods in which students respond to your instructional and assessment
tasks. For example, some students may respond better orally or with a computer
than with written answers to a diagnostic question. The third consideration is mul-
tiple means of engagement, or the methods used to keep students’ interest and
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84 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

TA B L E 3 . 9
Accommodation Considerations for Diagnostic Assessments
Issue Type of Accommodation

Difficulty with fine • Oral answers to questions

motor skills • Use of computer
Learning English • Use English language without complex syntax and cultural references
• Check on understanding of specific vocabulary needed for the
unit and offer opportunities for repeated access
• Use visual cues, questions allowing short answers
• Provide nontraditional opportunities to demonstrate
understanding such as diagrams, concept maps, drawings
• Allow use of translation dictionaries
Learning goal • Make sure pre-unit assessment covers the most complex and
already mastered abstract elements of unit content to avoid a ceiling effect

Difficulty focusing • Organize the assessment content (e.g., graphic organizers, diagrams,
attention checklists)
• Allow completion one step at a time
• Limit time for questions, tasks
• Increase novelty of assessment tasks
Literacy skills below • Use language without complex syntax
those of typical • Check understanding of specific vocabulary needed for the unit and
peers (e.g., offer opportunities for repeated access
learning • Use visual cues, questions allowing short answers
disability) • Use oral more than written questions
• Provide nontraditional opportunities to demonstrate understanding,
such as diagrams, concept maps, drawings

Lack of familiarity • Provide opportunities for multiple types of formats beyond teacher
with school questioning
culture • Determine extent of knowledge of the “hidden rules” of school
culture (e.g., how to ask questions, student and teacher roles)

participation strong. This last issue is more relevant to ongoing instruction and will
be addressed in Chapter 4.
We have listed in Table 3.9 some considerations for accommodations in diag-
nostic assessments that can help address these considerations for students. We have
organized them by six common issues of concern you are likely to encounter among
your students.

Students with Fine Motor Difficulties

Students with physical limitations may not have the capacity to write their answers to
diagnostic questions, and so you may need to accommodate their needs to get a good
estimate of their knowledge and skills. They may need accommodations such as using
a tape recorder to state their answers or a computer to type responses.
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners in Diagnostic Assessment 85

Students Learning English

Students who are learning English as a second language have a double burden in the
classroom. They must grapple with language comprehension and expression as well as
with specific content you are teaching. For this reason, you must hone your own non-
verbal communication skills because ESL students rely heavily on your movements and
facial expressions.
Early on, you will want to understand how your students’ different language and
cultural backgrounds affect their learning so that you can provide a learning environ-
ment in which they feel comfortable. Many educators recommend gathering informa-
tion from parents and the ESL teacher so that you have a clearer picture of the skills
of your students. Types of information specifically relevant to language that may be
helpful are listed in Table 3.10.
Understanding your students’ language-use skills should be a top priority. Two
levels of language proficiency are important to appreciate (Rothenberg & Fisher, 2007).
Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) are the informal language used to BICS
communicate in everyday social situations where many contextual cues exist (such as Informal language used to
gestures, facial expressions, and objects) to enhance comprehension. For example, your communicate in everyday social
situations where there are many
students use BICS in the cafeteria, on the playground, and in their after-school activ- contextual cues to enhance
ities such as sports or drama. comprehension.
In contrast, cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) requires more CALP
formal expertise in the abstract scholarly language used in academic contexts (e.g., Formal language that requires
textbooks). Fewer context cues are available, and so language alone has to carry the expertise in abstract scholarly
vocabulary used in academic settings
burden of meaning. Because it is more difficult to master, CALP can take years longer in which language itself, rather
to develop than BICS. For this reason, you may be surprised that some students in than cultural cues, must bear the
your classes whose first language is not English can fluently answer oral questions and primary meaning.
have conversations with friends, but have difficulty with more academic activities.
Gathering diagnostic information on students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing
skills must, therefore, take into account your students’ skills in both types of language
contexts.
One of the most important strategies you can use for ESL students is to simplify
the language (not the content) of oral or written questions. You preserve the knowledge

TA B L E 3 . 1 0
Background Information Helpful in Teaching Students Whose First
Language Is Not English
What language is spoken at home?

To what extent do parents speak English?

How long has student been exposed to English at school? In other contexts?

Level of English language skills:

Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency
(CALP):
• Listening (e.g., requires repetition, slower speech to understand?)
• Speaking (e.g., displays halting speech, complete sentences?)
• Reading (e.g., fluency, vocabulary levels?)
• Writing (e.g., level of complexity, grammar issues?)
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86 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

B O X 3 . 1 E X A M P L E O F A M A T H Q U E S T I O N
B E F O R E A N D A F T E R M O D I F I C A T I O N S F O R
E N G L I S H L A N G U A G E L E A R N E R S

Before After
Patty just received a letter in the mail telling about a new promotion with stuffed A class has 79 stars.
animals. When Patty has collected and shown proof of owning 125 stuffed ani- They need 125 stars.
mals, she will receive the new Million Dollar Bear free. Patty has 79 animals right How many more stars do they need?
now. Write an equation to show how many more animals Patty will need to col- Choose the correct equation.
lect to get her free Million Dollar Bear.
A. ⫺ 125 ⫽ 79
A. ⫺ 125 ⫽ 79 B. 79 ⫹ ⫽ 125
B. 79 ⫹ ⫽ 125 C. 79 ⫺ ⫽ 125
C. 79 ⫺ ⫽ 125 D. 125 ⫹ 79 ⫽
D. 125 ⫹ 79 ⫽

From Kopriva, R. 2008. Improving testing for English Language Learners. New York: Routledge. Reprinted with permission.

and skills needed to address the learning goal, but you simplify the sentence structure
and vocabulary, you eliminate idiomatic expressions, and you avoid hypothetical state-
ments. See Box 3.1 for an example.
Because each discipline has specific vocabulary, you want to be sure this vocabu-
lary is preassessed and then focused on and learned early in any unit by your English
language learners, and by your other students as well. Using as many concrete visual cues
and prompts as possible for accurate preassessment as well as during later instruction is
helpful (Haynes, 2007). Charts and drawings of scientific processes such as those devel-
oped for Jocelyn’s biology class can help students grasp and convey concepts that they
may not be able to describe verbally. In math, we often see students using number lines
taped to their desks. Many teachers also have students make a representational drawing
of a problem before they start to solve it. In social studies, maps and globes are helpful,
as well as pictures and artifacts. In language arts classes, charts with step-by-step proce-
dures for common writing tasks can be designed by students and posted for future use.
Such posters can serve as an indicator of their understanding of the process.
Another consideration is to limit use of extended writing in demonstrating
understanding. When ESL students write in English, they have to use a good bit of
their attention on mechanics and grammar, limiting their ability to attend to higher-
level skills related to the content. Thus, an extended writing task for a diagnostic assess-
ment might impede these students’ demonstration of their learning and its application.
Offering opportunities to brainstorm in groups or individually, or to make outlines
first, can help make a writing task less daunting. These accommodations help you
access students’ understanding of the content apart from their understanding of the
English language. Such strategies will give you a more accurate sense of the student,
which will help you provide better feedback and instruction.

Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning Goals

If you have advanced students in your class, you need to keep them challenged. To get
a true sense of their knowledge and skills, your diagnostic assessments must involve
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners in Diagnostic Assessment 87

higher-order thinking skills that go beyond the basic content of the learning goals. If
you don’t allow for a wide range, they may get a perfect score without your learning
the full extent of their knowledge. Researchers call this a ceiling effect. A ceiling effect Ceiling Effect
occurs when a student attains the maximum score, or “ceiling,” for that assessment. When a student attains the maximum
For example, if a student had a perfect score on the five cultural regions preassessment, score, or “ceiling,” for an assessment,
thus preventing appraisal of the
you would know that they knew all of that content, but you wouldn’t know what else full extent of the student’s
they might know and where your instruction for them should begin. knowledge.

Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing Attention

Many students have difficulty paying attention and sitting still for long periods of
time. To get a good estimate of their knowledge and skills during diagnostic assess-
ment, you may need to take steps to maximize attention. Providing graphic organiz-
ers, diagrams, and checklists can help students focus. Providing directions one step
at a time or having students repeat directions can also help focus attention. Breaking
down the time you use for oral questions and assessment tasks into shorter segments
can also be helpful. We once worked with a teacher who often divided tasks into
brief timed intervals. The strategy helped all her students keep focused, and they
made a game out of “beating the clock.” Increasing the novelty of your assessment
tasks is also useful. In some cases, if you are using written questions, each item on
an assessment can be printed on a separate page so the student is not distracted by
a lot of text.

Students with Literacy Skills Below Those of Typical Peers

Students with learning disabilities, as well as other students who have difficulty with
reading, will need some special attention during diagnostic assessment. Multiple rep-
resentations of assessment content, such as both oral and written versions with visuals,
can be helpful. As for ESL students, avoiding text with complex sentence structure and
vocabulary where possible is also useful. The reading level of materials you use in class
for diagnostic assessment tasks can be varied. Be sure that you do not embarrass stu-
dents with obviously “easy” books at lower grade levels. The media specialists at your
school can help you access reading matter with grade-level content but different read-
ing levels. This is important when you use authentic texts in diagnostic assessments of
students’ reading strategies. Books about sports figures and other topics of interest to
older students have been written with less complex prose. Also, some educational
websites have information about a given topic (e.g., the greenhouse effect) at more
than one reading level.

Students Who Lack Familiarity with U.S. School Culture

Many students who come from backgrounds other than the European American
middle-class culture that is dominant in most schools may have difficulties showing
you what they know. Familiarity with the norms and habits of schools is not limited
to students from other countries. Educators have also noted that students from low
socioeconomic backgrounds often have different assumptions about appropriate
behavior and learning methods, and they may not know the “hidden rules” of
school culture (Payne, 2003, 2008). Different cultural assumptions can be particu-
larly problematic at the beginning of the year, when students may be faced with a
host of different traditions and norms than they are used to. A few questions to
help you think about how different cultures define appropriate and inappropriate
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88 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

TA B L E 3 . 1 1
Questions About Typical Classroom Behavior Illustrating Possible
Cultural Differences
1. What is the typical purpose and format of questions and answers?
2. What are the typical student and teacher roles?
3. Is cooperation valued over competition among students?
4. What are typical gender roles?

classroom behavior related to assessment are listed in Table 3.11, based on work by
Dunlap and Weisman (2006) and Kusimo et al. (2000).
Some divergent traditions exist around teacher questioning, a common diag-
nostic assessment practice in the United States, but not in all cultures (Kusimo et
al., 2000). For example, in some cultures, adults will never use the pedagogical tech-
nique of asking children direct questions about something the adult obviously knows.
This common learning strategy in our culture seems silly to them—why would you
waste your time asking a question you already know the answer to? Other cultures,
such as some American Indian groups, are never expected to demonstrate skills
publicly until they are completely mastered. This assumption could interfere with a
teacher’s desire to engage students in public conversation to detect the extent of their
prior knowledge.
In some cultures, people are in the habit of pausing a few seconds when answer-
ing an oral question. This pause is meant to show the person is offering respect to the
questioner by considering the question carefully. In our culture, the teacher faced with
the pause may move quickly on to another student, assuming that the first doesn’t
know the answer. Finally, among some groups, if questions are phrased implying a
choice (e.g., “Would you like to show us a cartwheel?”), students will assume they can
refuse. They are more accustomed to direct commands.
Students also may not know how to explicitly ask questions as a method for
accessing information, which can be another important focus for diagnostic assess-
ment. Students who have acquired this skill tend to do better academically than stu-
dents who have not (Payne, 2008). This skill may be related to students’ lack of
familiarity with the less casual and more formal language typically used in school,
which can put them at a disadvantage.
Beyond questioning patterns and formality of language, other cultural customs
may involve different roles for learners (Kusimo et al., 2000). In some cultures, students
are taught to be respectful and quiet, so you may have difficulty getting them to par-
ticipate in discussions or to venture an opinion of their own during informal diagnos-
tic assessments. Some cultures, such as those in Mexico and Central America, are more
oriented toward the group’s goals, whereas the dominant culture in the United States
is more oriented toward individual success. The more group-oriented cultures foster
interdependence and working together, and so students from these cultures may be
quite comfortable with cooperative group projects and activities. Using these students’
strength—the ability to work together—can foster their learning and help develop a
positive classroom atmosphere. Such students may not, however, be as comfortable
with activities that emphasize individual competition or individual assessment. For
example, some students will purposely answer a question wrong if a peer answered it
wrong so the peer will not be embarrassed.
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Case Study Application 89

Final Thoughts on Accommodations

for Diagnostic Assessment
We would like you to focus on two overall points from this section. First, you need
to get to know your students and their strengths and needs related to learning in
school if you are going to gather accurate information with your diagnostic assess-
ments. Naturally, asking parents and students directly can help you gather some
of this information. If you use a variety of instructional and assessment strategies
in your class, you will also learn a great deal from observing students, such as their
problem-solving strategies, their ability to cooperate with others, and their per-
sonal preferences. All of these can be useful as you design your instruction and
assessment.
The second point we would like you to take from this section is that the accom-
modations you start out making for one group of students usually end up benefiting
many students. For example, note that strategies such as using visual cues as well as
oral and written information are helpful not only for English-language learners, but
also for students whose literacy skills are not yet at the instructional level of the class.
Such cues are probably also helpful for students who have difficulty paying attention
or difficulty staying organized. In addition, your typical students will also find such
materials beneficial. The more ways all students have for representing information as
they learn, the more likely they are to learn it well.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

In this section we revisit one of the cases introduced in Chapter 2 to illustrate key
points with a concrete example. We turn to Ebony’s unit on characteristics of solids
and liquids. We focus on one learning goal: Students will demonstrate appropriate steps
to test an unknown solid or liquid. For a preassessment for this learning goal, Ebony
had each student explore a solid and a liquid in zipper plastic bags inside a “feely
box,” where they can touch objects but not see them. Students then made a list of
descriptive words corresponding to each test they think of to perform on the object.
For example, some of the options could be, Does it have a shape? How big is it? Is it
heavy or light? How does it feel? How does it move? She recorded their percentage
of correct answers out of a maximum of six descriptive words for the solid and five
for the liquid.
Ebony’s preassessment results are shown in Table 3.12. Note that students are
identified by number rather than by name to ensure confidentiality. Also note that
Ebony ordered total scores from lowest to highest so she could look for patterns.
Describe what patterns you see in the data. Are liquids or solids easier for this group
of children to identify before the unit begins? What kinds of variations do you see
among the students? What else would you like to know about these students?
You might notice that the majority of the class (15 on solids, 12 on liquids)
got one right or less on the preassessment. You might also notice that no student
demonstrates mastery of this learning goal as measured by this diagnostic assess-
ment. We do see one student who attained 100 percent on solids, but she had
0 percent on liquids, and so she definitely needs further instruction. These findings
suggest that the class has lots of room for improvement on this learning goal, which
is as it should be for diagnostic assessment results. If a majority of the class had
scores above 80 percent, Ebony would have needed to change the learning goal to
challenge the students more.
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90 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

TA B L E 3 . 1 2
Preassessment Results for One Learning Goal for Unit on
Characteristics of Liquids and Solids
Pre-unit assessment results for learning goal Students will take appropriate steps to test
an unknown liquid or solid
Percent correct Percent correct
on Solids on Liquids Total percent correct
(6 possible) (5 possible) (11 possible)

Student 8 0% 0% 0%

Student 10 0% 0% 0%

Student 11 0% 0% 0%

Student 15 0% 0% 0%

Student 16 0% 20% 9%

Student 12 17% 0% 9%

Student 5 17% 0% 9%

Student 2 17% 20% 18%

Student 3 17% 20% 18%

Student 9 17% 20% 18%

Student 6 17% 20% 18%

Student 17 0% 60% 27%

Student 4 17% 40% 27%

Student 13 17% 40% 27%

Student 14 17% 40% 27%

Student 7 33% 60% 45%

Student 1 100% 0% 54%

You might also notice that four students did not describe either object with any
words. As we have pointed out, when students cannot complete any element of the
preassessment, you should further assess the knowledge and skills that you assume
they should have mastered earlier in order to be ready for this unit. In a small group,
Ebony worked with these four students to learn more about their level of understanding.
She used another “feely box” task in which every student put a hand in the box in
turn, and they talked about what they felt so she could see how different children
observed differently. She also had each one write one descriptive word after the discus-
sion. She found that two of the students lagged behind typical peers in vocabulary
because they were not native speakers of English, and the two others had great diffi-
culty with writing. This information helped Ebony become sensitive to these students’
needs as she designed her lessons. It also alerted her that they would require additional
accommodations and instruction in these areas.
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Chapter Review Questions 91

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we have described the importance and usefulness of diagnostic assessment.
We began by showing you the link between teacher expectations and their informal
teaching assessment behaviors often used in diagnostic assessment. When questioning
students, answering questions, or praising and criticizing student work, teachers are often
unaware of the behaviors they engage in that can encourage or deflate students. When
behaviors consistent with low expectations persist across the year, they can result in poor
student achievement.
We next discussed the importance of choosing your sources of information about
your students wisely and using triangulation as you gather that information. Then we
discussed the types of information available before school starts, such as grades, stan-
dardized test scores, portfolios of student work, and eligibility for special programs.
Finally, we focused on informal and more systematic methods you will use to gauge
the knowledge and skills your students bring to a new unit.
We next discussed accommodations often needed for diverse learners as you
design diagnostic assessments using the perspective of universal design for learning.
We included several common issues (among many) that confront teachers and students
in the classroom, such as students with fine motor difficulties, students learning English
as a second language, students who have already mastered the learning goals (e.g.,
gifted students), students who have difficulty focusing attention, students with literacy
skills below typical peers (e.g., learning disability), and students unfamiliar with typical
school culture.
We then highlighted two important points about diagnostic assessment. First, to
be an effective teacher, you need to get to know your students and their strengths,
needs, and preferences. Second, just as curb cuts in sidewalks make life easier for many
able-bodied people, accommodations that you design into your assessment often ben-
efit many typical students beyond those for whom they are first designed. Finally, we
returned to one of our case studies to apply the concepts from our understanding of
diagnostic assessment.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Table 3.1 lists several teacher behaviors related to low expectations for students
that can occur during informal assessment. What steps can you take to ensure
that you avoid these behaviors? What behaviors could you replace them with?
What teacher behaviors might communicate high expectations?
2. Why is triangulation important when you are gathering information about your
students?
3. What existing sources of information (e.g., school records, testing records) about
your future students do you think would be important to examine to prepare
for teaching? In your view, what are the pros and cons of using these types of
information?
4. Choose learning goals for a unit you might be asked to teach. Design a brief pre-
assessment task (or tasks) that could help you determine what your students
already know about the unit content. Be sure to include skills at higher levels of
Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy to avoid a ceiling effect.
5. Choose other learning goals for a different unit. Design a preassessment method for
measuring knowledge and understanding of the content. Then design a preassessment
method for measuring skills and procedures required for that content.
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92 Chapter 3 Diagnostic Assessment: Ensuring Student Success from the Beginning

6. You have given a preassessment to your class, and the results are as follows:

Student Task 1 Task 2 Task 3

1 0% 0% 0%

2 0% 0% 0%

3 10% 10% 50%

4 20% 0% 80%

5 20% 20% 100%

6 40% 20% 100%

7 60% 40% 100%

8 60% 20% 100%

9 80% 40% 100%

10 100% 100% 100%

Describe in words what the table tells you in terms of what your next steps
should be. How might these results lead you to differentiate your instruction?
7. Describe accommodations related to assessment that you have seen teachers
implement for each of the groups in Table 3.9. Were these accommodations
effective? Why or why not? Have you seen other types of accommodations for
other types of issues students bring to the classroom?
8. Using Table 3.3, critique Ebony’s diagnostic assessment process. What did she do
well? How specifically might she have improved her diagnostic assessment?
9. Analyze the extent to which Ebony followed each of the four steps in designing
brief pre-unit diagnostic assessments described in Figure 3.4.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.cast.org
This website for the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) provides many resources for
helping you modify your instruction and assessment using universal design for learning
(UDL) principles. You can find lesson builders, UDL guidelines, and excerpts from
Teaching every student in the digital age, as well as reports and case studies detailing
effective classroom practices.
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/smgphp/mosart/about_mosart.html
MOSART (Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-based Assessment Resources for Teachers) was
funded by the National Science Foundation to provide assessment support for teachers.
The website provides items linked to the K–12 science curriculum as well as a tutorial on
how to use and interpret them. These items can be particularly useful for pre-unit
assessment because they focus on common misconceptions.

REFERENCES
CAST. 2008. Universal design for learning guidelines version 1.0. Wakefield, MA: Author. Retrieved
April 14 from http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/UDL_Guidelines_
v1.0-Organizer.pdf.
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References 93

Chapman, C., and R. King. 2005. Differentiated assessment strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
Dunlap, C. A., and E. M. Weisman. 2006. Helping English language learners succeed. Huntington
Beach, CA: Shell Educational Publishing.
Eggen, P., and D. Kauchak. 2004. Educational psychology: Windows on classrooms. 6th ed. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Haynes, J. 2007. Getting started with English language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Kusimo, P., M. Ritter, K. Busick, C. Ferguson, E. Trumbull, and G. Solano-Flores. 2000. Making
assessment work for everyone: How to build on student strengths. Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory. Retrieved June 19, 2007, from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/
catalog/items/t105/assessment-full.pdf.
Moon, T. 2005. The role of assessment in differentiation. Theory into Practice 44(3): 226–233.
Palardy, J. M. 1969. What teachers believe—What children achieve. The Elementary School
Journal 69: 370–374.
Payne, R. 2003. A framework for understanding poverty. 3rd ed. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.
Payne, R. 2008. Nine powerful practices. Educational Leadership 65(7): 48–52.
Rakow, S. 2007. All means all: Classrooms that work for advanced learners. National Middle
School Association Middle Ground 11(1): 10–12.
Rose, D. H., and A. Meyer. 2002. Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for
learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Rothenberg, C., and D. Fisher. 2007. Teaching English language learners: A differentiated
approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Schunk, D., P. Pintrich, and J. Meece. 2008. Motivation in education. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson.
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94
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 4

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
ONGOING ASSESSMENT TO
PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS
. . . students and teachers [must begin] to look to assessment as a source of insight
and help instead of an occasion for meting out rewards and punishments.
–Lorrie Shepard (2000)

❖ Chapter Learning Goals

At the conclusion of this chapter, the
reader should be able to:
• Explain how the six key elements • Provide effective feedback to
of formative assessment can be students to help them close the
translated into teacher actions. gap between where they are and
• Design quality questions and a where they need to be.
variety of formative assessment • Accommodate diverse learners
tasks. during formative assessment.

 INTRODUCTION
As a teacher preparing students to participate in our democratic society, you may find
this chapter more directly helpful than any other in this text. Formative assessment,
as we discussed in Chapter 1, is the monitoring of student progress during instruction
that includes feedback and opportunities to improve. These frequent and more infor-
mal assessments help you get a picture of the changing knowledge, skills, and strate-
gies of your students, and they show you how they are thinking and learning. This
understanding then allows you to offer tailored feedback to students, permitting them
to close the gap between where they are and where they need to be. Lorrie Shepard,
whose quotation opens this chapter, cites research suggesting that the formative
assessment strategies that we describe in this chapter can improve student achieve-
ment as effectively as or more effectively than many other traditional academic interven-
tions, such as one-on-one tutoring (Shepard, 2005). In particular, a groundbreaking
review by Black and Wiliam (1998) demonstrated that formative assessment can
dramatically increase student achievement, especially among lower achievers.

 BFORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: THE ESSENTIAL LINK

ETWEEN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Formative assessment will be one of your most important classroom tools for pre-
paring your students to become citizens who can ably take part in our democratic
institutions. Formative assessment addresses all three of the themes we described
in Chapter 1 that are crucial for fostering democratic participation.
95
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96 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

First, formative assessment can help you provide equal access to educational
opportunities for your students (Guskey, 2007). After your diagnostic assessments have
assisted you in differentiating appropriate instruction for students at all levels in your
classroom, formative assessment helps you check on student progress and provide mid-
course correction so that students see exactly how to close the gap between where they
are and where they need to reach to master each learning goal. This process is particu-
larly helpful for closing the achievement gap because it enables all students to do what
high-achieving students typically do on their own. Susan Brookhart (2001) found that
high achievers naturally search for what they can learn from the assessments in which
they participate. Lower-achieving students often need more help from the teacher in
making these connections to enhance their learning and increase achievement. Forma-
tive assessment is a tool that provides such assistance (Stiggins, 2008).
Second, formative assessment helps you promote self-governing skills for demo-
cratic participation. Many traditional assessments tell you only which students your
instruction was effective for, and the rest are no better off. Formative assessment lets you
take students wherever they start, and then aids them all in making progress and getting
smarter. Through carefully crafted feedback and opportunities for improvement, these
practices will enhance the development of your students’ self-governing skills. Self-
governance comes into play when students use this information to direct their attention
to the concepts and skills they next need to attain to close the gap between where they
are and where they need to be. These efforts eventually lead to independence of thought
as students internalize standards and depend less upon the judgment of others.
Third, formative assessment is a key to helping your students develop critical-
thinking skills. Formative assessment, when used correctly, requires higher skills, such
as application, analysis, and synthesis from Bloom’s taxonomy (Guskey, 2007; Shepard,
2008). As your students begin to look at their work in light of the standards you show
them and the comments you make about their work, they must actively struggle with
applying that information to improve their work. This process involves metacognition, a
crucial set of skills described in Chapter 1 and included as a type of knowledge in the
revised Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). Formative assessment by its
nature requires the metacognitive skills of developing awareness of and monitoring steps
in problem solving or creation, offering estimates of whether answers make sense, decid-
ing what else one needs to know, and developing judgment skills to evaluate work.
To understand how formative assessment can fulfill all these functions, we will
examine its characteristics and how it works. Especially important is distinguishing
formative assessment from the typical ways that assessment operates in classrooms
(McMillan, 2007). The following sections of the chapter address each of the six key
elements of formative assessment, which we describe as specific actions that teachers
take. We will also contrast these actions with many of the assessment practices we all
grew up with. Table 4.1 illustrates these elements as teacher actions.

Element 1: Make Students Aware of the Learning Goals

and Evaluation Standards
A common complaint we hear from our students about both past and current teachers
is “I can’t figure out what the teacher wants.” Students need to know what the teacher
values and what quality work looks like. Too often, teachers have expectations in their
heads that remain unarticulated and thus unavailable to students. If students can’t have
access to this expertise, they will remain dependent on the teacher for evaluation
instead of being able to internalize standards themselves and use them to create better
work on their own. If we want students to become lifelong learners, they need to
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 97

TA B L E 4 . 1
Key Elements of Formative Assessment as Teacher Actions
Element Teacher Action

1 Make students aware of learning goals and evaluation standards.

2 Provide formative tasks involving understanding and application more often than
rote memorization.

3 Give feedback to students providing information on how to close the gap between
where they are and the evaluation standards for which they are aiming.

4 Avoid grading formative tasks.

5 Offer students an opportunity to close the gap between where they are and the
evaluation standards.

6 Use formative assessment to enhance your instruction.

develop, with the help of their teachers, internal standards of quality that allow them
to self-assess. We want to help students gradually discard the idea that only teachers
can or should judge the quality of their work. The first step in doing this is to ensure
that students know what they are aiming for.
A number of school districts are taking this idea very seriously. They require
their teachers to write the learning goal for each lesson on the board at the front of
the class before the lesson starts. This practice alone, however, doesn’t give students
access to the elements that define a quality performance or the criteria that must be
met for the learning goal to be achieved. Teachers must do more to communicate these
often complex aspects of performance.
One way to communicate the elements required in a performance or assignment
is to provide several positive examples of the final products or outcomes, and then
work through them with the class using your scoring guide. A similar task involves
having the class work together to improve an anonymous and less-than-perfect sample
of an assignment. When designing the scoring guide for specific assignments related
to the learning goal, some teachers also have students take part in defining with them
what each level of performance looks like in concrete, clear language that students
provide. Processes such as these take time, but they pay off for both students and
teachers. One key benefit is that when students have a clear understanding of the
criteria used for evaluation, they see the evaluation process as fair.

Ethics Alert: When you use samples of student work, students must not recognize the au-
thors of these examples, or you are violating confidentiality. Make sure all identifying infor-
mation has been removed.

This semester, one of our students provided an example of the unfairness that
can result when scoring criteria are left ambiguous. In high school he had participated
in chorus for four years. The chorus teacher had one grading criterion called “par-
ticipation” related to her goal of enhancing students’ love of music. But she never
explained to the students what she expected from them. Every term this student
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98 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

received a low participation grade and assumed the teacher didn’t like him and was
just partial to a few favorite students. Based on this assumption, he felt it would be
fruitless to ask what counted as good participation. This teacher missed an opportunity
to be perceived as fair and impartial by laying out specific criteria that would count
for participation related to her learning goal of creating lifelong music lovers. More
students are willing to rise to a challenge if they know what it takes to be successful.
When students learn to focus their efforts on the learning goals, another benefit
is increased autonomy. Students no longer need to rely solely on the teacher’s judgment
of their work, and they can start to develop confidence in their own understanding of
the definition of success they are aiming for. They can learn to see critiques of their
work as information about how to improve toward their own goal. Although the
teacher is still ultimately responsible for guiding students and providing feedback, the
power of the teacher as authority becomes shared with students.
Spending time on evaluation standards sometimes seems like a waste of time if
the teacher already believes the assignment and the standards for scoring it are con-
crete and clear. But don’t be too quick to make this decision on your own. In Table 4.2
you see a scoring guide that one high school teacher recently passed out to her class
for a culminating assignment on a unit related to analysis of newspaper articles. The
assignment required them, in a five-minute speech, to choose the two most important
articles they had read during the unit, to describe how they defined “most important,”
and to describe one similarity and one difference between the two articles. She was
ready to move on when hands started going up. After all of their previous discussions,
she was surprised that the students wanted to know how to define “important.” She
turned the question back to them, and the class had a useful 10-minute discussion on
the variety of definitions of important, and several ways importance could be deter-
mined. She reported that students were intrigued with the range of possibilities and
came up with quite varied presentations as a result of this discussion.

Element 2: Provide Formative Tasks That Involve

Understanding and Application
When you are contemplating which kinds of tasks and skills to use for formative
assessment, you should avoid tasks with yes/no answers or black and white correct and
incorrect responses. These types of responses are usually fairly easy for students to

TA B L E 4 . 2
Rubric for Grading Brief Oral Presentation
Scoring for Grading Brief Presentation 0 .5 1

Definition of “most important article” is explicit.

Explanation for why two articles you chose meet the

criterion of “most important.”

One similarity between the two articles is explained.

One difference between the two articles is explained.

Oral presentation skills (looks at full audience; faces front,

no fidgeting; voice is strong, confident; clear enunciation
of words; business casual dress).
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 99

produce on demand, and they are not usually challenging or difficult to master. One
of our students had a teacher who gave back a multiple-choice exam so students could
see right and wrong answers, and called this formative assessment. But true formative
assessment requires spending time in dialogue between teachers and students on the
gray areas (like what does “important” really mean when you are choosing an impor-
tant article?), not the black and white ones. With formative assessment, teachers need
to work with knowledge and skills that take practice and that are less accessible and
more elusive to students, not simply cut-and-dried facts.
Formative assessment tasks can range from informal questions and discussions
during class time to more complex assignments, such as term papers. Knowing when
to use a particular strategy to solve a problem and when not to, learning what types of
writing are persuasive and why, and understanding the difference between good and
bad composition in a painting are just a few examples. In fact, almost any assignment
can be used for formative assessment if it includes the teacher actions in Table 4.1. Some
examples of typical formative assessment tasks used by teachers appear in Table 4.3. In
the following subsections of the chapter we explore several kinds of tasks for formative
assessment in more detail.

TA B L E 4 . 3
Examples of Formative Assessment Tasks
Oral questions asking for student reasoning Assign homework asking students to write
behind a position on a political issue. three examples of persuasive techniques
discussed in class that they see in
television ads that evening.

Informal observations of quality of student In theater class, have students observe and
gymnastic routines. critique a video of their most recent public
performance.

Ungraded quiz covering that day’s biology As students solve math problems, ask them
lecture on organelles. to explain how they got their answer and
why it is a reasonable answer.

Authors’ chair where students share their Band students record themselves individually
writing and receive comments from playing a piece and have themselves and a
students and teacher. peer look for two musical strengths and
target one area for improvement.

Quick writes, or brief written answers to In an art class, have students write a brief
questions at the end of class such as, reflection about a work in progress or
“What was the most important idea you use a scoring guide to analyze aspects of
learned today?” or “Describe which the piece they want to improve.
aspects of today’s lesson were particularly
difficult and list questions you still have.”
In ESL class or class with English language Hold individual conferences with students
learners, audio record a conversation to check progress on a major paper or
designed to reach a decision or solve a project. (See the Tracie Clinton example
problem. Have students in the group in Chapter 1.)
evaluate the performance and discuss
communication pitfalls.
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100 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

B O X 4 . 1 S A M P L E Q U E S T I O N S
T O E N C O U R A G E H I G H E R 
L E V E L T H I N K I N G

Quality Questions
Comprehension (Understand):

Give an example of . Compare (contrast) with .

What is the big idea in ? What are the critical elements of ?
Use your own words to explain .
Evaluation (Evaluate):
Application (Apply): What is most important about ? Why?
Predict what would happen if . Justify your choice that .
How would you use in this situation? Do you agree (disagree) with ? Why?
How would you use to change this situation? How would you critique ?
How could you apply to your own (or another)
experience? Synthesis (Create):

How would you design ?

Analysis (Analyze):
Compose/formulate/construct a .
What are the similarities (differences) between
and ? What would be a good solution to ?
What is evidence for (or against) ? Imagine you could .

Teacher Observations and Questions

Perhaps the most frequent teacher activities involving formative assessment are infor-
mal observations and questions as instruction proceeds. Questioning is the most flex-
ible formative assessment technique because it can be used for individual or large- and
small-group instruction, and questions can constantly be modified depending on the
answers you are getting and which student you are addressing. The key is that you put
some planning and forethought into these questions, and they must target the student
learning you are looking for. We know several teachers who keep a sample of well-
designed question stems at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy on a laminated card that
they tape to their desk, such as the one in Box 4.1.
A few simple rules, listed in Table 4.4, can help you design good questions that
will elicit the information that you need to gauge student learning. Oral questions can
be difficult for many students to process, so they must be concise and direct. You may
want to put some of these questions in writing, especially for students who are learn-
ing English or other students who require extra visual cues. You also want your ques-
tions to be specific rather than vague so that students know exactly what you are
looking for.
If you are designing questions that encourage your students to think critically
and make connections, you must allow them the time they need to process the infor-
mation in the question and to formulate an answer. The average wait time after a
question in most classes is usually about one second. Many teachers are uncomfortable
with silence in the classroom—even three seconds seems to stretch forever when it’s
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 101

TA B L E 4 . 4
Rules for Asking Questions That Enhance Formative Assessment
Questioning Rules Example

1. Think about the key elements of your Current learning goals:

learning goals for this class session. • Student will be able to compare and
• What specific concepts and skills contrast characteristics of a utopia and
should students be able to master? dystopia.
• What are their relationships to • Student will be able to use persuasive
previous concepts and skills? language in writing and speaking.
• What evidence would let you know Previous learning goals:
they have mastered them and • Student will be able to make connections
connected them to previous learning? between text read independently and prior
knowledge, other texts, and the world.
• Student will be able to respond to texts
orally and in writing.

2. Design brief, succinct questions, Sample questions for discussion based on

including more than half at higher learning goals:
levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, that • What do you think is the most important
will provide evidence of students’ characteristic of a utopia? A dystopia?
understanding of the goals. Why do you think so?
• Keep them short and direct. • (After reading an excerpt from
• Keep them specific rather than vague. Fahrenheit 451) How does this passage
• Make sure students must manipulate reflect the characteristics of a dystopia?
their knowledge to answer.

3. Give students time to think about the To address wait time:

question. • “In groups of three, decide which country
• Provide at least 3 seconds wait time. in the world today seems more utopic;
OR more dystopic. Develop specific reasons
• Think, pair, share for your choice.
OR
• Small-group discussion
4. Provide appropriate feedback. Possible appropriate responses:
• Positive probing or redirection: • “Why is that characteristic of a utopia
more important to you than others we
have discussed?” not “That doesn’t make
sense, nobody could defend that choice.”
• Acknowledging appropriateness: • “You are definitely on the right track; who
else can add another argument for the
importance of X?” not “OK, who’s next?”
• Specific praise about student • “Your argument for that characteristic is
comment: well reasoned and tight!” not a vague
“Nice job!”

quiet. But “wait time” (usually three seconds is enough) has been shown to improve
student answers. Another way to allow some thinking time is to have your students
jot a brief answer on paper and then discuss it with a partner before sharing with a
larger group. This procedure is often termed “Think, pair, share.”
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102 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

Answers to questions and student discussion are an important source of informa-

tion about what students are learning. They also keep students active in the learning
process and help them focus on what is important. Most teachers tend to ask basic-
level questions such as definitions, requests for recall of specific information, or recita-
tion of facts, hence the need for question prompts like those in Box 4.1. Top educators
recommend that at least half of your questions require students to use basic informa-
tion in new ways through reasoning at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
To be more specific, Table 4.5 offers suggestions for moving toward higher-level
thinking types of questions rather than focusing on definitions at the knowledge level.
We often encourage our teacher candidates to “bump up” their questions from knowl-
edge level to more challenging levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. You also must remember
to ask these higher-level questions of all of your students, not just your higher achiev-
ers. Sometimes doing so may require extra practice and modeling to clarify the process.
This is an example of differentiating your instruction. Students who are required to
make inferences and engage in complex reasoning tend to learn more. They make more
connections in their minds when they use the concepts in different ways.

TA B L E 4 . 5
Strategies for “Bumping Up” Your Questions from the Basic Knowledge
Level When Working on Defining a New Concept
AVOID STRATEGY INSTEAD
Knowledge-Level Higher-Level
Examples Alternatives

“What does listless Ask students to provide “Describe a time when you felt
mean?” examples of concepts from listless.”
their own experience rather
than definitions.

“What is a Ask students to describe “How are metaphors and similes

metaphor?” similarities and differences similar and different? Use
between a new concept and examples from the poem to
an old one. illustrate the similarities and
differences.”

“Define equity.” Ask students to apply the “Where have you seen equity
concept to something they demonstrated in current
have seen or read recently. events you have read about
or seen on TV?”

“Describe osmosis.” Ask students how they would “How could you use a visual
explain this concept to a concrete method to explain
younger student. osmosis to a first grader?”

“Explain what Ask students to differentiate “How is interdependence

interdependence this concept from other close different from independence
means.” concepts and give examples to and dependence? What are
illustrate the difference. examples from your life that
illustrate the differences
between these three concepts?”
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 103

One common method that teachers use to systematically gather answers to ques-
tions from the whole class is individual white boards or chalk boards. You can use
“The In and Out Game” or the “Always, Sometimes, Never Game” described in Chap-
ter 3 as formative assessment in the midst of a new lesson and have the students write
their answer on their board, then hold them up so only you can see them. You can do
a quick check of the answers to get a sense of the level of understanding across the
whole class. Even our college students have enjoyed using white boards and have told
us that the boards keep them involved and give them an opportunity to experiment
with answers without fear of being wrong in front of their peers.

Other In-class Activities

As you instruct your students, you will want to embed formative assessments into the
instructional activities. We will offer a few examples so you can see the many ways you
can weave formative assessment into your instruction. Our first example comes from
Stephen Gundersheim, a professor of theater and former high school theater teacher.
In an instructional unit on directing, he works with students to understand the impact
of blocking and movement on stage through demonstrations in which students par-
ticipate. To check on their grasp of the concepts, he has them create different stage
pictures using other students as characters on the stage (e.g., a balanced stage, variations
in strengthening or weakening different characters’ stage position, relationship of power
between characters, change of focus from one character to another based on blocking
or movement choices). These physical demonstrations designed by the students are a
wonderful teaching and learning tool that evoke discussion and allow him to know how
adept students are at putting these directing principles into practice. When he wants to
do more systematic checking, he asks students to answer similar types of questions on
paper. Mastering these principles is crucial before moving on to other aspects of direct-
ing, so this type of formative assessment is essential.
Journals or notebooks are one of the most common in-class assignments that
teachers currently use; these are excellent for formative assessment. Although our own
teachers primarily used them in English classes, we know teachers who employ jour-
nals in other subjects such as theater, art, math, and science. However, to benefit the
most from journals, students must be required to go beyond description and definition
tasks at Bloom’s “remember” level. For example, students can easily describe the pro-
cedures and results from a science experiment without understanding their signifi-
cance. They need to be able to extrapolate the results from that situation to others,
compare one experiment to another, or see how the experiment illustrates an impor-
tant scientific principle. Unfortunately, an analysis of science notebooks by Maria
Ruiz-Primo and her colleagues (2004) found many more “reporting data” or “defini-
tions” entries than “applying concepts” or “interpreting data” entries, except in the
highest performing classrooms. Journal and notebook assignments should be used to
help students see the big picture and make connections. They should not be used for
copying definitions or other work that doesn’t require any thought or reflection.
Another important in-class formative assessment assignment is having students
compare their work on a current assignment to a previous assignment. You can let students
decide, or you can choose which one or two dimensions to use to rate the assignments
and describe their improvement. Such comparisons can be done in pairs or individually.
This kind of comparison could be a useful journal entry or standalone assignment for any
teacher who provides similar assignments with slightly different content across the semes-
ter or the year. English themes, math projects, Spanish translations, science experiments,
dance routines, art projects, or music pieces could be used in this way.
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104 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

Quick Write Quick Writes A quick write is a brief written response to a question or probe. Quick
A brief written response to a writes have been developed in the context of science units as a technique for gauging
question or probe. change in student understanding over time, allowing teachers to meet the learning
needs of students, and obtaining valuable information for instructional changes where
necessary (Bass, 2003; Green et al., 2007). Quick writes have also been used in many
other learning contexts. Many teachers use a quick write at the end of class to ask
students to summarize the key points of the lesson that day or to describe what ques-
tions they still have. Quick writes are easy and flexible—they can be adapted to almost
any content you work with and can address any area you might want to probe with
your students. When consolidating new information, quick writes have the advantage
of requiring students to develop their own representations of content rather than
checking a right answer, filling in a blank, or memorizing what the teacher has told
them. They also provide opportunities for teacher feedback that can be easily differ-
entiated according to the needs of the students.

Collaborative Quizzes Quizzes are a staple of most classrooms, and they can be used
for formative assessment. One variation on quizzes that we recently read about is called
the collaborative quiz (Rao et al., 2002). Students take a quiz in a small group where
they must agree on correct answers and report back to the class. This process can
develop student reasoning skills, promote useful discussion over disagreements about
answers, and help students fill in gaps in knowledge. To be effective, you must ensure
that the discussion is structured so that students who have wrong answers will not be
stigmatized.

Self- and Peer Assessments Perhaps the best way for students to learn from formative
assessment is to enlist them to do it for themselves. Getting students in the habit of
reflecting about their work, rather than just doing it and turning it in, helps them begin
to assume a more active role in applying the criteria for success. An active role increases
student willingness to take more general responsibility for learning. You are encourag-
ing them to take a metacognitive step and make observations about their work, then
judge their work against what is expected. Eventually they develop the capacity to set
standards and goals for their own work. Table 4.6 provides sample questions that stu-
dents can ask themselves to start an internal reflective dialogue.
Students need instruction in the skill of self-assessment because most students
do not automatically know how to apply evaluation standards to their own work.
Remember that evaluation skills in Bloom’s taxonomy are one of the most difficult
cognitive levels to master. Students must know what is central and what is peripheral.
They must know the vocabulary that describes the different levels of quality so they
can see the differences between success and failure. Students also need feedback on
their judgments to gradually become accurate.
To assist students in this process, Heidi Andrade (2008) suggests having students
use different colored pencils to underline important elements in the scoring guide and
then use the same color to note evidence of each element in their paper. Practice with
assignments from an earlier class (with all identification removed) can also be helpful.
At first you might find that poorer students tend to inflate their ratings of their per-
formance, and better students tend to undervalue their work. But practice across time
helps students develop more accurate self-assessments.
Another way that students can be involved in formative assessment is through
peer assessment. Students can profit from examining others’ work. It gives them
practice applying the evaluation standards and ultimately will give them more
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 105

TA B L E 4 . 6
Sample Questions for Self-Assessment Reflection
What goals do I want to accomplish with Do I really understand the difference
this assignment? between a utopia and a dystopia?
Am I executing my dance routine with How could I improve this paragraph to make
proper alignment and balance? it more persuasive?

Am I communicating what I want to with How could I apply this new concept to my
my performance of this musical piece? own life?

What skill should I work on next? What strategies have I used successfully
before that might work with this new
word problem?

How will I be able to tell when I make a How would I summarize the paragraph I just
mistake? read?
Does my answer cover all parts of the What are ways I can improve the next time
question? I do something like this?

Does this answer make sense for this Do I understand and have I followed all
problem? directions?

insight into their own work. The key is to make sure that they know the goal is to
offer constructive suggestions for improvement. As in self-assessment, students
must be trained to understand the learning goals and the evaluation standards. They
must know what to look for in the assignments they are examining. More specifi-
cally, they must learn the evaluative standards that are important to a task. This
topic will be further addressed in Chapter 9 when we discuss performance tasks
and scoring guides.
Peer assessment also requires training in interpersonal sensitivity. We know one
elementary teacher who spends two weeks every year modeling and coaching appro-
priate ways to offer feedback and suggestions to peers. Only then does she let her
students engage in peer assessment using a simple scoring guide to examine stories
their classmates are working on. She also structures peer-assessment activities so that
students discuss strengths as well as ways to improve. She asks students to describe
two “pats on the back” and one suggestion each time they peer assess. You as a teacher
must develop a positive climate in your classroom where students are honestly work-
ing together to improve the quality of each other’s work in constructive ways. Students
must feel comfortable and supported by the teacher and each other.
The hard work required in developing constructive peer and self assessment
practices in your classroom will pay off. Students become more familiar with the learn-
ing goals and evaluation standards when they are asked to use them in judging their
own and others’ work. They develop more autonomy and independence as well as
confidence in their judgment. They practice sophisticated high-level thinking skills. In
addition, students receive more input on their work from a variety of points of view
and learn to consider alternative perspectives seriously. Often students use more basic
language in their interactions than the teacher does, which may help promote new
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106 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

TA B L E 4 . 7
Homework Strategies for Formative Assessment
1. Explain why the homework assignment is valuable in terms of reaching the learning goal.

2. Plan homework assignments that reflect the range of student needs related to the
learning goal.

3. Focus on quality and not quantity, and vary the types of assignments.

4. Awareness of students’ family and cultural backgrounds should be considered as you

assign homework.

5. Never use homework as punishment.

6. Provide prompt feedback on how to close the gap between where students are and what
they are aiming for.

understanding. Eventually this process allows students to develop the capacity to set
standards and goals for their own work.

Homework
Homework can be a controversial subject because it is not always used wisely. Table 4.7
offers suggestions for making homework most effective for formative assessment pur-
poses. In keeping with the key elements of formative assessment, you must first make
sure students understand what the homework assignment is meant to accomplish in
terms of the learning goal. Before you assign any homework, you want to be sure it has
a clear purpose that the students understand. Students need to believe that the home-
work is valuable and will lead to academic improvement. As you may recall from your
own personal experience, many students dislike homework and experience negative
feelings while they are doing it. They haven’t internalized the conviction of some adults
that all homework is good for building character and developing a sense of responsibil-
ity. If students can understand directly the value and purpose of a homework assign-
ment, negative feelings are less likely to surface about homework.
Next, you should assign homework that addresses the specific needs of your
students. This usually requires flexible differentiation. For students who need practice
with a skill, you can use homework to reinforce what has been taught. For students
who need to be stretched to apply a skill to a new situation, you may focus on appli-
cations. Tanis Bryan and her colleagues (2001) also point out the importance of taking
into account differing homework completion rates for students with disabilities, who
can take up to eight times as long to complete homework as other students.
In addition, some students may require cues and prompts for completing an assign-
ment. For example, you might develop a checklist for an assignment where students can
check off each step as they complete it. You might also set up homework checking groups
who work together and graph their progress across time. Finally, understanding of students’
home situations can help you tailor assignments to them. For example, availability of time
for homework must be considered for a student in charge of younger siblings after school
or for students who must work to help support their family.
Students have reported in research that their homework is usually boring and
routine. They often are required to do the same tedious tasks (e.g., answer chapter
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 107

questions, do 10 math problems from the text, write definitions for the words of the
week) over and over. Homework assignments that are brief but valuable will enhance
interest in school and help promote mastery goals. The quality of an assignment is
much more important than the quantity. Particularly useful are assignments demon-
strating that students are able to apply concepts learned in class to situations in the
real world. For example, in a unit on persuasive writing, students could look for per-
suasive strategies used in articles in a newspaper or on a website. In a unit on under-
standing proportions in math, you could have students measure the dimensions of one
piece of furniture in a room at home and construct a drawing to scale of the room
and that object.
Use of students’ family and cultural background can help you develop homework
assignments that are meaningful to students. When you have assignments related to
family, you should be aware of the diversity in your students’ lives and point out that
by family you mean those people whom your students consider as family. For social
studies and history units, you can ask students to find out about their family’s experi-
ence with and connection to historical events. A student we know in a history class
recently surprised his teacher with a battered bronze bust of Hitler that his grandfather
had found in a German factory at the end of World War II. These family experiences
can be compared and contrasted with other information about the events.
Family members also often have skills and knowledge that can help students
move toward mastering learning goals through activities at home. Tapping such infor-
mation, especially when working with students from culturally marginalized groups,
can help students connect the school and home cultures and can help them feel that
their home culture is valued at school. For example, family traditions related to music
and art, business and trade, or farming can be applied to units in science, math, social
studies, or the arts.
One problem that can arise with this approach, if you are not careful, is that
students learn a lot about parts of the topic that are interesting to them, but they don’t
make the needed connections to the learning goals. Their understanding remains
superficial. Your job is to make sure you always connect your learning activities to
mastery of the skills and knowledge your students need. Your goal is not simply to
keep your students entertained.
The last thing to remember about homework is that assigning it as a punishment
is a guaranteed way to discourage motivation and learning. All of us remember teach-
ers saying things like, “All right, class, since you can’t settle down, I am doubling your
homework tonight and you must do all the problems instead of just the even ones.”
Please make a quiet pledge to yourself right now never to do this, no matter how much
your students annoy you on a bad day. Too often in the past, teachers have assumed
that punishment or the threat of punishment works best to get students to comply with
their requirements. Using homework as a punishment sends the message that learning
activities are negative and something to avoid—not meaningful, and certainly not
enjoyable. Imagine our loss if our favorite authors—Stephen King, Emily Dickinson,
Toni Morrison, or Joan Didion—had perceived writing as a form of punishment
because of a teacher’s misuse of assessment.

Ethics Alert: Behavior problems and assessment practices should be kept separate. The
purpose of assessment is for us to understand what the student understands, not to manage
behavior through punishment.
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108 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

Element 3: Provide Students with Feedback to Close Any Gaps

Whatever kind of formative tasks you give your students—homework, quick writes,
journal writing, self-reflection—the kind of feedback you supply is crucial (Shute,
2008). Students can close the gap and reach a goal only if they know what to do next.
For example, in one situation, students who received only comments and no grades
actually did worse than students who received grades with minimal comments. Inter-
views with the students suggested that the comments they had received were too vague
to be helpful in moving their learning forward (e.g., “try harder next time,” or “very
good”) (Smith & Gorad, 2005).
So, to get more specific, your feedback must provide concrete comments that stu-
dents can use to improve. In fact, some have suggested that feedback is misnamed. If the
feedback is helpful, it allows students to move forward in their learning. Perhaps the term
“feedforward” captures the dynamic and future-oriented aim of the information that
should be provided in teacher feedback (Goldsmith, 2002). When you see improvements,
you must also note them so your students see when they have used feedback effectively.
John Hattie and Helen Timperley (2007) have studied feedback extensively. They
have concluded that it is one of the most powerful influences on student learning when
it is designed to help students close the gap between their current and their desired
performance. In analyzing what makes feedback effective, we have relied on elements
of their analysis. In Tables 4.8 and 4.9 we contrast descriptions and examples of useful

TA B L E 4 . 8
Characteristics of Useful Feedback
Type Questions It Answers Useful Examples
Information on the • What level of knowledge/understanding • “Your understanding of musical forms needs
assignment’s knowledge/ related to the learning goals did the student tweaking, especially the difference between
understanding (WHAT) demonstrate, and what needs work? sonatas and symphonies.”
• What actions can the student take to • “Review the musical selections from Lesson
improve that knowledge/understanding? 3 in the listening lab.”
• In what ways does this assignment show • “You have now clearly mastered an
improvement over previous assignments? understanding of the causes of World War II.”
Information on the • What skills/strategies/procedures related to • “You need to work on seeing more than one
assignment’s skills/ the learning goals did the student use well, perspective on an issue.”
strategies/procedures and which need more work? • “I suggest you may want to look at your
(HOW) • What actions can the student take to argument from your opponent’s point of
improve that skill/strategy/procedure? view.”
• What kind of improvement has occurred • “You are making progress in your drawing
in progress toward learning goals? What is because you are now incorporating balance
the reason for the improvement? into your composition.”
• What strategies should be continued? • “You did a good job keeping a steady beat in
Changed? that piece. Keep it up.”
• Is there evidence of self-monitoring and • I like how you noticed that you forgot to
self-correction? regroup in the 100’s column and went back
• Is there evidence of improvement in self- to fix it. You didn’t do that last week, so you
monitoring? Self-correction? are making progress.”
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 109

TA B L E 4 . 9
Characteristics of Feedback That Are Not Useful
Type Questions It Answers Not Useful Examples

Judgment of the • Is the work good or bad? • “Good job!”

work • “What a mess!”
Judgment of the • How does this assignment • “What a good student you are!”
student affect teacher feelings about • “You are so smart!”
student personal qualities? • “You will never learn!”
• “Why can’t you ever pay attention?”

versus potentially harmful kinds of oral and written feedback. Notice that Table 4.8
addresses both knowledge/understanding (WHAT) and skills/strategies/procedures
(HOW) previously seen in Chapter 2 for designing learning goals and in Chapter 3
for designing diagnostic assessments.
In looking at the differences between Tables 4.8 and 4.9, you can see that useful
feedback informs, reminds, questions, suggests, and describes. It gives students some-
thing to think about and helps them know what to do next in relation to both the
knowledge/understanding and skills/strategies/procedures components of the learning
goals. Poor feedback, on the other hand, offers judgments about the work or the stu-
dent and not much else. Useful feedback helps students feel they are making discover-
ies that help them grow. Poor feedback makes them think they have made mistakes
that reflect low ability or other negative character traits. As early as second grade,
children can sense the difference between feedback that is descriptive or informational
and feedback that is more evaluative. When students feel judged, their motivation and
effort usually suffer. Often in the past when the sorting function of schools was most
prominent, teachers focused on the evaluative function of feedback more seriously than
the informative function. But now as we all work to help all children learn as much
as they can, informative feedback must be our goal. We will now look at each of the
four kinds of feedback in Tables 4.8 and 4.9 in more detail.

Information on the Assignment’s Knowledge/Understanding

Feedback on basic knowledge and understanding (see Table 2.11) provides students
with information about their results in relation to the evaluation criteria. If the work
is incorrect or incomplete, this type of feedback provides students information on
how to fix it. For example, a teacher might ask a student to get more information
for a report on the civil rights movement, or she might provide a mini-lesson related
to a misconception that shows up in student work. If the work is complete and
correct, appropriate feedback lets the students know specifically how they have
done well.
This type of feedback is powerful for students when they are allowed to use it
to improve their work. Some problems can arise, however, if this is the only type of
feedback you focus on. For example, students can get caught up in correcting small
details (such as specific facts) and may not focus on larger issues (such as under-
standing a key misconception). They can make the improvements needed for this
task, but not necessarily be able to apply them to other tasks in the future. Your
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110 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

feedback should also address progress you have seen since the last assignment to
help students make connections across assignments. Focusing explicitly on progress
also provides encouragement that effort is making a difference in their learning,
promoting effort optimism.

Information on the Assignment’s Skills, Strategies, and Procedures

Teacher feedback on skills, strategies, and procedures offers students insight into pro-
cesses they can use for mastery of the learning goals and, especially with metacognitive
skills, for improving their work in general. For example, the strategy of designing a
paragraph with a first sentence that provides a transition from the previous paragraph
is one skill students might need for successfully integrating new material into their
paper on the civil rights movement. Helping students develop “triggers” that enable
them to detect errors or problems in their work is one key. For example, we know one
math teacher who stops her students after every problem completed in class and asks
all students to evaluate whether their answer makes sense given the context of the
problem. (For example, if the question is “What percent of students in the class favor
capital punishment?” and your answer is 150%, something is wrong with your calcula-
tions.) Students have told her this strategy was the most valuable thing they learned
in her class because it applied to so many other situations.
These kinds of strategies help students learn to monitor themselves, which is one
of the most important forms of metacognition. When students are thinking about how
they are doing their work, rather than just doing it, they will start to self-evaluate and
self-correct. These skills are essential for developing independence of thought. Feed-
back on metacognitive skills is often best developed in conversation with students so
they are given the opportunity to apply their own self-assessment skills as you appraise
their work together.

Judgment of the Work

Giving students a smiley face or “good job so far!” comment or simply telling them to
start again are examples of feedback that conveys a positive or negative judgment and
nothing else. Teachers often make these types of judgments as they monitor students
completing work during formative stages, not just when grading assignments. Teacher
approval of a student’s work is often seen as a powerful motivator, but if the praise is
vague, it doesn’t necessarily help a student achieve more. Disapproval of children’s work
can totally deflate them. Without additional information, judgments and evaluations
of work are not useful for increasing student learning. Remember that facial expres-
sions and tone of voice, as well as your comments, convey judgment.

Judgment of the Student

Praise or blame directed at students themselves and not their work is the least useful
type of feedback, and can lead to many negative consequences. Avoid using labels
describing student characteristics as fixed traits such as “smart,” “lazy,” “careless,” or
“annoying.” Some students will try to live up to any negative label you apply. Others
may try to prove a positive comment wrong if they don’t want to be perceived by
peers as a good student. Also avoid insincere praise. Students who are praised by
teachers after completing a relatively easy task think that the teacher believes they
have low ability.
Providing feedback is one of your most important opportunities for tailoring
your teaching activities based on needs of individual students. Different students
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Formative Assessment: The Essential Link Between Teaching and Learning 111

will need different kinds of feedback, and this is an important opportunity to dif-
ferentiate your individual instruction for them. You must make sure students don’t
perceive the gap between where they are and where they need to be as too large,
or they will find it unattainable and not worth the effort. Similarly, if you give stu-
dents too many things to improve at once, you will overload them and they will get
discouraged. Usually you will want to pick out only one or two areas for improve-
ment at a time.

Technology and Feedback

Advances in technology have provided many exciting opportunities to deliver feedback
in less time-consuming and more productive ways. For example, at the time of this
writing, audio recording software, such as WavePad (http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/)
or the free audio software Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/), allows you to
provide oral feedback using a microphone plugged into your computer. The resulting
files can be distributed as .mp3 files through email, on a digital music player such as
an iPod, or even on a standard audio CD. In five minutes you can offer oral comments
to students on their papers or projects that are the equivalent of 2½ double-spaced
pages of notes. Recently marketed inexpensive digital video cameras, such as Pure
Digital’s The Flip (http://theflip.com/), record 30–60 minutes of video depending on
the model you buy. With such a camera you can video oral performances, physical
education skills, musical pieces, recitations, and other student activities. You can move
these files to a computer for editing or permanent storage, or you can immediately
analyze these yourself or with the students to provide on-the-spot suggestions for
improvement on the built-in video screen. Devices such as Personal Digital Assistants
(PDAs), cell phones, and digital cameras are integrating features for audio and video
recordings as well. Watch for other technological advances that can help you supply
quality feedback to your students.

Element 4: Avoid Grading Formative Tasks

To be most useful, formative assessment should take place before student work is eval-
uated for a grade. We have found this element of formative assessment to be one of
the hardest for our teacher candidates to grasp. They expect that every piece of work
they turn in will come back with a grade on it, and they expect they will grade every
piece of their students’ work. Many teachers also get into this grading trap and believe
that students will not take work seriously unless it is graded. But if students are getting
useful feedback on learning tasks they value, this problem lessens. To develop more
positive student attitudes, teachers often need to nudge students toward a mastery goal
orientation so they begin to value the feedback they get that helps them learn more.
We often offer a point or two for completion of an assignment that receives formative
feedback. Then a later assignment or test that incorporates the improved product or
understanding from the feedback is evaluated for a grade. Similarly, some teachers offer
opportunities for students to turn in early drafts of paper for feedback. Word gets
around to others that those students tended to do well on the final product. When the
teacher offers the next chance for formative feedback, more students take advantage
of the opportunity.
In this process, you want to ensure that students don’t see identification of any
areas for improvement as the sole responsibility of the teacher. In other words, a
student should not be able to say, “Well, you didn’t tell me to fix that on the forma-
tive assessment, so it’s not fair that you mark me down on the summative assess-
ment.” Often a teacher will focus only on one or two elements during formative
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112 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

assessment and will let the students know that all other aspects of quality are up to
them. Because formative assessment can increase a teacher’s workload, you must set
explicit limits.

Element 5: Offer Students an Opportunity to Close Any Gaps

All the feedback in the world won’t help students learn if they aren’t able to use it to
make improvements in their work. Often with summative assessments, students have
told us they don’t even read the careful comments teachers write to justify a grade they
have given. The students just look at the grade and put the paper away. If, however,
the assignment is formative with feedback offering a means to improve an ultimate
grade, students will likely pore over every word you offer.

Element 6: Use Formative Assessment for Enhancing Instruction

As formative assessment is incorporated into classrooms, we have already discussed
how students become more aware of what the teacher is trying to accomplish. In addi-
tion, teachers become more aware of exactly how well learning is proceeding. If their
formative assessment tells them students are floundering, they have a responsibility to
use their expertise to address the problem. The knowledge teachers gain from monitor-
ing student learning usually can provide them with valuable information for improving
their instruction. Their instruction can then become more responsive to the needs of
the specific students with whom they are working. Based on information from this
type of assessment, they can make adjustments to speed up, slow down, or try a dif-
ferent instructional approach.
For example, Meredith Reid, a middle school teacher, was recently working with
her students on personification as one kind of figure of speech. As a brief formative
assessment, she had students write a sentence which personified an object in the class-
room. As she walked around the room, she noticed many students weren’t making
meaningful personifications. For example, one student said, “The cabinet talked to the
bookcase.”
The student work instigated her to re-present the concept and really focus on
helping students see they needed to achieve some effect or image. All of her examples
had been personifications to create a colorful image (e.g. “As I wandered through the
trees, they whispered my name.”), but the students didn’t get that point. Meredith
took another step based on the feedback she was getting. “I wrote a couplet poem
about my computer waking me up every night because it makes crazy noises. I
explained in this poem that the computer growled, roared, screamed my name, etc.
As I showed the poem to students, I asked them to really think about what I was
trying to say through my personification. I then asked them if it would mean the
same thing for me to just say, ‘My computer talks.’ Showing students the contrast
between these two examples seemed to really make the connection that there had to
be a purpose behind using personification. Once we had this discussion, I had stu-
dents try to write a sentence personifying an object in the classroom again. This time
the results were much, much better and I felt students really did understand how to
use personification.”
With good formative assessment, the role of the teacher changes from just deliv-
ering instruction to fostering the learning of that instruction. Teachers start to rely
more on their professional expertise to help the class make progress. When they notice
students aren’t learning what they need to or aren’t making progress with certain skills,
they cannot chalk it up to “slow learners” or a “rowdy” class that won’t settle down.
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners for Formative Assessment 113

They take responsibility to make an instructional change. This approach leads to what
we often call a “Don’t blame the kid first” philosophy of teaching. Teachers, as profes-
sionals, have an obligation to look to themselves for solutions to classroom problems
before they write students off as unable to learn.

 AFORCCOMMODA TIONS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Like diagnostic assessments, formative assessments can be flexible and informal, allow-
ing them to take a variety of forms and permitting students to use a range of methods
of expression, as universal design for learning principles recommend. Therefore, most
of the recommendations for accommodations for diagnostic assessment based on the
considerations described in Chapter 3 (see Table 3.9) are also relevant to formative
assessments. These recommendations should, therefore, be reviewed as you design for-
mative assessments.
In addition, the third aspect of universal design, multiple means of engagement,
comes into play during formative assessment and ongoing instruction to keep student
participation and interest high (CAST, 2008). Suggestions closely tied to our discussion
in Chapter 1 (see Figure 1.3) on how teachers promote learning goals to motivate stu-
dents provide excellent means of accommodation for this purpose. In designing forma-
tive assessment tasks (our Element 2 of formative assessment), you incorporate the
needs of diverse students by providing opportunities for student choice and by provid-
ing tasks that are relevant specifically to them. Offering students the choice to discuss
a topic before completing an individual formative assignment allows them to build on
content knowledge already acquired. This can be particularly useful if they learned
some of the content in a language other than English and they discuss it in their native
language. Encouraging students who have already met the learning goals to choose the
most creative questions from an array of choices for their journal assignment is another
example of incorporating relevance and choice to keep engagement strong. Accommo-
dations related to choice and relevance to promote engagement are important for
enhancing all students’ learning.
Students who lose their way or perceive themselves as far behind get discouraged
quickly, so another aspect important to multiple means of engagement is scaffolding. Scaffolding
Scaffolding is temporary support of some kind allowing students to meet a challenge Temporary support that allows
and increase their understanding. As the learning goal is gradually mastered, the scaf- students to meet a challenge and
increase understanding.
folding can be removed, just as scaffolding is removed from buildings after their con-
struction is complete. For example, designing formative assessments early in the unit
to ensure that students have first mastered the basic unit vocabulary—and only later
moving to formative assessment that addresses the application of these basic concepts—
may provide scaffolding for English language learners or for students with literacy skills
below those of typical peers. In any class where skills are a focus, charts with step-by-
step procedures for common tasks can be designed by the class and then referred to
during formative assessments, if needed. Similarly, “anticipation guides” to focus atten-
tion and learning (Woelders, 2007) are scaffolding devices for developing and monitor-
ing critical thinking. These could, for example, ask students to compare and contrast
sources and evaluate bias when watching films or reading articles. Thoughtful improvi-
sations like these can be tailored to students’ needs, as well as to their interests, bring-
ing out their best and keeping them engaged. That’s why Carol Tomlinson and Amy
Germundson (2007) suggest that teaching is like creating jazz—as a teacher you need
“personal awareness of the moment and an understanding that allows for a range of
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114 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

TA B L E 4 . 1 0
Accommodation Considerations for Multiple Means of Engagement
for Formative Assessments
Issue Type of Accommodation
Difficulty with fine motor skills • Consider choice in terms of fine motor limits.
• Provide scaffolding related to skill level.

Learning English • Focus early formative assessments on ensuring that

specific vocabulary of the discipline is learned.
• Use cultural diversity as a resource in considering
interests, relevance, and choices.
• Provide opportunities for small-group discussion,
possibly in native language.
• Provide scaffolding related to language
requirements.

Learning goal already mastered • Increase breadth or depth of instruction and

assessment.
• Consider interests, relevance, and choice beyond
current learning goals.
Difficulty focusing attention • Consider interests, relevance, and choice related
to novelty, degree of movement, and inclusion of
hands-on tasks.
• Provide scaffolding such as charts with procedural
steps.

Literacy skills below those of typical • Provide opportunities for small-group discussions.
peers (e.g., learning disability) • Focus early formative assessments on ensuring that
specific vocabulary of the discipline is learned.
• Consider interests, relevance, choice in terms of
literacy skill levels.
• Provide scaffolding related to literacy skill levels
(e.g., structure of tasks, language demands).

Lack of familiarity with school • Provide opportunities for small-group discussions.

culture • Consider interests, relevance, choice related to
student resources.
• Provide extra formative feedback as needed.

expressions to fit the situation” (p. 27). Table 4.10 summarizes accommodation consid-
erations for formative assessments related to a sample of needs your students may have.
Also remember our point in Chapter 3 that many students, not just students with these
specific needs, will benefit from your considering such accommodations.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

Lynn McCarter decided to address all three learning goals (see Table 2.11) in the formative
assessment she devised for her math unit on solving problems related to proportions.
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Case Study Application 115

B O X 4 . 2 M A T H J O U R N A L P R O M P T S F O R
U N I T O N S O L V I N G M A T H P R O B L E M S
R E L A T E D T O P R O P O R T I O N S

Journal Prompt 1 already have a scale model of your room showing 1 foot ⫽
A tree casts a shadow of 15 meters when a 2-meter post nearby 1.5 inch. The space where you want to put the table is 3 inches
casts a shadow of 3 meters. Find the height of the tree. by 4.5 inches on your scale model. Should you buy it?

Journal Prompt 2 Responses Required for Each Prompt

You have a scale drawing of a hammerhead shark that mea- • Draw a diagram of the situation depicted in this
sures 23.6 cm. If the scale for the drawing is 4 cm ⫽ 3 m, how problem.
big is the actual shark? • Tell in your own words what you know and what you
must do to find the solution to this problem.
• Solve the problem, showing all your work.
Journal Prompt 3 • Explain how you checked to make sure you worked the
You recently saw a table for $5 at the Salvation Army store problem correctly.
that your guardian says you can buy for your room if it will • Explain how you know your answer is reasonable.
fit. The dimensions of the table are 2.5 feet by 2.8 feet. You

Her approach involves designing three equally difficult journal prompts that
require students to analyze a problem, solve it, and document how they know their
answer is reasonable. Each prompt addresses problems incorporating geometric
concepts and similar and congruent figures, the mathematical content to be mas-
tered in this unit. Thus the prompts constitute one measure of the skills and knowl-
edge students should be able to demonstrate when they have mastered the learning
goals.
She plans to use the first prompt as a diagnostic assessment and springboard for
class discussion at the beginning of the unit. The second prompt serves as a formative
assessment involving individual work and class discussion in the middle of the unit to
check on student understanding and progress toward the learning goals. The final
prompt will be given as a review before Lynn’s summative assessment for the unit to
determine what remaining aspects of the goals may need additional work. An example
of the three prompts is displayed in Box 4.2.
To keep track of student progress across time, Lynn uses the same scoring
guide each time to score student responses. The scoring guide is shown in Table 4.11.
After the last prompt, most students should have checks in the column farthest to
the right for each checklist item because students should reach mastery on each ele-
ment by that time.
In addition, Lynn can examine the pattern of checks for all students in her class
when she examines the students’ journals after these prompts. If she notices, for
example, that certain mathematical terms aren’t being used correctly by a group of
students, she can design a mini-lesson for them. If some students are getting stuck
on a specific procedure, she can highlight that in upcoming instruction. The scores
on the checklist, when scanned for the whole class, are an important source of infor-
mation for designing feedback and later instruction to ensure all students meet the
learning goal.
Lynn’s example also illustrates several important points we have made about
formative assessment. First, her journal prompts are aligned with all three of her learning
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116 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

TA B L E 4 . 1 1
Scoring Guide for Scoring Math Journal Prompt
Needs Further Minor Assistance Mastery of This
Instruction and Needed to Reach Element of the
Guidance (list) Understanding (list) Problem
Diagram Is
Accurate

Explanation
Demonstrates
a Thorough
Understanding of
the Problems

Follows
Appropriate
Procedures to
Solve the Problem

Uses Appropriate
Units of
Measurement

Uses Proper
Mathematical
Terminology

Documents
Check on
Reasonableness
of Answer

goals. When students respond to these prompts correctly, they will provide one kind
of evidence that they have mastered the content of the learning goals. In addition,
Lynn’s prompts require both types of content knowledge discussed in Chapter 3—
skills/strategies/procedures and knowledge/understanding. These tasks are consistent
with learning goals that require skills to do certain types of problems as well as a clear
understanding of the concepts involved.
Math teachers often tell us that their students learn how to solve problems fairly
easily, but they have more difficulty knowing when to use a specific strategy or know-
ing the reasoning behind following a particular procedure. This kind of understanding,
in addition to the problem solution, is facilitated by the questions Lynn asks. Because
students reveal their level of understanding in their responses to these prompts as well
as in class discussion following them, Lynn can provide them with useful feedback on
how to close the gap between where they are and where they need to be to successfully
meet the learning goals. Finally, students have an opportunity after the formative feed-
back from Lynn to demonstrate their understanding and show progress in learning
during a summative assessment.
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Chapter Review Questions 117

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we have described the importance of formative assessment. We pre-
sented six key elements of formative assessment as teacher actions. These include mak-
ing students aware of the learning goals and evaluation standards, providing formative
tasks that involve higher-level skills, providing feedback to students on how to close
the gap between where they are and where they need to be, avoiding grades on forma-
tive tasks, offering students an opportunity to close the gap, and using formative assess-
ment to enhance your own instruction.
We then discussed accommodations often needed for diverse learners as you
design formative assessments. We focused on the universal design for learning concept
of multiple means of engagement, which encourages differentiated efforts to engage
students and maintain their interest. In particular we addressed the importance of
using formative tasks involving choices that are relevant and interesting to students
and the value of scaffolding in fostering engagement.
Finally, the case study example involved one aspect of formative assessment for
Lynn McCarter’s unit on solving problems related to proportions. She designed three
journal prompts requiring students to solve problems and explain their work at differ-
ent points in the unit.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.caroltomlinson.com/
Carol Tomlinson, one of the foremost advocates of differentiated instruction, provides articles,
books, presentations, and other resources on her website.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/one/formative_e.php
This website offers a variety of presentations from experts about formative assessment, including
a general introduction, how to offer quality feedback, teacher-student conversations that
enhance learning, and practical formative strategies.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Which element or teacher action (see Table 4.1) involved in formative assessment
do you believe is most important? Why do you think so?
2. Choose learning goals for a unit you might be asked to teach. Design a formative
task (or tasks) that could help you determine what your students already know
about the unit content. Explicitly describe how you will address the six key
elements of formative assessment in Table 4.1.
3. Explain how each task in Table 4.3 requires higher-order thinking (one of
the key elements of formative assessment) rather than rote memorization by
students. Which levels of Bloom’s taxonomy are represented by each task in
Table 4.3?
4. Use the rules for asking good questions (Table 4.4) to design several questions
to discover whether students are making progress toward mastering a specific
learning goal that you will teach.
5. What will you do to promote an atmosphere in your classroom so that
students are empowered to engage in honest and accurate self- and peer-
assessment?
6. Using the recommendations in Table 4.7, design a specific homework assignment
related to a learning goal that you will address in your classroom.
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118 Chapter 4 Formative Assessment: Ongoing Assessment to Promote Student Success

7. Describe tasks you have seen teachers use that enable their students to close
the gap between where they are and where they need to be. What kind of
feedback do teachers offer these students before they take action to close
the gap?
8. Analyze the feedback you received on a paper or project in terms of the
characteristics of useful and poor feedback in Tables 4.8 and 4.9. Describe how
you might improve the feedback you received.
9. For the formative assessment task you designed for question 2, describe several
accommodations you might make for a student whose first language is not
English and for a student who has difficulty paying attention based on UDL
principles described in Chapters 3 and 4.
10. Describe accommodations you have seen teachers implement for one of the
groups in Table 4.10 related to multiple means of engagement. Were these
accommodations effective? Why or why not?
11. Analyze Lynn McCarter’s formative assessment approach in terms of how
adequately it addresses the key elements of formative assessment as teacher
actions (Table 4.1). How might you improve Lynn’s formative assessment?

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Bass, K. 2003. Monitoring understanding in elementary hands-on science through short writing
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Black, P., and D. Wiliam, 1998. Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education:
Principles, Policy, and Practice 5(1): 7–74.
Brookhart, S. 2001. Successful students’ formative and summative uses of assessment information.
Assessment in Education 8: 153–169.
Bryan, T., K. Burstein, and J. Bryan. 2001. Students with learning disabilities: Homework problems
and promising practices. Educational Psychologist 36: 167–180.
CAST. 2008. Universal design for learning guidelines version 1.0. Wakefield, MA: Author. Retrieved
April 14 from http://www.cast.org/publications/UDLguidelines/UDL_Guidelines_v1.0-
Organizer.pdf.
Goldsmith, M. 2002. Try feedforward instead of feedback. Leader to Leader. Retrieved May 20,
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Green, S., J. Smith, and E. K. Brown. 2007. Using quick writes as a classroom assessment tool:
Prospects and problems. Journal of Educational Research & Policy Studies 7(2): 38–52.
Guskey, T. 2007. Formative classroom assessment and Benjamin S. Bloom: Theory, research
and practice. In J. McMillan (ed.), Formative classroom assessment: Theory into practice,
pp. 63–78. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hattie, J., and H. Timperley. 2007. The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research 77:
81–112.
McMillan, J. 2007. Formative classroom assessment: Theory into practice. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Rao, S., H. Collins, and S. DiCarlo. 2002. Collaborative testing enhances student learning. Advances
in Physiology Education 26: 37–41.
Ruiz-Primo, M., M. Li, C. Ayala, and R. Shavelson. 2004. Evaluating students’ science notebooks
as an assessment tool. International Journal of Science Education 26: 1477–1506.
Shepard, L.A., 2000. The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher 29(7):
4–14 (p. 10).
Shepard, L. A. 2005. Assessment. In L. Darling-Hammond and J. Bransford (eds.), Preparing
teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco:
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Shepard, L. 2008. Formative assessment: Caveat Emptor. In C. A. Dwyer (ed.), The future of
assessment: Shaping teaching and learning, pp. 279–303. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Shute, V. 2008. Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research 78: 153–189.
Smith, E., and S. Gorad. 2005. ‘They don’t give us our marks’: The role of formative feedback in
student progress. Assessment in Education 12: 21–38.
Stiggins, R. 2008. Correcting “Errors of measurement” that sabotage student learning. In
C. A. Dwyer (ed.), The future of assessment: Shaping teaching and learning, pp. 229–243.
New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Woelders, A. 2007. “It makes you think more when you watch things”: Scaffolding for historical
inquiry using film in the middle school classroom. Social Studies 98(4): 145–152.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 5

PROGRESS MONITORING:
ASSESSMENT AS A
MOTIVATIONAL TOOL
For goals to be effective, people need summary feedback that reveals progress in
relation to their goals.
–Edwin Locke and Gary Latham

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Implement a progress monitoring

At the conclusion of this chapter, the system, including a visual
reader should be able to: component, to address gains over
• Explain why systematic time toward a learning goal.
progress monitoring is a • Summarize data for groups
valuable aspect of classroom using frequency distributions,
assessment. frequency polygons, and
• Compare and contrast mastery measures of central tendency.
monitoring and general • Design tables that communicate
outcome measurement as information about a whole class
approaches to systematic and disaggregated groups within
progress monitoring. the class.

 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we are tightening the assessment focus to help you find ways to
discover and use tangible evidence of individual and class-wide growth in learning.
One of the most powerful motivators we have seen in classrooms—for teachers as
well as students—is concrete evidence of student progress. Remember the six stu-
dents in Chapter 1 who set a goal for the specific number of words they would read
in one minute and then charted their progress on a graph for 10 weeks? As they
saw the numbers rise, these students not only increased their reading fluency, they
also became more interested in reading and took more books home after school.
The instructional gains of these students, as well as 35 years of research (e.g.,
Locke & Latham, 2002; Zimmerman, 2008), provide us with concrete evidence that
when learners focus on personal goals and track their own progress, they begin to
develop mastery goals. As you recall from Chapter 1, mastery goals involve learning
for the sake of mastery, not just working to perform well in the eyes of others.
Encouraging mastery goals can lead to more positive attitudes, higher motivation,
and increased effort and engagement. Mastery goals also promote independent
thinking and personal responsibility, important self-governing skills for democratic
participation (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006). This chapter will focus on several
approaches you can use to capture and showcase progress across time.
121
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122 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

 GOAL SETTING AS THE KEY FIRST STEP

When you decide to monitor progress with your students, you must start with a spe-
cific goal. You need to know what your objective is before you can track any progress
toward it. When we have appropriate goals, they direct and energize our behavior and
they increase our persistence (Locke & Latham, 1990, 2002). Students who set short-
term, specific goals also achieve more and have more confidence (Zimmerman, 2002,
2008). As you and your students choose goals specifically for progress monitoring, you
must take into account several considerations.

Commitment
Goals work best for progress monitoring when students are committed to them. One
way you can ensure commitment is by allowing students to choose the goals them-
selves so they are tailored to their needs and interests (see Table 5.1). As you recall
from Chapter 2, Jo Ellen Hertel, the middle-school computer teacher, found that
involving students in designing personal goals increased their interest in the unit.
When this is not possible, students are still likely to commit to a goal if they under-
stand its significance. For example, if a third-grade teacher explains that memorizing
multiplication tables will be useful when students want to quickly determine how much
money they will be paid for cat sitting when their neighbor is out of town (or for
similar relevant calculations), students are more willing to work toward that goal
because they see the value concretely.
Another factor that influences commitment is how official or “public” it is. Stu-
dents who sign a copy of their goals, for example, are more likely to take them seriously
than students who don’t have an official record. The other ingredient for commitment
is ensuring that students are challenged by the goal but can reach it. Do not waste time
monitoring progress toward goals that are easily achieved. You also want to make sure
that students don’t get discouraged by an impossible goal. For progress monitoring to
be motivating, you want to see steady gains across time.

TA B L E 5 . 1
Considerations for Effective Goals for Progress Monitoring
Consideration Suggestions

Commitment to the goal • Allow students to help set their own goals.
increases performance • Help students understand why the goal is important to
toward the goal. learning.
• Encourage public commitment to the goal.
• Ensure that the goal is challenging but attainable for the
student.

Specific and shorter-term • If addressing learning goals for progress monitoring, design
goals work better than goals based on procedures described in Chapter 2.
vague goals or urging • Work with student to personalize goals.
to “Do your best” or • Break long-range goals into subgoals that can be
“Try hard.” accomplished in a shorter period of time.
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Goal Setting as the Key First Step 123

Specific, Shorter-Term Goals

You may choose learning goals that you design for a unit for monitoring progress, if
they are specific enough (see Table 5.2 and the Chapter 2 discussion about specificity
of learning goals). You need enough specificity for students to understand the kinds
of knowledge/understanding and skills/strategies/procedures they will master. For
example, the chart in Table 5.2 is an example of tracking progress toward the learning
goals in a unit on gases and their properties. Notice the clearly stated learning goals
and the opportunity to list evidence for the student’s rating. Also notice the concrete
actions students are asked to list in order to make further progress toward each goal.

TA B L E 5 . 2
Mastery Monitoring Chart for Chemistry Unit
Chemistry Standards: Gases and Their Properties
Name:
Learning Goal Don’t Get It Yet* Action** Need More Practice* Action** Ready for Test*

Define pressure and

explain how it is
related to the motion
of particles.

Explain why gases

diffuse.

Apply gas laws to

mathematically
describe the
relationship between
temperature,
pressure, and volume
of an ideal gas.

Define standard
temperature and
pressure (STP).

Convert from moles

of gas to volume or
vice versa at STP.

Convert from Celsius

to Kelvin.

Explain the meaning

of absolute zero.

*List evidence for your self-rating: quiz score, homework, success on review questions, etc.
**List what steps you will take to improve your preparedness for the test.
Adapted from Costa, A., & Kallick, B. 2004. Assessment strategies for self-directed learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. p. 39. Reprinted with permission.
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124 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

Requiring students to monitor their progress so carefully helps them develop the meta-
cognitive skills that increase their ability to evaluate themselves.

M
FORMATIVE TASKS AS THE FOUNDATION FOR
ONITORING GROWTH
As we explained in Chapter 1, specific kinds of formative assessment strategies
promote mastery goals (see Figure 1.3). We added to that foundation in Chapter 4
by introducing you to the key elements of formative assessment (see Table 4.1). As
you recall, formative assessment involves assignments where mistakes are an expected
part of learning, and improvement is expected across time. Such assignments might
include turning in drafts of a paper or project for feedback before a final grade is
given, or self-assessing at each step in an art project. So, to notice progress over time,
you must use tasks designed so students can improve as they progress through them
(Table 5.3).
Your next step is to decide how to track this improvement over the course of the
unit of instruction and the school year. For example, to note student progress during
a unit on essay writing, you can use a checklist of steps that must be in place before
the final draft is complete. You can also rate each draft using the scoring guide that

TA B L E 5 . 3
Steps Required for Examining Progress Over Time
Step Examples

1. Set specific goal. • I will be able to catch a ball in my hands with my elbows
bent and my arms in front of my body (P.E.).
• I will be able to write journal entries that show
connections between the period we are studying and
current events (Social Studies).
• I will be able to read 100 words per minute with fewer
than three errors in third-grade stories.

2. Use formative assess- • Use videos of students catching a ball and use scoring
ment: assignments guide for self- and peer-assessment at two points during
where mistakes are a unit (P.E.).
an expected part • Progression of journal reflections across the year
of learning and incorporating teacher feedback (Social Studies).
improvement is • Students read aloud from an unfamiliar grade-level passage
expected across time. for a minute several times across the year (Elementary
language arts).

3. Choose a method to • Use scoring guide for catching a ball before, during and
track improvement after instruction (P.E.).
over time, representing • On a personal chart, track changes in teacher feedback
gains visually. and scores on scoring guide for reflections across the year
(Social Studies).
• Graph changes in number of words read correctly and
miscues over time (Elementary language arts).
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Formative Tasks as the Foundation for Monitoring Growth 125

will be employed with the final draft. Both of these methods document progress as
students develop the essay.
The earlier education model discussed in Chapter 1, in which sorting and judg-
ing were the dominant influence, had a pervasive impact on the way assessment was
conceived and designed. Under that model, researchers and educators devoted much
time and effort to developing tests that would sort students by determining their rela-
tive position in a larger group.
Rather than simply comparing the individual student to others, the newer assess-
ment approach looks instead for individual growth. You compare the individual student
to him- or herself across time in relation to the learning goal. This approach is espe-
cially relevant for classroom teachers because their primary concern is growth in stu-
dents’ learning. Because this approach is newer, it has less historical research and
accumulated standard practice associated with it. Because we believe this newer
approach is the wave of the future, we want to use this chapter to describe practices
found to be effective that you can adapt in your own classroom.
We believe focusing on individual growth across time, especially with a visual
representation, is a key strategy for enabling you to close the achievement gap for
students (often poor and minority students) who have consistently performed lower
than other demographic groups in academic achievement and graduation rates in the
United States. Keeping track of individual growth ensures that you know when a stu-
dent is falling behind. When you see someone lagging, you can do something about
it, such as changing instructional strategies, finding time for more practice, or making
accommodations.
The best teachers engage in some kind of progress monitoring as the basis for
differentiating their instruction for learners at different levels (Moon, 2005). If
you have no way to check on who is failing to accomplish key tasks necessary to
master the learning goals, you won’t have the information you need to help strug-
gling students catch up to their peers. You are trying to teach blindfolded. Progress
monitoring focuses your attention squarely on your efforts and your students’ efforts
to master the learning goals. You are conveying to students that you won’t give up
on them and you will do everything you can to help them master the learning
goals. This understanding helps you foster high expectations for your students. You
signal to them that you expect them all to keep working and to keep learning more.
And they see this work pay off as their graph or checklist illustrates tangible
improvement.
Systematic progress monitoring motivates students (Bandura, 1997; Zimmerman,
2008). Children we have worked with look forward to noting their accomplishments
on checklists or graphs. Some of you probably had a teacher who had you check
off each multiplication table as you learned it, and you may have felt encouraged
to see the growing number of checks over time. The same dynamic works when you
make a “To Do” list and you cross off items as you finish them. Many students can
feel overwhelmed by all they have to accomplish, so some method of monitoring
lets them see that they are progressing and learning new things. Even asking stu-
dents to set a goal and keep track of homework completion can enhance achieve-
ment (Trammel et al., 1994), probably because it increases the awareness necessary
for developing self-control (Zimmerman, 2002). Even more important, evidence is
accumulating that frequent progress monitoring and multiple opportunities for
improvement are a common characteristic of high-achievement schools, even in the
face of significant obstacles such as student bodies with high levels of poverty and
diversity (Reeves, 2004). The advantages of systematic progress monitoring are sum-
marized in Table 5.4.
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126 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

TA B L E 5 . 4
Advantages of Systematic Progress Monitoring
Advantages for Teachers Advantages for Students
Provides clear signal when student falls Promotes mastery goals and a sense of
behind or gets ahead of others responsibility for own learning, especially
when students keep track of their own
progress

Provides foundation for differentiating Provides opportunity for setting personal goals
instruction

Provides clear framework for promoting Makes high expectations concrete

high expectations

Allows tangible picture of growth useful for Allows students to see tangible evidence of
communicating with students, parents, their own growth and develop effort
and administrators optimism

Focuses teacher effort and attention on Focuses student effort and attention on
students mastering learning goals mastering learning goals

 TWO APPROACHES TO PROGRESS MONITORING

Stan Deno has been designing and refining methods of monitoring individual students’
progress since the 1970s. He describes two approaches to tracking individual student
progress (Deno, 1997). We discuss each one in turn.

Mastery Monitoring
Mastery Monitoring The first approach is termed mastery monitoring. It requires three steps: (1) choos-
A method of monitoring progress ing a learning goal or standard, (2) designing several tasks that if completed satisfac-
by tracking student completion torily indicate mastery of the standard, and (3) documenting when each student
of different tasks, that when
completed, indicate achievement completes each task. Table 5.2, which we have discussed in terms of goals for a
of the learning goal. chemistry unit, depicts a mastery monitoring approach. Similarly, in his elementary
P.E. program at Orchard school, Jim Ross expects students to master the learning
goal of executing game strategies and skills (see Table 5.5) by age 12. He has broken
down this learning goal into several observable tasks, such as moves safely within
boundaries and receives an object from a teammate in a game. As you can see on the
checklist, he can keep track of each student’s accomplishment of each task that con-
tributes to the learning goal. The shaded column represents mastery of the learning
goal. The previous skills, when mastered, should lead to this proficiency level. Note
that more advanced skills are also presented in the table to challenge those who
exceed mastery of the learning goal.
For mastery monitoring to make sense, the tasks you choose to monitor should
each contribute new understanding and skills leading toward mastery of the learning
goal. For example, you can see how overtakes an escaping player and able to escape a
defender both play a role in executing game strategies and skills.
 TA B L E 5 . 5
gre78720_ch05_120-151.indd Page 127

Mastery Monitoring Chart for Elementary P.E. Class as of Winter Break

Orchard School Physical Education
3/21/09

Learning goal: Executing game strategies and skills

Homeroom: Mr. Hussein

Escapes Uses Team- Manipulates Receives an
Moves Safely Overtakes an Utilizes Multiple Oriented Object Within Object from
Within Escaping Able to Escape Feinting and Defenders Defensive Team-Oriented a Teammate
Name Boundaries Player a Defender Dodging in a Game Strategies Game in a Game

Student 1 Mastered 9-15 Mastered 9-15 Mastered 9-15 Mastered 10-15 Mastered 11-30
11:55:07 PM user-s172

Student 2 Mastered 9-30 Mastered 10-30 Mastered 11-30

Student 3 Mastered 10-15 Mastered 11-30 Mastered 12-15

Student 4 Mastered 10-15 Mastered 11-15 Mastered 12-15

Student 5 Mastered 10-30 Mastered 11-30

Student 6 Mastered 10-30 Mastered 11-30
Student 7 Mastered 10-30 Mastered 11-15 Mastered 12-15

Student 8 Mastered 11-30 Mastered 12-15

Student 9 Mastered 12-15

Student 10 Mastered 12-15

127
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128 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

If you want your students to use a graph to illustrate mastery monitoring for a
specific learning goal, it could look like the graph in Figure 5.1. The number of tasks
successfully accomplished is listed cumulatively from 1 to 7 on the left side of the
graph, and the expected completion dates are noted across the bottom. You can see
that a student who is on target for completing the tasks that lead to mastery of a learn-
ing goal is depicted in Figure 5.1. The line shows a steady increase in the number of
tasks completed over time. Figure 5.2 shows a student who is getting behind and may
need assistance. For this student, the graph depicts accomplishment of tasks 1–3, but
the student does not master task 4, so the line flattens out between dates 3 and 4.
Figure 5.3 depicts a student who has forged ahead quickly to master the learning goal

4
Tasks

0
Date 1 Date 2 Date 3 Date 4 Date 5 Date 6 Date 7
Time

FIGURE 5.1 Example of a Mastery Monitoring Chart for a Student Who

Accomplishes Each Task by the Expected Date

4
Tasks

0
Date 1 Date 2 Date 3 Date 4 Date 5 Date 6
Time

FIGURE 5.2 Example of a Mastery Monitoring Chart for a Student Who Has
Not Successfully Completed Task 4 by the Expected Date and May Require
Additional Assistance
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Two Approaches to Progress Monitoring 129

4
Tasks

0
Date 1 Date 2 Date 3 Date 4 Date 5 Date 6
Time

FIGURE 5.3 Example of a Mastery Monitoring Chart for a Student Who has
Completed All Seven Tasks Before Due Date and Requires Enrichment

and could benefit from enrichment activities. The graph shows the student successfully
completed tasks 2 and 3 by the second date and all of the tasks by the third date.

Ethics Alert: To protect the confidentiality of a student’s performances, graphs should not
be posted on classroom walls or bulletin boards. Instead, each student should have a folder
or portfolio for keeping his or her mastery graphs.

The amount of time and organizational skills required for such progress monitor-
ing can be daunting. To reduce teacher workload, we suggest that students from second
or third grade and above can often be in charge of monitoring their own progress,
with the teacher prompting graph updates at appropriate intervals. Checking these
graphs periodically can give you and your students a snapshot of how they are pro-
gressing on accomplishing a major learning goal that spans many tasks and requires
considerable time. Computer spreadsheet programs can also help organize data with
students in rows and specific skills in columns. Such a setup allows for reviewing
progress quickly and efficiently.
You should also be selective about which learning goals you choose for progress
monitoring, and you may want to start with a small group of students first. Monitor-
ing progress in this way can provide important insights for your decisions about what,
when, and how to teach. Visual displays such as graphs can also clearly communicate
to other interested parties such as parents and administrators. To summarize mastery
monitoring procedures, Table 5.6 provides the steps in developing a mastery monitor-
ing system for progress monitoring. General Outcome
Measurement
A method of monitoring progress
General Outcome Measurement that uses several brief yet similar
The second method for individual progress monitoring that Deno describes is tasks (e.g., reading aloud in grade-
level stories for one minute) that
termed general outcome measurement. Instead of monitoring the achievement of can indicate achievement of the
several sequential tasks necessary to demonstrate mastery of a learning goal (as in learning goal.
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130 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

TA B L E 5 . 6
Steps in Designing a Mastery Monitoring System for Progress Monitoring
1. Select an important learning goal for which you want to track progress.

2. Determine the knowledge/understanding and/or skills/strategies/procedures required to

master the learning goals.

3. Design a checklist for each student listing these knowledge/understandings and skills/
strategies/procedures in a logical sequence.

4. Choose or design a sequence of assessment tasks that represent mastery of each of the
knowledge/understanding and skills/strategies/procedures.

5. As a student attains each knowledge/understanding or skill/procedure, have the student

check it off with the date on a personal checklist.
6. (Optional but motivating) Student designs line graph (see Figure 5.1) showing cumulative
progress toward learning goal.

TA B L E 5 . 7
Steps in Designing a General Outcome Measurement System
for Progress Monitoring
1. Choose an important achievement or “general outcome” that students should work
toward across a semester or school year that is consistent with your learning goals.

2. Choose or develop a brief, repeatable measure that validly represents the general
outcome in the content area, and collect or design a variety of equivalent versions.

3. Develop or choose a standard method of administration and scoring for your measure
so that any increase in scores can be attributed only to student growth.

4. Administer different versions of the measure at suitable intervals (e.g., once per month,
once per grading period).

5. Graph the results across time to track individual progress toward the general outcome.

mastery monitoring), a teacher chooses an overarching, repeatable measure that, by

itself, represents an important achievement or “general outcome” in the content
area. Table 5.7 illustrates the steps you take in designing a general outcome mea-
surement system of progress monitoring.
One way to illustrate the difference between general outcome measurement
and mastery monitoring is to show how you could use them both with the same
learning goal. Deno offers the example of the goal of writing an appropriate para-
graph. For mastery monitoring, you could include on a checklist for each student
several tasks, such as writing complete sentences with subjects and verbs, using cor-
rect spelling and punctuation, writing topic sentences, and developing supporting
details. As students master each task, they get a check on their checklist and move
on to the next task. For general outcome measurement, you would instead get sam-
ples of student paragraphs across time. At first the paragraphs would require much
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Two Approaches to Progress Monitoring 131

TA B L E 5 . 8
General Scoring Scale for Evaluating Multiple Tasks Within a
Learning Goal
Score Description of Place on Scale

4 In addition to Score 3 performance, in-depth inferences and applications that go

beyond what was taught.

3 No major errors or omissions regarding any of the information and/or processes

(simple or complex) that were explicitly taught.

2 No major errors or omissions regarding the simpler details and processes, but major
errors or omissions regarding the more complex ideas and processes.

1 With help, a partial understanding of some of the simpler details and processes
and some of the more complex ideas and processes.

0 Even with help, no understanding or skill demonstrated.

Source: Marzano, R. 2006. Classroom assessment and grading that work. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development. Copyright 2004 by Marzano & Associates. Reprinted with permission.

improvement, because students won’t have mastered most of the tasks (writing com-
plete sentences with subjects and verbs, etc.) involved. But gradually their paragraphs
would become more sophisticated as the students mastered more of the key elements
with practice.
The formative assessment assignment chosen by Lynn McCarter described in the
case study at the end of Chapter 4 offers an example of general outcome measurement.
As you may recall, she designed three equally difficult journal entry prompts that
addressed mastery of all three learning goals for her math unit. She uses a different
one at three different points during the unit to assess student progress.
Marzano (2006) suggests an approach similar to general outcome measurement.
He offers a 5-point scoring scale that can be used when evaluating a range of tasks
that could represent a learning goal (Table 5.8). Most student work can be rated from
0, which is characterized as “no understanding or skill demonstrated,” to 4, “in-depth
inferences and applications that go beyond what was taught,” in reference to a specific
standard or learning goal. Scores based on this scale will gradually improve as mastery
increases on the tasks across time, documenting learning gains.
For general outcome measurement progress monitoring, graphing of results is
useful and important, according to both Deno and Marzano. Deno suggests that
these graphs often look like height and weight charts that pediatricians use. You are
measuring a desired broad outcome that represents academic “health” as it increases
across time. Student performance on your graph starts out low but then improves as
instruction proceeds. Figure 5.4 illustrates a graph that tracks writing progress across
a school year for Brittany, a second-grader. For each instance represented by a point
on this graph, the teacher gave students a writing probe (e.g., “Yesterday a monkey
climbed in our classroom window and . . .”) and had them write for three minutes.
She then counted words spelled correctly (WSC) for each probe and plotted it on
this graph.
You can see scores for Brittany’s very first writing sample from August and her
last writing sample from the following April in Figure 5.5. Notice that the line in
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132 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

50

45

40

Words Spelled Correctly

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
August September November December February March April

FIGURE 5.4 Example of General Outcome Measurement Graph for Paragraph Writing

FIGURE 5.5 Writing Samples from August and the Following April for Brittany

Figure 5.4 shows rising scores and slight declines, which are to be expected. The key
is that overall Brittany shows considerable progress between August and the following
April. And this progress can be clearly seen only because the teacher took the time
to work with Brittany to make this chart. As you look at these writing samples, think
about other ways you might gauge progress. Brittany’s teacher also counted total
words written (TWW) to note progress, although she did not include that measure
on the graph.
You might instead decide to score such writing samples with a scoring guide that
assigns points for each of the key elements (writing complete sentences with subjects
and verbs, using correct spelling and punctuation, writing topic sentences, developing
supporting details). Over time, as Brittany made progress, the points she would earn
on the scoring guide would increase. The key for general outcome measurement is that
you use the same type of task and the same method of scoring each time so you can
legitimately compare scores across time and get a clear picture of progress.
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Two Approaches to Progress Monitoring 133

Curriculum-Based Measurement: General Outcome

Measurement for Basic Skills
Deno and his colleagues (Deno, 1985, 1997, 2003; Shinn, 1989, 1998) have devoted
decades to developing measures of important general student outcomes that can be
used for progress monitoring and to improve student learning. They refer to this form
of general outcome measurement as Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). CBM Curriculum-Based
is a system of brief assessments (each requiring between 1 and 5 minutes) in the basic Measurement (CBM)
skill areas of reading, math, spelling, and written expression. CBM oral reading fluency, One form of general outcome
measurement in which frequent
or the number of words a student can read aloud in grade-level material correctly in brief assessments are used in basic
one minute, has been the most widely researched (e.g., Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005). skill areas to monitor student
Reading a passage fluently encompasses several reading skills, such as decoding, recog- progress and provide information
for teacher decision making.
nition of sight words, comprehension, and knowledge of syntax, among others, so the
number of words read correctly per minute is strongly related to general reading
achievement (Baker et al., 2008).
CBM has been used in both general and special education to monitor student
progress and to provide information for teacher decision making. Studies have dem-
onstrated that CBM measures are strongly related to teacher judgments of student
achievement and to performance on standardized achievement tests (Baker et al.,
2008). CBM measures are also sensitive to growth in achievement over time (Deno,
1997). They are also useful for diagnosing problems and designing successful interven-
tions (Stecker et al., 2005). Directions for CBM administration and scoring can be
found at http://www.aimsweb.com/measures/.
Teachers have successfully used CBM measures to track their students’ acquisi-
tion of basic skills primarily in the earlier elementary grades. Teachers with whom we
have worked have also found that CBM measures are useful for diagnostic assessment.
For example, one teacher recently mentioned that she used results of CBM written
expression probes (such as those by Brittany in Figure 5.5) to design mini-lessons
about sentence structure, homophones, and grammar. A fourth-grade teacher who
uses monthly CBM reading probes offers comments about their value in Box 5.1.
We recommend that beginning teachers who want to use CBM reading start
first with their lower performing students to get comfortable and organized with the
administration, scoring, and graphing requirements. CBM writing, math, and spelling
measures can be administered to your students as a group, and so they are not as
time-consuming to implement.

CBM and Responsiveness to Intervention Recently, educators have also employed

CBM measures in new efforts to intervene earlier with children at risk for school
failure who in the past would have been directly referred for special education. The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 allows educators to
use responsiveness to intervention (RTI) for assisting students. Responsiveness to Responsiveness to
intervention involves collecting data to determine whether underachieving students Intervention (RTI)
profit from specific instruction targeting their needs. This law, then, encourages schools An approach in general education
that involves collecting data to
to focus on effective instructional strategies and is the first special education law to determine the degree to which
provide funds for early intervention in typical classrooms. underachieving students profit
For example, elementary students can be screened at the beginning of the school from specific instruction targeting
their needs.
year with brief CBM reading measures or other data by a group of trained volunteers
or school staff. Those who fall in the lowest quarter of their class can receive focused
instructional interventions in addition to regular reading instruction. Teachers then
administer weekly CBM measures for several weeks to determine whether these stu-
dents respond positively to the interventions. Students who do not improve would then
receive a comprehensive individual evaluation for special education eligibility. Students
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134 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

BOX 5.1 T E A C H E R C O M M E N T S O N A D VA N TA G E S
OF MONTHLY CBM PRO GRESS MONITORING

Instructional influence. It reminds me to check on every- deficit. That’s really important because that’s how people
body. I think with a room full of kids it’s sometimes easy to nowadays understand facts. Some parents don’t take my word
get slack about it, but you really can’t. I can catch those mid- for it. You’ve got to have data.
dle of the road kids, you know, the average kids who don’t get
Impact of noticing progress. Sometimes it’s easy to get
a lot of attention. I can supplement and find out who needs
discouraged and not think anything you are doing is work-
enrichment and who needs reteaching in certain areas. It’s
ing, so it is a good measure for me. Day-to-day stuff isn’t as
good for me to know where my children’s strengths and
sensitive to growth. Even the lowest students make steady
weaknesses are. And I know for right now, vocabulary is a
little gains with CBM. For instance, I have had one special
real weakness for my class.
education student for two years. When she came to me she
Effects on parents. If I can show them that “other fourth started in the 30s and now she’s in the 80s. It’s a morale
graders are able to read the same passage and get at least 100 booster for both of us.
words correct and your child is reading 15,” they can see the

who are responsive to the intervention would continue to be monitored in the general
education classroom.
Because determination of responsiveness to intervention occurs in general educa-
tion rather than special education, all teachers should be familiar with this assessment
process. The potential benefits of RTI approaches include increased accountability for
all learners, reduced special education referrals, and decreased overidentification of
minority students for special education (National Joint Committee on Learning Dis-
abilities, 2005; Marston et al., 2003). Thus combining CBM with responsiveness to
intervention provides information to better serve students.

 ISSUES TO CONSIDER: PROGRESS MONITORING

So far, we have discussed the benefits of progress monitoring and described two
approaches to it, mastery monitoring and general outcome measurement. Table 5.9
provides a comparison of these two approaches, as well as advantages and concerns
for each approach.
Mastery monitoring is easy to implement across the curriculum, but, as Deno
points out, “unfortunately, the standards of performance that are specified within mas-
tery monitoring systems are almost always arbitrary.” That is, specific evidence may
not yet have accumulated showing that the skills or tasks chosen for the checklist
across the unit actually do reflect growth toward the learning goal. If you use mastery
monitoring, you must ensure as much as possible that the knowledge/understanding
and skills/procedures you choose for your checklist will result in mastery of the learn-
ing goals they address. You must also make sure that tasks on the list are not checked
off merely when completed without regard to excellence. High-quality standards of
work must be required, communicated, and maintained so that students know they
have truly earned each check mark denoting progress.
General outcome measurement has been used most for tracking basic skills.
The idea of choosing a task that represents a desired general outcome that can be
repeated more than once (with slight variations) can be adapted to other content
areas such as music or art. One of our teacher candidates decided to experiment
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Issues to Consider: Progress Monitoring 135

TA B L E 5 . 9
A Comparison of Mastery Monitoring and General Outcome Measurement
Focus for
Progress
Monitoring Graphic Display Content Advantages Concerns

Mastery Completion of a Checklist or Adaptable Easy to design and • Difficult to be certain

Monitoring sequence of graph showing to most track progress that links have been
tasks that increases as content through tasks established between a
culminates in tasks finished areas specific sequence of
mastery of appropriately tasks and mastery of
learning goal important learning
goals
• Fails to provide
information on
maintenance of
knowledge and skills
after unit completed
• Must maintain clear
and high standards on
each benchmark or
quality of student
work can slip

General Completion of Graph of scores Applicable to Research indicates: • Difficult to find

Outcome repeated showing basic skills • Related to established appropriate repeatable
Measurement administrations increases as such as measures (e.g., measures that
of tasks that gains on the reading, teacher ratings represent general
show increase measure are written and test scores) outcomes beyond
across time for made across expression, • Sensitive to growth basic skills
a key general time math, and in achievement • When implemented
education spelling • Increased in addition to other
outcome achievement and ongoing assessment
improved teacher may reduce
decision-making instructional time
• Effectiveness reduced
if progress monitoring
emphasized at the
expense of explicit
intervention based
on it

with CBM and art (see Box 5.2). Similar procedures can be developed in other con-
tent areas. The key is to ensure that the task represents the desired outcome, that it
can be completed quickly and efficiently, and that you can develop a number of ver-
sions that are equivalent.
Finding those appropriate repeatable measures that represent important general
outcomes can be difficult, and this is one major concern with general outcome mea-
surement. Mastery monitoring, on the other hand, can be flexibly applied to more
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136 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

B O X 5 . 2 S T U D E N T R E F L E C T I O N O N
C U R R I C U L U M  B A S E D M E A S U R E M E N T
A P P L I C A T I O N S T O A R T

am thinking of ways to use the basic idea of CBM in art. about the same level of difficulty each time. I would use the
I One idea that comes to mind is that I could use it to track
progress of students’ drawing abilities over time for mastery
same rubric that focuses on shading each time and see how
scores increase. It would be even nicer if I had some of the
of specific skills. I would set up a still life with two or three same students year after year, and then it would really give an
items and ask students to draw it and then assess specific accurate measurement of their progress. The only drawback I
skills, such as shadows, values, etc. If I wanted to track shad- see is time constraints. I don’t think three minutes would be
ing abilities, I could assess shading skills at various times appropriate; however, ten to fifteen minutes might work. I’m
throughout the year. I could vary the still life each time, but eager to try it out!
keep the same number of items so the drawing would be

fields of study. Another concern with general outcome measurement has been the time
required, as it must be implemented in addition to ongoing assessment requirements
related to specific learning goals for units of instruction.
Systematically monitoring progress—whether using mastery monitoring or gen-
eral outcome measurement—has many advantages for both students and teachers,
described at the beginning of this chapter. We believe these advantages make system-
atic progress monitoring an important component of classroom assessment. Teachers
we know agree. For instance, Tracie Clinton, third-grade teacher at Cotton Belt Ele-
mentary School, uses both types of progress monitoring in her classroom and describes
in Box 5.3 what she sees as the advantages.
We urge you to begin progress monitoring by systematically choosing one learn-
ing goal or general outcome in your classroom, perhaps as part of an action research
project. Focus on a specific content goal and define your strategies for choosing assess-
ments, scoring them, and quantifying the outcomes to track across time. Your experi-
ences and your students’ reactions can help you decide how best to implement progress
monitoring to improve your students’ academic achievement. Recall from Chapter 1
that “Does this help my students learn?” is the overriding question for making these
or any other classroom decisions.

 SUMMARIZING DATA FOR GROUPS

In discussing progress monitoring so far, we have focused on the individual student
and described specific methods for tracking one student’s progress across time using
the support of visual aids such as graphs. However, you also will have occasions when
you need to analyze and communicate information about your entire class. We describe
a few tools to help you present this information in ways that make it easy to interpret
for you and for others. Strong visual representations—whether graphs, checklists, or
tables—communicate gains in a compelling way for teachers and students.

Frequency Distributions
Let’s say you just gave your first test in a class, and you are sitting at your desk with a
pile of graded papers with the following percent-correct scores for each student: 85, 20,
100, 90, 80, 10, 85, 60, 80, 95, 50, 75, 85, 70, 90, 75, 90, 85.
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Summarizing Data for Groups 137

B O X 5 . 3 T H I R D  G R A D E U S E S
A N D C O M M E N T S O N S Y S T E M A T I C
P R O G R E S S M O N I T O R I N G

On General Outcome Measurement charts and graphs. Reading CBM graphs is good practice for
with CBM: the students.”
“Using CBM written expression once a month does take
time, but it is worth it in the long run. My students enjoy On Mastery Monitoring:
seeing their progress throughout the year as they are able to “We use several other tools to measure progress over time. I
monitor their growth. The CBM results provide the students use a graph in Accelerated Reader to show progress over a
as well as myself with a sneak peek in the areas they need to nine-week period. The students place a sticker in their folder
improve in and the areas the students are doing well in. This every time they pass a test. I also use a similar process when
information is also valuable to parents during parent confer- looking at multiplication tables. Students move a tag accord-
ences. I try to use as many student work samples as possible ing to where they are on their tables. Also, as we move through
when talking with parents. The CBM is a great tool for this. the writing process on a long assignment, the students move
Also, the graphs are useful for students because they are vi- their tag according to where they are in writing. These proce-
sual. One of the standards in third grade is being able to read dures help with motivation as we see steady growth.”

How do you make sense of these scores? Did most students do well or poorly?
One of the first things you might do is reorder the tests from lowest to highest: 10, 20,
50, 60, 70, 75, 75, 80, 80, 85, 85, 85, 85, 90, 90, 90, 95, 100. Now you can quickly see
the lowest and highest scores attained on your test. The distance between these is
called the range. The range between scores in this example is 100 ⫺ 10 ⫽ 90 points. Range
The range is useful to begin to get a sense of how the class did. A wide range, as in The distance between the lowest
this case, suggests that at least one student (with a score of 10) has not mastered the and highest scores attained on an
assessment.
goals, and that at least one student (with a score of 100) has mastered them. A narrow
range, if the top score is high, suggests that most students did well. For example, if
the range for a test is 10 and the top score is 95, then grades for that test range from
85 to 95—quite strong scores! A narrow range, if the top score is low, suggests that
most students did poorly. Consider, for example, a test with a range of 10 and a top
score of 70. In this instance the range of grades is 60–70, which means we still have
some teaching to do.
Because the range takes only the top and bottom score into account, you prob-
ably want to explore in a little more depth the information you get from the group of
scores. A frequency distribution should be your next step. A frequency distribution Frequency Distribution
lists the number of students who attained each score ordered from highest to lowest A display of the number of students
scores. Table 5.10, section A illustrates the frequency distribution for the set of scores who attained each score in order
from lowest to highest.
with which we have been working. You can also group the scores into larger intervals
for a grouped frequency distribution, which is displayed in Table 5.10, section B. You
may recognize a grouped frequency distribution as similar to the ones that teachers
sometimes post for students to show the range of grades. We, of course, discourage
this practice of identifying students because it encourages students to compare them-
selves with others instead of focusing on their own score and progress.
Some teachers prefer a graph to a frequency distribution because it communi-
cates the information about the pattern of frequencies visually. In that case, you would Frequency Polygon
design a frequency polygon, which is a line graph in which the frequencies for each A line graph that plots the
score are plotted as points, and a line connects those points. The scores or score frequencies of each score.
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138 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

TA B L E 5 . 1 0
Frequency Distributions for a Set of 18 Test Scores
(A) (B)

Frequency Distribution Grouped Frequency Distribution

Score Frequency Interval Frequency

100 1 90–100 5

95 1 80–89 6

90 3 70–79 3

85 4 60–69 1

80 2 50–59 1

75 2 40–49 0

70 1 30–39 0

60 1 20–29 1

50 1 10–19 1

20 1 0–9 0

10 1

intervals are listed along the bottom of the graph, and the frequencies (used for plot-
ting number of students at each score) are listed up the left side. See Figure 5.6 for a
frequency polygon using the set of scores in Table 5.10.
You can see from examining the frequency polygon in Figure 5.6 that just look-
ing at the range of scores (90 points) does not tell you enough about the pattern of
scores for your students. You have two students who attained very low scores, but you
have eleven students who attained a score of at least 80 percent, which you believe
reflects a fairly high level of mastery, given how you constructed your assessment. If
this had been a preassessment before a unit, you would probably want to redesign your
unit to address more challenging goals based on this pattern of scores. If this assess-
ment were at the midpoint of a unit, you would want to analyze what content the
low-scoring students found difficult and work with them to master it.

Measures of Central Tendency

Another way to summarize the scores is to determine what the typical or average score
Mode is for the class using a single number. The mode is the score achieved by more students
The score attained by more students than any other. You can see from either Table 5.10 or Figure 5.6 that the mode for the
than any other. class is 85. In this case, the mode represents only four students’ scores.
A measure of central tendency that focuses on the exact midpoint of a set of
Median scores is the median. The median falls exactly at the point where half of the scores are
A measure of central tendency that above it and half are below it. Thus, the position of the score in the range is more
is the midpoint of a set of scores. important than the value of the score when selecting the median. If you have an
uneven number of scores, the median is whichever score falls exactly in the middle
when scores are ordered from lowest to highest. If you have an even number of scores,
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Building a Useful Table—An Analysis and Communication Tool 139

10

6
Frequency

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Score

FIGURE 5.6 Frequency Polygon for the Set of 18 Test Scores in Table 5.10

the median is the value halfway between the middle two scores. In our example, we
have 18 scores, so the median would fall between the ninth and tenth scores. Since both
the ninth and tenth scores are 85, and there are no values between them, the median
would be 85. (If the middle two scores had been 75 and 85, however, the median would
be 80, or the value halfway between them.)
The measure of central tendency that takes into account all scores is the mean. Mean
This is the measure with which you may be the most familiar. The mean for the class A measure of central tendency that
is calculated by adding up every student’s score, then dividing by the number of scores. is the average of all scores in a
distribution.
In our example, 10 ⫹ 20 ⫹ 50 ⫹ 60 ⫹ 70 ⫹ 75 ⫹ 75 ⫹ 80 ⫹ 80 ⫹ 85 ⫹ 85 ⫹ 85 ⫹
85 ⫹ 90 ⫹ 90 ⫹ 90 ⫹ 95 ⫹ 100 ⫽ 1325. When you divide this total by 18, the number
of scores, the mean is 73.6. Because the mean is calculated using every score, it is used
most commonly as the measure of central tendency.
Notice that the mean score of 73.6 for our example is much lower than the
median score of 85. Scores that are extremely different from the others (in this case,
the low scores of 10 and 20) disproportionately influence the mean. In contrast, the
median is not influenced by extremely high or low scores (often called outliers) because Outliers
its calculation relies only on the scores at the middle of the distribution. Sometimes Extremely high or low scores that
teachers use the median instead of the mean for summarizing scores if an extreme differ from typical scores.
score distorts the mean. When reporting measures of central tendency for certain
figures, such as average national income, experts often use the median rather than the
mean because the outliers who make billions of dollars a year would considerably alter
the figures and give an erroneous impression. We discuss other aspects of score dis-
tributions (e.g., standard deviation) in Chapter 11.

 BCUILDING A USEFUL TABLE—AN ANALYSIS AND

OMMUNICATION TOOL
As we have seen, when working with data from a whole class, you need to organize the
information to make sense of it. We have illustrated how you can use checklists and graphs
to monitor individual progress. Now we turn to the table as an analysis and communication
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140 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

TA B L E 5 . 1 1
Steps for Designing a Table That Communicates Information About
Student Performance
1. List data for each student in the column next to that student’s name (or student number,
when protecting confidentiality) with the scores in order from lowest to highest.

2. Give your table a title that communicates the content of the table.

3. At the top of each column, indicate what that list of scores represents. Include any
information needed to interpret a score (e.g., number correct, percent correct, number
of items).

4. As the last entry for each column, provide a measure of central tendency (mean or
median).

5. Look for differences in performance across different subgroups (various races/ethnicities,

free/reduced fee lunch vs. full pay lunch, high vs. low attendance rates, gender, levels of
English proficiency, disability status), and calculate measures of central tendency for
groups that may show important differences.

tool for class-wide data. The steps in designing a good table are listed in Table 5.11. We
want to walk you through these steps one by one so you see the rationale for each aspect
of table design. We have found in the past that many of our students do not realize how
important each element of a table is for communicating information effectively.
A table allows you to visually represent relationships between different pieces of
information. For the table to be useful, however, it needs to communicate what those
relationships are. For example, some of our teacher candidates, when looking at the
performance of their students, have designed a table that looks like this:

Eleanor 30 84

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

LaKendra 40 95

Leah 50 90

William 40 84

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

Buzz 40 45

We can see the relationship between each of the students and their scores, but we don’t
know what the scores represent, and we can’t easily discern any pattern in these scores.
The first step is to put the scores in some order. One common strategy is to put the scores
in order from lowest to highest. We can do this for the first column of scores:
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Building a Useful Table—An Analysis and Communication Tool 141

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

Eleanor 30 84

LaKendra 40 95

William 40 84

Buzz 40 45

Leah 50 90

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

This step provides order to the scores so you can quickly scan the range of scores and
see whether they cluster together or tend to cover a wide spectrum. You can see that
the scores in the first column have a 50-point range with a top score of only 60.
The table also needs a title to communicate what information is presented. Care-
fully labeling what each column of scores represents also provides important back-
ground for understanding what the scores can tell you:

Pre-unit Assessment and Midterm Scores for American Revolution Unit

Percent Correct on Percent Correct on
Pre-unit Assessment Midterm Exam

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

Eleanor 30 84

LaKendra 40 95

William 40 84

Buzz 40 45

Leah 50 90

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

As you can see, this new information provides context for interpreting the scores. We
now know that the scores are from a specific type of unit in a social studies class. We
also know that the scores show the percent correct rather than the number of items
correct. We understand that the scores are all quite low on the preassessment because
it was completed before any of the material was taught. We can also tell that the teacher
would expect progress between the first assessment and the second one. Another piece
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142 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

of information that would be useful, however, would be to know the total number of
items in each assessment. When you have only percentages listed, you need to explain
what the percentages represent. Was the midterm a major test or more like a quiz? What
about the preassessment? Adding those details communicates more useful information:

Pre-unit Assessment and Midterm Scores for American Revolution Unit

Percent Correct on Percent Correct on
Pre-unit Assessment (10 items) Midterm Exam (50 items)

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

Eleanor 30 84
LaKendra 40 95

William 40 84

Buzz 40 45

Leah 50 90

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

We now know that the second assessment had many more items than the first, so it
was likely a fairly major assessment. We can look at students’ scores individually to see
whether any made gains, but the table could add means, the measure of central ten-
dency that averages every score, so we can look at the class as a whole:

Pre-unit Assessment and Midterm Scores for American Revolution Unit

Percent Correct on Percent Correct on
Pre-unit Assessment (10 items) Midterm Exam (50 items)

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

Eleanor 30 84

LaKendra 40 95

William 40 84

Buzz 40 45

Leah 50 90

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

Class mean 35 75
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Building a Useful Table—An Analysis and Communication Tool 143

From this addition to the table, the scores suggest that the class as a whole has made
impressive progress between the preassessment and the midterm.
Under the sorting model of education, teachers might look at the gains in this
table and feel quite confident that the unit was progressing well. The difference in
means between the preassessment and the midterm seems to show that the class as a
whole has benefited from the teacher’s instruction. The students seem to be making
good progress toward the learning goal.
However, the more recent model that emphasizes helping all children to learn
asks us to dig a little deeper. Did some children start with less background knowledge
that might prevent them from learning all they could from this unit? Did some children
make less progress than others? Can we discern any patterns in these results that will
help us differentiate our instruction for the rest of the unit so we can teach the students
more effectively? Because we want to explore any potential patterns in score differences,
we will start by examining more closely the preassessment scores from lowest to high-
est to see whether any relationship between scores and students emerges.
First, you may notice that the top three scorers were girls, and the lowest three
scorers were boys. You decide you need to explore this possible relationship between
gender and scores more thoroughly. One way to do so would be to order the scores
from lowest to highest for each gender separately. Then, to get a sense of where each
group falls in relation to the other, you can calculate means for each gender. Add this
information to your table:

Pre-unit Assessment and Midterm Scores for American Revolution Unit

Percent Correct on Percent Correct on
Boys Pre-unit Assessment (10 items) Midterm Exam (50 items)

JaMarcus 10 66

Toby 10 50

Sam 20 60

William 40 84

Buzz 40 45

Boys’ mean 24 61

Girls

Eleanor 30 84

LaKendra 40 95

Leah 50 90

Carol 50 90

LaTrellini 60 86

Girls’ mean 46 89

Class mean 35 75

Now you see a very strong relationship between gender and scores. On both the
preassessment and the midterm, boys performed less well than girls. When you just
looked at the mean for the whole class, this relationship was hidden because boys’ and
girls’ scores were averaged together.
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144 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

From this example, you can also see why examining your preassessment scores
before you teach a unit can help you plan your unit and differentiate your instruction.
The preassessment showed that some of the boys may have needed some different types
of activities to provide background and engage their interest—perhaps a mini-lesson
on important vocabulary and an ongoing journal assignment to describe the daily life
of revolutionary soldiers. Similarly, several girls who showed they had already mastered
some of the content could use varied activities as well, such as delving into some of
the facets of revolutionary war culture (e.g., music, popular books, gender roles) that
influenced the events of the war. Even after a midterm, of course, the information from
the scores in the table on these gender differences can be used to differentiate your
instruction to help the boys catch up and to enrich the girls’ learning. All of these
suggestions would, of course, be tied to your learning goals for the unit.

 DISAGGREGATION UNCOVERS HIDDEN TRENDS

Disaggregation of Scores What we have just done has a fancy name: disaggregation of scores. Disaggregation
Separating the scores of a large involves separating the scores of a large group of students into smaller meaningful
group of students into smaller groups groups (such as gender, disability status, or socioeconomic status) to understand better
to determine whether differences
among these groups exist. some problem or issue. Disaggregation can be done at the class level, as we have shown,
to identify students who need something more (e.g., scaffolding or different ways of
representing content) than your usual instructional approach. It is also done at the
school, district, state, and national levels. Disaggregating academic scores helps us to
better understand the needs of our students. As we saw in the example with gender,
when you look only at average scores for a whole class, important information that
can help to guide instruction can remain undetected.
The recent trend toward disaggregating scores has uncovered the achievement
gap that we described in Chapter 1. Many schools that appeared to have high average
achievement scores actually had large discrepancies among different groups. On a
number of measures, students in racial, ethnic, and language minorities, as well as
those at lower socioeconomic levels, tended to perform worse than other demographic
groups. For example, Table 5.12 shows the results from one annual test at one elementary
school in language arts disaggregated by race.
To see differences among groups more clearly, note that percentages of the total num-
ber in each disaggregated group are used for each category. For example, this school may
have 600 European American students, 200 African American students, and 100 Latino

TA B L E 5 . 1 2
Disaggregated Student Achievement Data for Language Arts Scores
on One Test
Third Grade Fourth Grade
Need Need
Advanced and Improvement Advanced and Improvement
Proficient and Failing Proficient and Failing
European 65% 35% 55% 45%
American

African 40% 60% 20% 80%

American

Latino 30% 70% 20% 80%

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Case Study Application 145

students. This table shows what percentage of each group, regardless of the size of that
group, has met the standard. This procedure allows clearer comparisons among groups.
Reporting percentages by groups ensures that the smaller groups don’t get
neglected. If all 900 students had been averaged together, the high scores of the 600
European American students would have had the most influence on the total percent-
ages of advanced and proficient students. We would not have seen the discrepancies
between their scores and the scores of the other two groups.
At this point we offer a caution. Although these disaggregated test scores show
average differences for European American students and African American students, your
instructional decisions must be made for individual students, not for groups. Some of your
African American students may be at the Need Improvement and Failing levels, but
others will likely be at the Advanced and Proficient levels. The same thing can be said for
your Latino students and your European American students. Disaggregation can help
sensitize us to the needs of our students, but it should not be used indiscriminately.
A persistent pattern of lower achievement among minorities was one impetus
behind the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) passed by the U.S. Congress and imple- No Child Left Behind Act
mented nationwide since 2002. The goal was to increase academic achievement of lower (NCLB)
performing groups and to have all students in the United States achieve proficiency in U.S. federal law aimed to improve
public schools by increasing
math and reading by 2014. Under NCLB, each state accepting federal assistance is accountability standards.
required to assess students in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 each year and
once in high school. (Science assessment requirements were also added in 2007–2008.)
Public reporting of these results must be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, dis-
ability status, migrant status, English proficiency, and status as economically disadvan-
taged. If any of the groups fail to make annual yearly progress (AYP), which is determined
by each state, sanctions follow. We discuss NCLB at greater length in Chapter 11.
The stated purpose of disaggregation of achievement data required by NCLB has
been to increase accountability of schools and teachers. Teachers and principals now
pay close attention to the achievement of all groups. They have begun examining more
carefully the patterns of achievement of their students using many assessment measures
in classrooms. Clues from disaggregation of classroom assessment can help teachers to
close the achievement gap by identifying students who lag behind. Some schools, such
as J.E.B. Stuart Elementary in Richmond, VA, have weekly grade-level meetings where
teachers look at disaggregated data on attendance, teacher observations, and various
assessments for low achieving groups as a diagnostic tool to provide students who are
behind the help they need to do better.
Sometimes data disaggregation can show that some of our assumptions may not
be true about low-achieving groups. For example, the staff at one high school decided
to examine their assumption that low achievement on state standardized tests was
caused by high student absence rates. They disaggregated these test scores by attendance
rates (high attendance vs. low attendance). They did find that a large percentage of
students who were absent often did poorly. But they also found that an equally large
percentage of students who had high attendance also did poorly on the test. This find-
ing led to useful discussions about ways to improve the content and quality of their
instruction. They began to look for other causes over which they had more influence
than absences as reasons for their school’s poor performance (Lachat & Smith, 2005).

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

In this section, we visit Ebony Sanders’s case study to reflect on the lessons it provides on
monitoring progress over time and summarizing data for groups. As you recall, one learn-
ing goal in Ebony’s unit on characteristics of solids and liquids is Students will demonstrate
appropriate steps to test an unknown solid or liquid. As the preassessment for this learning
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146 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

goal, Ebony had each student explore a solid and a liquid in zipper plastic bags inside a
“feely box,” where they could touch objects but not see them. Students then made a list of
descriptive words corresponding to each test they could think of to perform on the object
(e.g., does it have a shape?). After instruction and exploration with a number of materials,
she had students come up with rules for why one item is a liquid and one is a solid so
they could later do their own specific tests on unknown objects whenever they wanted.
For example, rules for one group included “If it has a definite shape in a cup but not in
a zipper bag, it must be a liquid.” “If it doesn’t change shape, it’s a solid.” Then, partway
through the unit, as a measure of progress she repeats the “feely box” assessment with a
new liquid and a new solid. This second trial served as a mid-unit check on progress.
Now we can compare these results with the preassessment results, which are both
displayed in Table 5.13. In this table, Ebony added the findings for liquids and solids
together for each assessment, so the total possible number correct is 11. First note that
two students withdrew from school before the mid-unit assessment was conducted.

TA B L E 5 . 1 3
Preassessment and Mid-unit Assessment Results for One Learning Goal
for Unit on Characteristics of Liquids and Solids
Pre-unit and Mid-unit Assessment Results for Learning Goal Students Will
Demonstrate Appropriate Steps to Test an Unknown Solid or Liquid
Percent Correct on Percent Correct on Points Gained
Preassessment Mid-unit Assessment Between Preassessment
(11 possible) (11 possible) and Mid-unit Assessment
Student 8 0% 64% 64
Student 10 0% 54% 54
Student 11 0% 27% 27
Student 15 0% withdrew withdrew
Student 16 9% 45% 36
Student 12 9% 64% 55
Student 5 9% 45% 36
Student 2 18% withdrew withdrew
Student 3 18% 36% 18
Student 9 18% 54% 36
Student 6 18% 82% 64
Student 17 27% 45% 18
Student 4 27% 45% 18
Student 13 27% 36% 9
Student 14 27% 82% 55
Student 7 45% 73% 28
Student 1 54% 27% −27
Class mean 18% 51.9% 32.7
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Case Study Application 147

The school where Ebony worked has a high rate of student mobility, so the composi-
tion of classes changes often because students transfer in and out.
Now let’s look at progress across time. Ebony’s preassessment measure and her mid-
unit measure were identical, except that she used a different liquid and a different solid each
time. Because the measures were so similar, she believed that comparing scores on the two
measures would let her know what students had learned so far on this learning goal. If you
look at the class means for preassessment and mid-term assessment, you see an average
gain of over 30 percentage points. This definitely shows progress for the whole class.
But as we saw in a previous example, sometimes averages for the whole class
mask important differences among groups. Ebony decided to disaggregate these scores
by comparing students who qualified for free or reduced-fee lunch (one measure of
lower income and socioeconomic status) with students who paid full price for lunch.
She did not include the two students who withdrew from the school in this analysis.
(One came from each group.) You can see her findings in Table 5.14.
Notice that both groups were within three points of each other on the preassess-
ment, a relatively insignificant difference. But you see a much larger disparity on the
mid-unit assessment—more than a 20-point difference. These findings suggested to Ebony
that she needed to look more closely at differences in what students had learned so far
so she could decide how to close this achievement gap. She realized she needed to attend
to these students more closely as she finished the unit, especially students 1 and 11. Were
there certain rules about the characteristics of liquids or solids they had not yet grasped?
Was some of the vocabulary of the unit difficult because of lack of previous experience?
For example, one test she introduced students to for examining solids was magnetism.
Did all students have necessary background knowledge about magnets?
One bright spot was that Student 8 and Student 10, who had writing difficulties,
were able to perform in the average range at mid-unit. She had accommodated these
two students, after consulting with her school’s occupational therapist, by letting them
use pencil grips that were easier to grasp and paper with raised lines. (She could have
let these students report answers orally, but she wanted to be sure to work on students’
weaknesses and not just rely on their strengths.) She had also worked with Student 11,
the remaining student who was learning English (the other had withdrawn), by provid-
ing more visual examples, pairing her in activities with native speakers, and providing
mini-lessons on unit vocabulary.
Now we can revisit some of our themes in relation to Ebony’s experience, first stress-
ing the value of critical thinking at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Ebony has first
graders examine unfamiliar liquids and solids and apply rules to classify them, demonstrating
that even young children can be expected to go beyond memorizing facts. She also uses her
assessments to promote active rather than passive learning among the students by provid-
ing for feedback and subsequent improvement before summative assessment. This also
encourages the students to develop effort optimism and take charge of their learning.
In addition, by repeating the same task with different liquids and solids, Ebony
uses a type of general outcome measurement. We hope you have learned from Ebony’s
case study that carefully analyzing and disaggregating your assessment data can yield
important information that will enhance your teaching and help you move toward
closing achievement gaps. As we mentioned in Chapter 1, many people just shut down
when they see numbers or data. But as you have seen with Ebony’s assessment data,
the numbers summarizing student responses yielded important information that
provided a window on her students’ needs. She knew that even though her lower scor-
ing students had made gains, they needed additional assistance to master the learning
goal. The only way to maximize achievement is to hold high expectations for all stu-
dents and not settle for measures of achievement that mask children left behind.
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148 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

TA B L E 5 . 1 4
Preassessment and Mid-unit Assessment Results Disaggregated
by Lunch Status
Pre-unit and Midterm Assessment Results for Learning Goal Students Will
Demonstrate Appropriate Steps to Test an Unknown Solid or Liquid
Free/Reduced Lunch Percent Correct on Pre-unit Percent Correct on Mid-unit
Students: Assessment (11 items) Assessment (11 items)
Student 10 0% 54%
Student 11 0% 27%
Student 5 9% 45%
Student 12 9% 64%
Student 3 18% 36%
Student 4 27% 45%
Student 13 27% 36%
Student 1 54% 27%
Free/Reduced-Fee 18% 41.7%
Lunch Students’ Mean
Regular Fee Lunch
Students:
Student 8 0% 64%
Student 16 9% 45%
Student 9 18% 54%
Student 6 18% 82%
Student 17 27% 45%
Student 14 27% 82%
Student 7 45% 73%
Regular-Fee Lunch 20.6% 63.6%
Students’ Mean
Class mean 18% 55%

As an additional note from this case study, you may get the idea that one assess-
ment is all that you need to do. This would be a misconception. How many times have
you heard the old adage, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? It definitely applies to
assessment. You need more than one assessment “basket” because students have different
strengths and weaknesses. For example, you may be terrible at multiple-choice questions,
but you shine on essay questions. How would you feel if one of your professors gave only
one assessment—a multiple-choice final exam? As a teacher, you want to give your stu-
dents opportunities to work to their strengths, but you also must give them opportunities
to improve their weaknesses. Helping students work on content and strategies they have
difficulty with is crucial for closing achievement gaps. Also, different kinds of assessments
work best for detecting different types of learning. In Chapter 6 you will learn more
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Chapter Review Questions 149

about why multiple assessments are needed when we discuss validity and reliability of
assessments. Then, in Chapters 7, 8, and 9 you will learn more about different methods
of assessment, their strengths and weaknesses, and when to use them.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

This chapter began by explaining the requirements for examining progress over time:
specific goals, formative assessment tasks where mistakes are an expected part of learn-
ing, and a method of tracking progress with visual representation of individual improve-
ment over time. We then discussed the advantages of systematic progress monitoring
for both students and teachers. Key among these were providing the knowledge needed
for differentiated instruction and promoting learning goals and high expectations.
We then described two approaches to monitoring student progress. The first, mas-
tery monitoring, tracks students across the different tasks contributing to mastery of the
learning goal. The second, general outcome measurement, samples more than once a
performance that represents the achievement of a learning goal. Both of these approaches
work best when they include a visual representation (e.g., a graph) of progress document-
ing gains across time. We then described curriculum-based measurement as an example
of general outcome measurement. We also compared mastery monitoring and general
outcome measurement in terms of their strengths, content, advantages, and concerns.
Next we discussed the procedures needed when you summarize data for a group
or class of students. We described how you can use frequency distributions and fre-
quency polygons to get a general picture of a group of scores. We then described three
measures of central tendency—mode, median, and mean—as other ways to character-
ize a group of scores. We also provided rules and a step-by-step example for building
a table that accurately communicates information about student performance. Finally,
we discussed and illustrated the importance of disaggregation of assessment data for
understanding students and their instructional needs.
In the case study section, we compared student scores from Ebony’s mid-unit
assessment to her pre-unit assessment. In addition, we highlighted the importance of
addressing higher-level thinking skills and the value of disaggregating assessment data
to uncover learning differences. These last two points in particular relate to our recur-
ring themes of teaching self-governing skills for democratic participation and provid-
ing equal access to education for all students.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.studentprogress.org/
The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring website answers questions and provides
information, resources, a free newsletter, discussion board, and training opportunities for
those interested in curriculum-based measurement.
http://ed.sc.gov/topics/assessment/scores/pact/2007/statescoresdemo.cfm
Most state departments of education post disaggregated scores from their statewide achievement
tests on a website. You can examine these scores to find the types and severity of the
achievement gaps in your state. This website features scores from the Palmetto
Achievement Challenge Test in South Carolina.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think formative assessment is a basic requirement for monitoring
student growth across time? What characteristics of formative assessment would
make it useful for this purpose?
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150 Chapter 5 Progress Monitoring: Assessment as a Motivational Tool

2. Describe a situation (academic or not) when you set a goal and monitored your
progress toward that goal. Would you categorize the process as closer to mastery
monitoring or to general outcome measurement? Why?
3. Choose a learning goal in your content area for which you would like to set up
a progress monitoring system. Using your understanding of the advantages and
concerns for both mastery monitoring and general outcome measurement,
describe the progress monitoring system you would design, including a visual
representation, and justify your approach.
4. Think of a specific, short-term goal you would like to achieve in your personal
life and describe what benchmarks you would use to monitor progress toward it.
What visual representation of progress would you use and why?
5. Describe the similarities and differences between a frequency distribution and a
frequency polygon.
6. Describe a situation when you would want to use a frequency distribution or a
frequency polygon to examine scores of students in one of your classes.
7. Choose a learning goal in your content area and assume that the following set of
scores represent student performance in your class related to that learning goal.
Develop a frequency distribution, a grouped frequency distribution, and a frequency
polygon for the preassessment scores. You may use a spreadsheet software program.

Percent Correct on Percent Correct on

Lunch Preassessment Mid-unit Assessment
Student Gender Status (10 items) (20 items)

1 M Free 10% 35%

2 M Full pay 30% 85%
3 F Free 0% 25%
4 M Free 10% 45%
5 F Full pay 10% 55%
6 M Full pay 20% 75%
7 M Full pay 40% 90%
8 M Free 20% 70%
9 F Free 10% 35%
10 F Full pay 10% 45%
11 M Full pay 100% 100%
12 F Full pay 20% 45%

8. Now calculate the mean, median, and mode for all 12 students for the pre-
assessment. What differences do you see between mean and median? Why?
9. Now revise your frequency distribution by disaggregating the preassessment data
by gender. Then make a new frequency distribution disaggregated by lunch
status. Interpret what you have found in these analyses for the whole group, the
gender groups, and the lunch groups. Do you see any indications that some
students may not have the background knowledge required for the unit? What
implications do the preassessment data have for your instructional planning?
What would you do next, given the content of your learning goal?
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References 151

10. One student attained a score of 100% on the pre-unit assessment. What actions
should you take to differentiate instruction for this student given the content of
your learning goal?
11. Now design a frequency distribution for the mid-unit assessment data for the
whole class; for the gender groups; and for the lunch groups. Calculate means
and medians for all groups. What implications do the mid-unit assessment data
have for your instructional planning for the rest of the unit?
12. Describe at least three ways systematic progress monitoring can help you
address achievement gaps in your classroom.

REFERENCES
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Reading fluency as a predictor of reading proficiency in low-performing high-poverty
schools. School Psychology Review 37: 18–37.
Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Deno, S. L. 1985. Curriculum-based measurement: The emerging alternative. Exceptional
Children 52: 219–232.
Deno, S. L. 1997. “Whether” thou goest . . . Perspectives on progress monitoring. In E. Kame’einuii,
J. Lloyd, and D. Chard (eds.), Issues in educating students with disabilities. Saddle River,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Deno, S. L. 2003. Developments in Curriculum-Based Measurement. Journal of Special Education
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Lachat, M. A., and S. Smith. 2005. Practices that support data use in urban high schools. Journal
of Education for Students Placed at Risk 10: 333–349.
Locke, E., and G. Latham. 1990. A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs,
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Shinn, M. R. 1989. Curriculum-based measurement. New York: Guilford.
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Trammel, D., P. Schloss, and S. Alper. 1994. Using self-recording, evaluation, and graphing to
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Urdan, T., and E. Schoenfelder. 2006. Classroom effects on student motivation: Goal structures,
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 6

ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF ASSESSMENT

Garbage in, garbage out.

–George Fuechsel

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Distinguish how the purpose of an

At the conclusion of this chapter, the assessment influences its validity.
reader should be able to do the • Use four sources of evidence
following: for validity (logic and common
• Understand the importance of sense, variety of assessment
error and appraise the degree of formats, content-related evidence,
reliability in interpreting and criterion-related evidence)
assessment results. to improve the validity of
• Describe how to minimize the assessments.
impact of error in assessment. • Avoid the bias pitfalls in classroom
• Appraise the degree of validity assessment.
when interpreting assessment • Create assessments representing
results. the diversity of the classroom.

 INTRODUCTION
We begin with a quotation that was widely used by technicians in the early days of
computers to caution that if the data entered into a computer program are prob-
lematic or nonsensical, the computer output will also be meaningless. Just because
you use a computer doesn’t mean it can magically transform bad raw material into
a wonderful finished product. Now the phrase is used in many situations where the
quality of the “input” will affect the value of the “output.”
Classroom assessment is a prime example. If you design a poor assessment
(the input), you could still use its results to assign grades (the output) that seem
official and objective. But you will really end up with “garbage” that does not tell
you what you need to know about what students are learning. One of our students
describes just such a situation: “In my freshman year of high school, my geom-
etry teacher taught mostly triangles and the Pythagorean Theorem. However, for
our final grade, he handed out directions to make a 3-dimensional dodecahedron.
The key to passing the project was not to know anything about triangles, but to
use sturdy paper so that when he dropped your dodecahedron on the floor, it
wouldn’t fall apart. If your dodecahedron fell apart . . . so did your grade.” This
teacher was able to put a score in the grade book for each student, but what did
it really mean?
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154 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

Ethics Alert: This is an example of score pollution. The teacher is using a task and criteria
that have little relationship to the course subject matter.

In this chapter we discuss concepts that have a strong impact on the quality
of the input—the assessment opportunities you provide your students. These con-
cepts include reliability, validity, bias, and representing diversity in your assessments.
If you take great care with these concerns as you design your assessments, you will
ensure that the output—the scores resulting from the responses of your students—
will be of high quality and will therefore provide you with meaningful information
about student learning.

 CRONSISTENT
ELIABILITY: ARE WE GETTING
INFORMATION?
Reliability The first aspect of assessment that we want to consider is reliability. Reliability is the
The degree to which scores on an degree to which scores on an assessment are consistent and stable. A reliable assess-
assessment are consistent and ment will produce roughly similar scores for a student even if the assessment is taken
stable.
on different occasions, if it has slightly different items, or if it happens to be graded
by a different person. The results are reproducible and not a fluke. If you do find sig-
nificant differences in scores across these situations, they are caused by some form of
Error error. Error is the element of imprecision involved in any measurement. Error can
The element of imprecision change a score in either direction from where it would actually fall. It can boost a score
involved in any measurement. higher or decrease it. The more error, the lower the reliability of the score.
Knowing that every single score has an error component leads us to the logical
conclusion that no important decision about any student should be made on the basis of a
single score. This conclusion is not unique to us; professionals in assessment have long
understood the role of error and the need to make decisions based on multiple assess-
ments. For example, most college admissions decisions are based on several factors, such
as high school grade-point average, letters of reference, SAT or ACT scores, and an essay.

Sources of Error
In thinking about error and testing circumstances, one of our students shared with us
her experience about taking the SAT for the first time. The heat wasn’t working in the
scheduled classroom, and so the group was moved to the gym. The proctor used the
time clock on the scoreboard to keep track of the minutes remaining for the test.
Unfortunately, this clock loudly ticked off each second. To top everything off, the proc-
tor had a big bunch of keys that jingled loudly with each step as he constantly patrolled
the room. As you might imagine, this student’s score was lower than she had expected,
and it increased by 150 points the second time she took the SAT. Her experience
illustrates error due to the occasion of testing. Factors from the assessment occasion
that can introduce error into scores include environmental sources shown in Table 6.1.
In the case of our student (and probably others who took the test at the same time)
these sources had a negative impact on scores.
Assessment occasion is only one source of error influencing scores. Other sources
of error are listed in Table 6.1. These include items as well as scoring issues. We discuss
each one in turn.
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Reliability: Are We Getting Consistent Information? 155

TA B L E 6 . 1
Potential Sources of Error
Source Examples

Assessment occasion • High or low room temperature

• Disruptions (e.g., noise)
• Fluctuating motivation or mood of respondent
• Carelessness of respondent

Assessment items • Number of items (too few or too many)

• Different versions of a test

Scoring issues • Unclear criteria for scoring

• Differences between scorers or raters

Assessment Occasion
The SAT example with the ticking clock is a perfect illustration of how environmental
distractions related to the specific occasion of an assessment can introduce error into the
scores that students receive. You can see how noises from the clock and the keys as well
as the disruption of moving from room to room could have distracted our student,
producing a poorer score for her. Some variations in assessment occasion, however, do
not occur during the assessment, but can still have an impact (negative or positive), such
as class parties. We know one high school teacher who never schedules important sum-
mative assessments during prom week because of the increased potential for error.
Error in scores due to the occasion of the assessment is also influenced by the
respondent, or the student completing the assessment. As you know from your expe- Respondent
rience, students vary from day to day and even from moment to moment in their The student completing the
interest in the concepts and skills being introduced, their mood, their level of energy, assessment.
whether they are sick or healthy, their degree of carelessness, their level of motivation,
and how their relationships with family and other significant people are going, to name
a few issues. These individual variations also contribute to errors in assessment out-
comes. If teachers use more frequent assessments, errors due to individual variation
average out across time with many assessments.

Assessment Items
Another aspect of an assessment that contributes to reliability is the pool of items.
Reliability is increased to the degree that the items display internal consistency. Internal Consistency
Internal consistency refers to the degree that all the items in an assessment are related The degree to which all of the
to one another and therefore can be assumed to measure the same thing. Internal items in an assessment are related
to each other.
consistency is high if all items are strongly related to each other. Internal consistency
is low if they are not strongly related to each other.
Also important to reliability is the number of items. Let us exaggerate for a
moment to show the importance of the number of items. What if your professor were
to create a summative, final examination for this assessment course with only one ques-
tion? The one item may address any concept covered in Assessment Is Essential. Are you
comfortable with a one-item test assessing everything you learned this semester? What
if the test had five items? Are you comfortable yet? What if the test had from 35 to 40 items?
Intuitively, you realize that a one-item or five-item test might fail to capture all the ideas
that you’ve learned this semester. In contrast, you see that a 40-item test that is based
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156 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

on the learning goals associated with the text chapters could be a fairer assessment of
your knowledge gained in the course. Thus, in considering consistency in test scores,
use enough items to adequately cover the concepts learned.
Errors related to this type of evidence for reliability will not be problematic in
classrooms if teachers assess often. Teachers usually gather information so frequently
that any random error resulting from one assessment is likely to be quickly corrected
with the next, which often occurs the very next day.

Scoring Issues
A third factor that contributes to reliability involves the way assessments are scored,
particularly when scoring requires careful judgment. Have you ever been in a class
where you compared tests with someone next to you and found that they got more
points for an answer than you did, even though the answers seemed almost identical
to you? Sometimes teachers may not carefully delineate the criteria they are using to
score answers, and so errors in judgment can result. If the criteria for grading are not
as explicit as possible (to both teacher and students), all sorts of extraneous factors
that have nothing to do with quality of the student performance will influence the
score. Significant error will be introduced to the actual scores students deserve. For
example, if a teacher grades some papers at night when she is tired, she might not
notice that several students left out an important point. This would be particularly
likely to occur if she had not specified that the idea was worth a specific number of
points when she allocated points in her scoring guide before she began grading any
papers. Statement of explicit criteria in the scoring guide, such as accuracy and num-
ber of supporting facts, presence of particular kinds of arguments, or adherence to
conventions of written language, make these types of problems less likely. Even when
teachers are tired or distracted, if they have spelled out exactly what they are looking
for, they will more likely be consistent in their scoring. You will learn more about
establishing scoring criteria in Chapters 8 and 9.

Interrater Reliability Interrater Reliability Interrater reliability is the measure of the consistency between
A measure of the degree of two raters. When interrater reliability is high, the two raters strongly agree on the score
agreement between two rates. that should be assigned to the same piece of work. When interrater reliability is low,
the two raters disagree on what score should be assigned. We once had a student who
suffered firsthand from interrater reliability problems. Her high school social studies
teacher had everyone in the class rate each student’s oral presentation on the connec-
tion between a current event and a historical event. Each student’s final score for the
project was to be the sum of 20 different peers’ scores. This student had recently bro-
ken up with a boyfriend. The boyfriend convinced eight of his friends in the class to
assign his former girlfriend’s presentation an “F.” With the inconsistency between these
scores and other students’ ratings, the student ended up with a “D” on the project. The
teacher did not take into account the degree of error involved, so the student’s grade
did not reflect her level of mastery.

Ethics Alert: Scoring major summative assessments, such as projects or presentations, is

the responsibility of the teacher.

In contrast, most teachers know how important consistency across raters can be
for making accurate judgments about student work. We have worked in several schools
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Improving Reliability in Classroom Assessments 157

TA B L E 6 . 2
Reliability Questions for Classroom Assessment
Have I ensured that the assessment occasion is free of distractions?

Have I designed an assessment that gathers sufficient information for the decisions to
be made?

Have I developed scoring criteria that are clear and unambiguous for both myself and
my students?
Have I compared my scoring standards with other teachers who teach the same content?

in which a common scoring guide is used for writing. In these schools, teachers make
an effort to check out their degree of interrater reliability. They practice scoring papers
that range in quality from several students, and then they discuss any differences in
their resulting scores in hopes of improving their consistency. These teachers want to
make sure that they agree on the standards of quality and what the scores for different
levels of work represent. They want to reduce errors in their scoring and increase their
reliability so that they provide the most precise possible representations of their stu-
dents’ writing quality.

Sufficiency of Information
Recently, educators in the area of classroom assessment have suggested that for the
classroom teacher, reliability may be defined as “sufficiency of information” (Brookhart, Sufficiency of Information
2003; Smith, 2003). These authors suggest that sufficiency of information means that Ensuring the collection of adequate
the teacher needs enough (that is, sufficient) information from any assessment to make data to make good decisions.
a good decision based on the results. With a formative assessment, the teacher must
have enough information to make good decisions about the next step in instruction.
With a summative assessment, the teacher must have enough information to be able
to determine the level of mastery of the learning goals for each student. Usually, your
confidence in the results of your assessment and the reliability of your assessment
increases as the number of items and occasions increases.
An analogy that we heard once from one of our professors is helpful in under-
standing the idea of increasing the sample to increase sufficiency of information (and,
therefore, reliability). Assume that a friend asks you how the food is at a local restau-
rant. If you have eaten several meals there, you will be more confident of your recom-
mendation than if you have eaten there only once. This is because you have more
sufficient information. Similarly, you will feel more confident about making decisions
about student understanding of new concepts and skills if you use a sufficient sample
of items related to the learning goals on different assessment occasions. See Table 6.2
for a list of reliability questions for classroom assessment.

 ICMPROVING RELIABILITY IN
LASSROOM ASSESSMENTS
To finish our discussion of reliability, we have a few suggestions about ways to improve
reliability in classroom assessments. These suggestions are listed in Table 6.3. Note that
a common theme is the importance of providing many opportunities for students to
demonstrate what they have learned.
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158 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

TA B L E 6 . 3
Suggestions for Improving Reliability in Classroom Assessments
Suggestions Examples
Assessment Occasion • Ensure that the • Avoid scheduling important
assessment occasion is assessments at the same time
free of distractions. as other important events.
• Provide multiple assessment
opportunities.

Assessment Items • Ensure sufficiency of • Use enough items to get a

information. clear picture of student
performance.

Scoring Issues • Clarify scoring • Use the most objective

criteria. possible items and scoring
• Ensure interrater methods.
reliability. • Discuss scoring criteria with
students before an assessment.
• Practice scoring assessments
with students.
• Practice scoring assessments
with other teachers.
• Allow students to assist in
designing scoring criteria.

The conclusion that you should provide many opportunities for assessments is a
logical extension of your understanding that every score contains error. The more
assessment opportunities you offer your students, the more likely you are to have a
reliable picture of their performance. Across time, different sources of error cancel each
other out. For example, in a chemistry class on a unit about energy transformation,
you could give students (1) a set of problems calculating the energy required for several
transformations, and (2) a multiple-choice quiz on the three types of transformations
of matter. Some students may make careless errors on the calculation problems that
lower their score. But on the multiple-choice items they make a few lucky guesses, and
the error contribution instead raises their score. One assessment occasion has produced
negative error and the other has produced positive error. When you average these two,
you are likely closer to an accurate score than the score on either single assessment
opportunity. The more scores you have, the more stable is the resulting average. The
fewer scores you have, the more likely the error component is large. Box 6.1 describes

B OX 6 . 1 E XC E R P T O N R E L IA B I L I T Y
C O N C E R N S F R O M T E AC H E R I N T E RV I E W

“. . . This fourth-grade teacher and her team do a number of so they gather information on interrater reliability. This
things to ensure reliability. When they have open-ended teacher also uses several test questions to assess each skill so
questions on a test, all three teachers in the grade read all that the possibility of being lucky or unlucky is removed.”
students’ answers and scores from each teacher are compared
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Validity: Will Scores Support Us in Making Good Decisions? 159

one teacher’s approach to reliability in her classroom assessments that reflects these
points. And, to conclude our discussion of reliability, we reiterate the point made
earlier in the chapter: No important decision about any student should be made on the
basis of a single score.

 VINALIDITY: WILL SCORES SUPPORT US

MAKING GOOD DECISIONS?
Now we move on to validity, another concept in addition to reliability that affects the kind
of “input” you provide when designing assessment opportunities for your students. Valid-
ity addresses whether the scores from your assessment will support you in making valid
decisions about students. Like reliability, validity can be pictured on a continuum from
low to high. The example of the geometry teacher who had students construct a dodeca-
hedron for their final grade falls at the low end of the validity continuum. Scores on that
assessment were not accurate, representative, or relevant to whether students had mastered
the learning goals of the class, the purpose usually addressed by a final grade.
Usually teachers think about the validity of their classroom assessments intuitively.
For example, if scores on a Spanish midterm test are low, and even the students most
fluent in spoken Spanish earned low scores, the teacher begins to suspect that the test
scores are providing questionable conclusions about the class. She may check to see if
the answer key is correct or she may review the items for clarity. She might ask a student
who usually earns high scores why he missed an item that the majority of students
missed. The low scores of fluent students would have triggered this informal study of the
validity of the test. They would cause the teacher to gather evidence on the accuracy,
representativeness, and relevance of this test for its intended purpose.

Importance of Purpose in Considering Validity

Because you must always consider the intended purpose when thinking about validity,
what counts as a solid indicator of validity may change from situation to situation. The
ability to make an indestructible dodecahedron could be an assessment with high valid-
ity if the intended purpose of the assignment were to measure students’ skill at con-
structing indestructible dodecahedrons in a physics class. Considering the purpose in
judgments of validity is crucial because assessments that you design can be invalid for
one purpose (geometry) and valid for another (physics).
If a test is inappropriate for its purpose, the conclusions drawn about student
performance are not valid. For example, Popham (2007) suggests that many standard-
ized tests used to determine annual yearly progress by states for No Child Left Behind
may not be appropriate for their intended purpose. Often the scores on these tests
cannot be specifically attributed to the effects of classroom instruction, but they are
strongly influenced by children’s social class. He suggests that we need better tests
specifically designed to be sensitive to instruction if we want to use them as valid
measures of students’ yearly progress. Because purposes of assessments vary, you think
about somewhat different issues depending on the purpose you have in mind. Table 6.4
summarizes the relationship between purpose and validity for assessment types that
we have discussed.

Purpose and Validity: Formative Assessment

When you are thinking about formative assessments, your primary validity concern is
the degree that the assessment supports the learning your students must do to master
the learning goals. You develop activities in which student understanding or skills are
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160 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

TA B L E 6 . 4
Validity Concerns Depend on the Purpose of the Assessment
Formative Summative
Degree to which the practice supports the Degree to which the interpretation of the
learning required to master classroom results provides accurate evidence about
learning goals achievement of the classroom learning goals

assessed so the misconceptions or misunderstandings can be corrected. You also focus

on a very narrow range of knowledge and/or skills so you can probe in depth your
students’ understanding. For example, in math you may focus on the process of prob-
lem solving steps and students’ explanations for their choices for only one particular
type of problem, such as solving geometry proofs. Formative assessment should pro-
vide a window on the students’ thought processes as a guide to which next instruc-
tional steps will support their learning the most.

Purpose and Validity: Summative Classroom Assessment

When you design your classroom summative assessments, you should look at the
degree to which your interpretation of student scores will give you accurate evidence
about their levels of achievement of the learning goals the assessment addresses. You
want to make sure the assessment representatively samples the content from the learn-
ing goals taught. It should also use formats and activities similar to those used in class.
For example, as a chemistry teacher, you might teach a unit incorporating the structure
of the atom, the periodic table of the elements, and the formation of chemical bonds.
Your summative assessment should sample items from each of these three areas and
incorporate only problems that used the calculations and formulas covered in class. If
you did not cover isotopes and methods to determine the number of extra neutrons
in an isotope, these should not be included on the summative test. As we noted in
Chapter 2, the learning goals, instruction, and assessment must be aligned. If you had
never given students the opportunity to explain why they used a certain step in solv-
ing a problem during the unit, you would not want to ask them to do so for the first
time on a summative test of that unit. To draw valid conclusions about what your
students have learned, you must develop items that represent the content and the
modes of instruction in your classroom (Brookhart, 2003).

Evidence for Validity

Over the years, educational researchers have developed a number of methods to provide
evidence for the validity of assessments. These procedures involve using logic as well as
informal and formal collection of data, but putting the information together always
involves a degree of judgment. Because the evidence required for different purposes
varies, the type and extensiveness of information collected also varies significantly, espe-
cially between classroom and large-scale settings. When you make judgments about
Construct-Related Evidence
validity, you will usually be gathering information from several sources.
All information collected to examine
the validity of an assessment. At the most basic level, all the information about validity that we collect exam-
Construct ines construct-related evidence (Gronlund, 2006). A construct is the basic idea,
The basic idea, theory, or concept theory, or concept that you have in mind whenever you attempt to measure something.
when measurement is attempted. Science achievement and reading comprehension are examples of constructs.
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Validity: Will Scores Support Us in Making Good Decisions? 161

Perhaps you have designed a questionnaire as a project for a class or organization

to learn about people’s attitudes. You came up with items that you hope zero in on the
construct you care about—people’s opinion of a specific issue or a particular political
figure. You always start with a construct, or idea, anytime you develop some form of
measurement. Usually there are a number of possible ways to measure the same con-
struct, and so no single measure can really capture the whole construct. See Figure 6.1
for examples of the different kinds of measures you might use to describe two con-
structs. Note that any one of these single measures alone cannot do a good job of
summing up the whole construct. That is another reason why we recommend that no
important decision about a student should be made based on a single score.
High-quality construct-related evidence for validity provides support for your
hunch that the data you choose to collect actually do represent the basic concept with
which you started. Because so many choices exist in measuring one construct, this type
of evidence must be collected to show that your measure makes sense. If you have Inference
strong construct-related evidence for validity, you can assume that the data you collect An assumption or conclusion based
will allow you to make useful and accurate inferences about student learning. Inferences on observations and experiences.

Construct Geometry Proficiency

Accurate completion Accurate calculations of Accurate calculations

of several proofs surface area of pyramids, of volume of pyramids,
cylinders, cones, cylinders, cones,
and spheres and spheres
Potential Measures
Demonstrates Accurate use of
understanding Pythagorean Theorem
of triangle
classifications

Attitudes About
Construct
Universal Healthcare

Survey of healthcare Questionnaire on Attitudes about personal

experiences current coverage vs. communal
responsibility

Potential Measures
Attitudes toward Level of factual
Medicare and knowledge about
Medicaid healthcare alternatives

FIGURE 6.1 Relationship Between Constructs and Attempts to Measure Them

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162 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

are assumptions or conclusions based on observations and experience. Conclusions

about student learning that result in grades are one common type of inference that
teachers make. Because of different prior experience, not everyone makes the same
inferences about the same observations or facts. For example, when you see someone
walk down the street talking to himself, you will probably conclude he is on his cell
phone. When someone who has never encountered cell phones sees him, that person
may instead assume he has a possible mental disorder such as schizophrenia.
The difficulty with inferences is aggravated with assessment because every assess-
ment provides only a small sample of student behavior. When drawing conclusions
about what that sample tells us, we sometimes assume more than we should. This
would be true of the geometry teacher who used the sturdiness of students’ dodeca-
hedrons for the final grade. The small sample of student behavior he chose was not
the most useful for drawing inferences about general geometry skill. Gathering
construct-related evidence helps us avoid such mistakes. The evidence allows us to
solidly link our inferences about a measure back to the construct we started with. See
Figure 6.2 depicting a visual representation of this process.
For example, constructing a sturdy dodecahedron was the measure in our earlier
example. The teacher drew the inference that scores on this measure represented geom-
etry proficiency. If he had gathered construct-related evidence for the validity of his assess-
ment, however, he would have quickly seen that his conclusions were not valid. As a
couple of possible examples, his grades on the dodecahedron project were unlikely to
match up with students’ scores on his earlier summative tests, and they were unlikely to
correlate with their quantitative scores on the SAT. Every assessment always gives us some
information, but gathering construct evidence about its validity helps us make sure it is
really the information that we want and need. A number of sources, shown in Table 6.5,
can be used to gather construct-related evidence for validity. Next, we discuss each one.

Logic and Common Sense

For classroom assessment, logic and common sense can provide important construct
evidence for validity. In the case of the geometry teacher, if he had thought more
about it, he would have realized that constructing dodecahedrons has only tenuous

Construct-related
evidence

Inferences

Valid inference
No construct-
related evidence

Construct: Sample of student

Invalid inference
Geometry Proficiency behavior assessed

FIGURE 6.2 Process of Moving from Measure to Valid Inference About a Construct
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Validity: Will Scores Support Us in Making Good Decisions? 163

TA B L E 6 . 5
Sources of Construct-Related Evidence for Validity
Evidence based on logic and common sense

Evidence based on variety of assessment formats

Content-related evidence

Criterion-related evidence

connections to geometry proficiency. The manual dexterity required and the quality
of materials (e.g., whether the paper was sturdy) are two factors involved that clearly
have absolutely no relationship to geometry. These factors did, however, weigh heavily in
whether students achieved success on the task.
Another common factor that can detract from construct evidence for validity is
reading proficiency. Many assessments aimed at constructs such as history, or even
mathematical skill, may require strong reading-comprehension skills that are irrelevant
to the construct but can strongly influence scores. When assessments require skills or
knowledge clearly irrelevant to the construct being measured, those assessments fall
at the lower end of the validity continuum.
Additional elements of an assessment that may detract from construct validity
include unclear directions, confusing items, unusual formats, and typographical errors.
Each of these factors clouds score interpretation; did the student do poorly because he
didn’t understand the directions or because he did not learn the material? For example,
one student we know misread two questions on a recent test because they both included
the word “not” and he didn’t notice the use of the negative (e.g., “Which of the follow-
ing is NOT an amphibian?”). If the test had included only positively worded questions,
his score likely would have been higher. In later chapters we provide guidelines to help
you in the writing of clear directions and items. In addition, we have stated that any
format that a teacher plans to use in the assessment of learning goals should also be
part of instruction, thus avoiding the problem of unusual item formats.

Variety in Formats
Another common problem in the classroom that can reduce our confidence that an assess-
ment fully addresses the relevant construct is a reliance on a single assessment format.
You can see this in the dodecahedron assessment example as well. The final grade in that
geometry class had only one task, and this task was unrelated to the activities students
had engaged in all semester, such as solving problems related to the Pythagorean Theorem.
One kind of construct-related evidence for validity, then, is checking on whether a sum-
mative assessment contains multiple assessment formats capturing the breadth and depth
of the content addressed. Formative assessments, of course, may often have a single format
if they address only a small portion of the knowledge and skills in a unit.
Another factor in considering formats is that some students vary in their preference
for and competence with different formats. For example, you know people who always
do better with multiple-choice tests, whereas others prefer sharing their understanding
through writing an essay. Researchers have also demonstrated that students perform dif-
ferently with different assessment formats such as teacher observations, short-answer
problems, or writing in science notebooks (Shavelson et al., 1993). As a classroom teacher,
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164 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

you should vary the formats you use to increase the validity of your assessments and to
provide opportunities for every student to shine. Of course, students must have practice
in class with these various formats prior to any summative assessment.
Another important reason to vary formats is to give all students opportunities
to work on improving their less developed or weaker skills. If students are encouraged
to do only what they are good at, they will never get better at other assessment formats.
Although we have noted that writing may impede some students from expressing their
understanding of science or history, we also acknowledge the critical role of writing
in conveying information. So writing should be one of an array of assessment forms
during a unit. Using a range of assessment formats is crucial not only to validity, but
also to conveying high expectations to your students. It can be another opportunity to
help close achievement gaps.

Content-Related Evidence
As we have emphasized, every assessment you design necessarily addresses only a
Content-Related Evidence sample of the total content that students are learning in your class. Content-related
The adequacy of the sampling of evidence for validity refers to the representativeness of the understanding and skills
specific content, which contributes sampled. Often people term this type of evidence content representativeness because
to validity.
the key issue is ensuring that the assessment adequately represents the constructs
Content-Representativeness
addressed in the learning goals.
Ensures the assessment adequately
represents the constructs addressed For classroom assessments, content-related evidence is easy to ensure if you align
in the learning goals. your learning goals, your instruction, and your assessment. Your assessments should
address both the content of the learning goals and the cognitive processes you expect
students to master. They should not address content or processes irrelevant to those goals.
For example, you would not use a multiple-choice test to determine whether students
can organize contradictory information into an argument on the pros and cons of impos-
ing a national carbon tax. This would require an essay. Similarly, if your summative
assessment includes writing a persuasive essay, you must also provide classroom activities
that allow students to hone their persuasive writing skills, including formative assessment
with feedback on how to improve. For a summative classroom assessment, we have sug-
gested in Chapter 2 that you design a table of specifications (sometimes called a “blue-
print”) to visually represent how your assessment covers the content of the learning goal
(see Table 2.15). When the table is completed, it should provide the evidence you need
about the degree to which your assessment has content representativeness. If all learning
goals are represented with items in proportion to the amount of instruction that they
received, you will be able to make a positive judgment about content representativeness.
In our classes, when we discuss validity, our students always have many examples
to offer from their experiences in which teachers either did not gather evidence for
content representativeness of a summative classroom test or assumed their test had
content representativeness when the students believed otherwise. For example, one
student told us, “When I was in biology in high school, my teacher would show video
after video of diseases and things which had nothing to do with our textbook. We were
expected to write twenty facts on each video, and we were told our test would come
from our facts. However, when test time came around, my teacher would ask questions
from the textbook and not the movies.” Assessments must be aligned with instruction
and the learning goals if you want your students to perceive them as reasonable.
Lack of content representativeness, in fact, is the most common problem we have
found among student complaints about grading and summative assessments. As a
teacher, you should see this as good news, because it is a problem you can easily rem-
edy with your own assessments. If you use a table of specifications to help align your
assessment with your instruction and the learning goals, your assessments will possess
content representativeness and students will believe they are fair.
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Validity: Will Scores Support Us in Making Good Decisions? 165

TA B L E 6 . 6
Content-Related Evidence and Applications
Definition Classroom Applications

Evidence that the assess- • Formative: Design formative tasks that require practice and
ment representatively feedback and address higher-order thinking skills from the
samples items associated learning goals.
with the learning goals • Summative: Design table of specifications to gauge alignment
among learning goals, instruction, and assessment.

For formative classroom assessments, you must make sure that each task you
spend time on contributes to student advancement toward the learning goals. You also
want to allocate the most time to formative tasks essential to the most important learning
goals. You probably would not design even one formative task to address the learning
goal Recall forms of poetry and definitions (see Table 2.15). This information is at the basic
knowledge (“remember”) level. Students should be able to understand and recall defini-
tions without much assistance. You should save formative assessment tasks for goals
related to more complex understanding and for skills that take time, effort, and feedback
to master. Table 6.6 summarizes the discussion of content-related evidence for validity.

Criterion-Related Evidence
Criterion-related evidence refers to information that examines a relationship between Criterion-Related Evidence
one assessment and some other established measure that is gathered to provide evi- Information that examines a
dence of validity. For example, you would have evidence for the validity of a survey relationship between one
assessment and an established
measuring values associated with a political party if people who attained high scores measure for the purposes of
on that survey also indicated they always voted for that party’s candidates. Researchers discerning validity.
examining the relationship between SAT scores and college freshman grades are con-
ducting studies to assemble evidence of the criterion-related validity of using SAT
scores for predicting college performance.
As you recall, triangulation is the process of developing an accurate conclusion
based on comparison of several sources. In Chapter 3 we discussed drawing conclu-
sions about individual students using triangulation. You can also use triangulation
when drawing conclusions about the validity of your tests. If you look for patterns
across different assessments of similar content, you may find that your students did
much worse (or much better) on one of them. For example, if the geometry teacher
who gave the dodecahedron assignment had compared those scores to scores on pre-
vious geometry assessments, he would have seen that the dodecahedron scores were
much lower for a number of students. Evidence for validity based on the criterion of
a strong relationship to other previous assessments would have been slim.
Sometimes when students do more poorly than usual on an assessment, teachers
may assume they did not study or they were not motivated. These can be dangerous
assumptions because they prevent teachers from critically examining their own prac-
tices. We suggest that when your students do particularly poorly on an assessment, you
use the process of triangulation with previous assessments to look for criterion-related
evidence of validity. That way, instead of blaming students, you will consider whether
something could instead be wrong with the validity of the test you constructed.
Comparison with previous work can also help you ensure that the assessments you
design are at the right level of difficulty to challenge your students but not discourage them.
Sometimes new teachers design assessments that are too hard or too easy for their students,
and so the assessments are not useful. Assessments that are too easy do not give you any
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166 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

TA B L E 6 . 7
Criterion-Related Evidence and Applications
Definition Classroom Application

Evidence of a relationship to Use triangulation to determine whether results of an

other already established, assessment produce patterns similar to or different from
relevant criteria previous assessments.

information about what concepts your students find challenging, so you do not gain ideas
about what they need to work on to improve. Easy assessments also convey low expecta-
tions for your students. Assessments that are too difficult are discouraging to students and
do not give you information about the steps needed to get them from where they are to
where they need to be. You only know they are not there yet. Comparing student perfor-
mance on current assessments to their performance on previous assessments will help you
identify assessment activities providing an appropriate level of challenge.
A final way to think about criterion-related evidence in classroom assessment is to
use your preassessment as a criterion measure. If your summative classroom assessment
for a unit is sensitive to instruction and squarely addresses the unit content, you should
see evidence that all students improved greatly, in terms of the percentage correct, between
the preassessment you conducted before you began the unit and the summative assessment
you design at the unit’s end. If, on the other hand, the percentage correct does not vary
much from the preassessment to the summative assessment, you have criterion-related
evidence that you are not measuring gains based on the instruction for the unit. Table 6.7
summarizes the discussion of criterion-related evidence for validity.

FIGURE 6.3 Which type of validity evidence does this cartoon best illustrate? Why?
Family Circus © Bil Keane, Inc. King Features Syndicate
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Improving Validity in Classroom Assessments 167

 CIMPROVING VALIDITY IN
LASSROOM ASSESSMENTS
We close our section on validity by providing suggestions about methods for improv-
ing validity in classroom assessments, which are listed in Table 6.8. They stem from
the four sources of validity evidence we have discussed, so they should look familiar.
Because the biggest problem related to validity that we hear about from our students
is problems with content-related evidence, we start with and emphasize the suggestion
that you review every assessment task to ensure that it addresses the learning goals
and the associated important instructional content. We believe if all teachers con-
ducted such a review each time they designed an assessment, complaints from students
about unfair assessments would plummet dramatically.

TA B L E 6 . 8
Suggestions for Improving Validity in Classroom Assessments
Suggestions Examples

Develop content-related • Use a streamlined table of specifications (see Chapter 2)

evidence: Review each in designing summative assessments to ensure
assessment task to ensure appropriate sampling of items.
that it represents learning • Collaborate with colleagues who teach the same content
goal content and in- when designing assessments.
structional activities in • Ask whether your students must use the higher-order
appropriate proportion. thinking skills required by the learning goals to
complete this assessment.
Use logic and common sense. • Ask yourself whether items tap the most important
content and not just trivial content.
• With formative assessments, make sure the assessment
provides a window to student thought processes related
to important material addressed by the learning goals.
• Ask yourself whether the task requires high levels of
understanding or skills unrelated to the focus of your
assessment (e.g., strong reading comprehension).
• Ask students for feedback on clarity, accuracy, and
relevance of the assessments you use.
Use a variety of assessment • Use multiple assessment formats for both formative and
formats. summative assessments.
• Check to see whether students perform similarly when you
assess the same understanding or skill in different ways.
Develop criterion-related • Check on how students did compared to their
evidence: Triangulate performance on similar assessments in this or other
results of the most recent units.
assessment task with • Check whether this assessment as a whole is much easier
previous tasks to examine or much harder than previous assessments.
patterns of performance. • Compare student scores on the preassessment with
scores on the summative assessment to see if your
summative assessment is sensitive to instruction.
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168 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

 RAND
ELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIABILITY
VALIDITY
We have now explained reliability and validity as two attributes that affect the qual-
ity of the “input” you invest in designing your assessments. As you recall, reliability
involves minimizing random errors that can mistakenly increase or decrease the
true score a student should receive. To reduce the impact of random errors that can
lower reliability, you do your best to ensure the assessment occasion is free of
distractions, you ensure the number and types of assessment tasks give you suffi-
cient information, and you provide clear scoring criteria to support consistency in
your grading.
Validity, on the other hand, relates to the degree of confidence you have that the
inferences you are making based on assessment results are accurate. The primary way
to ensure validity in classroom assessment is alignment among learning goals, instruc-
tion, and assessment. One factor that could affect the degree of confidence about your
inferences could be scores that are not reproducible because they are plagued by ran-
dom errors. If scores are highly unreliable, then validity is also limited. High reliabil-
ity is necessary for high validity.
For example, one of our students recounted an incident involving a summative
assessment from her high school calculus class. The test she had to take consisted of
two very complex problems. The teacher gave credit for each problem only if the stu-
dent had the right answer. Our student received no credit for one of the two problems
because she made a simple mistake in addition, even though she had followed all the
necessary steps and used the correct formulas. Her score on this test, because of her
random calculation error and the limited number of problems, had low reliability and
resulted in a failing grade. This score also caused the teacher to make an invalid infer-
ence about the student’s calculus skills. This incident illustrates the necessity of high
reliability for high validity.
Simply having high reliability on an assessment, however, cannot guarantee
that the inferences you make about that assessment will be valid ones. You can
readily see this if we alter the calculus example. Consider what would happen if the
summative test the teacher designed had 20 items instead of 2 and used several
types of tasks to increase the sufficiency of information. Suppose she also gave
students as much time as they needed, ensured the environment was free of distrac-
tions, and had clear scoring criteria. These actions would definitely improve the
reliability of the assessment. However, if the content were algebra instead of calcu-
lus, no matter how high the reliability, the scores on the assessment would not help
the teacher make valid decisions about her students’ achievement of calculus learn-
ing goals. The teacher would not have carefully aligned the assessment with the
learning goals and the instruction, and so the inferences she could make would not
be related to the construct about which she needed information. These examples
illustrate why assessment theorists assert that reliability is a necessary but not suf-
ficient condition for validity.

 AVOIDING BIAS IN ASSESSMENTS

Bias A bias is an inclination or a preference that interferes with impartiality. For example,
An inclination or preference that you might have a bias against chocolate chip cookies compared to oatmeal cookies, so
interferes with impartiality. if you were judging cookies in a local contest, you would find it hard to be impartial
if you had to rate both kinds. Bias can creep into the assessments teachers design and
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Avoiding Bias in Assessments 169

score, but it is rarely intentional or conscious. Most teachers we know bend over back-
wards to be fair and give students the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, however, an
item or an activity can put one group at a disadvantage so that the scores they receive
are systematically lower than their actual scores would be. This systematic bias will
lower the validity of your assessment.
As our culture diversifies, the danger of unintentional bias increases. As of the 2000
census, almost 20 percent of the people over age 5 in the United States spoke a language
other than English at home, and by 2005, the Hispanic/Latino population increased to
14.4 percent of the total population to become our largest minority. Furthermore, family
structure is changing, with 20 million children living with single parents (including more
than 3 million with single fathers) and 5.6 million with grandparents. Such changes sug-
gest that for us to provide equal access to education for all students, we must become
familiar with and respond to the increasing diversity of life and language experiences in
our classrooms. Attention to this issue is particularly important because statistics continue
to demonstrate that teacher education students are overwhelmingly European American
and female. We discuss some of the possible bias pitfalls so that you can avoid them in
your own classroom. Table 6.9 summarizes the pitfalls.

Unfair Penalization Unfair Penalization

Unfair penalization refers to the inadvertent bias of putting students who are not Comparing students who are unfa-
miliar with content, examples, or
familiar with the content, examples, or language of an assessment at a disadvantage language of an assessment to stu-
compared to those who are familiar with them. For example, an assessment that you dents who are.

TA B L E 6 . 9
Bias Pitfalls in Classroom Assessment
Pitfall Definition Example
Unfair penalization Using content, examples, or Using exclusively American
language based on life holidays such as Thanksgiving
experiences in an or the 4th of July as the basis
assessment that puts groups for an essay on family
who are unfamiliar with experiences
them at a disadvantage
Lack of opportunity Using assessments that do Testing students who leave the
to learn not take into account classroom for special classes
absences or other on the content they missed
systematic differences without providing
among groups in exposure compensatory experiences
to the curriculum
Teacher bias Systematic but usually Formative assessment: Asking
unintentional teacher questions requiring higher-
preferences (e.g., order thinking skills of only
microaggressions, the students who raise their
preferential interaction hands
patterns, scoring biases) Summative assessment:
that can influence Inadvertently marking down
assessments papers with messy handwriting
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170 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

design for an English class could involve a topic that males in your class may have
more experience and knowledge about than females, such as their perspective on how
the rules about football could influence other social interactions. This topic choice may
then influence the quality of the essays differentially for the two genders if the females
had less experience on which to draw. Similarly, in a social studies class you may
choose to ask students to write a letter to a person living during the U.S. Civil War as
an assessment. But you generate the list of eligible correspondents off the top of your
head and happen to limit it to famous officers or civic leaders who come to mind
quickly, all of whom happen to be European American and most of whom happen to
be male. Because your female students and your minority students may have a harder
time identifying with and picturing these figures and their interests, they could be at
a disadvantage in completing the assignment. You must make sure your activities and
assessments take into account important differences in your students’ life experiences.
These include variations ranging from exposure to different types of climate (e.g.,
snow), to family experiences (e.g., vacations, exposure to cultural events), to typical
interaction patterns (e.g., methods of problem solving).
We were reminded of unfair penalization recently when we gave a picture vocab-
ulary test to a bright young African American kindergartener who lived in subsidized
housing in the middle of a city. The procedure involved showing him pictures and
asking him to identify them. He flew through dozens of pictures until he encountered a
saddle for a horse. He was suddenly completely stumped, perhaps because he had never
had the opportunity to see horseback riders. For this city, riding stables could be found
only out in the countryside and tended to draw an upper middle class and wealthy
clientele.
In thinking about unfair penalization related to language, the suggestions we
made in Chapter 3 for accommodating English language learners are worth revisiting
because such accommodations are intended to reduce unfair penalization. For exam-
ple, you should consciously use visual as well as verbal representations of content, and
you should avoid complex syntax and exclusively U.S. cultural references. In formative
assessments, you should also make sure all the vocabulary building blocks necessary
for the unit content are in place for your English language learners.

Opportunity to Learn
Another factor that can introduce bias into assessments is a systematic difference
among students in their opportunity to learn the content of the curriculum. For exam-
ple, if your preassessment shows some students are far behind the rest in their ability
to use and interpret maps for the unit on the five regions of the United States, they
would not be able to benefit from any new instruction requiring map interpretation
until you had taken the time to teach this prerequisite skill. Another factor related to
opportunity to learn is attendance. Students who are absent often are at a disadvantage
because they do not receive the same amount of instruction as other students. Often
the students who are absent the most are also students who lag behind their peers.
Similarly, students who have no supervision in the evenings or no parental encourage-
ment to complete homework are at a disadvantage in their opportunities to learn.
Awareness of the bias that fewer opportunities to learn can breed will sensitize you to
the needs of your students. Efforts to equalize the opportunity to learn for all your
students are one more way to work to close achievement gaps. For example, we know
several teachers who allow students who have a disorganized home environment to
come to their classrooms as soon as the bus drops them in the morning to work on
homework and ask questions rather than waiting outside until the bell rings.
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Avoiding Bias in Assessments 171

Teacher Bias
Teachers are human, and all humans are susceptible to bias. You know from your own
experience that sometimes teachers have favorite students, and sometimes certain stu-
dents feel they could never do anything right in the eyes of a particular teacher. But
if you asked those teachers, they would probably believe that they are doing their best
to be fair. Bias is rarely intentional.
Because teachers don’t intend to show bias, many authors suggest that the first
step in reducing our biases is to bring our own social identities to our awareness so
we can see the limits of our experience (e.g., Bell et al., 1997; Sue et al., 2007). Willing-
ness to scrutinize our own assumptions, values, and habits generates self-awareness
that can provide insights enhancing our empathy. This in turn may help us accom-
modate diversity in the classroom successfully. Analyzing your own group member-
ship, history, and experiences allows for increased sensitivity to the kinds of assumptions
you make about your students. For example, teacher candidates who have been to
foreign countries where they do not speak the language find they later have more
empathy for the English language learners in their own classrooms than candidates
who have never had such experiences. Or breaking a leg and using a wheelchair can
provide surprising new insights into the barriers facing students with physical dis-
abilities to which a candidate otherwise would have been oblivious. You can see how
broadening your experience allows you to notice some unconscious biases you may
have had. We will now address some aspects of teacher bias that may help sensitize
you to the needs of students.

Microaggressions
Seemingly innocent questions or comments arising from lack of awareness of our own
biases can damage our relationships with others from different backgrounds and be
perceived as “microaggressions” (Sue et al., 2007). Microaggressions are “brief, every- Microaggression
day exchanges that send denigrating messages . . .” (p. 273). For example, when a middle- Brief, everyday remark that
class European American asks an Asian American or Latino American, “Where are you inadvertently sends a denigrating
message to the receiver.
from?” the question implies that the person is a perpetual foreigner, and it negates their
American heritage. Several of our Asian American friends born in the United States
have told us they encounter this question frequently, and it is often repeated, “But where
are you really from?” when they say they are from the United States.
Another common microaggression that we find among our teacher candidates
is a statement such as “I am color blind,” or “When I look at my students, I don’t see
color.” Such comments deny a person’s racial or ethnic experiences and implicitly insist
that assimilation to the dominant culture is required (Sue et al., 2007). If you say you
don’t “see” color, you are probably trying to communicate that you are fair and do your
best not to discriminate on the basis of color. However, recognizing that race is per-
ceived differently depending on one’s position in society is an important step in the
process of becoming culturally sensitive.
A possible outgrowth of such comments (and the beliefs behind them) is insen-
sitivity in designing assessments. One of our African American friends told us about
a teacher of one of her sons who professed not to “see” color. When she had students
design a self-portrait with construction paper, she had only buff colored paper for the
faces and blue for the eyes. When some people don’t “see” color, they tend to ignore
facets of culture and experience beyond their own limited perspective. Their behaviors
can inadvertently alienate their students of color and marginalize them. When students
feel like they don’t belong, their achievement usually suffers. When academic perfor-
mance is depressed for such children, the achievement gap continues to widen.
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172 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

Because we want to narrow achievement gaps, we must avoid letting our own
background and assumptions limit the learning experiences we provide. We must
learn how the cultural background of our students can influence their identity and
learning so we can take advantage of it in our teaching and in creating an inclusive,
welcoming classroom.
At the same time, we must avoid unconscious negative stereotypes that some-
times can accompany a limited understanding of another culture. For example, Paul
Gorski (2008) describes and debunks several myths of the “culture of poverty,” such
as assuming poor people have low motivation. Such stereotypes can derail high
expectations and undermine our efforts to promote achievement for every child. As
you might imagine, the balance is difficult to achieve. Gradually, with intentional
thoughtful awareness, you will build an understanding of your students, their fami-
lies, and the local community that can help you teach so your students can reach
their maximum potential.

Observing Interaction Patterns

Beyond analyzing our own identities and experiences, we can use other ways to chal-
lenge our implicit biases. For example, we once worked with a student teacher in
kindergarten to analyze a videotape of herself teaching a lesson. During an informal
formative assessment to see whether her students could make predictions about what
might happen next in a story, one African American boy gave a suggestion. She didn’t
acknowledge his response. A few seconds later a European American girl paraphrased
the same suggestion, and the student teacher quickly offered enthusiastic praise. You
could see the African American boy on the videotape squirm in frustration. As we
talked about the incident, the student teacher was embarrassed. She had not intention-
ally ignored the boy and would not even have believed it had happened if it hadn’t
been captured on videotape. But such patterns of interaction may be more frequent
than we realize. We have observed similar incidents with female students receiving less
positive teacher attention than males and Latino students receiving less attention than
their European American peers in several elementary and secondary classes. Such
incidents underscore the need for teachers to check systematically on their interaction
patterns with students.
When we began teaching at the college level, we had a similar experience.
Another professor observed our class and used an informal seating chart to monitor
the students who made contributions to the discussion. He pointed out after class that
even though the majority of the class was female, the majority of the students par-
ticipating were male. He suggested several strategies we regularly continue to use (and
suggest to our own teacher candidates), such as allowing students to write down or
discuss an answer in pairs before the teacher calls on random students, or noting check
marks on a seating chart as students participate to ensure that no one is left out.
Because class participation can be crucial during formative assessment, allowing all
students opportunities to respond and receive feedback is necessary, especially when
you keep the goal of equal access to education for all in mind. Every one of us must
be willing to examine our assumptions and our behavior objectively to avoid bias. See
Table 6.10 for suggestions on avoiding teacher bias.

Scoring Biases
Not only can unintended bias influence classroom interactions and formative assess-
ment, it can also affect scoring of summative assessments. Numerous studies have been
conducted over the years investigating scoring biases (see Fiske & Taylor, 1991). We
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Avoiding Bias in Assessments 173

TA B L E 6 . 1 0
Suggestions for Avoiding Teacher Bias
In General

Analyze the limits of your own assumptions, values, and experience and make an effort to
expand them:
• Read widely about other cultures, social classes, ethnicities, and races.
• Seek out experiences with people unlike yourself by traveling and doing volunteer work.

During Classroom Interaction for Formative Assessment

Monitor teacher attention on a seating chart using checks or + and – for teacher
comments.

Have a peer observe and monitor interactions using a seating chart.

Videotape and analyze interaction with students for positive and negative teacher attention
and appropriate feedback.

During Scoring of Summative Assessments

When possible, remove clues to the identity of the student whose work you are grading.

When possible, have students type work they turn in to avoid penalizing hard-to-read
handwriting.

Provide frequent and varied assessments.

Collaborate with peers in designing and scoring assessments to detect bias.

Use scoring guides with clear expectations to help prevent bias.

want to alert you to some of these findings so you can avoid scoring bias in your own
classroom. In these studies, two groups usually rate the same essay or assignment.
Additional information about the student who completed the assignment is varied
between the two groups to see if it changes perceptions of the quality of the work. For
example, when one group is told the student is “excellent” and the other group is told
that the student is “weak,” those who believe they are grading the work of an “excel-
lent” student assign higher grades than those who think they are grading the “weak”
student. Similarly, when raters are given a photo of a student, those who receive an
attractive photo usually grade higher than those given an unattractive one. Research
such as this impels us to recommend that whenever possible, you grade assignments
without knowing the identity of the student.
Similarly, messy handwriting, length of a paper, and grammatical errors can
strongly influence grades, even when the teacher doesn’t intend it. A close friend who
teaches fourth grade has what he calls a “handwriting fixation” with which he grapples.
He recently caught himself just before lowering the grade for a student who wrote every
cursive “m” with two humps instead of three. To bring home the point about how eas-
ily biases can emerge, we know one professor who has his students grade the same essay
for practice every semester. Some students looked at a messy version and others had a
neat version. Every single semester, the neat version emerges with a higher grade.
Another factor that can have impact on grading is the variance in political or
social perspectives of teachers and students (Barbour, 2007). Teachers we know do
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174 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

their best to grade fairly, but they sometimes agonize about how to maintain impartial-
ity and see this potential bias as an important ethical dilemma. A good scoring guide
helps enormously, and in Chapters 8 and 9 we discuss how to design scoring guides
that help you to maintain consistency and objectivity.
As you review Table 6.10, you will notice the repetition of a few recommenda-
tions that we made to enhance reliability and validity—such as providing frequent
and varied assessments and collaborating with peers on designing and scoring assess-
ments. This is because bias can influence the validity of the inferences we make about
students based on their test scores. Does a high score on a writing assignment reflect
that the student has mastered the writing strategies you have taught, or is the high
score because of the student’s neat handwriting? The safeguards we offer will help you
catch yourself and your implicit biases as you reflect on variations in the outcomes
of your assessments.

 ROFEPRESENTING THE DIVERSITY

THE CLASSROOM
Your awareness of the diversity in your classroom and your conscientious efforts to
represent these variations in your assessment is another method of avoiding potential
bias. Such efforts also help you create a cohesive, welcoming classroom to students
who have sometimes been overlooked or marginalized. We once observed a math les-
son in a fourth-grade classroom where a teacher designed word problems teaching a
new concept. In each problem, she used the names of each of her own students by
saying things like “Shakira has 21 CDs and Aisha wants her to . . .” The students clearly
loved this approach and laughed and cheered when they heard their names. The teach-
er’s tactic helped her students personally “own” the activities, and they clearly felt
valued and included. However, what would happen if this teacher had consistently left
someone out because a name was hard to pronounce or because she unconsciously
didn’t like that child much? Think about how you might feel when put in the place of
the marginalized student.
As a teacher, you should do your best to make each student feel like an integral
and significant part of the learning community you create. Your efforts will pay off.
You will help all your students develop positive self-images. You will also help them
learn how to live in our pluralistic society with respect and appreciation for others
who are different.
Many of your assessment activities provide opportunities to expose your stu-
dents to varieties of scenarios, photographs, stories, and cultural practices reflecting
the diverse students in your classroom and beyond. Based on Macmillan-McGraw
Hill’s (1993) efforts to reflect diversity in textbooks and other instructional materials,
in Table 6.11 we offer three types of problems to avoid as you design assessments
and activities.

Stereotypical Representation
Stereotypical Representation Stereotypical representation involves depicting social groups in an oversimplified,
Depicting social groups in an clichéd manner in your formative and summative assessments. For example, if your
oversimplified manner. early childhood students were learning about the instruments in the orchestra, you
might want to be sure to include photographs of women playing brass instruments
and African Americans playing strings as you developed activities for assessments. Our
students tell us that typical stereotypes in music depict males playing brass instru-
ments, females playing stringed instruments, with African Americans few and far
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Representing the Diversity of the Classroom 175

TA B L E 6 . 1 1
Problems to Avoid When Designing Assessments
Consideration Definition Example
Stereotypical Depiction of groups in an A math word problem that
representation oversimplified, clichéd involves calculations about
manner Juan picking lettuce or grapes
Contextual invisibility Underrepresentation of Using only typically European
certain groups, customs, or American names as
lifestyles in curricular or examples in assessments
assessment materials
Historical distortions Presenting a single Describing slavery exclusively
interpretation of an in terms of economic
issue, perpetuating “need” and avoiding a
oversimplification of moral perspective
complex issues, or avoiding
controversial topics

Adapted from Macmillan-McGraw Hill. 1993. Reflecting diversity: Multicultural guidelines for educational publishing
professionals.

between. Stereotypical depictions can implicitly narrow students’ understanding of

possibilities and limit their aspirations.
A few years ago, one of our friends was paid by an editor in New York to sys-
tematically review assessment items in texts to look for stereotypical representations
of groups and correct them. She told us one of the most common changes she made
involved modifying images of passive females who sat and watched males do things.
Similarly, males are often portrayed as lacking empathy, never crying, and showing
little interest in fashion, cooking, or children. Expanding the variety of male and
female interests and roles in assessment examples can go a long way toward broader
acceptance of a range of behaviors, regardless of gender. Acceptance of broader gen-
der roles should also help decrease the widespread verbal and physical harassment
reported by males who exhibit behaviors and interests beyond the typically narrow
male stereotype. Designing assessments that convey inclusiveness contributes to
developing more inclusive classrooms.
A number of other stereotypes should be avoided as you design assessments.
Depictions of the elderly as inactive, such as using images of grandparents in rock-
ing chairs on the porch, can convey stereotypes. Portrayals of people with mental
and physical disabilities have often been limited or, when they are included, have
been depicted in a helpless role. You should include these groups in a variety of
roles, not solely as recipients of assistance from others. Racial stereotypes have often
crept into instructional materials, with depictions of people of color in low-paying
jobs such as farm workers or janitors rather than as bank presidents or globe-
trotting executives.
The language you use in assessments can also convey stereotypes. For example,
research has shown that when an author uses a term such as “mankind,” most people
picture only men (Switzer, 1990). When the term is changed to “humankind,” people
tend to think of both genders. Using terms that include both genders whenever pos-
sible conveys a more inclusive message. For example, changing the singular to the
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176 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

TA B L E 6 . 1 2
Avoiding Sexist Language
Avoid Change To

“mankind” “humankind”

“man” (as plural) “human” “people”

“man-made” “manufactured,” “handmade”

“They will man the table for the bake sale.” “They will staff the table for the bake sale.”

“Everyone should know his vote counts.” “People should know their votes count.”

“salesman,” “policeman,” “chairman,” “salesperson,” “police officer,” “chair,”

“fireman” “firefighter”
Making female identity passive:
“American colonists brought their wives “Colonist families came to America.”
and children to America.”
“Women were given the vote after the “Women won the vote after the First
First World War.” World War.”
“John Jones took his wife to California to “John and Sarah Jones went to California
look for a new house.” to look for a new house.”

Adapted from Macmillan-McGraw Hill. 1993. Reflecting diversity: Multicultural guidelines for educational publishing
professionals. Used with permission.

plural whenever possible allows both genders to be represented. See Table 6.12 for
examples of methods for avoiding sexist language and the hidden assumption of
female passivity.

Contextual Invisibility
Contextual Invisibility Contextual invisibility means that certain groups, customs, or lifestyles are not rep-
The concept that certain groups, resented or are underrepresented in your assessment materials (Macmillan-McGraw
customs, or lifestyles are not Hill, 1993). Underrepresentation implies that these groups, customs, or lifestyles are
represented in assessment
materials. less important, and it marginalizes them. For instance, examples of males in parenting
roles are often much less visible in instructional materials than examples of males
actively involved in work outside the home, hinting that nurturing roles are less valued
for men in our society. Similarly, when using names in assessments, many teachers are
inclined to stick with common European American names such as Tom or Mary. In
the movie Stand and Deliver, Jaime Escalante combats contextual invisibility by point-
ing out to his students that the Mayans recognized and used the important concept of
zero well before the Greeks, Romans, or Europeans. Emphasizing the contributions of
multiple groups beyond European Americans to the development of our culture helps
students appreciate a pluralistic society.

Historical Distortions
Historical Distortion Historical distortion involves presenting a single interpretation of an issue, perpetuat-
Presenting a single interpretation ing oversimplification of complex issues, or avoiding controversial topics (Macmillan-
of an issue, perpetuating over-
simplification of complex issues, McGraw Hill, 1993). Historical distortions can occur with past or present issues. The
or avoiding controversial topics. term “historical” used in the definition probably refers to the need to avoid the typically
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Keeping the Three Democratic Values in Mind 177

Eurocentric and male perspective that has dominated much historical and contempo-
rary analysis of political and historical events. For example, in an analysis of textbooks
for English language learners, Ndura (2004) reports that controversial topics, such as
prejudice or racial and ethnic conflict, were avoided in all texts reviewed. She reports,
We hear about the Navajo code talkers [’ contribution to World War II] . . . but
nothing about why their recognition was delayed over three decades. We hear the
pleading voice of Chief Joseph, but nothing about why he and his people had to go
to war. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is presented, but there is no
discussion of those rights that are often infringed upon in the lives of many
immigrants and people of color. . . . The Civil Rights Movement is featured as a piece
of history with no extension to today’s struggles. The Lewis and Clark story is told
from a White man’s perspective. The voices of York, the male slave, Sacagawea, the
female Indian helper, and of the Indians they met on the expedition are all silenced.
As we mentioned in Chapter 1, varied, meaningful and challenging assessment
tasks encourage students to develop mastery goals and increased motivation. Engaging
tasks that grapple with controversial issues can be ideally suited to preventing histori-
cal distortion. For example, to encourage perception of multiple perspectives on cur-
rent or historical events, you might assign different students to look at different groups’
perceptions when designing a web quest about a controversial issue. You can also
explore conflicts through mini-debates, class discussions, or persuasive essays required
to address opposing views. Such activities have the added benefit of requiring complex
thinking at the highest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
If instead you gloss over controversial subjects, you deny your students oppor-
tunities to develop the critical thinking skills essential for active democratic participa-
tion. Exploring controversy and understanding it from several points of view may also
allow students to develop confidence to contribute to solutions. A recent study found
that classroom opportunities such as learning about things in society that need to be
changed, focusing on issues students care about, and encouraging students to discuss
and make up their own minds about political and social issues help students develop
stronger commitments to participation in civic affairs (Kahne & Sporte, 2007).

 VKEEPING THE THREE DEMOCRATIC

ALUES IN MIND
In this chapter we have discussed some wide-ranging recommendations to develop
reliable, valid, and unbiased formative and summative assessments. All our recom-
mendations are based on the assumption that development of top-notch assessments
will allow you to obtain accurate and fair information on your students’ progress
toward the learning goals. We now turn to the connection between this emphasis on
good assessment design and scoring to our three themes related to preparing students
for democratic participation.

Equal Access to Educational Opportunity

If you have frequent, high-quality assessment information from your students, you will
make better decisions about how best to teach them. You will know who is falling
behind as soon as it happens, and you will know what they need to catch up. Reliable
scoring of assessments also explicitly holds all students to the same criteria so that you
are able to maintain clearly spelled out, high expectations for everyone. Valid assess-
ments closely aligned with your learning goals also promote equal access because you
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178 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

can be certain you are addressing the appropriate content based on the standards your
students need to be successful. Finally, unbiased assessments that provide inclusive
perspectives promote student motivation and engagement and help avoid marginaliza-
tion of groups who have typically been underrepresented. These are often the groups
who lag behind peers, so enhancing their motivation and sense of belonging can lead
to accelerated progress in working to close achievement gaps.

Skills for Democratic Participation

Frequent assessment leads to high reliability. Relying, when practical, on student input
into your frequent assessments and their scoring guides can help you design a range
of assessment activities that are varied, often creative, and perceived as fair. In our own
classes we often have students take a crack at designing items for summative assess-
ments. Such efforts promote students’ internalization of responsibility for their own
learning when they start thinking like teachers and developing an internal critic.
Development of a sense of responsibility is one of the important self-governing skills
needed for democratic participation.
Furthermore, in efforts to avoid traditional biases, you can design assessment
tasks relating to student concerns and current social issues that include exposure to
varied perspectives. Opportunities for student exposure to and discussion of different
sides of issues promote development of independent thought and a more activist ori-
entation, skills which have been shown to increase civic participation.

Development of Critical Thinking Skills

To be valid, assessments for all students must involve an array of thinking skills that
require much more than the minimal memorization of facts at the knowledge level of
Bloom’s taxonomy. We believe that children at all levels can be challenged with critical
thinking skills at the higher levels of Bloom’s. For example, we know one teacher who
always makes sure to ask her kindergarteners some tough questions involving evalua-
tion and application about the fables and fairy tales they read together (e.g., “What
would you do if the wolf from The Three Little Pigs came to YOUR house?”). She
believes it is never too early to encourage her students to use higher-order thinking
skills. We have also stressed that you can avoid historical distortions leading to mar-
ginalization of students in your class and encourage mastery goals with assessments
incorporating current and historical events with multiple points of view. Such activities
sharpen critical thinking skills, and they also increase engagement among different
groups of students who come from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

We now return to Maria Mensik’s secondary English unit on utopias and dystopias.
We discuss it in terms of lessons about reliability, validity, avoiding bias, and represent-
ing diversity.
Maria designed a table of specifications (Table 6.13) that included her learning
goals and descriptions of the assessments she designed related to each one. Such a
procedure is an excellent way to provide content evidence for the validity of the assess-
ments designed for a unit. As you recall, this is the most important validity issue for
classroom teachers. Such a table is very useful for ensuring alignment between the
assessments and the learning goals. It also illustrates whether each learning goal has
effective assessment coverage. As you examine this table, you see Maria is devoting
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Case Study Application 179

TA B L E 6 . 1 3
Table of Specifications for Assessments in Utopia and Dystopia Unit
Assessment Items Addressing Each Learning Goal
Learning Goal and Percentage Knowledge-Level
of the Unit It Covers Items Above Knowledge Level
1. Student will be able to 1. Formative assessment on
compare and contrast characteristics of utopias and
characteristics of a utopia dystopias
and dystopia. 2. 10 multiple-choice items
3. 4 essay items
4. Performance assessment on
60% creating a society
2. Student will be able to 1. Formative assessment on
compare and contrast multiple characteristics of utopias and
works concerning utopia/ dystopias
dystopia, paying particular 2. Multiple-choice items 1–3
attention to the role of the 3. Essay items 1–3
government and the role of
the individual. 30%
3. Student will be able to use 1. Essay item 4
persuasive language in writing 2. Performance assessment on
and/or speaking. 10% creating a society

60 percent of the unit to the first learning goal; consequently, the majority of her assess-
ment also addresses this learning goal. In addition, you see she has also taken important
steps to make sure each of her assessments requires higher than knowledge-level cogni-
tive skills to complete. For example, she requires students to use comprehension, anal-
ysis, and evaluation skills from Bloom’s by comparing and contrasting the characteristics
of utopias and dystopias, choosing the most important characteristics, and describing
how different pieces of literature exemplify them in her formative assessment.
Notice that each learning goal has more than one assessment addressing it, and
the assessments require different kinds of skills and activities. Sufficiency of informa-
tion, the key issue for reliability of classroom assessments, requires multiple assessments.
With this variety, Maria will have evidence to determine whether different assessments
addressing the same learning goal result in similar levels of performance among stu-
dents. If she finds consistent patterns, she will be able to conclude that random error
does not contribute in a major way to the obtained scores of her students.
The other reliability issue important to consider in classroom assessments relates to
scoring. Maria has a range of assessment tasks. She includes multiple-choice items, which
have a clear-cut correct answer, as well as essay items and a performance task, which can
be more susceptible to random error associated with making judgments. She must pay
careful attention to her scoring criteria and procedures to ensure she grades them consis-
tently and reliably. Ideally, consulting with another teacher to examine interrater reliabil-
ity could also be helpful if time permits. We know of several schools where interrater
reliability is addressed in team meetings (see Box 6.1). Chapters 8 and 9 provide discus-
sion of procedures for construction of scoring guides that enhance reliability.
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180 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

Maria’s use of diverse forms of assessment will support the validity of her decisions
about students’ achievement of learning goals. Whether students are good at multiple-
choice tests is not the focus of an assessment. Rather, the focus is on whether students
show an understanding of the concepts tested in the multiple-choice format. Some stu-
dents best express their knowledge by being assessed with essay questions. Others best
express their grasp of new concepts when assessed by multiple-choice items. Strong
teachers use a mix of formats to assess student achievement because such variety is more
likely to provide valid inferences about student mastery of the learning goals.
In terms of avoiding bias, Maria addresses the opportunity to learn by ensuring
that students who don’t have computers at home will not be penalized by assignments
requiring technology such as PowerPoint slides. She plans to allocate class time in the
computer lab to complete the PowerPoint or other figures needed for any assignments
requiring computer technology. She will also ensure that students will not be tested on
content and skills that have not been thoroughly addressed in class—an issue of valid-
ity. She will take care to reduce any systematic scoring bias on her part through design-
ing scoring guides with relevant criteria, and she will spend time working with students
to clarify her scoring guides for them and for herself.
In terms of representing the diversity of the classroom, Maria began by including
writings by both male and female authors as resources (see Table 6.14). However, she
noticed most of these seemed to represent a Eurocentric perspective. After doing a
little research with an eye toward representing a wider range of groups, Maria decided
to add readings on Chinese notions of utopia/dystopia (e.g., Chairman Mao’s Little Red
Book) and the seventeenth-century social experiments begun by Jesuits in what are
now Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as Roland Joffe’s film The Mission. She
also decided to make explicit in class discussions and assessments some of the under-
lying tensions at work in any society between freedom and equality and between
political majorities and minorities. She intends to address issues of politics and power
directly. In addition, she decided to offer students opportunities to do research on
sometimes marginalized perspectives and found information on feminist utopias, Jew-
ish utopias, and musical utopias to get them started in thinking about potential topics.
These additions fit well within the framework of Maria’s learning goals, and the added
complexity will stretch students’ critical thinking skills. The additions also provide
more conflicting perspectives and controversial issues that can deepen and enrich stu-
dent understanding of the facets of utopias and dystopias and the implications for their
lives and for their own civic participation.

TA B L E 6 . 1 4
Resources for Unit on Utopia and Dystopia
Literature Films
Declaration of Independence Gattaca

Utopia, by Thomas More The Truman Show

1984, by George Orwell I, Robot

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury Pleasantville

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

“The ones who walk away from Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin

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Chapter Review Questions 181

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

We began this chapter by introducing four concepts that strongly influence assessment
quality. The first of these was reliability, or the degree to which scores on an assessment
are consistent and stable. We discussed three sources of error: assessment occasion,
assessment items, and scoring issues. We then suggested a number of ways to improve
reliability in classroom assessments, the most important of which is to provide mul-
tiple assessment opportunities to ensure sufficiency of information.
Next, we turned to a discussion of the validity of assessments, or the extent to
which an assessment provides an accurate, representative, and relevant measure of stu-
dent performance for its intended purpose. We discussed construct-related evidence as
the foundation for supporting validity. Because translating a construct into an assessment
can take so many forms, checks on whether your assessment accurately represents the
construct are crucial. We then described four sources for gathering construct-related
evidence: evidence based on logic and common sense, evidence based on variety of
formats, content-related evidence, and criterion-related evidence. Next, using these four
sources of evidence, we described a number of ways to improve the validity of classroom
assessments. Finally, in discussing the relationship between reliability and validity, we
made the case that reliability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for validity.
The next issue described in this chapter to consider when designing assessments
was avoiding bias. We discussed the bias pitfalls of unfair penalization, lack of oppor-
tunity to learn, and teacher bias. In discussing teacher bias, several issues were con-
sidered including microaggressions, the importance of monitoring interaction patterns
with students, and scoring biases.
Finally, we discussed the importance of representing the diversity of the class-
room in assessments. Problems to avoid include stereotypical representation (depiction
of groups in an oversimplified, clichéd manner), contextual invisibility (underrepre-
sentation of certain groups, customs, or lifestyles in curricular or assessment materials),
and historical distortions (presenting a single interpretation of an issue, perpetuating
oversimplification of complex issues, or avoiding controversial topics).
In the case study section, we reviewed the table of specifications for Maria Mensik’s
unit on utopias and dystopias to examine evidence for reliability and validity of her
assessments. We also discussed her efforts to represent diversity in her assessments.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.ncel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as500.htm
This section of the North Central Educational Laboratory website provides resources and video
clips related to enhancing the quality of assessments to support student learning.
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
The Understanding Prejudice website provides resources, interactive activities, and
demonstrations that provide a variety of perspectives on prejudice, stereotypes, and
appreciation of diversity. It was established with funding from the National Science
Foundation and McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Employing concepts from the section of the chapter on reliability, explain in
your own words why no important decision about any student should be made
on the basis of a single score.
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182 Chapter 6 Essential Characteristics of Assessment

2. Why is it important to explain that every score has an error component when
sharing a summative test score with parents or students?
3. Decide whether these student concerns are caused by problems with reliability
(R) or validity (V), and explain your reasoning:

V R The teacher tested us on the whole chapter, but she forgot to go over one section,
so the scores on the test of many students were much lower than they should
have been.

V R I had handed in a completed rough draft and she gave me a few comments on
how to improve what she herself called “a well-written paper.” After editing my
paper and incorporating all of her comments, I turned in my final draft. She
returned the paper a week later with a failing grade.

V R In my algebra class, all of the questions on tests were multiple choice and essay
even though during class we mostly worked problems.

V R In one of my high school classes, we would have short readings for homework.
To quiz us on the readings, the teacher would ask specific questions such as
“The word missing from this sentence is _____.” He didn’t test our overall
understanding.

V R In ninth grade I had a teacher who gave only one test for the entire semester. I
am not a good test taker, I get nervous and draw a blank. Everything I knew
left me and I received a low grade in the class even though I was there every
day, did all my homework and assignments, and participated regularly.

4. Think about a recent major classroom assessment you have completed in your
college classes. Did you feel it was a valid assessment? Explain why or why not,
demonstrating your understanding of at least two sources of validity evidence.
5. For another recent major classroom assessment you have completed, describe
the specific information your teacher ideally should have collected as
evidence for the validity of the assessment. Explain how you know whether
such evidence was collected or not. Would such evidence make the teacher
more or less confident of the decisions he or she made about the meaning of
the scores?
6. Why is content-related evidence the most important source of evidence for
validity in classroom assessment?
7. If you were chosen to debate whether validity or reliability is more important
for assessment, which side would you choose? Explain the reasoning for your
choice.
8. Think about your own experiences with people who are different from you.
Describe areas where you believe your experience is limited and could lead to
unintentional bias on your part as a classroom teacher.
9. Identify examples of microaggressions that you have observed or that have been
directed at you.
10. Describe classroom examples you have observed of unfair penalization, lack of
opportunity to learn, and teacher bias. With each example, describe what group
was targeted and what you would have done to rectify the situation.
11. Examine a textbook in your content area for stereotypical representation,
contextual invisibility, and historical distortions. Under each heading, provide
a list of specific examples.
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References 183

12. In your estimation, does Maria provide sufficient content-related evidence for
the validity of her assessments in the unit on utopias and dystopias? Justify your
answer. What additional evidence would be useful?

REFERENCES
Barbour, J. 2007. Grading on the guilty-liberal standard. Chronicle of Higher Education 53(42):
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service NO. EJ770974). Retrieved June 10, 2008 from
ERIC database.
Bell, L., S. Washington, G. Weinstein, and B. Love. 1997. Knowing ourselves as instructors. In
M. Adams, L. Bell, & P. Griffin (eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook,
pp. 299–310. New York: Routledge.
Brookhart, S. 2003. Developing measurement theory for classroom assessment purposes and
uses. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practices 22 (4): 5–12.
Fiske, S., and S. Taylor. 1991. Social cognition. 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Gorski, P. 2008. The myth of the “culture of poverty.” Educational Leadership 65 (7): 32–36.
Gronlund, N. 2006. Assessment of student achievement. 8th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Kahne, J., and S. Sporte. 2007. Educating for democracy: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: Consortium
on Chicago School Research. Retrieved October 2, 2007 from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/
content/publications.php?pub_id=117.
Macmillan-McGraw Hill. 1993. Reflecting diversity: Multicultural guidelines for educational
publishing professionals. New York: Author.
Ndura, E. 2004. ESL and cultural bias: An analysis of elementary through high school textbooks in
the Western United States of America. Language, Culture, and Curriculum 17 (2): 143–153.
Popham, W. J. April, 2007. Instructional insensitivity of tests: Accountability’s dire drawback.
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
Chicago, IL.
Shavelson, R., G. Baxter, and X. Gao. 1993. Sampling variability of performance assessments.
Journal of Educational Measurement 30: 215–232.
Smith, J. 2003. Reconsidering reliability in classroom assessment and grading. Educational
Measurement: Issues and Practices 22 (4): 26–33.
Sue, D., C. Capodilupo, G. Torino, J. Bucceri, A. Holder, K. Nadal, and M. Esquilin. 2007. Racial
microaggressions in everyday life. American Psychologist 62: 271–286.
Switzer, J. 1990. The impact of generic word choices. Sex Roles 22: 69.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 7

TEACHER-MADE ASSESSMENTS:
MULTIPLE-CHOICE AND OTHER
SELECTED-RESPONSE ITEMS
Perhaps the most common argument proponents of alternative assessment bring
against the use of [selected-response items] is this: [they] measure only recall and
other lower-order thinking skills whereas alternative methods of assessment require
students to exhibit the higher-order skills such as critical thinking, analysis,
synthesis, reasoning, and problem solving. If this were true, it would be a very
damning argument indeed, but neither assertion is altogether accurate.
–William Sanders and Sandra Horn (1995)

❖ Chapter Learning Goals

• Explain the use of interpretive
At the conclusion of this chapter,
exercises to assess higher-level
the reader should be able to do the
cognitive strategies using
following:
selected-response formats.
• Describe the formats, benefits,
• Avoid item-writing errors that are
and weaknesses of three types
often overlooked by teachers.
of selected-response items:
multiple-choice, true-false, • Format selected-response items and
and matching. arrange them in an assessment.
• Use guidelines to write items in • Describe methods to involve students
each format across the range of in the development of items.
cognitive skills from “remember” • Accommodate the selected-response
to “create.” format for diverse learners.

 INTRODUCTION
In this and the next two chapters, we examine three forms of assessment: selected-
response (e.g., multiple-choice, true-false, and matching), constructed-response
(e.g., short answer and essays), and performance assessments (e.g., science exper-
iments, music auditions, speeches). Used in combination, these forms of assessment
will provide you with information for making valid decisions about your students.
As we begin our look at these various forms of assessment, we start with the fol-
lowing guiding thoughts:
• A student should get an item or task correct because the student
understands the material, not because we gave clues to the answer or
because the student guesses well.
• A student should miss an item because the student does not understand the
material, not because we wrote confusing items or tasks, tricked the
student, or asked for trivial information.
185
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186 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

These guiding thoughts apply whether we are talking about true-false items,
multiple-choice questions, essay questions, or performance tasks. They remind us that
the purpose of our tests is to find out what our students know and are able to do.
In this chapter we focus on selected-response items. Selected-response items
offer choices from which a student decides on an answer. We look at three types of
selected-response formats: multiple-choice, true-false, and matching.

 GAOALS
LIGNING ITEMS WITH LEARNING
AND THINKING SKILLS
A first step in developing a test is to prepare a table of specifications based on the
learning goals that you covered during instruction (see Table 2.15). Based on the learn-
ing goals addressed in the unit, the table of specifications will ensure that you focus
your test development efforts on items related to instruction. The table of specifications
also prevents you from including test items based on learning goals that had to be
modified during the unit. Finally, the alignment between your instruction and the test
items will support you in making valid decisions about whether students have met the
learning goals associated with the instructional unit.

 SELECTED-RESPONSE FORMATS
Having developed a table of specifications, you are now ready to consider the formats
you can use in writing the items.

Multiple-Choice Formats
Stem Conventional multiple-choice items begin with a stem and offer three to five answer
The premise of a multiple choice options. The stem takes the form of a question or an incomplete statement (Figure 7.1).
item, usually a question or an Options are the potential answers, with one correct response and several plausible
incomplete statement.
incorrect responses. Incorrect responses are referred to as distracters because they cap-
Options
ture the attention of students who have not mastered the material. (This choice of term
Potential answers including one
correct response. is conventional but unfortunate because it sounds like teachers are trying to trick stu-
dents.) In Figure 7.1(a), Olive Crews, a high-school teacher, used the following question
Distracters
Incorrect options in multiple
format: What are the class boundaries when the class limits are 8–12? In Figure 7.1(b),
choice items. Rodney Grantham, who teaches Spanish to high school students, used the completion
format: Mis amigos son .
Alternate-Choice Item A second multiple-choice format is the alternate-choice item. This type of question
Selected-response item with only has only two options instead of the three to five options of the conventional multiple choice.
two options. An example is shown in Figure 7.2. Experts suggest that conventional multiple-choice

a b
1. What are the class boundaries when 8. Mis amigos son __________.
the class limits are 8–12?

a. 7–13 Stems a. cómica

b. 7.5–12.5* b. cómico
c. 8.5–12.5 Options c. cómicas
d. 10 d. cómicos*

Olive Crews Rodney Grantham

FIGURE 7.1 Examples of the (a) Question Format and (b) Completion Format for
Multiple-Choice Items
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Selected-Response Formats 187

5. In a food chain, rabbits are .

a. consumers*
b. producers

FIGURE 7.2 An Example of an Alternate-Choice Item

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

8. Look at the different kinds of animals in the pictures above. Which three of these animals
have a very large number of young every time they reproduce? Stem
A) 1, 2, and 4
B) 1, 4, and 6 Options with choices
C) 3, 5, and 6* grouped into sets
D) 4, 5, and 6

FIGURE 7.3 An Example of a Complex Multiple-Choice Item from the Fourth-Grade NAEP
Science Assessment
Adapted from the National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

items with three to five options often actually function as alternate-choice items because
they usually have only one plausible distracter (Haladyna & Downing, 1993). In the food
chain item, the choices are consumers and producers. As you recall from elementary
science class, food chains are composed of producers, consumers, and decomposers.
“Decomposers” is not a useful option, however, because these organisms are primarily
fungi and bacteria. Little would be gained by including decomposers as an option because
students would quickly eliminate this implausible distracter.
The third multiple-choice format is complex multiple choice. This type of item Complex Multiple Choice
consists of a stem followed by choices that are grouped into sets (Figure 7.3). The com- Selected response item with stem
plex multiple-choice format is more difficult than other formats. The student must con- followed by choices grouped into
more than one set.
sider each option, but also each combination within an option; so getting the answer
correct may depend on logical skills more than mastery of the content. A student could
know the material; however, in the juggling of the combinations within the options, the
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188 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

student might select the wrong answer. This type of format, then, can violate our guid-
ing thought that students should miss an item only if they do not understand the mate-
rial, and so we do not recommend it.
The example of the complex multiple-choice format in Figure 7.3 is from the
fourth-grade science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), a national test administered to a representative sample of students in grades
4, 8, and 12 (Greenwald, Persky, Campbell, & Mazzeo, 1999). The NAEP Assessment
provides descriptive information about examinees’ achievement in such areas as read-
ing, writing, mathematics, and science. Assessment results are reported by student
groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, family income level) at the state and national level. Items
on the test include multiple-choice, short constructed-response, extended constructed-
response, and performance tasks. Throughout this chapter we will use examples from
NAEP to illustrate the application of item-writing guidelines we are discussing.

When to Use the Multiple-Choice Format

The multiple-choice format can be useful to assess learning when an instructional unit
covers a broad range of content. This format can be used to assess students in the
cognitive processes of remembering, understanding, applying, and analyzing. However,
the processes of evaluating and creating are difficult to assess with the multiple-choice
format and may require use of essays and other performance assessments, which are
the topics of Chapters 8 and 9.
Some experts suggest that the multiple-choice or alternate-choice format may be
particularly useful for assessing students with special needs. Myers and Pearson (1996)
found that students who were unable to complete typical portfolio entries were able to
demonstrate what they had learned by correctly completing some multiple-choice
items. They note that “data from multiple choice tests provided significant information
about students at the low end of the scale on some performance tasks.” Thus they sug-
gest that “data from multiple choice tests may turn out to be useful sources of informa-
tion on students who provide only minimal performance data in portfolios.”

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Multiple-Choice Format

Using multiple-choice questions has the advantage of potentially broader coverage of the
learning goals. Multiple-choice items take less time to complete because the answer
options are provided. Essay questions and performance tasks require time for students
to organize their ideas and record them. Given that multiple-choice items can be answered
quickly, you can ask more questions and therefore represent the content more adequately
with a wide range of multiple-choice items rather than with a few essay questions.
Using a greater number of multiple-choice items in a test, as contrasted with a
limited number of essay items, will also likely produce higher reliability. For example, if
you develop 35 multiple-choice items from the learning goals based on a unit, you are
likely to sample the range of material covered in that unit. In contrast, for a test that uses
only essay questions, you will not be able to ask about as many topics as you did for the
multiple-choice test. Writing out responses takes more time for students; so fewer essay
questions can be asked. With 35 multiple-choice items, a student’s performance is less
likely to depend on luck. If you touch on only 6–8 topics in a test using essay questions,
you might select the topics that students struggled with and you might omit topics that
they did grasp. The greater number of multiple-choice items allows you to sample from a
broader range of topics, making it less likely that students’ scores will be influenced because
you sampled topics that they did not grasp or omitted concepts that they did learn.
Another advantage of multiple-choice and selected-response items is scoring
efficiency. The teacher creates an answer key and does not have to make a judgment
about the quality of each student’s response.
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Selected-Response Formats 189

Dissatisfaction with multiple-choice items in the past has focused on their

assumed reliance on factual content only. As noted in the quote at the beginning of
the chapter, assessment experts contend that measuring students’ ability to analyze,
synthesize information, make comparisons, draw inferences, and evaluate ideas are all
possible with multiple-choice items (e.g., Sanders & Horn, 1995; Worthen & Spandel,
1991). Assessing such complex skills, however, generally requires the use of the inter-
pretive exercise, an item format that we will discuss at the end of this section.
We need to say that we are not advocating exclusive use of multiple-choice assess-
ment items. The advantages of other types of items are addressed in future chapters.
Each type of assessment item has advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly, multiple
forms of assessment are needed for a balanced picture of student achievement.
A potential disadvantage of the multiple-choice format is the lack of student
motivation when assessed in this manner. We have seen the excitement of students as
they participated in a debate about social issues, which showcased their understanding
of the debate format and the social issues being debated. Such engagement is not often
seen when students complete a multiple-choice test or an essay test. Assessments that
energize students are more likely to promote student motivation and encourage stu-
dents to achieve learning goals.

True-False Formats
True-false items provide a statement, also referred to as a proposition, and the student True-False Items
must determine whether the statement is correct or incorrect. An example of a true- Items that provide a statement that
false item is the following: the student must determine to be
correct or incorrect.
T* F One acceptable syllable pattern for a limerick is 9-9-5-5-9.
Sometimes the answer options are Yes/No or Correct/Incorrect.
A variation of the true-false format is to have students correct the false part of
a statement. For example, the question on the syllables pattern for limericks might read
as follows:
T F* One acceptable syllable pattern for a limerick is 8-8-9-9-8.
Then the students would be instructed, “For false statements, correct the underlined
part of the item to make the statement true.” In this case a student might change the
pattern to 8-8-6-6-8 or some other variation that falls within the general syllable pat-
tern for limericks. The requirement to correct the underlined part of the statement
reduces the effect of guessing, but it requires more detailed scoring and, thus, increases Multiple True-False Items
the amount of grading time. Several choices follow a scenario or
question and the student indicates
Another form of the true-false item is the multiple true-false (Figure 7.4). This whether each choice is correct or
format combines the multiple-choice and true-false formats. In the multiple true-false incorrect.

A farmer has a small pond that has recently had a lot of algae growth. Which of the following
statements are actions the farmer might take and the possible results? Indicate whether each
statement is true (T) or false (F).
T F* 5. Adding fertilizer will kill the algae.
T* F 6. Adding small fish to the pond will reduce the amount of algae.
T F* 7. Introducing small fish to the pond will attract herbivores.

FIGURE 7.4 Example of a Multiple True-False Item

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190 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

item, several choices follow a question or scenario, and the student indicates whether
each choice is true or false.

When to Use the True-False Format

Intuitively, it appears that the true-false item would be useful for assessing young
students. However, critics of true-false items raise the concern that the presentation of
a false statement may have a detrimental impact on students’ learning because appear-
ing in print on a test can lend plausibility to erroneous information. Because this
Negative-Suggestion Effect negative-suggestion effect would most likely apply to young children, true-false items
Concern that appearance in print should be used only with older students.
lends plausibility to erroneous
information.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the True-False Format
Like multiple-choice items, true-false items have the advantage that more items can be
included in the test. Because students have only two options to consider, they can answer
even more true-false items in a test than multiple-choice items. True-false items allow
you to assess many facts, concepts, and other material covered in an instructional unit.
Problems with guessing pose limitations to simple true-false items. A student
who is guessing an answer has a 50/50 chance of getting the item correct. In contrast,
if you use a multiple-choice item with four options, a student has only a 1 in 4 chance
of guessing correctly. Thus, scores on true-false tests can be influenced by guessing.
Another potential disadvantage of the true-false format is that it is generally
associated with lower cognitive levels than the multiple-choice format (Downing et al.,
1995). However, consider the example about the limerick syllable pattern, which
requires students to determine whether the pattern fits the form for limericks, a think-
ing skill at least at the understanding level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Matching Format
Matching Formats
Two parallel columns of items A final form of selected response is matching. As shown in Figure 7.5, in a matching
(termed premises and answers) are exercise two columns are formed. In the left-hand column, you list a set of premises
listed and the student indicates
which items from each column (e.g., statements, questions, phrases). In the right-hand column, you list the answers
belong together in pairs. (sometimes referred to as responses). Generally, the premises, or lengthier phrases,

Directions: Write the letter from the “Measurement Units” box on the line next to the best
choice. Some measurement units are used more than once.
5. Which measurement unit should you use?
Measurement Units
1. length of the playground
a. centimeter
2. the height of a house b. kilometer
3. the distance between cities c. meter
d. millimeter
4. the length of a baby
5. the tip of a pencil
6. the width of your hand
PREMISES ANSWERS

FIGURE 7.5 Example of a Matching Item

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Selected-Response Formats 191

should be placed on the left. The answers, or briefer phrases, appear on the right. In
Figure 7.5, the answer column contains the measurement units and the premise col-
umn lists the objects (e.g., house, playground) to be measured.

When to Use the Matching Format

The matching format is useful when the learning goal requires students to connect two
types of facts. An example is linking countries and their major exports. This example, how-
ever, addresses only knowledge-level cognitive skills. To address comprehension, analysis,
or application, you would need to modify the task. For example, if you want students to
categorize information, a skill at the analysis level, the premises might be examples and
the answers might be categories. Figure 7.6 illustrates this approach with responses that
are categories of organisms and premises that are examples to be categorized. For the
items to address higher-order thinking, however, the examples (e.g., mushroom) should
be new to the students, and they should not have been used during instruction.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Matching Format

As was the case for multiple-choice and true-false, the matching format allows a teacher
to assess a broad span of student learning. Students can quickly read a premise, scan
the responses for the correct answer, record their responses, and move to the next
problem. Although this format is criticized for mainly assessing at the knowledge level,
the cognitive skill students use with matching items may require analysis or application
levels if students assign novel examples to broader categories, as shown in Figures 7.5
and 7.6. This format can thus provide evidence that students have mastered skills, such
as classification, in a quick but reliable way. The challenge with this format is the difficulty
in writing matching items that require more complex thinking.

Interpretive Exercises and Assessing Higher-Level

Cognitive Levels
The interpretive exercise is a selected-response item preceded by material a student Interpretive Exercise
must interpret to answer the question. A set of directions should indicate which items A selected-response item preceded
require the student to use the material. Next comes the interpretive material. Types of by material the student must
analyze or interpret to answer
interpretive materials include graphs, reading passages, diagrams, maps, and chemical the question.
equations. The interpretive material should be new to the students, but it should
require the same understanding and skills that were the focus of the learning goals.
The student must analyze the interpretive material (e.g., graph, picture) to answer
questions that follow. That is, students should not be able to answer the question

Directions: Write the letter from the “Types of Organisms” box on the line next to the best
choice. Some organism types are used more than once.
1. apple tree
Types of Organisms
2. fox
a. consumer
3. mold b. decomposer
4. mushroom c. producer

5. rabbit

FIGURE 7.6 Example of a Matching Item That Requires Categorization

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192 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

Questions 8–9 ⎫
The table below shows information about the weather in four ⎬ Directions
cities on the same day. ⎭
City City City City ⎫
1 2 3 4 ⎮
High Temperature 65 F 80 F 48 F 25 F ⎮ Interpretive
Low Temperature
⎬ Material
56 F 66 F 38 F 10 F ⎮
Precipitation—Rain or
2 in 0 in 1 in 1 in
⎮
Snow (inches) ⎭
8. In which city did snow most likely fall at some time during the day?
A) City 1
B) City 2
C) City 3
D) City 4*

FIGURE 7.7 Example of an Interpretive Exercise for Science

SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

without reference to the graph or picture. The multiple-choice item in Figure 7.7 is an
interpretive exercise used in the NAEP science assessment for fourth grade.

When to Use the Interpretive Exercise Format

The interpretive exercise is useful for measuring higher-level thinking. This format
lends itself particularly well to assessing procedural knowledge, such as how to read
graphs and diagrams. The exercise in Figure 7.7, for example, requires students to
comprehend the graph elements (rows, columns, cells, headers), read the information
in the table, analyze the information, and draw conclusions.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Interpretive Exercise Format

In addition to measuring higher-order thinking skills, interpretive exercises allow a teacher
to assess concepts in more depth than the typical multiple-choice item. When you design
an interpretive exercise, you should include at least two or three questions addressing the
introductory material. Doing so takes full advantage of the chart, table, or passage you
are using. Several questions make more efficient use of your time in carefully selecting a
passage or a table and the students’ time in interpreting the introductory material during
the test. For example, Figure 7.7 could also be used to ask the following:
• What was the high temperature for City 1?
• Which city had the highest temperature?
Our students see interpretive exercises as more interesting because, to assess higher
cognitive levels, the interpretive exercises require application of knowledge to new
situations students have not encountered in class. For example, in English, new material
could be a poem in a style studied in class, but by a different author. In social studies, the
interpretive material could be a document or letter from a certain time period, as in Laura
Clark’s example from an eighth-grade unit on the Civil War (Figure 7.8).
Also, with increased use of computers for instruction and assessment, interpre-
tive materials now can include movement of graphics and the inclusion of sound. The
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Selected-Response Formats 193

Read the following entry of a soldier’s diary. From the information he provides, deter-
mine which “side” this soldier is fighting for. Then answer the questions based on his
view of the Civil War.
We get further and further from home everyday. After we lost the first big battle, my old
job at the factory does not seem so bad. Morale is low. We are tired. However, more sup-
plies and troops are coming which helps to build our strength. Gen. Grant says we move
out tomorrow towards the Mississippi River. I hope we succeed in our mission.
1. Which state do you think this soldier is from?
A. Maryland*
B. New Mexico
C. Virginia
2. How might this soldier defend his reason for going to war?
A. Federalism*
B. Fifth Amendment
C. Fugitive Slave Act
3. To which political party would this soldier most likely belong?
A. Constitutional Union
B. Democratic
C. Republican*

FIGURE 7.8 Example of an Interpretive Exercise That Uses a Fictional Entry from a
Soldier’s Diary

Use the following animated figure to answer item 2.

2. What does the person change?

A. Facing
B. Level
C. Pathway
D. Weight*

FIGURE 7.9 Example of an Interpretive Exercise That Uses Movement

SOURCE: South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP). 2002. Reprinted with permission.

South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP) administers a computer-based test

on the Internet (Yap, 2005). Administration of a test by computer allows animation or
video clips to be used as interpretive material. For example, in a sample test for dance,
an animated stick figure (Figure 7.9) shifts its weight to the left, moves to an upright
position, shifts to its right knee, and returns to the upright position. Then the student
must determine which element of dance is demonstrated.
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194 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

3. Look at the rhythm patterns below. Which of the 4 rhythm patterns matches the one
you hear?

A.

B.

C.

D.

FIGURE 7.10 Example of the Options for an Interpretive Exercise in Music

SOURCE: South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP). 2002. Reprinted with permission.

Sound is also incorporated into the interpretive exercises in music for the SCAAP
(Yap et al., 2005). To answer the item shown in Figure 7.10, fourth-grade students
listen to a music clip; then the students select the option that matches the rhythm
pattern that they heard.
Another advantage of the interpretive exercise is that after you have designed an
exercise addressing important information related to one of your learning goals, you
can use many variations of the same basic item as you modify your tests for new groups
of students. You can change the interpretive material (e.g., a different poem, music clip,
map, or literary passage), and/or you can change some of the questions about the
interpretive material (e.g., offer different rhythm patterns to choose, require different
distances to be calculated).
This format, however, takes more administration time than other selected-response
item formats. For example, the NAEP fourth-grade science item in Figure 7.11 requires
students to read the problem, draw conclusions about Julio’s pulse rate, then analyze
each bar graph to determine if it represents the pattern of Julio’s pulse rate. Because this
takes more time than other selected-response formats, the number of such items must
be limited.

 GUIDELINES FOR ITEM DEVELOPMENT

To help you to develop clear items, we first present some general guidelines for item
development that apply to the various selected-response formats. Subsequently, we
offer rules specific to each of the item formats.
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Guidelines for Item Development 195

1. Julio wanted to know how his pulse rate changed when C)

he ran very fast. Julio measured his pulse rate before
he started running, while he was running, and two
minutes after he stopped running. Which graph best
Pulse rate
shows how Julio’s pulse rate changed? (beats per
minute)
A)

Pulse rate Before During After

(beats per running running running
minute)
D)*

Before During After

Pulse rate
running running running
(beats per
minute)
B)

Pulse rate Before During After

(beats per running running running
minute)

Before During After

running running running

FIGURE 7.11 Example of an NAEP Item with the Interpretive Material in the Options
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

General Guidelines for All Selected-Response Formats

General guidelines to apply in the development of selected-response items include
assessing important content across cognitive levels, keeping reading skills at an appro-
priate level, following the conventions of written language, portraying the diversity of
your classroom, avoiding the introduction of bias, and omitting humor in a testing
situation. Table 7.1 lists the general guidelines.

Assess Important Content Across the Range of Cognitive Levels

The items in your assessment should be based on the subject-area content standards
and represent a range of cognitive skills (e.g., remember, understand, apply, analyze,
etc.). Developing your table of specifications will help you to meet this requirement.
Not all content, however, is equal. Each item should be based on important
content to learn, and you should avoid trivial content. For example, we know of an
instructor of a literacy course who included in her final examination a test item about
the technical term for the ә symbol. The symbol, referred to as a schwa, is found in
the pronunciation key of dictionaries. Such a practice is similar to instructors who
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196 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

TA B L E 7 . 1
General Guidelines for Writing Selected-Response Items
Each item should assess important content across the range of cognitive levels.

An assessment should not require advanced reading skills unless it is a test of literacy skills.

Selected-response items should follow the conventions of written language (e.g., spelling,
grammar, and punctuation).

Items in a test should portray the diversity of the classroom.

Avoid introducing bias in an assessment.

The use of humor in a test is not advised.

write test items asking about details from a caption accompanying a diagram or infor-
mation addressed in a footnote. Items should address the key facts, concepts, and
procedures addressed in an instructional unit.
You should also incorporate novel material that has not been discussed explicitly
in class. In Figure 7.5, for example, the objects that are to be measured (e.g., length of
a playground, height of a house) should be different than the objects used during
instruction. Also, keep the content of each item independent from content of other
items on the test. For example, refer to the eighth-grade items from the NAEP civics
item shown in Figure 7.12. After a student answers item 4, the student might think
that the answer to 4 should be the basis for answering item 5, thus influencing the
student’s answer to item 5. If the student got the first one wrong, the student would
also get the second one wrong.

Keep the Reading Level Simple

A critical issue in developing a test is its reading level. As we discussed in Chapter 6,
complex reading or writing demands in a science assessment might lower scores of
students because of unfamiliar language or demands of writing rather than because of
the students’ lack of understanding. Because irrelevant skills influenced the score, the
validity of the assessment is questionable. Thus, an assessment should not require
advanced reading skills unless it is a test of literacy skills.
You can use the spelling and grammar tool in Microsoft Office Word 2007 to get
an estimate of the reading level for a test item. As shown in Figure 7.13, highlight the
text for which you want to get a reading level, click the Review tab, and click the Spell-
ing & Grammar option. A pop-up window states that Word has completed checking
the selection and asks whether you want it to check the rest of the document. When
you select No, the pop-up with the readability statistics appears.
For example, the entry from the soldier’s diary in Figure 7.8 has a Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level index of 4.0, which means a fourth-grade student should understand the
passage. Therefore, the eighth-grade students in Laura Clark’s history class should be
able to read the entry. The Flesch Reading Ease has a 100-point scale. As the score
increases, the document is easier to read. With a score of 82.2, the soldier’s diary is
fairly easy to read. The scores for both readability indices are based on the average
number of syllables per word and the number of words per sentence. Thus, you can
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Guidelines for Item Development 197

Questions 4–5 refer to the bar graph below.

REPORTED VOTER TURNOUT BY AVERAGE INCOME, 1992

(as a percentage of voting-age population)

80

70

60 80%
76%

50
66%
Percentage

40

52%
30

20
37%

10

0
Under $10,000– $20,000– $25,000– $50,000 and
$10,000 19,999 24,999 49,999 over
Income

4. The graph shows that

A) young people are more likely to vote than are older people.
B) the higher someone’s income is, the more likely he or she is to vote.
C) the incomes of certain groups of voters have increased dramatically.
D) wealthy people tend to have different political views than do people with less money.
5. Give one explanation for the pattern of voter turnout shown in the graph.

FIGURE 7.12 Example of NAEP Items in Which a Student’s Answer May Influence Answers
to Other Items
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP questions. Reprinted with permission.

control the reading level required by your assessments by keeping vocabulary simple
and by attending to the length of the sentences.
Another factor possibly contributing to reading demands is the use of negatives
in an item. In developing items, when possible, word the stem positively and avoid
negatives such as not or except. Sometimes, however, you want to know if students
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198 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

FIGURE 7.13 Illustration of the Calculation of the Grade Level of Test Materials
Reprinted with permission of Microsoft.

11. Which of the following is a problem that could NOT be solved by one nation alone?
A) National debt
B) Highway traffic
C) Ocean pollution*
D) Government corruption

FIGURE 7.14 An Item That Uses NOT in the Stem

SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

recognize a non-example. If a negative word is used, write it in boldface and/or capi-

talized: NOT or EXCEPT. The word “NOT” appears in all capitals in the eighth-grade
civics item from NAEP in Figure 7.14.

Use Conventions of Written Language in Writing Items

Selected-response items should follow the conventions of written language (e.g., spell-
ing, grammar, and punctuation). For multiple-choice, alternate-choice, or interpretive
exercise formats, when the item is an incomplete statement, as in Figure 7.1(b), the
options should begin with a lowercase letter—unless the first word is a proper noun—
and the stem should end with the appropriate punctuation mark (e.g., period). When
the item is a question, if the options are complete sentences (such as in Figure 7.15),
capitalize and punctuate as appropriate for each sentence. One more convention: when
the item is a question and the options are phrases, capitalize the first word of the phrase
(see Figure 7.14). Given the need to follow conventions of language, prior to finalizing
a test, you should edit and proof all items.
After a workshop on writing multiple-choice items, a teacher approached us and
stated that she did not worry about capitalization because she used ALL CAPS for her
tests. She appeared to be seeking our approval for her use of ALL CAPS. However, we
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Guidelines for Item Development 199

Question 5 refers to the quote below.

Sojourner Truth said these words in 1852.
I hears talk about the constitution and rights of man. I come up and I takes hold of this
constitution. It looks mighty big. And I feels for my rights, but they not there.
5. What did Sojourner Truth want to communicate with her words?
A) Poor people did not know what was written in the Constitution.
B) African Americans were not allowed to read the Constitution.
C) The Constitution did not talk about the rights of African Americans.*
D) The Constitution needed to talk about the rights of Native Americans.

FIGURE 7.15 Fourth-Grade NAEP History Item with Options Written in Complete Sentences
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

14. A farmer thinks that the vegetables on her farm are not getting enough water. Her
son suggests that they use water from the nearby ocean to water the vegetables. Is this
a good idea?
A) Yes, because there is plenty of ocean water.
B) Yes, because ocean water has many natural fertilizers.
C) No, because ocean water is too salty for plants grown on land.*
D) No, because ocean water is much more polluted than rainwater.

FIGURE 7.16 NAEP Science Item That Challenges Stereotypes

SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

stated that her tests serve as models of the conventions of language and her unique
use of capitalization did not provide appropriate models. In addition, the use of ALL
CAPS is likely to make reading more difficult (Thompson & Thurlow, 2002), thus
increasing reader fatigue.

Depict Diversity in Items

As discussed in Chapter 6, items in a test should portray the diversity of the classroom.
Interpretive exercises use scenarios, tables, and pictures to provide context for a prob-
lem. Therefore, the images or data should depict the diversity of the classroom and the
culture at large. To avoid bias, you should attend to whether the items introduce ste-
reotypical representation, support contextual invisibility, or portray historical distortions
(see Chapter 6). For example, do items foster stereotypes in areas such as interests,
dress, activities, and professions? Or are stereotypes challenged—for example, by por-
traying senior citizens as energetic participants in activities? Are African American
females presented in a variety of professions, such as medicine or law? In images and
narrative, are classrooms diverse in composition, including, for example, students of
African, Asian, European, and Hispanic origins? Stop for a moment and read the
fourth-grade NAEP science item in Figure 7.16.
Were you expecting the farmer to be a woman? For most of us, the phrase “her
farm” was a surprise. As soon as we read “A farmer thinks . . .” we had formed a mental
image of a male farmer. When we came to the phrase “her farm,” we had to shift our
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200 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

B O X 7 . 1

A Reflection on Reviewing Test Items babysat for 5 hours, and she earned 20 dollars. The jeans
for Stereotypes Mary would like to buy cost 40 dollars.
One of the word problems in the test described a girl who 22. How many more hours does she need to babysit to be
wanted to buy a new pair of jeans and babysat to earn the able to buy the new jeans?
money she needed. This scenario may promote the idea that A. 3*
babysitting is typical for girls, or that girls are usually preoc- B. 10
cupied by clothes. Therefore, a male was chosen as the char- C. 12
acter of this word problem. Additionally, the objective of D. 40
buying a new pair of jeans was replaced with the one of buy-
ing a new pair of ice skates, because ice-skating is not typical Revised Item:
for just one gender and does not have any stereotypical con-
Sam wants new ice skates and he started babysitting to earn
notations.
the amount of money he needs. On Monday, Sam babysat for
2 hours, and he earned 8 dollars. On Tuesday, he babysat for
Original Item: 5 hours, and he earned 20 dollars. The skates Sam would like
Directions: Read the following sentences and use the infor- to buy cost 40 dollars.
mation provided to answer questions 22, 23, and 24. Indi-
22. How many more hours does he need to babysit to be
cate your response by circling the letter next to the best
able to buy the new skates?
answer.
A. 3*
Mary wants a new pair of jeans and she started babysitting to B. 10
earn the amount of money she needs. On Monday, Mary C. 12
babysat for 2 hours, and she earned 8 dollars. On Tuesday, she D. 40

image, evidence of our unintentional stereotyping. Being aware of potential sources of

bias will help you to represent the diversity of your students’ cultures.
Awareness of the issue of bias in selected-response items led Diana Luminiţa
Mîndrilă, a special education teacher, to edit one of her interpretive exercises to avoid
stereotyping. As shown in Box 7.1, originally the interpretive exercise described a
young girl who was babysitting to earn money to buy some new clothes. Diana’s insight
was that the description “may promote the idea that babysitting is typical for girls, or
that girls are usually preoccupied with clothes.” She subsequently edited the item to
remove the potential for stereotyping.
In another instance, one of our students developed an interpretive exercise that
required students to translate a French passage based on the story of Cinderella. Before
using such interpretive materials, we should step back and ask whether the passage is
appropriate or whether it promotes stereotypes of passive females waiting for their
prince to rescue them.
At this point you might wonder whether it is ever appropriate to portray people
in a typical role, such as a female nurse or male lawyer. The answer is that you want
to achieve balance. For example, teachers are often females; however, some teachers
are male. So, in our presentation of teachers, we describe teachers as females and as
males. Where we start to stereotype is when we always portray a farmer as male, a
teacher as female, or a babysitter as female.
In terms of contextual invisibility, review both your instructional unit and its
assessment to see whether you include the broad range of peoples contributing to the
narrative of history. Does, for example, an instructional unit on art in culture portray
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Guidelines for Item Development 201

Answer questions 5–7 based on the following excerpt from Beverly Buchanan’s artist
statement.
My work is about, I think, responses. My response to what I’m calling GROUNDINGS. A
process of creating objects that relate to but are not reproductions of structures, houses
mainly lived in now or abandoned that served as home or an emotional grounding. What’s
important for me is the total look of the piece. Each section must relate to the whole struc-
ture. There are new groundings, but old ones help me ask questions and see possible stories
as answers. Groundings are everywhere. I’m trying to make houses and other objects that
show what some of them might look like now and in the past. (Buchanan, 2007)
7. Which of the following artist quotes would Beverly Buchanan most agree with based
on her artist statement?
A. “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”
Edgar Degas
B. “Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought
together.” Vincent Van Gogh*
C. “I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can
explore.” Georgia O’Keeffe

FIGURE 7.17 Visual Arts Item About the Works of Beverly Buchanan, an African
American Artist

the contributions of women artists? If so, does the assessment for the unit gauge stu-
dent learning about the role of women artists? A visual arts unit by Leslie Drews, an
art teacher, provides an illustration of making visible the contributions of women in
the arts. In Leslie’s unit, she draws from the works of Beverly Buchanan, an African
American artist. The interpretive exercise in Figure 7.17 requires students to analyze
a quote from Buchanan’s artist statement and then compare its meaning to quotes from
other artists—both male and female. In this manner, Leslie contributes to lifting the
veil of contextual invisibility and acknowledging the works of women and African
American artists.
Review the NAEP history item in Figure 7.18. Which people are the focus of this
question? Asking fourth-grade students about the Sinaguan people reminds students
that American history is multicultural with many diverse people contributing to the
story of the United States of America.
Historical distortions occur when instructional units and assessment materials
present only one interpretation of an issue or avoid sensitive topics. For example, a social
studies standard might indicate that students should be able to do the following:
Summarize the Holocaust and its impact on European society and Jewish culture,
including Nazi policies to eliminate the Jews and other minorities, the “Final
Solution,” and the war crimes trials at Nuremberg. (SCDE, 2005, p. 58)
Although focus would naturally be on Nazi actions and atrocities, historical com-
pleteness would require acknowledging the refusal of some countries to help Jewish
refugees fleeing the Third Reich (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007c).
Similarly, when allied forces liberated prisoners in concentration camps, they did not
free all those who were persecuted by the Nazis. Rather, allied forces transferred some
of the gay men who were liberated from concentration camps to German prisons to serve
the remainder of their sentences (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007a).
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202 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

Questions 1–2 refer to the picture below.

1. The remains of this Sinaguan cliff house tell us something about the way ancient people lived in what is now the
southwestern part of the United States. Which of the activities below would be the best way to learn how the Sinaguan
people lived in ancient times?
A) Talk to people living near the cliff houses
B) Study letters and diaries left in the cliff houses
C) Camp out in the cliff houses for a couple of days
D) Study tools, bones, and pottery left in the cliff houses*

FIGURE 7.18 NAEP Item That Presents the Multicultural Aspect of United States History
Adapted from National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

An assessment that includes only Item A in Figure 7.19 would contribute to

historical distortion about the role of various countries in the liberation of prisoners
in the Nazi camps. Inclusion of Items B and C in the test would create a more balanced
view of the United States and allied forces in their treatment of those who were per-
secuted by the Nazis. Notice that we did not indicate that Item B or C should replace
Item A. Such a change would also be historical distortion. The challenge for the teacher
is to develop instructional units and assessments that present the multiple aspects of
history and culture.
The twelfth-grade NAEP civics item in Figure 7.20 avoids historical distortion
by including both facts: President Eisenhower did act to protect the rights of African
American students to attend an all-white school, even though he had originally opposed
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Guidelines for Item Development 203

A B C

6. Which country contributed most 11. Which country did NOT 15. Allied forces transferred members from
to liberating Jews and others provide help to Jewish which group to German prisons after their
from Nazi concentration camps? refugees on the St. Louis? liberation from the concentration camps?
a. Italy a. Belgium a. Gay men*
b. Japan b. Denmark b. Jews
c. United States of America* c. United States of America* c. Soviets

FIGURE 7.19 Multiple-Choice Items That Relate to Historical Distortions

Questions 17–19 are based on the passage below.

On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that laws man-
dating racially segregated public school systems were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court
later argued that federal courts should take steps to bring about the integration of segre-
gated school systems “with all deliberate speed.”
In 1957, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called on the National Guard to turn
away nine African American students as they attempted to enter Central High School in
Little Rock. President Eisenhower, who did not support the Brown decision, called out fed-
eral troops to protect the rights of the African American students to attend the school.
18. President Eisenhower called out federal troops because he
A) had a long career in the military.
B) believed that the governor needed his assistance.
C) was required by the Constitution to enforce the rule of law.*
D) wanted to show that the federal government would protect the rights of protesters.

FIGURE 7.20 NAEP Item That Presents Balanced View of a Historical Event
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

the Supreme Court’s decision in the case. Thus, the item presents a balanced view of
a historical event.

Avoid Bias
In addition to representing diversity, you should avoid introducing bias in an assess-
ment. For example, the fourth-grade science item from NAEP in Figure 7.21 may
introduce bias because of the options offered. Students may not have had equal oppor-
tunity to be familiar with the instruments. The options use language likely to be known
by students in upper middle class homes or wealthy schools. Whether students from
low-income homes or underfunded schools have access to such equipment is question-
able because such science equipment is expensive and, in the case of the “periscope”
option, obscure.
Evidence of bias in this item, however, is equivocal. The NAEP website also
provides statistics on the percentage of students who correctly answered an item. Per-
centage correct is provided for various student groups. The science item in Figure 7.21
was correctly answered by 90 percent of students not eligible for free and reduced-fee
lunch versus 81 percent of students who received free or reduced-fee lunch (National
Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2005). Percentage correct was 90 percent for
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204 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

1. If you wanted to be able to look at the stars, the planets, and the Moon more closely,
what should you use?
A) Magnifying glass
B) Microscope
C) Periscope
D) Telescope*

FIGURE 7.21 An Item That Might Exhibit Bias for Students from Low-Income Homes
and Schools
Adapted from National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

white students, 79 percent for African American students, and 82 percent for Hispanic
students. Reviewing items to determine if the concepts are addressed in instruction
and the language is accessible to all students helps to avoid bias.

Avoid Humor in a Test Setting

In developing items in general, one more issue should be considered. An assessment is
a serious endeavor to determine which concepts and skills students have learned and
which materials they have not yet mastered. Given this fact, the use of humor in a test
is not advised, although some writers indicate it may be permissible (Haladyna, Downing,
& Rodriquez, 2002). We know of an instance where a ninth-grade teacher candidate
infused humor into one of his geometry tests. A student who did not do well on the
test, however, shared the test and its misguided humor with her parents. The parents
complained to the supervising teacher and the teacher candidate was reprimanded.
Humor during instruction can lessen the stress of learning new materials; however,
humor has the potential to interfere with students’ focus during an assessment.

Guidelines for Specific Item Formats

Multiple-Choice Format
Table 7.2 shows guidelines specific to writing multiple-choice items. In this section, we
elaborate on the guidelines and provide examples of their application.

Write Clear Stems One key to developing effective multiple-choice items is to ensure
that the stem clearly conveys what the test taker should do with the item. The stem

TA B L E 7 . 2
Guidelines for Writing Multiple-Choice Items
Write a clear stem for the multiple-choice item.

Develop distracters that provide insight into student learning.

Develop reasonable options.

Arrange multiple-choice options in a logical order.

Avoid providing clues to an answer.

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Guidelines for Item Development 205

3. Peace treaties are usually signed by

A) cities.
B) countries.*
C) states.
D) townships.

FIGURE 7.22 A Completion Item in Which the Stem Structures the Problem to Be Addressed
Adapted from National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

Use the following poem to answer question 8.

In a patch of snow
A lone purple crocus blooms.
Winter .
8. Which is the best ending for the poem?
A. is done
B. melts away*
C. winds blow

FIGURE 7.23 Example of an Interpretive Exercise with Distracters That Provide Information
about Student Misconceptions

must structure the problem to be addressed. This is often best accomplished by having
the stem ask a direct question, especially for beginning item writers. Stems should also
be fairly short and the vocabulary simple. In the fourth-grade NAEP civics item in
Figure 7.22, the problem to be addressed is who the signatory parties in a peace treaty
are, so it communicates clearly what students should do with the item. When the item
uses the completion format, the omitted information should occur at the end, or near
the end, of the stem as shown in Figure 7.22.

Develop Distracters That Provide Insight into Student Learning In designing options
for selected-response items, develop distracters that can help you understand students’
thinking. Student choice of a distracter can provide diagnostic information about why
a student missed an item if distracters include misconceptions, faulty algorithms, or
incomplete calculations (Clarke et al., 2006). If the distracters contain common mis-
conceptions or errors typically made by students with partial knowledge, a test with
multiple-choice items can serve as a formative assessment that informs later instruc-
tional decisions. For example, in Figure 7.23, option B is the correct answer because
the phrase “melts away” completes the vignette described in the haiku and provides
the appropriate number of syllables (i.e., 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the
second line, and 5 syllables on the third line). If a student chose option A, the teacher
knows that the student likely realizes the poem must have meaning (i.e., Winter is
done); however, the student may not understand the 5-7-5 syllable pattern required
for a haiku. Option C indicates that the student may not understand the syllable pat-
tern and may think that haiku must rhyme.
In addition, the options provided should be conceptually similar. In the fourth-
grade NAEP item in Figure 7.24, the options are conceptually similar: in options A,
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206 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

2. Which shows 3/4 of the picture shaded?

A)

*
B)

C)

D)

FIGURE 7.24 Example of an NAEP Multiple-Choice Item with Distracters That Provide
Information About Student Misconceptions
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

Most children begin to walk unassisted at

a. 6–8 months.
b. 9–12 months. Overlapping options
c. 12–16 months.

FIGURE 7.25 Item with Overlapping Options

B, and D, three parts of the figure are shaded. In option A, however, the shaded parts
are 3 of 7, not 3 of 4. In option D, 3 of 4 parts are shaded; however, the shaded parts
are not of equal size. These options, then, provide information about the partial knowl-
edge that students have and implications for additional instruction on fractions.

Develop Reasonable Options In writing the options, develop as many plausible ones
as you can, but make sure none are preposterous. Sometimes, in an effort to generate
the typical four or five options, teachers come up with absurd options that no one
would ever choose. These provide no useful information about student thinking and
increase the reading load. Research indicates that three options (i.e., two plausible
distracters and one right answer) are adequate for multiple-choice items (Haladyna,
2004). Another important consideration is that the choices are independent; that is,
the choices should not overlap (Figure 7.25).
If you use None of the above and All of the above, do so carefully. A problem with
this format is that for a four-option item, if two options are correct, the test-wise student
knows to select All of the above. This is so even if the student does not know whether
the third option is correct. Another concern with None of the above and All of the above
is that teachers tend to include these options only when they are the correct answer. If
you use these options as the correct answers, you should also use them as distracters in
some items. We suggest that you use All of the above and None of the above sparingly.

Arrange Multiple-Choice Options in a Logical Order Once developed, the options

should be arranged in a logical order (e.g., alphabetically, numerically, chronologically,
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Guidelines For Item Development 207

Charcoal Carbon Dioxide

Formula C CO2

State at Room Temperature Solid Gas

Soluble in Water No Yes

Combustible in Air Yes No

14. Based on the information in the table above, which is a reasonable hypothesis
regarding elements and their compounds?
A) An element retains its physical and chemical properties when it is combined into
a compound.
B) When an element reacts to form a compound, its chemical properties are
changed but its physical properties are not.
C) When an element reacts to form a compound, its physical properties are changed
but its chemical properties are not.
D) Both the chemical and physical properties of a compound are different from the
properties of the elements of which it is composed.*

FIGURE 7.26 Example of a Science Multiple-Choice Item with Options Arranged Shortest
to Longest
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

shortest to longest). The options are ordered from shortest to longest in the interpretive
exercise from twelfth-grade NAEP science shown in Figure 7.26.
Arranging items in numerical order is another helpful strategy. In the eighth-
grade mathematics item in Figure 7.27, the options for the interpretive exercise have
been arranged in numerical order. If students know an answer, we want them to be
able to select it and move on. Little is gained if students spend time searching through
a set of options for an answer. A student who knows that the answer is 1.4 will select
the response and quickly move to the next problem.
For ease of reading, options should be listed in one column or in a single row.
As you see in Figure 7.28, teachers at times will incorrectly format the answer options
into two columns. A student could easily understand that he lives in North America
and, if a teacher has students record their answers on a separate answer sheet, the
student might record a “b.” A teacher might inaccurately interpret the student’s response
to mean the student does not even know the continent on which he lives. In actuality,
the formatting of the options likely confused the student. Thus, options should be listed
in one column or arranged in a single row.
You might wonder if ordering options in a logical manner makes a difference.
A history teacher shared with us that his students noticed when he started organizing
options logically. At the beginning of a test, students asked the teacher whether there
was a pattern to the answers. When the teacher told his class he arranged the choices
in alphabetical order and by length of answer, the students looked at him a bit aston-
ished. They appeared a little surprised at the amount of thought and effort that had
gone into making the test. Perhaps the greatest advantage of arranging options in
logical order is that it conveys to students that you are not trying to trick them with
a confusing order for the answers.
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208 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

O 1 x

1

11. On the curve above, what is the best estimate of the value of x when y  0?
A) 2.0
B) 1.1
C) 1.4*
D) 1.7
E) 1.9

FIGURE 7.27 Example of a Mathematics Multiple-Choice Item with Options Arranged in

Numerical Order
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

Incorrectly Formatted Correctly Formatted

1. In which continent do you live? 1. In which continent do you live?
a. Asia c. North America a. Asia
b. Europe d. South America b. Europe
c. North America
d. South America

FIGURE 7.28 Example of Incorrect and Correct Arrangement of Options for a

Multiple-Choice Item

Avoid Providing Clues to the Answer In writing multiple-choice items, avoid provid-
ing clues to the answer. For example, use of the article an can lead a student to ignore
any options that begin with consonants. As shown in Figure 7.29, use of “a(n)” can
eliminate this type of grammatical clue. Similarly, to rule out an option, teachers some-
times add the qualifier always or never. Students soon learn that such absolutes are
rarely true and quickly eliminate such choices.
Another habit in item writing is the tendency to make the correct response the
longest response, as was the case in Figure 7.26. Students who are test-wise will pick
up on this tendency and use it when they must guess an answer. To avoid this problem,
some authors recommend keeping options about the same length. Another possibility
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Guidelines for Item Development 209

8. A living thing that uses the energy from the sun to make its own food is a(n) .
A) bird
B) frog
C) insect
D) tree*

FIGURE 7.29 Example of an Item That Avoids Grammar Clues

1. Type casting usually involves .

A. playing a part similar to oneself *
B. having a young actor play an old person
C. the director casting himself/herself in the play
D. playing a character totally different from one’s own personality

FIGURE 7.30 SCAAP Theater Item with Options Arranged from Short to Long
SOURCE: South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP). 2002. Reprinted with permission.

12. A green tree frog lives in a forest. How does the frog’s green color help it to survive?
A) By keeping the frog cool
B) By helping the frog find other frogs
C) By allowing the frog to make its own food
D) By making the frog hard to see when sitting on leaves*

FIGURE 7.31 Example of an NAEP Science Item That Avoids Giving Clues to the Answer
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

is to follow our previous recommendation to arrange options that are phrases or com-
plete sentences from shortest to longest, as you see in Figure 7.30. If you do so, you will
quickly notice if the correct answer is typically last, and you can revise some options.
Another clue to an answer can occur when a teacher includes a distracter that
is silly or outrageous. Quick elimination of that choice enables students to zero in on
the plausible answers. Our previous discussion on the inappropriate use of humor
during an assessment also recommends against using ridiculous distracters.
Finally, teachers sometimes repeat a word from the stem in the correct option.
The fourth-grade science item from NAEP, shown in Figure 7.31, shows an instance
where the writers avoided this mistake. If the writers had written option D as “By
making the frog hard to see when sitting on green leaves,” the student would have been
directed to the answer because “green” would appear in both the stem and the answer.
To avoid giving clues to items, attend to issues of grammar, qualifiers (e.g., all, none),
lengthy choice options, implausible distracters, and repetition of words in the stem and
the correct response.

True-False Format
Guidelines specific to writing true-false items are shown in Table 7.3. In this section,
we discuss these guidelines and provide examples of their application.
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210 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

TA B L E 7 . 3
Guidelines for Writing True-False Items
Use interpretive material to develop true-false items that span the cognitive levels.

In writing a true-false item, you should not mix partially true with partially false statements.

Balance the number of items that are true and the items that are false.

Avoid providing clues that involve the use of qualifiers.

Develop True-False Items That Span the Range of Cognitive Levels Use of interpre-
tive material can raise the cognitive level of an item from remember to apply or ana-
lyze. Figure 7.32 shows an example. In item 8, for example, the student will need to
balance the equations before answering true or false. Such thinking requires students
to apply the procedures for balancing chemical equations.

Avoid True-False Items That Are Partially True and Partially False In writing a true-
false item, you should not mix partly true with partly false statements. In Figure 7.33,
the first part of the statement is true (Foxes are carnivores); however, the second part
of the statement (that serve as decomposers in a food chain) is false, because foxes are
consumers. Your students are left with a dilemma. If they mark the item as true, and
you count their response wrong, then the students’ grades might not reflect their knowl-
edge of carnivores. True-false statements should be all true or all false.

Balance the Number of True and False Items As you develop items, you should make
sure you balance the number of items that are true and the number of items that are
false. However, people who do not know an answer tend to use the true response, so
it can be beneficial to use slightly more false than true statements.

Use the following chemical equation to answer items 6–9. Circle T if the statement is
true and F if the statement is false.
NaOH  H2SO4 → Na2 SO4  H2O
6. T* F Water is one product of this chemical reaction.
7. T F* Sodium sulfate is a reagent in this chemical equation.
8. T F* The balanced equation will have 8 oxygen atoms.
9. T* F The same elements will be present in the balanced equation.

FIGURE 7.32 Example of the Use of Interpretive Material to Assess Higher-Order Cognitive
Skills with True-False Items

T F* Foxes are carnivores that serve as decomposers in a food chain.

FIGURE 7.33 TF Item That Is Partially True and Partially False

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Guidelines for Item Development 211

TA B L E 7 . 4
Guidelines for Writing Matching Items
The premises and responses should be arranged in a logical order (e.g., alphabetically,
numerically, chronologically).

Matching items should be arranged on the same page.

Use no more matching items than 10 to 15 for older students and 5 to 6 items for younger
students.

To avoid giving clues to an answer, make the options homogeneous.

Limit guessing by using answers more than once or having more answers than premises so
that students cannot get items correct through the process of elimination.

Avoid Providing Clues to the Answer As with multiple-choice items, the use of qual-
ifiers (e.g., none, all) cue students that the statement is likely false because few rules,
guidelines, or concepts are appropriately described in such absolute terms. Thus, the
statement All bodies that orbit the sun are called “planets.” gives a clue to students that
any exception to this general statement makes it false.

Matching Items
Guidelines for writing matching items are shown in Table 7.4. In this section, we dis-
cuss these guidelines and examine examples of their application.

Arrange Matching Options in a Logical Order The premises and responses should
be arranged in a logical order (e.g., alphabetically, numerically, chronologically). Con-
sider a matching exercise in which a student is to match significant historical events
with the major figures involved with each. Ordering the list of historical figures alpha-
betically by name will assist the student in locating the appropriate person associated
with an event and then moving to the next event. You may be inclined to say, “I want
my students to search out the material; so it makes sense to jumble the names instead
of alphabetizing them.” But recall our introductory guiding thought suggesting that
students should miss an item only if they do not know the answer. If students miss an
item because they had difficulty finding the answer in a long, jumbled list of names,
we do not know what they actually understand.
Also, matching items should be arranged on a single page so students do not have
to flip back and forth between pages when answering the items. When considering the
number of matching items, you should limit yourself to no more than 10 to 15 per
exercise if you teach older students. For elementary students, you should use a maxi-
mum of 5 or 6 items. Also, in the directions prior to the matching items, state whether
each answer option is to be used once or if options are used more than once.

Avoid Providing Clues to the Answer To avoid providing clues for matching items,
you should make the responses homogeneous. In Figure 7.6 the answers are all general
categories of organisms associated with a food chain. The premises are all specific
instances of organisms in a food chain. Thus, the response options of consumers,
decomposers, and producers are all plausible answers for the premises.
Another method to avoid clues is to use the answers more than once or have
more answers than premises. Having a limited number of answers means each will be
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212 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

used several times. Thus, students cannot use the process of elimination and save an
item they are unsure of to see which response is left and must be the correct answer.
For example, in Figure 7.5, the answer “meter” might be used for both “length of the
playground” and “the height of a house.” Having more answers than premises will also
prevent the process of elimination from providing the right answer. Getting matching
items right by the process of elimination violates the guiding thought at the beginning
of the chapter that students should get items correct only if they know the material,
not because they find clues to guide them to the right answer.
As was true for multiple-choice and true-false items, the use of interpretive mate-
rial can raise the cognitive level of an item from lower cognitive levels (e.g., knowledge)
to higher ones. As Figure 7.34 shows, a student must remember the value of each coin
and then combine the values of the coins to come to the total.

Put the letter of the correct numerical amount in the blank to the left of each row of coins.

a. .50
b. .75
1.______ c. $1.00

2._____

3._____

4._____

5._____

FIGURE 7.34 Example of a Matching Item That Engages Students in Cognitive Skills at the Understanding
Level or Higher
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Constructing the Assessment 213

 DPITFALLS TO AVOID: TOP CHALLENGES IN

ESIGNING SELECTED-RESPONSE ITEMS
We next highlight critical guidelines often overlooked by teachers. The first type of
challenge relates to focusing on trivia in our test items. The fix is to address important
content tied to the learning goals. For this guideline, contrast the item in the Poor
Design column with the item in the Better Design column in Figure 7.35.
In the novel, A Wrinkle in Time, Calvin O’Keefe does have red hair. However,
focusing on such minor details trivializes students’ experience in reading a book about
the theme of conformity. In this book, Madeleine L’Engle (1962) describes a society in
which the citizens have the same type of house and yard and act the same as their
peers. Everything happens in rhythm. As some children bounce their balls, the skip-
ping ropes of others hit the sidewalks—in perfect rhythm. In this town, mothers simul-
taneously appear at the doors of their identical houses to call their children in from
play. L’Engle uses this scene to convey a powerful message about conformity that you
would want students to understand as a key part of using the book to address your
learning goals.
Take a moment to contrast the two items accompanying the second common
error of writing items—requiring students only to remember facts. To fix this problem
we must use items at higher levels of cognition. The item in the Better Design column
reminds us that with the use of interpretive material (e.g., music, stories, diagrams),
we can write items that assess more complex cognitive skills. Also remember that
interpretive material can be combined with matching and true-false items to require
application of higher-level cognitive skills. Again, we must emphasize that it is appro-
priate to require students to analyze materials in an assessment only if instruction and
learning activities engaged students in similar forms of analysis.
The third difficult challenge is writing good distracters. Sometimes you will find
it easy to design a good question and the answer for it, but thinking of plausible dis-
tracters is difficult. Sometimes the ones you design will be easy to eliminate because
they are not plausible (e.g., using recent popular songs as choices for the national
anthem). Other times they may be too complicated or confusing, or they overlap with
the correct answer. We suggest you concentrate on designing two clear distracters that
can give you insight into student thinking rather than generating three or four just to
have a larger number for students to choose from.
To avoid the poor-design issues associated with the last common error in Figure 7.35,
you should follow the conventions of written language. Notice that the options in the
poor example are complete statements, yet they do not have correct capitalization or
punctuation. This focus on the conventions of language is not just an idiosyncratic quirk
of ours. Recall that use of ALL CAPS makes reading more difficult and might contrib-
ute to reader fatigue. Students also see the conventions of language modeled when we
use appropriate grammar and correctly capitalize and punctuate items.

 CONSTRUCTING THE ASSESSMENT

Having followed all the guidelines for writing items, you are now ready to organize
them into a test. As Table 7.5 shows, the first step you should take is to prepare test
directions. Be sure to indicate how students are to respond to items. Are they to trans-
fer their answers to an answer sheet? Writing answers on an answer sheet should be
reserved for older students because young students may make mistakes in transferring
their answers. You should also provide new directions for each type of item format
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214 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

Common Errors Poor Design Fixes Better Design

Focusing on trivia 5. In A Wrinkle in Time, what was Address 5. Which theme is developed in
the color of Calvin’s hair? important A Wrinkle in Time when the
a. Black content children visit Camazotz?
b. Blond a. Ambition
c. Brown b. Conformity*
d. Red* c. Truth

Requiring students only 8. A limerick is a Incorporate Use the following poem to answer
to remember facts a. 3-line poem about nature. higher levels items 8–11.
b. 5-line poem about something of cognitive There once were some very
funny.* skills naughty cats
c. 9-line poem that describes a Who gave chase to some terrified
person. rats.
The rats grew tired,
And a bull dog they hired.
Now the chase is on for the cats!
8. The above poem is a
a. cinquain.
b. haiku.
c. limerick.*

Using implausible or What is the national anthem of the Use plausible What is the national anthem of the
confusing distracters United States? distracters United States?
a. No Air a. America, The Beautiful
b. Dream Big b. God Bless America
c. Stop and Stare c. The Star-Spangled Banner*
d. The Star-Spangled Banner* d. This Land Is Your Land

Ignoring the conventions 4. Annette completes an experiment Apply the 4. Annette completes an experiment
of written language in in which she applies different conventions in which she applies different
formatting items amounts of fertilizer to her of written amounts of fertilizer to her
tomato plants. She applies one language tomato plants. She applies one
scoop of fertilizer to one plant, scoop of fertilizer to one plant,
two scoops to the second plant, two scoops to the second plant,
and three scoops to the third. and three scoops to the third.
During the growing season she During the growing season she
records the weight of tomatoes records the weight of tomatoes
she harvests from each plant. she harvests from each plant.
Which of the following is true? Which of the following is true?
A. the fertilizer is a control A. The fertilizer is a control
variable variable.
B. the experiment lacks an B. The experiment lacks an
independent variable independent variable.
C. the weight of the tomatoes is C. The weight of the tomatoes is
the dependent variable* the dependent variable.*

**Sample question from Naturalization Self-Test at www.uscis.gov

FIGURE 7.35 Common Errors in Designing Selected-Response Items

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Constructing the Assessment 215

TA B L E 7 . 5
Guidelines for Constructing the Assessment
Prepare test directions that tell students how to answer the items and the number of points
each item is worth.

Provide new directions for each type of item format (e.g., multiple-choice, matching, essay).

Order items from the easiest format to the most difficult.

Load the beginning of each section of the test with easier items to lower the anxiety level
of students.

Place items in the test so that you do not have patterns in correct answers (AABBCCAA).

Vary the location of the right answer so that the correct answer is fairly evenly distributed
across the options.

(e.g., multiple-choice, matching, essay). For example, at the beginning of a group of

matching items, you should tell students whether each answer is used only once. In the
directions for each section, you also should specify the number of points that each item
is worth. For example, will multiple-choice items be worth 5 points each and an essay
question 15 points? Imagine a student’s surprise to find out that in hurriedly writing a
response to an essay question, she missed 10 of 15 points, lowering her grade on the
test. If the student had known the importance of the essay question, and the number
of points associated with it, perhaps she would have appropriately allocated her time.
In formatting your assessment, order items from the easiest format to the most
difficult. A possible order would be true-false, matching, multiple choice, short answer,
then essays. Also, group similarly formatted questions together. Put your true-false
items together, the multiple-choice items together, etc. If items switch from matching
to true-false and back to matching, followed by multiple choice and culminating with
more true-false, the student is likely to be committing cognitive resources to switching
between formats instead of using those resources for addressing the concepts and
principles addressed by the assessment.
Because students are fairly sensitive to knowing whether they answered an item
correctly, you should load the beginning of each section of the test with easier items
to lower the anxiety level of students. Sometimes people who develop tests spiral the
items by difficulty. They format the test so it begins with an easier item, moves to a
harder item, provides another harder item, then returns to an easier item, moving
again through the progression of easier to harder. Why do they do this? We have
administered standardized tests of reading achievement to individual students in which
the items strictly moved from easy to hard and did not spiral by level of difficulty. In
taking the test, a student reads a passage, then states the answer to a question. The
examiner terminates the test when the student misses five items in a row. Requiring
students to continue answering items when they knew they were not able to answer
them was hard for both the students and us. Had the test developers spiraled the items,
the occasional easy item would present students with some success and perhaps bolster
their performance as they progressed through the test.
Selected-response items should be placed in the test so the items do not have
patterns in correct answers (e.g., A A B B C C or T T F T T F). You also should vary
the location of the right answer according to the number of choices. You should have
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216 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

roughly the same number of correct answers that are associated with the options A,
B, C, and D. Test-wise students quickly pick up on patterns and recognize, for example,
when a teacher rarely uses option A. Or, test-wise students quickly grasp when a
teacher uses a repeating answer pattern to make grading easier. When a student gets
an item correct, it should be because the student knows the answer, not because we
gave clues.

 TAND
HE VALUE OF STUDENT-GENERATED ITEMS
CRITICAL THINKING
If you teach students in upper-elementary grades or higher, consider involving students
in the development of some items. This idea is not as farfetched as it may seem initially.
Such a practice is consistent with math exercises in which students are given a number
sentence and then asked to give an example of a story that fits the problem. Such tasks
allow students to practice the skill of establishing a problem consistent with a math-
ematics operation.
In one of our classes, a kindergarten teacher shared her experience in writing
multiple-choice items with her students. Students helped in formulating the wording
of some of the questions for a life science unit on the characteristics of organisms. In
one instance, the teacher could not decide if she should use the word “regurgitate” or
the words “cough up” to tell how the mother penguin feeds the baby. As we discussed
earlier, difficult-to-read test items should not be used because they can interfere with
students’ expression of their knowledge in science, social studies, or mathematics. The
teacher addressed the issue of readability by involving her kindergarten students in
the selection of key terms for inclusion in the multiple-choice items. In the case of the
penguin example, the children voted, and the word “regurgitate” was the one they
wanted included. The teacher indicated that the involvement of her kindergarteners in
developing the questions gave them ownership. In addition, to reduce reading demands
for her kindergarteners, the teacher administered the assessment orally.
Involving students in designing items offers the potential to deepen their under-
standing of the learning goals that are the focus of the assessment. For example, as
students in social studies learn to write interpretive exercises that use graphs to show
trends, the students also begin to understand the manner in which they should approach
a line graph in an interpretive exercise on a test they are taking. The possibility also
exists that students will begin to look at items in published tests in a more analytic
manner. Thus, a skill you have taught and assessed in your classroom may generalize
to other testing situations. Engaging students analytically also assists them in acquiring
the ability to think critically—an important skill for citizens in a democracy.
Student development of items will also help you understand their depth of
knowledge and their misconceptions. For example, we have worked with our teaching
assistants to develop tests for our undergraduate courses in assessment. Our teaching
assistants, who are advanced doctoral students, follow the item-writing guidelines in
preparing items for a test; however, their initial items focus on less-important concepts
and skills than those we consider to be key ideas. This item-writing experience gives
us insights into our teaching assistants’ grasp of the concepts. Also, if a student has
marked the wrong option as the answer, or cannot develop an item related to the
learning goals, you have information about concepts the student has not mastered.
Writing selected-response items is a complex task; so if you plan to involve students
in writing items, you should model the skill of item writing. At first your students’
items are likely to require only remembering of factual knowledge. However, if you
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners: Selected-Response Items 217

model for students the construction of an interpretive exercise, they can begin to
develop items that require analysis or application. A group activity might involve stu-
dents analyzing some well-written examples and differentiating them from problematic
items. Then students should practice writing items in small groups and, ultimately,
begin writing items on their own.
The items students develop can be used for formative purposes and used as
practice for a summative assessment. However, you should not use student items on a
summative test because at least some already know the correct answer; therefore, they
would not have to use higher thinking skills to answer. Also, errors students made in
writing items may make the item unclear to their peers. Another reason for not using
student-developed items in a summative test is that students will have unequal access
to the answers to the items. As they write their items, students will likely share them
with their friends, so some students will have seen several of the items and other
students will have seen few of the items.

 ASELECTED
CCOMMODATIONS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS:
-RESPONSE ITEMS
Individual teachers, as well as state testing programs, have developed a multitude of
methods in which diverse student needs can be accommodated to help ensure that the
performance of students on an examination depends only on their understanding of
the content the examination measures. In this section we consider methods for accom-
modating (i.e., differentiating) assessments that use selected-response items to gauge
student attainment of learning goals. We examine each of the student considerations
first described in Chapter 3 and then discuss appropriate accommodations for them
related to the selected-response formats presented in this chapter.

Students with Fine Motor Difficulties

Circling the letter of an answer or filling in a bubble might provide challenges for
those with disabilities related to fine motor skills. As shown in Table 7.6, possible
accommodations for students with fine motor difficulties might include allowing the
student to state the answer response with someone else recording the response.
Another option is for the student to complete the test on the computer if assistive
devices are available.

Students with Sensory Challenges

Students with visual impairments might benefit from enhancing the legibility of the
printed test material. For example, use of large-font type or Braille might be required.
Students with auditory challenges might benefit from having the test directions signed.

Students Learning English

For students who are learning English, the challenge presented is the reading load
associated with the selected-response items in a test. You should consider limiting the
reading demands by using plain language. Writing a test in plain language requires a
teacher to reduce wordiness and use common words. The teacher should avoid ambig-
uous language, irregularly spelled words, proper names, and irregular naming conven-
tions. The teacher also should arrange headings and graphics to clarify the importance
of information and the order for reviewing the information.
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218 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

TA B L E 7 . 6
Accommodation Considerations for Selected-Response Items
Issue Type of Accommodation

Difficulty with fine • Allow oral answers to questions.

motor skills • Allow use of computer.

Sensory challenges • Provide signing of oral directions for students with auditory
(e.g., visual, auditory) impairments.
• Enhance legibility.
• Limit use of graphics to only those that contain information
being assessed.
• Use large print or Braille for visual impairments.

Learning English • Provide task directions in student’s first language and in

English.
• Limit reading demands by using plain language.
• Allow use of bilingual dictionaries.
• Use visual cues.
• Use alternate choice items.

Learning goal already • Use interpretive exercises to engage student at the analysis
mastered and application levels of cognition.

Difficulty focusing • Repeat directions.

attention • Use alternate-choice items rather than multiple choice.
• Enhance legibility.
• Present one item per page.
• Highlight critical information in the test directions.
• Teach student to highlight critical material in the test.
• Reduce distractibility by limiting graphics to only those that
contain information being assessed.
• Include frequent breaks.
• Administer test individually or in a small group.
• Extend testing time.

Literacy skills below • Limit reading demands by using plain language.

those of typical peers • Use visual cues.
(e.g., learning • Enhance legibility.
disability) • Use readers or audiotapes to administer the directions and
items, except in the case of a reading test.
• Highlight critical information in the test directions.
• Teach student to highlight critical material in the test.
• Extend time for completing task.

Lack of familiarity with • Use plain language.

school culture • Use visual cues.
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners: Selected-Response Items 219

Visual cues in the form of photographs and graphics might provide information
that clarifies the meaning of the text for students who are learning English. These
students might also benefit from the use of bilingual dictionaries if the assessment is
focused on areas other than reading. Several teachers we know with experience with
English language learners also suggest that students learning English sometimes
respond more positively to written language when it is presented one sentence at a
time rather than in a continuous paragraph. The teacher should also consider use of
alternate-choice items to reduce the reading load.

Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning Goals

One reason for including interpretive exercises in a test is to challenge students who
have mastered the basics in a subject area. A bad solution is to give these students
more items. Students who are quick learners enjoy a challenge; however, they do not
perceive doing more of the same as a challenge.

Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing Attention

Students who have difficulty focusing their attention are likely to benefit from accom-
modations that limit the amount of information that a student must filter in answering
a question. For example, a teacher can enhance a student’s focus by highlighting crit-
ical information in test directions and teaching the student to highlight important
material in the test items.
A student’s ability to focus can be improved by enhancing legibility of the test
items. As discussed in Chapter 3, legibility can be improved, for example, by using
left-justified text and standard uppercase and lowercase type, rather than italics or ALL
CAPS, and by using only a few words per line (Thompson & Thurlow, 2002). Use of
blank space anchors the text on the paper. Thus, presenting only one item per page or
administering one item at a time might enhance a student’s ability to focus. Students
who face challenges in focusing also are likely to benefit from having frequent breaks,
individual administration of the test, and extension of the testing time.

Students with Literacy Skills Below Those of Typical Peers

As with students who are learning English, the reading load of a selected-response test
presents challenges to students whose literacy skills are below those of their peers.
These students also will benefit from the use of plain language, visual cues, and
enhanced legibility. Oral administration of the test directions and items might assist a
student in showing understanding in subject areas such as history or science. Oral
administration of a reading test, however, changes a reading comprehension test to a
receptive language test; therefore, thoughtful consideration is required for you to
decide what you are testing. If you are assessing concepts about social studies, an oral
administration of the test will not influence your interpretation of scores in terms of
social studies concepts.
Also consider teaching students with challenges in the area of literacy to high-
light critical information in test directions and items. Such an accommodation will
likely require an extension of testing time.

Students Who Lack Familiarity with School Culture

For students with a lack of familiarity with school culture, performance on a test with
selected-response items will benefit from the use of plain language. In addition, student
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220 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

understanding will benefit from visual cues that clarify the meaning of the text or the
intent of the test item.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

In discussing Maria Mensik’s English unit on utopias and dystopias, she notes that
her learning goals go beyond the knowledge level and so her assessments require
application, analysis, synthesis, and even a little evaluation (refer to Table 2.16). With
goals that require analytic thought (e.g., compare and contrast), Maria includes
selected-response items that go beyond knowledge and engage students in analysis.
Maria uses interpretive exercises to provide material for her students to analyze
within the context of utopias and dystopias. For example, as shown in Figure 7.36,
students read brief statements made by imaginary people and indicate whether the
statement is consistent with living in a utopian or dystopian society. Notice that the
items use a matching format in which students select “U” for utopias and “D” for
dystopias. Also notice that by using statements (i.e., interpretive material) for her
students to analyze, Maria engages students in categorizing the statements according
to utopian and dystopian characteristics, such as the role of the individual and the
role of government.
Maria’s assessment reminds us of one other key issue relating to instruction and
assessment. Assessment must follow instruction. This means that this type of analytic
exercise had to be part of instruction prior to being used to assess students’ under-
standing of utopias and dystopias. Use of the statements as interpretive material
allows Maria to determine whether students understand the characteristics of utopian
and dystopian societies and can apply them when reviewing various narrative forms.
Prior to the assessment, students must have practice in classifying literary works into
descriptions of these two forms of society. They gain practice in discussing the films
that were part of instruction. Perhaps they pretend to be a citizen in a utopian society
and write about their daily life in their journals. On another day they might write from
the point of view of a citizen in a dystopian society. Using the types of items shown
in Figure 7.36 would be inappropriate if a teacher uses lecture and reading and omits
opportunities for analyzing whether given scenarios or literary selections were pri-
marily utopian or dystopian.

Read the following statements made by imaginary people. Based on what we have
learned about the characteristics of utopian and dystopian societies and literature,
decide if the imaginary person lives in a utopia or dystopia.
If the imaginary person lives in a utopia, circle U.
If the imaginary person lives in a dystopia, circle D.
U* D Hiking in the great outdoors is what I like to do with my free time. Not only do I
enjoy its beauty, but I also feel like I can really learn a lot from nature.
U D* As the mayor of our town, I’m pleased to report that crime has dropped
considerably, largely due to the fact that our police can now monitor every
portion of our city with real-time video surveillance.

FIGURE 7.36 A Set of Items That Uses an Alternative Matching Format

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Helpful Websites 221

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we described three forms of selected-response items: multiple-choice,
true-false, and matching. We presented three types of multiple-choice items: conven-
tional multiple-choice, alternate-choice, and complex multiple-choice. We next discussed
that multiple-choice items should be used when your instructional unit covers a broad
array of facts, concepts, and strategies. We noted that critics of multiple-choice items
argue this item format assesses students’ ability to remember facts. We emphasized, how-
ever, that multiple-choice items can assess cognitive skills of analysis and application.
In the section on true-false items, we described the typical true-false item and
the multiple true-false item. True-false items allow a teacher to assess a broad range
of facts, concepts, and other material covered in a unit; however, guessing can be a
problem with this item form.
In the section on matching items, we first discussed the item format: premises
(e.g., statements or question phrases) in the left-hand column and answers (i.e.,
responses) in the right-hand column. Matching allows you to assess a broad range of
facts and concepts associated with your learning goals (as is true of multiple-choice
and true-false items). Although criticized for assessing only recall of facts, matching
items can assess analysis and application.
In the next section we described interpretive exercises. In an interpretive exer-
cise, a selected-response item is preceded by material that a student must interpret to
answer the question. Examples of interpretive material include reading passages, dia-
grams, graphs, timelines, and reproductions of paintings. This type of selected-response
item allows a teacher to assess students’ ability to apply, analyze, and evaluate factual,
conceptual, and procedural knowledge. Interpretive material can be used in combina-
tion with matching, true-false, and multiple-choice formats.
We then provided general guidelines for writing items. We stated that items should
(a) assess important content across the range of cognitive levels, (b) follow the conventions
of written language, and (c) portray the diversity of your classroom. Items should not
require advanced reading skills (unless you are assessing reading), introduce bias, or
attempt humor. Subsequently we discussed item-writing guidelines for each of the specific
formats. We next reexamined critical guidelines that teachers often overlook in designing
items such as focusing on important content across the range of cognitive levels.
We next presented guidelines for constructing the assessment, including directions,
point values, and beginning the test and each section with easier items. In the section
on student-generated items, we discussed the benefit of teaching students to develop
selected-response items. In the section on diverse learners, we reviewed issues to consider
in developing tests with selected-response items. In the last section of the chapter, we
examined Maria’s case study for lessons about selected-response items. In the next two
chapters we discuss forms of assessment that complement selected-response items.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
A website with items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Includes items
in the subject areas of civics, economics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, United
States history, and writing. All NAEP questions in this chapter come from this website.
http://www.scaap.ed.sc.edu/
A website with sample selected-response items for the South Carolina Arts Assessment
Programs. Arts areas assessed include dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. SCAAP
art questions in this chapter come from this website.
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222 Chapter 7 Teacher-Made Assessments: Multiple-Choice and Other Selected-Response Items

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are the similarities between conventional multiple-choice, alternate
multiple-choice, and interpretive exercises? What are the differences between
these item formats?
2. Revisit the NAEP item in Figure 7.7. Write the options for the question “What
was the high temperature for City 1?” Why did you select those options?
3. Review the NAEP item about graphs in Figure 7.11. How might we edit the
item to make it more simple to read?
4. In the NAEP item about the Sinaguan culture in Figure 7.18, could you argue
that the photograph is not needed to answer the question? Explain.
5. In the graphing item from NAEP shown in Figure 7.27, why is Option A a
plausible distracter?
6. Put the following countries and continents in the selected-response format that you
would use to assess whether students could link these continents and countries.
Continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, South America
Countries: Brazil, Spain, Uganda, Korea, England, Sudan
Use the following item from the fourth-grade NAEP History Assessment to
answer questions 7 and 8.

3. Indentured servants were different from slaves because indentured servants

A) came from the West Indies
B) were freed at the end of their term
C) were paid less money
D) did much easier work
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics (2005). NAEP question.

7. Which item-writing guidelines were followed in developing this item?

8. Which item-writing guidelines were NOT followed in developing this item?
9. A student in your class has difficulty focusing on tasks. What type of
accommodations may be helpful when assessing this student?
10. Design an interpretive exercise with at least two questions based on content
addressing a learning goal in your area. Be creative about choosing the
interpretive material on which the questions are based.
11. Explain why it is important to use new examples that students haven’t seen
before when designing selected-response items. How does this practice differ
from including items whose content is not addressed in the learning goals or
instruction?

REFERENCES
Buchanan, B. 2007. Artist’s statement. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://www.
beverlybuchanan.com/statement.html.
Clarke, N., S. Stow, C. Ruebling, and F. Kaynoa. 2006. Developing standards-based curricula and
assessments: Lessons for the field. The Clearing House 79(6): 258–261.
Downing, S. M., R. A. Baranowski, L. J. Grosso, and J. R. Norcini. 1995. Item type and cognitive
ability measured: The validity evidence for multiple true-false items in medical specialty
certification. Applied Measurement in Education 8: 189–199.
Greenwald, E., H. Persky, J. Campbell, and J. Mazzeo. 1999. The NAEP 1998 writing report card for the
nation and the states (NCES 1999–462). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
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Haladyna, T. 2004. Developing and validating multiple-choice test items. 3rd ed. Hillsdale,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Haladyna, T. M., and S. M. Downing. 1993. How many options is enough for a multiple-choice
item? Educational and Psychological Measurement 53: 999–1010.
Haladyna, T., S. Downing, and M. Rodriguez. 2002. A review of multiple-choice item-writing
guidelines for classroom assessment. Applied Measurement in Education 15(3): 309–334.
L’Engle, M. (1962). A Wrinkle in Time. New York, NY: Ferrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
Microsoft Office Word 2007. 2007. Test your document’s readability. Redmond, WA: Author.
Myers, M., and P. D. Pearson. 1996. Performance assessment and the literacy unit of the New
Standards Project. Assessing Writing 3(1): 5–29.
National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP questions. Retrieved June 19, 2008 from
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/.
Sanders, W., and P. Horn. 1995. Educational assessment reassessed. Education Policy Analysis
Archives 3(6). Retrieved October 11, 2007 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v3n6.html.
South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP). 2002. Sample test. Retrieved October 26,
2007 from http://www.scaap.ed.sc.edu/sampletest/.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2005. South Carolina social studies academic standards.
Retrieved June 2, 2008 from http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/standards/ss/.
Thompson, S., and M. Thurlow. 2002. Universally designed assessments: Better tests for everyone!
NCEO Policy Directions No. 14. Minneapolis, MN: National Center on Educational
Outcomes.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2007a. Press Kit: Nazi persecution of homosexuals,
1933–1945. Retrieved October 26, 2007 from http://www.ushmm.org/museum/press/kits/
details.php?content=nazi_persecution_of_homosexuals&page=02-background.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2007b. Voyage of the Saint Louis. Holocaust
Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 9, 2007 from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?
lang=en&ModuleId=10005267.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2007c. Wartime fate of the passengers of the St. Louis.
Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 9, 2007 from http://www.ushmm.org/
wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005431.
Worthen, B., and V. Spandel. 1991. Putting the standardized test debate in perspective.
Educational Leadership 48(5): 65–69.
Yap, C. 2005. Technical documentation for the South Carolina Arts Assessment Project (SCAAP):
Entry-level dance & theatre assessment field test 2005. Columbia: University of South
Carolina, Office of Program Evaluation.
Yap, C., M. Moore, and P. Peng. 2005. Technical documentation for the South Carolina Arts
Assessment Project (SCAAP) Year 3: 4th-grade music and visual arts assessments.
Columbia: University of South Carolina, Office of Program Evaluation.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 8

TEACHER-MADE ASSESSMENTS:
SHORT ANSWER AND ESSAY
Many issues that confront individuals and society have no generally
agreed-on answers. Yet understanding issues like these constitutes much
of what is genuinely vital in education
–Robert M. Thorndike

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Apply general guidelines when

At the conclusion of this chapter, the writing constructed-response items
reader should be able to do the across the range of cognitive skills,
following: from remember to create.
• Describe the format and structure • Format constructed-response
of two types of constructed- items and arrange them in an
response items: short answer assessment.
and essay. • Describe methods to involve
• State the advantages and students in the development
disadvantages of each type of items.
of constructed-response • Describe ways to accommodate the
format and explain when they constructed-response format for
should be used. diverse learners.

 INTRODUCTION
The quote from Thorndike reminds us that many questions can be answered from
more than one point of view. For many, a hallmark of a democratic society is the
freedom to express diverse opinions. The ability to present an argument and to
justify decisions are key skills. Thus, in assessing students’ understanding of com-
plex topics, at times you will want to use an assessment format that requires this
range of thinking skills and allows students to express their understanding in their
own words. Constructed-response items, such as short-answer items and essays,
offer such a framework. This approach can be contrasted with selected-response
items (see Chapter 7), which provide possible answers from which a student
chooses.
We have observed firsthand the power of essays to engage students in critical
thinking. In a unit on historical fiction, students in one of our sixth-grade classes
read Friedrich (Richter, 1987), a novel about two friends, one a Jewish boy and the
other a Christian boy, growing up during the rise of Nazism. The book portrays the
different fates of the boys as they grew into their teens as the Nazi movement grew
225
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226 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

in power. Students also read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Coerr, 1977),
which related the story of a Japanese girl who developed leukemia from the fallout
from the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Students then wrote an essay in which
they argued whether contemporary society visits such injustices on groups of people.
Students’ essays were graded not on the position they took but on their use of evidence
to develop their argument. In grappling with an issue with no simple, generally agreed
upon answer, the students worked on the critical skills necessary for participation in
a democratic society.

 AAND
LIGNING ITEMS WITH LEARNING GOALS
THINKING SKILLS
In considering the use of constructed-response items for formative assessment or in
a test, you first should review the learning goals and cognitive strategies that are the
focus of your instruction. Constructed-response items will be useful in assessing stu-
dent achievement of the learning goals associated with application, analysis, evalua-
tion, and creation. For example, if one learning goal for students is to “Establish and
use criteria for making judgments about works of art” (Ohio State Department of
Education, 2003), then the assessment will require students to develop criteria and
apply them in critiquing paintings or sculptures. The constructed-response format
lends itself well to assessment of students’ ability to engage in the cognitive process
of evaluation.

 CONSTRUCTED-RESPONSE FORMATS
Three forms of constructed-response assessments are the short answer, the essay, and
the performance task. In this chapter we focus on short-answer and essay forms. We
discuss performance tasks in Chapter 9.

Short-Answer Formats
Short-Answer Items Short-answer items take the form of a question or an incomplete statement. Student
Items that require students to responses may be a single word, a phrase, or a few sentences. In Figure 8.1, the first
supply short responses such as a item is written as a question. The second item is written as an incomplete statement
single word, a phrase, or a few
sentences. and requires only a single-word response. The science item from NAEP shown in
Figure 8.2 is an example of a short-answer item that requires students to write a few
sentences.

When to Use the Short-Answer Format

The short-answer format can be used to assess student understanding of knowledge
and concepts that can be expressed in brief form. Although student responses are
short, this does not mean short-answer items assess only recall of information.
Instead, short-answer items can assess the full range of student knowledge. Revisit
the NAEP science item in Figure 8.2. To answer the question, students must analyze
the diagram, think about methods for measuring volume, and supply their own
answer.
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Constructed-Response Formats 227

Question Format:

What is the English translation of the following sentence?

Yo voy al parque.

Incomplete Statement Format:

Student Choices for Ice Cream

14

12
Number of Students

10

0
Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry
Ice Cream Flavors

The flavor of ice cream that the most students ordered was ___________________.

FIGURE 8.1 Question and Incomplete Statement Formats for Short-Answer Items

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Short-Answer Format

A distinct advantage of short-answer items is that guessing contributes little to score
error. Also, a test can include more short-answer items than is possible with longer
essays or other performance tasks. Thus, a test can better sample a wide range of con-
cepts and strategies associated with the learning goals of an instructional unit.
A disadvantage is that when you score a short-answer item, you must judge each
response as correct or incorrect. Many of the student responses will include exactly
the information you are looking for. Some responses, however, will have some variation
that you must decide is correct or not. An example is the listing of possible answers
shown in Figure 8.3 to the question posed in Figure 8.2. The need to make a judgment
will add to the amount of time it takes to score responses. When grading 70 tests or
more, you may very well find it difficult to remain consistent in judging variations.
Later in this chapter we discuss some methods for avoiding such inconsistencies.
Essay Items
Essay Formats Prompts that present students with
a question or task that require a
Essay items consist of a stem (i.e., a prompt) that presents students with a question paragraph or more in response.
or task. This format requires students to organize information in formulating a response Prompt
to the task or question. Some essay items limit the content of the answer and the form The directions for an essay.
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228 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

5. You are going to the park on a hot day and need to take some water with you. You have
three different bottles, as shown in the picture below. You want to choose the bottle that
will hold the most water. Explain how you can find out which bottle holds the most water.

FIGURE 8.2 An Example of a Short-Answer Item from the Fourth-Grade NAEP

Science Assessment
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

Complete
Student demonstrates an understanding of how to measure and compare the volumes of
three different bottles by outlining a method for finding which bottle holds the most water.
a. The bottles are filled with water and the water is measured in a graduated cylinder,
measuring cup, or other measuring device to see which bottle holds the most water.
b. Using a displacement method, each bottle is filled with water. Then placing each
bottle into a measured volume of water, the amount of displaced water is measured.
The bottle displacing the most water has the greatest volume.
c. Filling one bottle with water and pouring it into the other bottles, the one that holds
the most water can be determined.
d. Weighing the bottles with and without water, the bottle that holds the greatest weight
in water can be determined.
e. Student fills each bottle at the same constant rate to determine which takes longest to fill.

FIGURE 8.3 Possible Complete Answers for the Short-Answer Item from the Fourth-Grade
NAEP Science Assessment (Figure 8.2)
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.
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Constructed-Response Formats 229

Question 13 is based on the situation described below.

Teresia is a small country that has been invaded by its neighbor Corollia. The king of Teresia
is a long-standing United States ally who has been living in exile since the Corollian invasion.
Teresia is an important exporter of uranium; it sends most of its supply to members of the
European Union. The king appeals to the United States and the United Nations for military
help in driving Corollia from his country.
13. Identify two pieces of information NOT given above that you would need before you
could decide whether or not the United States military should help Teresia. Explain
why each piece of information would be important.
1)

2)

FIGURE 8.4 An Example of an NAEP Essay Item That Limits the Content of the Answer
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2006. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

of the response. In the eighth-grade NAEP civics item in Figure 8.4, the question is
structured to limit the students’ response to two types of information needed and a
justification of the importance of that information.
In other instances, essays allow students to organize information to express their own
ideas. For example, the essay prompt in Figure 8.5 establishes a purpose for the writer—that
is, to persuade a friend that the writer’s position on registering to vote is the right one.
However, the intent of this task is to assess students’ ability to build a persuasive argument,
not to see if they can provide correct factual information. This essay allows flexibility for
students in the choice of arguments and type of support provided for them.

When to Use the Essay Format

Writers in the field of assessment consistently state that essay items should not be used
to assess students’ ability to remember factual or conceptual knowledge (Hogan &
Murphy, 2007). Rather, essay items should focus on assessing learning goals associated
with developing ideas, organizing a logical argument, creating a plan of action, explain-
ing a solution to a problem, or demonstrating original thinking.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Essay Format

Essay items allow a teacher to assess students’ ability to recall, organize, and synthesize
concepts that were the focus of an instructional unit. Use of essays allows a teacher to
complete an in-depth assessment of student learning for a limited scope of content.
Look back at the essay question in Figure 8.4 related to United States involvement in
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230 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

1. Your school is sponsoring a voter registration drive for 18-year-old high school
students. You and three of your friends are talking about the project. Your friends say
the following,
Friend 1: “I’m working on the young voters’ registration drive. Are you going to come
to it and register? You’re all 18, so you can do it. We’re trying to help increase
the number of young people who vote and it shouldn’t be too hard—I read
that the percentage of 18- to 20-year-olds who vote increased in recent
years. We want that percentage to keep going up.”
Friend 2: “I’ll be there. People should vote as soon as they turn 18. It’s one of the re-
sponsibilities of living in a democracy.”
Friend 3: “I don’t know if people should even bother to register. One vote in an elec-
tion isn’t going to change anything.”
Do you agree with friend 2 or 3? Write a response to your friends in which you explain
whether you will or will not register to vote. Be sure to explain why and support your posi-
tion with examples from your reading or experience. Try to convince the friend with whom
you disagree that your position is the right one.

FIGURE 8.5 An Example of a Persuasive Essay Item from the Twelfth-Grade NAEP
Writing Assessment
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.

the conflict between Teresia and Corollia. In responding to the item in an essay format,
the student must
1. Provide the additional information required for making decisions about
involvement in conflicts.
2. Justify the importance of the required information.
3. Compose a brief answer.
A disadvantage of essays is that they assess less broadly than other formats, even
though they probe in more depth. In a multiple-choice format, the student reviews the
options with plausible types of information and justifications and selects an acceptable
response. Most students can answer a multiple-choice item in about one minute. The
essay in Figure 8.5, in contrast, will require between 15 and 30 minutes to compose. To
balance the need for in-depth coverage of concepts with the need for broad sampling
of ideas that are the focus of the learning goals, one option we recommend is to use
both multiple-choice and essay items in a test.

 GUIDELINES FOR ITEM DEVELOPMENT

We now turn to guidelines for developing items in constructed-response formats. We
begin with some general guidelines and then turn to specific guidelines related to the
short-answer and essay formats.

General Guidelines for All Constructed-Response Formats

Table 8.1 contains general guidelines for all constructed-response items. They are con-
sistent with our overall approach to classroom assessment, and you will see some
familiar but important themes.
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Guidelines for Item Development 231

TA B L E 8 . 1
General Guidelines for Writing Constructed-Response Items
Develop items requiring the same knowledge, concepts, and cognitive skills as practiced
during instruction.

Incorporate novelty so that the task requires students to generalize the skills and concepts
presented during instruction.

Keep the language simple.

Consider the developmental level of students in terms of the complexity of the task and
the length of the response.

Assess the Same Knowledge, Concepts, and Cognitive Skills

Emphasized in Class
Items should be written to be consistent with the learning goals and instruction asso-
ciated with a unit. In the case of essays, during instruction you will need to model the
use of factual and conceptual knowledge to develop new ideas, build arguments, or
defend views. You may review with your students some examples of essays written in
previous years (removing all identifying information). Students also need to practice
writing essays with formative feedback from you before they begin to use this format
in a summative assessment. This may seem like a lot of work; however, after your
students learn to use the essay format, your instruction about writing essays will not
have to be as in-depth in preparing students for subsequent tests.

Incorporate Novelty
If you use the same constructed-response items in your assessment that you used in class
activities, the cognitive strategy you tap is remembering. By including novel material as
an integral part of a constructed-response task, you will be able to write short-answer
items and essay prompts that require students to analyze, evaluate, and create. By novel
material, we are not suggesting you should assess students on new concepts and strategies
that were not part of a learning unit. Instead, we mean new examples related to the
concepts being learned. For example, during instruction you might engage students in
the interpretation of political cartoons. An essay item, then, would have students inter-
pret a political cartoon from the same historical period, but a cartoon the students had
not discussed in class. Students would analyze the new cartoon and link it to events
occurring in the historical period that is the focus of the instructional unit.

Keep the Language Simple

To promote clarity in writing items, you should keep the language as simple as pos-
sible for students at all levels. This means you should use vocabulary your students
understand. This also requires you to attend to the complexity of phrases and sentence
structure. For example, in Figure 8.6, the short-answer item for second-grade students
should be edited to remove the term “approximate” unless the word is part of vocabu-
lary taught in science and mathematics. Also, the phrase “in this picture” can be cut
because the directions tell the students to use the diagram.

Consider the Developmental Level of Students

The developmental level of students (e.g., breadth of vocabulary, degree of cognitive
complexity) must be considered in writing constructed-response items. The level of
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232 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Use the following diagram to answer item 23.

cm

23. What is the approximate length in centimeters of the scissors in this picture?

FIGURE 8.6 Item Illustrating the Need for Simple Language

student development should be reflected in the complexity of the item and the length
of the expected response. For example, topics for younger students might refer to
specific situations (e.g., school rules), whereas older students can write about more
abstract concepts (e.g., civil liberties).

Guidelines for Specific Item Formats

Now we turn to rules for developing specific item formats, and we start with short-
answer items.

Developing Short-Answer Items

Our rules for short-answer items appear in Table 8.2.

Determine Whether Short-Answer Format Is Best First, you must decide whether
an item functions better as a short-answer item or a multiple-choice item. Look at item 3
in Figure 8.7. When the item is offered as a multiple-choice item, students have various
equations to analyze to determine which equation models the rate plan. By contrast,

TA B L E 8 . 2
Guidelines for Writing Short-Answer Items
Determine whether an item should be short answer or multiple choice.

Use interpretive material to develop items that engage students at the higher cognitive levels.

Keep the stem brief.

Word the item so that only one answer is correct.

Omit only key words and phrases when using the completion form of short answer.

Avoid clues to answers.

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Guidelines for Item Development 233

Multiple-Choice Short-Answer
Use the following information to answer 3. A cellular phone company charges
item 3. monthly rates according to the
A cellular phone company charges monthly following plan:
rates according to the following plan: • Monthly fee of $23.95
• Monthly fee of $23.95 • The first 100 minutes of calling
• The first 100 minutes of calling time time are free
are free • $0.08 charge per minute of calling
• $0.08 charge per minute of calling time over 100 minutes
time over 100 minutes If c is the total monthly cost, and m is the
3. If c is the total monthly cost, and m is number of minutes of calling time, write
the number of minutes of calling time, the equation that models this rate plan
which equation models this rate plan when m is greater than 100 minutes.
when m is greater than 100 minutes?
A. c ⫽ 0.08m ⫺ 76.05
B. c ⫽ 0.08(m ⫺ 100) ⫺ 23.95
C. c ⫽ 23.95 ⫹ 0.08(m ⫺ 100)*
D. c ⫽ 23.95 ⫹ 0.08m

FIGURE 8.7 Example of the Cognitive Demands for a Short-Answer Versus

Multiple-Choice Item
SOURCE: South Carolina Department of Education. 2007. PACT math release items: Grade 8. From http://ed.sc.gov/agency/
offices/assessment/pact/PACTMathReleaseItems.html. Reprinted with permission.

the short-answer version of the item requires students to create an equation to model
the rate plan. Both versions of the item are challenging; however, the short-answer item
requires more of the students. If your learning goal is for students to be able to analyze
information to determine the appropriate model, and your instruction involves students
analyzing verbal information and determining the correct equation, a multiple-choice
item might be appropriate. However, if your learning goals and instruction focus on
students writing (creating) a linear model, then the short-answer version is more
appropriate for assessing student knowledge.

Engage Students at Higher Cognitive Levels Let’s dispel the myth that short-answer
items necessarily focus on the simple recall of facts. The modeling of an equation in
Figure 8.7 and the calculating of density in Figure 8.8 both require students to use
cognitive levels higher than remembering. If combined with interpretive materials,
such as charts, quotes, or short musical pieces, an item may require the student to
analyze the material prior to answering the item.
Conversely, we do not want you to think that writing an item in short-answer form
will always increase the cognitive level of the item. Look at the science item in Figure 8.8.
Cover the answer options and read the item in a short-answer form. Notice that your
answer to the question is going to be sample 1, 2, 3, or 4. The multiple-choice form simply
gives you a method for recording your response. So, sometimes the cognitive level will
not be influenced by the use of short-answer items versus multiple-choice items.

Use Brief Stems In writing short-answer items, keep the stem brief. Notice the format
of our examples that use interpretive material. A set of directions introduces the interpre-
tive material, indicating that the student should use the following material to answer the
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234 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Use the following information to answer item 13.

The following table shows properties of four different sample materials. One of these mate-
rials is cork, a type of wood that floats in water.

Physical Properties
Sample
Number Mass Volume

1 89 g 10 mL

2 26 g 10 mL

3 24 g 100 mL

4 160 g 100 mL

13. Given that the density of water is 1 g/mL, which of the samples is most likely cork?
A. 1
B. 2 Cover the answer options to see the item requires the
C. 3* same cognitive skills whether written as a short-
D. 4 answer item or multiple-choice item.

FIGURE 8.8 Example of an Item with Similar Cognitive Demands for a Short-Answer or
Multiple-Choice Item
SOURCE: California Department of Education. 2008. California standards test released test questions: Grade 8 science.
From http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp. Reprinted with permission.

Use the following information to answer item 16.

A teacher had students in her class count for 15 seconds how many times they blink both
eyes. They created the ordered stem-and-leaf plot given below using the data.

6 0 3
5 1 2 5 7
4 1 3 3 6
3 1 3 4 5 5 6 7 7 7 8 9
2 0 5 6 9
3 9 means 39 blinks

16. What is the mode for blinking? Original version

16. Write the number that is the mode for blinking. Edited version

FIGURE 8.9 Example of the Edits Required for a Short-Answer Item

Adapted from the South Carolina Department of Education. 2007. PACT math release items: Grade 6. From http://ed.sc.gov/
agency/offices/assessment/pact/PACTMathReleaseItems.html. Reprinted with permission.

item. Next is the interpretive material, which includes scenarios, diagrams, and tables,
followed by the item number and a stem that presents the problem. In Figure 8.9 in which
students are to interpret a stem-and-leaf plot, the stem is “Write the number that is the
mode for blinking.” Setting the stem apart from and after the interpretive material serves
to highlight the actual problem; thus, a student does not have to search for the question.
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Guidelines for Item Development 235

Use the underlined words in the following sentence to indicate the parts of speech in
items 11 and 12.
Casting a silver light, the moon rose over the valley.
• Use of a(n) to avoid a
11. The word “silver” is used as a(n) ______________. grammatical clue.
• Use of equal-size blanks
12. The word “rose” is used as a(n) ______________.
to avoid clues to the
length of an answer.

FIGURE 8.10 An Example of Avoiding a Grammatical Clue

Ensure Only One Answer Is Correct In some ways, the greatest challenge is to write
short-answer items that avoid ambiguous answers. The item should be worded so that
only one answer is correct. To help you meet this challenge, we suggest looking at the
short-answer as if it were a selected-response item. Then ask yourself, “What is the
right answer?” Next ask yourself, “What are the possible wrong answers a student
might use?” Is your item written so that only the right answer can complete the
response? For example, for Figure 8.9, we first wrote, “What is the mode for blinking?”
However, with a little thought, we realized some students would write, “The most
frequently occurring number.” Well, those students would be correct. But we want to
know whether the student can read the stem-and-leaf plot to determine the most
frequently occurring response for number of blinks. We then edit the item to read,
“Write the number that is the mode for blinking.”
Omit Only Key Words and Phrases For the completion form, the word or phrase
that has been omitted should consist of key concepts rather than trivial details. In
addition, the omitted material should be near the end of the incomplete statement. A
quick look back at the bar graph item in Figure 8.1 shows the blank at the end of the
incomplete statement.
Avoid Clues to the Answer Grammatical clues can inappropriately point students to
a correct answer. In Figure 8.10, the issue of appropriate use of “a” or “an” before a word
with an initial consonant or vowel is handled by using the “a(n)” designation. In addi-
tion, avoid letting blanks in a completion item offer hints as to the length of the response
or the number of words that are needed to complete the statement. Instead, place only
one blank of a standard size at the end of the completion-form item to avoid clues.

Developing Content-Based Essay Items Content-Based Essay

Essays may be used to assess students’ content knowledge (content-based essays) or A prompt that presents students
with a question or task requiring
their writing skills (writing prompts). In this section we provide guidelines for devel- one or more paragraphs about a
oping content-based essay items (see Table 8.3). subject area.

TA B L E 8 . 3
Guidelines for Developing Content-Based Essay Items
Write directions that clearly define the task.

Write the prompt to focus students on the key ideas they should address in their response.

Use formatting features, such as bullets and ALL CAPS, to clarify the task.
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236 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Write Directions That Define the Task Clearly As was true for short-answer items, your
first challenge is to write the essay item so the task is clearly defined for the student. One
way to do so is to identify the cognitive process you want to assess by beginning the essay
question with a verb that cues that cognitive process for answering. Using Table 2.9 from
Chapter 2, choose verbs at the comprehension levels and higher. Examples include sum-
marize, compare, provide original examples of, predict what would happen if.
In the NAEP mathematics item in Figure 8.11, students analyze a graph to indi-
cate the activity that would be occurring during each time interval. Notice the use of

Marisa’s Bicycle Trip

10

8
Speed (miles per hour)

0
20 40 60 80
Time (minutes)

19. The graph above represents Marisa’s riding speed throughout her 80-minute bicycle
trip. Use the information in the graph to describe what could have happened on the
trip, including her speed throughout the trip.
During the first 20 minutes, Marisa

From 20 minutes to 60 minutes, she

From 60 minutes to 80 minutes, she

FIGURE 8.11 An Example of an Essay Item from the Eighth-Grade NAEP

Mathematics Assessment
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP question. Reprinted with permission.
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Guidelines for Item Development 237

the term “describe” in the directions for the mathematics item. If you relied only on
the verb “describe” to determine the cognitive processes a student is using to solve the
problem, you would miss the need for the student to analyze the graph and make the
biking activities consistent with the graph. Sometimes the meaning of the verb depends
in part on the context of the task, and the task demands can make the actual cognitive
process higher. “Describe” means analyze in this case.
Using terms such as when, where, or list will result in essays based on students
remembering factual information, which can be more effectively done with selected-
response items. Essays, however, can be developed that require students to both recall
factual information and apply the information to a novel context. For example, to
respond to the essay item in Figure 8.12, students must recall the meaning of the terms
associated with the elements of art. They then apply the terms in an analysis of artist
Laura McFadden’s pen and ink drawing.

Focus Students on the Key Ideas to Address in Their Response In writing the essay
prompt, you should focus on the specific points students should concentrate on. Notice
how the item writer focuses students in Figure 8.13 by specifying the elements of the
answer. These will then provide the basis for creating a scoring guide. When you
specify the elements of a good answer, you ensure that the requirements of the task
are clear to you and to your students.

Use Formatting Features to Clarify the Task Attention to the formatting of essay
items can also clarify the task. For example, clarity can be enhanced through the use
of bullets to draw students’ attention to the aspects of the essay that they must address.
The prompt in Figure 8.13 uses bullets to highlight the countries about which the
student might write. In addition, the prompt uses the letters “a,” “b,” and “c” to list
(and highlight) the three aspects of the task the student must address.
Using ALL CAPS or italics can bring emphasis when exceptions are being made,
as in Figure 8.4. The use of ALL CAPS in the direction to “Identify two pieces of
information NOT given above that you would need before you could decide whether
or not the United States military should help Teresia” cues students to take careful note
of the exception.
Structuring responses also may contribute to item clarity. The NAEP mathemat-
ics bicycling item (Figure 8.11) provides an illustration. Notice the problem is struc-
tured to draw students’ attention to three time periods in the bicycle trip. The
developers of the item could have stopped after writing, “The graph above represents
Marisa’s riding speed throughout her 80-minute bicycle trip. Use the information in
the graph to describe what could have happened on the trip, including her speed
throughout the trip.” Such a response format requires the students to create their own
framework for their response. The item developer, however, then used paragraph start-
ers, such as “During the first 20 minutes, Marisa . . .” to structure the task and direct
the students to the relevant time spans. This presents a slightly different task in that
students have the structure of the response provided.
Providing such paragraph starters may make some teachers wince because they
prefer that students write their own short paragraph to convey the information. How-
ever, the bicycling item is from a mathematics assessment, so the developer of the
item did not want students’ writing abilities to influence their mathematics scores.

Developing Writing Prompts

Now we turn to the development of prompts that focus on assessing students’ writing
skills. Writing prompts are used in NAEP to assess three forms of writing: narrative,
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238 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

A C O N V E R S A T I O N R E M E M B E R E D

The pen and ink drawing below, A Conversation Remem- Also, discuss your response to the painting and how the
bered, is by artist Laura McFadden. In an essay, describe artist uses the elements and principles of design to create
Laura’s work using the elements and principles of design. the response.

Elements and Principles of Design

Color Line Shape Value

Contrast Movement Space

Emphasis Pattern Texture

FIGURE 8.12 Essay Task That Requires Students to Remember Art Terms in Analyzing Laura McFadden’s
A Conversation Remembered
Reprinted with permission.
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Guidelines for Item Development 239

34. Each of the following world regions was a “hot spot” in the 1900s.
• Israel
• The Korean Peninsula
• Vietnam
• The Persian Gulf
Select one world region from the list and answer the following three questions about
conflict in that area.
a. Identify the area you selected and summarize the conflict that occurred.
In your summary, identify the major participants in the conflict.
b. Explain the historical reasons for the conflict.
c. Explain why the conflict has had a major effect on the rest of the world.

FIGURE 8.13 A Released History Item from the 2004 PACT Social Studies Field Test
SOURCE: South Carolina Department of Education. 2004b. Reprinted with permission.

informative, and persuasive (NCES, 2008). Narrative writing includes stories or per- Narrative Writing
sonal essays. Students use informative writing to describe ideas, convey messages, A composition that relates a story
and provide instructions. Informative writing includes reports, reviews, and letters. or a personal experience.
Students use persuasive writing to influence the reader to take action or create change. Informative Writing
Examples of each type of prompt appear in Table 8.4, and Table 8.5 lists guidelines for A composition that describes ideas,
conveys messages, or provides
constructing them. instructions.
Persuasive Writing
Develop Interesting Prompts To create writing prompts that will encourage stu- A composition that attempts to
dents to enjoy writing and to excel at it, your first consideration is to create topics influence the reader to take action
or create change.
of interest to students. You will also want the writing prompts to be of interest to
you because you will dedicate a substantial amount of time to reading your stu-
dents’ thoughts on a topic. Also, bias can creep into your scoring of essays if you
become bored with a topic; so develop essay prompts that are likely to stimulate
thought.

Incorporate Key Elements In developing writing prompts, you should consider the
following elements:
Subject Who or what the response is about
Occasion The situation that requires the response to be written
Audience Who the readers will be
Purpose The intent of the writing, i.e., inform, narrate, persuade
Writer’s role The role the student assumes in the writing (e.g., a friend,
student, concerned citizen)
Form The type of writing, e.g., poem, letter, realistic fiction
(Albertson, 1998; Nitko & Brookhart, 2007)
We apply these elements to the prompt in Figure 8.14. The subjects of the prompt are
the student writer and a person whom the student has read about or seen in a movie.
The occasion is a day the student would spend with this person. The audience is not
specified; however, the prompt was part of a high school exit examination and stu-
dents would be aware that raters would read their essays. The purpose is for students
to write a narrative in which they explain how they would spend the day with this
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240 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

TA B L E 8 . 4
Examples of Prompts Used to Assess Writing Skills
Forms of
Writing Examples of Prompts Grade Levels
Narrative One morning a child looks out the window and Fourth Grade
discovers that a huge castle has appeared overnight.
The child rushes outside to the castle and hears
strange sounds coming from it. Someone is living in
the castle!
The castle door creaks open. The child goes in.
Write a story about who the child meets and what
happens inside the castle.
Informative Your school has a program in which a twelfth grader Twelfth Grade
acts as a mentor for a tenth grader at the beginning
of each school year. The mentor’s job is to help the
tenth grader have a successful experience at your
school. The tenth grader you are working with is
worried about being able to write well enough for
high school classes.
Write a letter to your tenth grader explaining what
kind of writing is expected in high school classes
and what the student can do to be a successful
writer in high school.
As you plan your response, think about your own
writing experiences. How would you describe “good”
writing? What advice about writing has been helpful
to you? What writing techniques do you use?

Persuasive Many people think that students are not learning Eighth Grade
enough in school. They want to shorten most school
vacations and make students spend more of the year
in school. Other people think that lengthening the
school year and shortening vacations is a bad idea
because students use their vacations to learn
important things outside of school.
What is your opinion?
Write a letter to your school board either in favor of or
against lengthening the school year. Give specific
reasons to support your opinion that will convince
the school board to agree with you.

National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP questions. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/.

person and why it would be so special. The form of the writing is a narrative. Notice
how this prompt uses bullets to focus students on key qualities to include in their
writing. Not every element is directly evident in the prompt because these elements
serve to help you in developing prompts. They are not meant to dictate the structure
of your prompts.
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Guidelines for Item Development 241

TA B L E 8 . 5
Guidelines for Developing Writing Prompts
Develop prompts that are interesting to your students and you.

Incorporate the elements of subject, occasion, audience, purpose, writer’s role, and form.

Focus on cultural and social experiences in which students have participated.

Avoid prompts that require students to (a) write about their personal values or their
religious beliefs or (b) criticize others.

WRITING
Write your response on the lined pages in your test booklet. Use only the lines provided
in your test booklet. Do not write beyond the lines or in the margins.
Writing Prompt
If you could spend a day with a person you have read about or seen in a movie, who would
that person be? How would you spend your day with that person?
Write an essay in which you explain how you would spend your day with this person
and why it would be so special. Include detailed descriptions and explanations to support
your ideas.
As you write, be sure to
• consider the audience.
• develop your response around a clear central idea.
• use specific details and examples to support your central idea.
• organize your ideas into a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
• use smooth transitions so that there is a logical progression of ideas.
• use a variety of sentence structures.
• check for correct sentence structure.
• check for errors in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

FIGURE 8.14 Example of a Narrative Writing Prompt

SOURCE: South Carolina Department of Education. 2006. South Carolina High School Assessment Program. From
http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/assessment/programs/hsap/releaseitems.html. Reprinted with permission.

Focus on Students’ Cultural or Social Experiences If the purpose of an assessment

is to gauge the quality of student writing, the prompt should not require the stu-
dents to use content area or other specialized knowledge. To avoid bias, writing
prompts should not require students to write about cultural or social experiences
in which they have not participated (Arter & Chappuis, 2007; Johnson et al., 2009).
Instead, you should develop prompts that are reasonably within all students’ realm
of experiences.

Avoid Prompts Addressing Personal Values, Religious Beliefs, or Criticism Writing

prompts should avoid asking students to write about personal values or religious beliefs
because some students and their parents may find such questions intrusive (Johnson
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242 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

et al., 2009; Nitko & Brookhart, 2007). Prompts that require students to criticize their
parents or community members may create controversy that will take time away from
instruction and student learning.

 CONSTRUCTING THE ASSESSMENT

As we discussed, a limitation of constructed-response items is the amount of time that
it takes for students to respond to each item. Constructed-response items require stu-
dents to recall relevant information, organize the information, and write a response.
These demands call for more time for students to respond, and they limit the number
of test items and scope of concepts and skills that can be assessed.
If a teacher uses only one essay to assess students, the grades students earn may
reflect (1) their knowledge or (2) the particular topic the teacher chose (Dunbar et al.,
1991). Consider the narrative writing prompt in which a student writes about spend-
ing the day with a person read about in a book or seen in a movie (Figure 8.14). This
topic may have been of little interest to some students, and their lackluster writing
would reflect their disinterest in the topic. If students had an additional prompt in
which they write about a day of discoveries they had personally experienced, their
score might differ.
The best fix for this problem is twofold. First, any test that focuses on factual
and conceptual knowledge in a content area should be a mix of short-answer items,
multiple-choice items, and essays. The use of these three different item formats allows
broader sampling of the concepts and skills developed in a learning unit. Second, in
the case of essays used to assess writing skills, students should write several essays
during a grading period for the teacher to assess students’ overall achievement in writ-
ing comprehensively.

 SCORING THE ASSESSMENT

A common criticism of assessing with short-answer items and essays is that the scoring
will be subjective. That is, some people think the score assigned to a constructed-response
item is primarily influenced by a teacher’s personal preferences. However, use of scoring
tools like those described in the following sections will help you to score fairly.

Scoring Short Answers

Scoring short-answer items is fairly straightforward. To prepare for scoring short-
answer items, review the instructional materials (e.g., lesson plans, texts, learning cen-
ters) that guided student learning. From these materials, develop a scoring key with
all the possible answers. For an example of one such list, revisit the list of complete
answers for the question related to determining the volume of liquid in a set of bottles
(Figure 8.3). Developing the key will help to ensure that a teacher considers all pos-
sible answers and will apply the answers consistently across students.

Scoring Essays
Scoring Guide
Essay tests pose greater challenges in scoring than do selected-response items and
An instrument that specifies the
criteria for rating responses. short-answer items. A critical tool developed to address these challenges is the scoring
Performance Criteria guide. A scoring guide presents the elements of a performance to be scored. These
The key elements of a performance elements are referred to as performance criteria. The checklist, the analytic rubric,
specified in a scoring guide. and the holistic rubric are three forms of scoring guides.
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Scoring the Assessment 243

Checklist
Score Description
Content:
________ Presents a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the subject content.
________ Defines, describes, and identifies the terms, concepts, principles, events,
interactions, changes, or patterns completely and accurately.
________ Uses subject-appropriate terminology to discuss the primary concepts or
principles related to the topic.
Note. May include a minor error, but it does not detract or interfere with the overall
response.
Supporting Details:
________ Develops the central idea by fully integrating prior knowledge or by exten-
sively referencing primary sources (as appropriate).
________ Provides a variety of facts (to explore the major and minor issues).
________ Incorporates specific, relevant examples to illustrate a point, and ties
examples, facts, and arguments to the main concepts or principles.
Analysis, Explanation, Justification:
________ Thoroughly analyzes the significance of a term, concept, principle, event,
interaction, change, or pattern by drawing conclusions, making inferences,
and/or making predictions.
________ Conclusions, inferences, and/or predictions are consistent with the sup-
porting details.

Note. Student receives 1 point for each complete and accurate descriptor or criterion in the
checklist.

FIGURE 8.15 Checklist for Scoring a Social Studies Item

Creighton, S. 2006. Examining alternative scoring rubrics on a statewide test: The impact of different scoring methods on
science and social studies performance assessments. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of South Carolina,
Columbia. Reprinted with permission.

A checklist is a list of key task elements that are organized in a logical sequence. Checklist
A checklist allows a teacher to document the presence (or absence) of important dimen- Key elements of a task organized
sions of a performance task. The teacher indicates the presence of observed dimensions in a logical sequence allowing
confirmation of each element.
by placing a check in the appropriate blank. Figure 8.15 is a checklist for scoring the his-
Analytic Ruberic
tory item about world conflict. Note that for each criterion the student receives 1 point.
A scoring guide that contains one
Analytic rubrics identify criteria to use in reviewing the qualities of a student’s or more performance criteria for
performance. Notice that the analytic rubric in Figure 8.16 has six performance criteria evaluating a task with proficiency
(e.g., has five lines, tells a funny story). In the analytic rubric, proficiency levels accompany levels for each criterion.
each performance criterion. Proficiency levels provide a description of each level of that Proficiency Levels
performance criterion along a continuum. For example, in the rubric for scoring limericks The description of each level of
quality of a performance criterion.
in Figure 8.16, the highest proficiency level of the performance criterion tells a funny story
is “The story that the limerick tells is complete and funny.” In this rubric, one performance
criterion has two proficiency levels and the others have three.
When using this analytic rubric, a teacher would assign a score for each perfor-
mance criterion. Thus, a student would get six scores. These scores may be reported
separately or added for a total score.
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244 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Student Name: Date:

Performance Criteria Proficiency Levels
0 1
Has five lines Limerick does not have Limerick has 5 lines.
5 lines.

1 2 3
Tells a funny story The story that the The story that the limerick The story that the
limerick tells is tells is incomplete or is not limerick tells is
incomplete and is not funny. complete and funny.
funny.

1 2 3
Has correct rhyming Limerick does not rhyme. Limerick has some rhymes, Limerick has correct
pattern but the rhyming pattern is rhyming pattern
not correct. (AABBA).

1 2 3
Has correct capitalization Capitals are not used or Capitals are sometimes Capitals are correctly used
are used incorrectly. correctly used. in the poem and title.

1 2 3
Has correct punctuation Limerick is not Limerick has some correct Limerick is correctly
punctuated or is punctuation. punctuated.
punctuated incorrectly.

1 2 3
Contains descriptive words Specific nouns, adjectives, The selection of specific Specific nouns, adjectives,
and adverbs to “paint a nouns, adjectives, and and adverbs to “paint a
picture” for the reader adverbs to “paint a picture” picture” for the reader
are not used. for the reader is attempted. are effectively selected.

FIGURE 8.16 Analytic Rubric for Scoring a Limerick

Reprinted with permission from Put to the Test: Tools and Techniques for Classroom Assessment by Susan Agruso, Robert Johnson, Therese M. Kuhs, and
Diane Monrad. Copyright © 2001 by Susan Agruso, Robert Johnson, Therese M. Kuhs, and Diane Monrad. Published by Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.
All rights reserved.

Holistic Rubric In contrast to an analytic rubric, a holistic rubric provides a single score that
A scoring guide that provides a represents overall quality across several performance criteria. The scoring guide
single score representing overall shown in Figure 8.17 is an example of a holistic rubric. Take a moment to read the
quality across several criteria.
highest quality level (i.e., 4 points) of the holistic rubric. Similar to the checklist, this
scoring guide describes student responses in terms of the performance criteria con-
tent, supporting details, and analysis. Unlike the analytic rubric, the performance
criteria are not separated into their own categories with points assigned for each one.
Instead, all performance criteria are joined together to describe general proficiency
levels on the essay. Thus, in scoring holistically a teacher arrives at a single overall
judgment of quality.
Figures 8.18 and 8.19 show two rubrics for scoring writing prompts. Figure 8.18
is an analytic rubric with four performance criteria (i.e., content/development, organiza-
tion, voice, and conventions). Figure 8.19 presents a holistic rubric for scoring student
writing. Notice that for the holistic rubric a student would receive only one score
between 1 and 6.
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Scoring the Assessment 245

Holistic Rubric
Score Description
4 points Superior Achievement
The response presents a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the subject content. Using subject-
appropriate terminology, the response completely and accurately defines, describes, or identifies the
primary terms, concepts or principles, events, changes, or patterns. The response develops the central idea
by extensively referencing and integrating prior knowledge, citing relevant details from primary sources,
incorporating appropriate examples to illustrate a point, and/or providing a variety of facts that support the
premise. The response includes a thorough analysis of the significant events by drawing conclusions, making
inferences, and/or making predictions that are consistent with the supporting details. The response may
include a minor error in the subject content, but it does not detract or interfere with the overall response.

3 points Commendable Achievement

The response adequately presents an accurate understanding of the subject content. Using subject-
appropriate terminology, the response generally defines, describes, or identifies the primary terms,
concepts, principles, events, changes, or patterns; however, more specific details are needed. The
response adequately develops the central idea by referencing primary sources, appropriate examples,
and a variety of facts that support the premise. The response includes an analysis of significant events
by drawing conclusions, making inferences, and/or making predictions that are generally consistent
with the supporting details. The response may include minor errors in subject content, but these errors
do not detract or interfere with the overall response.

2 points Limited Achievement

The response presents a limited understanding of the subject content. The response provides a vague
description of a term, concept, principle, event, change, or pattern. It includes attempts to use some
subject-appropriate terminology to discuss the concepts; however, details are sparse. The response
minimally develops the central idea by referencing basic facts or examples. Examples may be vague or
not clearly connected to the central idea, or the response includes insufficient or inaccurate examples.
The response provides partially incorrect information. The response draws conclusions, makes
inferences, or makes predictions that are incomplete, partially inaccurate, or inconsistent with
supporting details. One or more errors in content interfere with the student’s presentation.

1 point Minimal Achievement

The response reflects little understanding of the subject content; the presentation is brief and includes
unrelated general statements. Using little, if any, subject-appropriate terminology, the response
minimally defines, describes, or identifies the primary terms, concepts, principles, events, changes, or
patterns. The response attempts to provide a central idea by referencing prior knowledge, but these
references are sparse, incomplete, inaccurate, and/or unclear. The response may include a fact or an
example that is irrelevant or only loosely related to the discussion. The response may attempt to
explain or analyze the significance of an issue, but it is irrelevant; or, the response does not include an
analysis. The response may or may not include conclusions, inferences, and/or predictions; or they may
be irrelevant or inaccurate. Serious errors in the content interfere with the student’s presentation.

0 points No Achievement
The response is blank, inaccurate, too vague, missing, unreadable, or illegible.

FIGURE 8.17 Holistic Rubric for Scoring a Social Studies Item

Creighton, S. 2006. Examining alternative scoring rubrics on a statewide test: The impact of different scoring methods on science and social studies performance
assessments. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Reprinted with permission.
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Performance Criteria
Score Content/Development Organization Voice Conventions

• Presents a clear central • Has a clear • Minor errors in

idea about the topic. introduction, body, standard written
• Fully develops the and conclusion. English may be
central idea with • Provides a smooth present.
4
specific, relevant details. progression of ideas
• Sustains focus on throughout the writing.
central idea throughout
the writing.
• Presents a central idea • Has an introduction, • Uses precise and/or vivid • Errors in standard
about the topic. body, and conclusion. vocabulary appropriate for written English may be
• Develops the central • Provides a logical the topic. present; however, these
idea but details are progression of ideas • Phrasing is effective, not errors do not interfere
P with the writer’s
r 3 general, or the throughout the writing. predictable or obvious.
o elaboration may be • Varies sentence structure to meaning.
f uneven. promote rhythmic reading.
i • Focus may shift • Strongly aware of audience
c slightly, but is generally and task; tone is consistent
i and appropriate.
e sustained.
n • Central idea may be • Attempts an • Uses both general and • A pattern of errors in
c unclear. introduction, body, precise vocabulary. more than one category
y
• Details may be sparse; and conclusion; • Phrasing may not be effective, (e.g., capitalization,
L more information is however, one of these and may be predictable or spelling, punctuation,
e 2 needed to clarify the components could be obvious. sentence formation)
v central idea. weak or ineffective. • Some sentence variety results of standard written
e • Focus may shift or be • Provides a simplistic or in reading that is somewhat English is present;
l lost, causing confusion repetitious progression rhythmic; may be mechanical. these errors interfere
s
for the reader. of ideas throughout the • Aware of audience and task; somewhat with the
writing. tone is appropriate. writer’s meaning.
• There is no clear • Attempts an introduc- • Uses simple vocabulary. • Frequent and serious
central idea. tion, body, and con- • Phrasing repetitive or errors in more than
• Details are absent or clusion; however, more confusing. one category (e.g.,
confusing. than one of these • There is little sentence capitalization, spelling,
• There is no sense of components could be variety; reading is punctuation, sentence
1
focus. absent or confusing. monotonous. formation) of standard
• Presents information • There is little awareness of written English are
in a random or illogi- audience and task; tone may present; these errors
cal order throughout be inappropriate. severely interfere with
the writing. the writer’s meaning.
B Blank
OT Off Topic
IS Insufficient amount of original writing to evaluate
UR Unreadable or illegible

FIGURE 8.18 Example of an Analytic Rubric for Writing

South Carolina Department of Education. 2004a. Extended response scoring rubric. http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/assessment/pact/rubrics.html. Reprinted with permission.
For the purposes of scoring Conventions, “interference” is defined as that which would impede meaning for a reader other than an educator or professional reader.

246
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Scoring the Assessment 247

6 Points The writing is focused, purposeful, and reflects included, but development is erratic. Word
insight into the writing situation. The paper choice is adequate but may be limited, predict-
conveys a sense of completeness and whole- able, or occasionally vague. There is little, if any,
ness with adherence to the main idea, and its variation in sentence structure. Knowledge of
organizational pattern provides for a logical the conventions of mechanics and usage is usu-
progression of ideas. The support is substan- ally demonstrated, and commonly used words
tial, specific, relevant, concrete, and/or illus- are usually spelled correctly.
trative. The paper demonstrates a commitment 2 Points The writing is related to the topic but includes
to and an involvement with the subject, clarity extraneous or loosely related material. Little
in presentation of ideas, and may use creative evidence of an organizational pattern may be
writing strategies appropriate to the purpose demonstrated, and the paper may lack a sense
of the paper. The writing demonstrates a ma- of completeness or wholeness. Development of
ture command of language (word choice) with support is inadequate or illogical. Word choice
freshness of expression. Sentence structure is is limited, inappropriate, or vague. There is lit-
varied, and sentences are complete except tle, if any, variation in sentence structure, and
when fragments are used purposefully. Few, gross errors in sentence structure may occur.
if any, convention errors occur in mechanics, Errors in basic conventions of mechanics and
usage, and punctuation. usage may occur, and commonly used words
5 Points The writing focuses on the topic, and its organi- may be misspelled.
zational pattern provides for a progression of 1 Point The writing may only minimally address the
ideas, although some lapses may occur. The topic. The paper is a fragmentary or incoherent
paper conveys a sense of completeness or listing of related ideas or sentences or both.
wholeness. The support is ample. The writing Little, if any, development of support or an or-
demonstrates a mature command of language, ganizational pattern or both is apparent. Lim-
including precision in word choice. There is ited or inappropriate word choice may obscure
variation in sentence structure, and, with rare meaning. Gross errors in sentence structure
exceptions, sentences are complete except when and usage may impede communication. Fre-
fragments are used purposefully. The paper quent and blatant errors may occur in the basic
generally follows the conventions of mechanics, conventions of mechanics and usage, and com-
usage, and spelling. monly used words may be misspelled.
4 Points The writing is generally focused on the topic
but may include extraneous or loosely related
material. An organizational pattern is apparent, Unscorable
although some lapses may occur. The paper ex- The paper is unscorable because
hibits some sense of completeness or wholeness. • the response is not related to what the prompt
The support, including word choice, is adequate, requested the student to do.
although development may be uneven. There is • the response is simply a rewording of the prompt.
little variation in sentence structure, and most • the response is a copy of a published work.
sentences are complete. The paper generally fol- • the student refused to write.
lows the conventions of mechanics, usage, and • the response is illegible.
spelling. • the response is incomprehensible (words are arranged
3 Points The writing is generally focused on the topic in such a way that no meaning is conveyed).
but may include extraneous or loosely related • the response contains an insufficient amount of writing
material. An organizational pattern has been to determine if the student was attempting to address
attempted, but the paper may lack a sense of the prompt.
completeness or wholeness. Some support is • the writing folder is blank.

FIGURE 8.19 Example of a Holistic Rubric for Writing

SOURCE: Florida Department of Education. 2005. Florida Writing Assessment Program (FLORIDA WRITES!). http://www.fldoe.org/asp/fw/fwaprubr.asp. Reprinted with
permission.
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248 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

TA B L E 8 . 6
Guidelines for Developing Scoring Guides
Decide whether a checklist, analytic rubric, or holistic rubric is appropriate for reviewing
student responses (see Table 8.7).

For all scoring guides: Determine a small number of non-overlapping performance criteria
that students should demonstrate in their responses.

For analytic and holistic rubrics: Develop a continuum of proficiency levels from least to
most skilled for each performance criterion.
• Use parallel language to describe achievement across the levels of proficiency.
• Avoid use of negative language.
• Design descriptive rather than evaluative proficiency levels that can be clearly
distinguished from one another.

Developing a Scoring Guide

All scoring guides have several basic steps in their construction. Table 8.6 provides
guidelines for developing checklists, analytic rubrics, and holistic rubrics.

Decide Whether a Checklist, an Analytic Rubric, or a Holistic

Rubric Is Appropriate
A first major decision is to determine which type of scoring guide is appropriate. Aspects
to consider in determining the appropriate type of scoring guide are shown in Table 8.7.
For example, in terms of communicating expectations, a checklist might be used to
convey several elements required in an essay. A holistic rubric can serve to communicate
the levels of overall quality of an essay, whereas an analytic rubric could serve to provide
information about levels of quality on each performance criterion. Other aspects to con-
sider include the degree to which each scoring guide supports student self-assessment,
provides feedback to students, and supports communication across faculty.

Determine the Performance Criteria

Whether using a checklist, analytic rubric, or holistic rubric, a critical step in develop-
ing a scoring guide is to determine the performance criteria that provide the frame-
work for scoring. The performance criteria must be consistent with the learning goals
associated with instruction. An example can be found in the essay item related to major
conflicts (Figure 8.13) and the potential scoring guides (Figures 8.15 and 8.17). Notice
that the performance criteria in the scoring guides imply the learning goals addressed
(a) an understanding of the events that occurred (i.e., content), (b) the ability to pro-
vide details to support statements (i.e., supporting details), and (c) the capability to
analyze information to draw conclusions (i.e., analysis). Also notice that these perfor-
mance criteria parallel the directions in the item (Figure 8.13).
To make scoring guides manageable, they must have a limited number of perfor-
mance criteria (e.g., 4–6) and they should be limited to one page at the very most. Any-
thing more complex is difficult for students to use effectively in monitoring their work.
In the content-based essay item in social studies, only three performance criteria—content,
supporting details, and analysis—were used. For scoring writing prompts, we looked at the
performance criteria of content/development, organization, voice, and conventions. In
deciding the performance criteria for your scoring guides, you should look at the task
directions to see the qualities that you told your students they should address. In addition,
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Scoring the Assessment 249

TA B L E 8 . 7
Aspects of Checklists, Holistic Rubrics, and Analytic Rubrics to Consider in Selecting a Scoring Guide
Checklist Holistic Rubric Analytic Rubric

Description Simple list of requirements A single score represents Separate scores are
to check off if present. overall quality across provided for each
several criteria. criterion.

Communicate Expectations Useful when more than two Useful when Useful when each criterion
to Students or three unambiguous communicating a has important distinctions
elements (e.g., page general impression of among the levels of a
length, format) are the levels of overall quality performance that
required in the product. quality for the product. students must learn.

Student Self-Assessment Allows self-check on Allows self-check on Allows self-check on

presence of overall performance. quality of each criterion.
unambiguous criteria.

Feedback to Students Offers feedback on Offers feedback providing Offers feedback with detail
presence or absence of a general impression of and precision on all
unambiguous criteria. the product. criteria.

Communication Among Provides information on Provides general grading Provides most information
Faculty Across Sections/ basic elements required. guidelines. about requirements to
Courses facilitate consistency in
grading.

Optimal Use Best used with assignments Best used with brief Best used with products
with several clear-cut assignments carrying involving complex
components; drafts or less grading weight. learning outcomes;
preliminary work. opportunities for
formative assessment
and improvement.

Advantages Easiest to design. Scoring is simple and Provides most information

quick. to teacher and student.

you will find it helpful to think about the qualities you will see in a top-notch essay. The
qualities you are looking for in your students’ essays will be the performance criteria.
Unfortunately, sometimes performance criteria focus on less relevant aspects of
a performance, such as length, neatness, and punctuality. Ideally, a scoring guide focuses
on the dimensions of an essay that are the focus of the learning outcomes. When we
include performance criteria that assess frivolous aspects of a student essay, such as
neatness, error is introduced to the scores.

Developing a Checklist
Having established the performance criteria of interest, let’s consider the elements to
develop in checklists.

List the Key Performance Criteria To develop a checklist, you list the performance
criteria with a space beside each (see Figure 8.15). Each criterion should be a key
quality of the essay. For example, in the checklist for the social studies item, one criterion
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250 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

includes “Presents a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the subject content.”

These criteria should be organized in a logical sequence. Notice that for the supporting
details domain in the checklist, the criteria are in the following order:
__________ Develops the central idea by fully integrating prior knowledge or by
extensively referencing primary sources (as appropriate).
__________ Provides a variety of facts (to explore the major and minor issues).
__________ Incorporates specific, relevant examples to illustrate a point and ties
examples, facts, and arguments to the main concepts or principles.
In front of each criterion, you put a blank to check off to show whether the student
has mastered the skill.

Developing an Analytic or Holistic Rubric

Whereas a checklist requires you to list only the performance criteria, analytic and
holistic rubrics require you to describe the performance criteria along a continuum of
proficiency levels from least to most skilled.

Develop a Continuum of Proficiency Levels for the Performance Criteria To estab-

lish the proficiency levels, descriptors should use consistent wording across all levels
of achievement for that criterion. For example, notice in Figure 8.18 the parallelism of
the language of the highest and lowest levels of proficiency for the performance crite-
rion of content/development. Each proficiency level describes qualities related to a clear
central idea, the use of details, and sustaining of focus.
The descriptors at each proficiency level should avoid evaluative labels and
instead use language that elaborates on each performance criterion. For example, the
following descriptors for the title criterion address the degree that the title summarizes
the main idea:
Criterion Proficiency Levels
0 1 2
Title Needs a title that Title needs to Title summarizes
summarizes the more accurately the main idea.
main idea. summarize the
main idea.
Evaluative descriptors such as “poor,” “OK,” or “excellent” do not communicate
to students the need to align the title with the central idea. Thus, in developing a scor-
ing guide you should write descriptors characterizing what a response looks like at
each level of proficiency rather than merely using evaluative terms.
Another issue in the development of descriptors is to avoid negative language.
Negative language may harm student motivation. If descriptors are written to illustrate
a learning continuum, the scale will not present the lowest levels as “failure” and higher
levels as “success.” One way to handle this issue is to describe what the student should
do rather than what is lacking in the response. The following descriptor is from the
lowest proficiency level of a holistic rubric. The performance criteria focus on story
structure (i.e., beginning, middle, and end), sentence formation (i.e., complete sen-
tences), and conventions (i.e., capitalization).
I should put events in the right order to have a clear beginning, middle, and end for
my story. I should use complete sentences in my story. I should use capitals to start
sentences and for people’s names. (Gredler & Johnson, 2004)
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Scoring the Assessment 251

The emphasis in the descriptors is on what the student should do in future story
writing.
You should also determine the appropriate number of proficiency levels for
each performance criterion. Each proficiency level must be clearly distinguishable
from the others if your rubric is to be useful (Lane & Stone, 2006). Sometimes our
teacher candidates believe they should have the same number of proficiency levels
for all performance criteria. However, you should develop the number of profi -
ciency levels you can describe distinctly enough that your assignment of scores will
be consistent. The analytic rubric in Figure 8.18 makes our point. Those who devel-
oped the rubric could describe only three proficiency levels for voice and wisely did
not write a level 4 descriptor that could not be distinguishable from the level 3
descriptor.
The scoring rubric should be drafted as the essay item is being developed. You
will then be able to ensure alignment between them. For content-based essay items,
developing the scoring guide will be facilitated by first reviewing the materials on
which the test is based. The scoring of content-based essays can be facilitated by devel-
oping a model answer or an outline of key points. In addition, before scoring, read a
sample of the responses to determine whether your expectations are realistic. Based
on the review, make any necessary edits to the scoring guide.

Factors Contributing Error to Essay Scores

As previously noted, rubrics were developed to address the error that a scorer’s judg-
ment can introduce into student scores. Many factors other than content knowledge
or writing ability can influence students’ essay scores, and studies over the past century
have identified some of the challenges we face as teachers when scoring essay items.
Table 8.8 provides a list of the challenges, as well as possible solutions that have been
suggested to address them.

TA B L E 8 . 8
Factors Contributing Error to Essay Scores and Recommended Solutions
Scoring Challenges Possible Solutions

Teacher unreliability Carefully frame question, develop a scoring guide, provide a

model answer or outline of key points, identify examples
of various levels of proficiency, and recalibrate often.

Halo effect Remove identifying marks and grade anonymously.

Test-to-test carryover effects Recalibrate by reviewing the scoring guide and rereading
a sample of previously scored papers. After completing
the scoring of one essay item, shuffle student papers
before scoring the next item.

Item-to-item carryover effects Score the same question for all students before moving to
next item.
Other issues: language Note on the scoring guide that these criteria are not the
mechanics, handwriting focus of scoring for content-based essay items.
effects, essay length
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252 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Teacher Unreliability Probably the most common criticism of essays is the unreli-
ability of teacher scores. Nearly a century ago two studies showed the unreliability of
the scoring of students’ work in English and mathematics (Starch & Elliot, 1912; Starch
& Elliot, 1913). As we have become more aware over the years of the various factors
that contribute error to scores, we have developed methods for reducing that error.
For instance, to reduce error due to teacher judgment, in addition to carefully design-
ing a scoring guide, you should frame the question to focus student attention on the
key issues. When the question is overly broad, students’ answers will diverge and
require more teacher judgment about the correctness of the response. The use of bul-
lets in Figure 8.13 provides an example of framing the question to focus students’
attention. To improve your scoring, you can select examples of student work for each
proficiency level. These serve as anchors as you grade.

Halo Effect The halo effect occurs when teachers’ judgments about one aspect of a
student influence their judgments about other qualities of that student. In such an
instance, a teacher may score an essay more leniently for a student who is generally a
strong student. On the other hand, the teacher might score a different student severely
because of perceptions that the student is weaker (Nitko & Brookhart, 2007). The best
way to guard against the halo effect is to mask students’ names when scoring.

Test-to-Test Carryover Test-to-test carryover occurs when a teacher inadvertently

compares a student’s response to the responses of other students whose papers precede
the student’s essay. This may occur after the teacher scores a series of exemplary
responses, then the teacher reads an essay that meets the pre-stated expectations, but
appears somewhat lackluster compared to the others (e.g., Daly & Dickson-Markman,
1982; Hopkins, 1998). The tendency is for this response to be evaluated too severely.
To remedy such a problem, the teacher can recalibrate by reviewing the scoring guide
and rereading some of the essays scored earlier.

Item-to-Item Carryover Similar to test-to-test carryover, item-to-item carryover

occurs in the rating of multiple essay questions within a test (Bracht, 1967, as cited in
Hopkins, 1998). A student might write an exceptional answer to the first question,
which establishes the mindset to assume above-average answers by the student on
subsequent questions. A solution to this problem is to score all students’ responses to
one essay item before scoring the next item.

Additional Factors Contributing Error to Scores Language mechanics, essay length,

and handwriting sometimes contribute error to scores (e.g., Chase, 1986; Grobe, 1981;
Markham, 1976; Stewart & Grobe, 1979). In the assessment of writing, language mechan-
ics (i.e., conventions) may be relevant and, if this is the case, a performance criterion
related to mechanics should be included in the scoring guide (see Figure 8.18). But
handwriting quality and essay length should not influence writing scores. In the case of
content-based essays, none of these three factors (mechanics, length, handwriting)
should influence scores, and the scoring guide should explicitly state this point.
The teachers and teacher candidates with whom we work struggle with the issue
of not including in scoring guides such criteria as spelling, language mechanics, and
neatness. They want these criteria to carry some weight so students will attend to them.
One method that serves as a halfway point is to include the criteria, but apply a low
weight to them. For example, if the criterion of neatness counts 3 points out of a pos-
sible 100 points, you establish the expectation of neatness without greatly changing the
student’s final score. Even if a student misses all three points for neatness, the student’s
grade will remain an “A” or “A⫺” if the essay is of high quality.
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Pitfalls to Avoid: Top Common Challenges in Constructed-Response Items and Scoring Guides 253

 PINITFALLS TO AVOID: TOP COMMON CHALLENGES

CONSTRUCTED-RESPONSE ITEMS AND
SCORING GUIDES
We next highlight the biggest challenges for teachers as they design constructed-
response items and scoring guides. These challenges are listed in Figure 8.20.

Essay Pitfalls
Requiring Higher-Order Thinking Aligned with Learning Goals
When we addressed the pitfalls in writing multiple-choice items, our first example was
failing to address important content tied to the learning goals. Avoiding this problem
with essay questions is even more important because an essay covers fewer topics in
more depth than a group of multiple-choice items requiring similar testing time. If you
write an essay prompt that doesn’t relate to critical content or skills, your assessment
does not do justice to your instruction or to student learning.
In addition, requiring students to employ higher-order thinking skills is also
crucial. Essay questions are more time-consuming to score, as well as more susceptible

Common Errors Poor Design Fixes Better Design

Requiring students to List and explain the Include items that require 1. In your opinion, of the
list facts in response factors leading to use of higher-order factors leading to World
to an essay item. World War I. thinking skills aligned War I discussed in class,
with learning goals. which factor do you believe
was most important?
Support your answer with
at least three examples of
evidence from the chapter
and lectures.
Writing prompts that are Compare President Nixon Clearly define the task. 2. Compare President Nixon
broad or vague. to President Reagan. to President Reagan in
terms of the similarities
and differences in their
foreign policy initiatives.
Lacking consistency in No statement about the Align scoring guide and task Number of points for writing
criteria addressed in importance of writing directions. conventions specified in both
the task directions and conventions in task task directions and rubric.
the scoring guide. directions but included
in scoring.
Evaluative terms used in “Bad title.” Use descriptors that foster “Title needs to more accurately
scoring guide. learning rather than summarize the main idea.”
evaluative terms.
Frivolous or untaught Neatness, length Align performance criteria Persuasiveness. Organization
performance criteria (frivolous). Creativity with instruction and around central idea. Creativity
included. (if not taught). learning goals. (if taught).

FIGURE 8.20 Top Challenges in Designing Constructed-Response Items and Scoring Guides
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254 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

to error in scoring than selected-response or short-answer items. This means you want
to use essays only when you are tapping understanding and skills you can’t assess with
more direct, less error-prone methods.
Making sure you are appraising higher-order thinking skills can be tricky.
Recently, one of our teacher candidates developed a history essay prompt that required
students to list and explain the factors leading to World War I. Although such an essay
prompt might appear to require students to use critical thinking skills from higher
levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, the factors leading to the war had been thoroughly dis-
cussed in class. For such an essay, students could simply list facts memorized from
class instruction. To avoid using essays for listing memorized facts, decide whether
the essay question requires students to recall a list of facts based on instruction or
whether students are required to analyze new material or evaluate a situation from a
different perspective.

Clearly Defining the Task

At times, our teacher candidates design essay questions that don’t clearly communicate
what they want their students to address in their answers. In fact, there has been a
time or two when we, too, received essays we did not anticipate given the question we
asked. We recheck the question and then, in hindsight, can see how someone might
interpret it differently. Often you will have a clear purpose for the question in your
mind that doesn’t allow you to see the ambiguity your question may present to some-
one who hasn’t organized the material the way you have or who doesn’t know as much
as you do about it. To avoid this pitfall, you must clearly define the task for your stu-
dents. If you think three examples is enough to bolster an argument about the most
important cause of World War I, specify that you want three; don’t make students guess
how much support for their argument is enough. If you want students to compare the
foreign policy of two presidents rather than their approaches to monetary policy or
social programs, make sure you specify the dimension for comparison.

Scoring Guide Pitfalls

Aligning the Scoring Guide and Task Directions
Having inconsistent task directions and criteria for the scoring guide is a common
mistake. For example, you may develop an essay prompt that requires students to
analyze facsimiles of historical documents (such as diary entries and letters to family
members) to examine the views of citizens about historical events. If your directions
do not instruct students about following the conventions of written language, yet you
have this criterion in your scoring rubric, the misalignment may result in students
feeling the assessment was unfair. One way to handle this issue is to make the scoring
guide a part of the task directions. At the end of the task directions, you make a state-
ment such as the following: “Use the attached analytic rubric to guide you in complet-
ing the task. I will use the rubric to grade your essay.”

Using Descriptors Rather Than Evaluative Terms

Look back at the scoring guides in this chapter. The proficiency levels are described
using language that elaborates on each criterion and they avoid evaluative language.
For example, “Title needs to more accurately summarize the main idea” communicates
what is expected (and how to improve) much better than “poor title.” As you write
performance criteria and proficiency levels, focus on descriptors that help students
learn, rather than on evaluative terms that only convey judgment.
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners: Constructed-Response Items 255

Avoiding Frivolous or Untaught Performance Criteria

Performance criteria are critical components of the scoring guide. They frame students’
evaluation of the work as well as yours, and they tie the performance explicitly to the
learning goals. When you include unrelated or untaught performance criteria on a
scoring guide, you distract students from the primary goals. In addition, your assess-
ment appears unfair because it isn’t aligned with what you taught.
One factor that often turns up in essay rubrics is “creativity.” If you have explicitly
spent time in your instructional activities addressing creativity through asking thought-
provoking questions, providing freedom to take risks, focusing on applying language in
unusual ways, and teaching strategies to escape typical ways of seeing or doing, then
such a criterion is warranted. If you have not designed instructional activities that address
creativity, making creativity an important criterion for scoring is not defensible.

 TAND
HE VALUE OF STUDENT-GENERATED ITEMS
CRITICAL THINKING
Recall that one of the first guidelines for developing writing prompts was to create
topics of interest to both students and yourself. By involving students in developing
ideas for essays, you are more likely to generate topics of interest. Students can help
in identifying key concepts in content areas. If students help you do this, they begin
to learn to tease out what is important for themselves.
Students also can contribute to developing rubrics. After an essay prompt is devel-
oped, you can work with students to identify key criteria for assessing their responses.
A benefit of student involvement in developing checklists and rubrics is the discussion
of the criteria. Evaluative criteria are often very abstract concepts. For example, the first
time we encountered the criterion of voice we had little clue to its meaning. Only with
the help of a rubric did we understand that elements of voice include the following:
• Precise and/or vivid vocabulary appropriate for the topic
• Effective rather than predictable or obvious phrasing
• Varied sentence structure to promote rhythmic reading
• Awareness of audience and task; consistent and appropriate tone
During the development of a checklist or rubric, discussing important features of an
essay and linking each feature with your scoring criteria will help students understand
the connection between the rubric and the qualities they are aiming for in their essays.
This involvement serves as useful instructional time because the development process
helps students understand and internalize the elements of quality essays.

 ACONSTRUCTED
CCOMMODATIONS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS:
-RESPONSE ITEMS
In Chapter 7 we described various forms of test accommodations that may assist
diverse learners in your class to complete an examination with multiple-choice, true-
false, and matching items. In this chapter we focus on accommodations that may assist
your students in completing short-answer items and essays. We do not repeat sugges-
tions that we offered in Chapter 7, so you may want to revisit Table 7.6 to gain addi-
tional ideas of the accommodations diverse learners may benefit from.
A critical issue in accommodations for diverse learners is the demand of writing
when short-answer items and essays are used to assess student learning. Writing can
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256 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

TA B L E 8 . 9
Accommodation Considerations for Constructed-Response Items
Issue Type of Accommodation

Difficulty with fine motor skills • Use speech-recognition software for word processing.

Sensory challenges (e.g., • Enhance legibility of prompt for visual impairments.

visual, auditory) • Read prompt aloud or present it in Braille.
• Allow use of Braille or dictation for response.

Learning English • Allow use of spell check and grammar check in

word-processing program.
• Allow use of bilingual dictionary.
• Explicitly discuss rubric and criteria.

Learning goal already mastered • Write prompts to engage student at the evaluation and
creation levels of cognition.

Difficulty focusing attention • Explicitly discuss rubric and criteria.

• Review sample essays.

Literacy skills below those of • Allow use of spell check and grammar check in
typical peers (e.g., learning word-processing program.
disability) • Explicitly discuss rubric and criteria.
• Review sample essays.

Lack of familiarity with • Explicitly discuss rubric and criteria.

school culture • Review sample essays.

present physical demands for these learners in terms of manually recording thoughts
on paper. Writing also presents cognitive demands in terms of organizing the ideas a
student wants to use in a response. In examining the accommodations for diverse
learners, we consider the need for the assessment to avoid interfering with a student
demonstrating achievement of learning goals. See Table 8.9 for accommodation sug-
gestions for several groups of diverse learners.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

Two examples of Maria Mensik’s essay questions from her unit on utopias and dysto-
pias are shown in Table 8.10, and the rubric for scoring the essays is presented in
Figure 8.21. The essay prompts and rubric display many of the features discussed in
the guidelines. Note how carefully these questions are aligned with the learning goals
(see Table 2.16) and the explicitness of the writing tasks. In the first essay, Maria directs
students to support their answer with three characteristics of utopia or dystopia and
relate these to examples from works they have read. She even provides an example to
show students how to link their viewpoint with examples of utopias or dystopias in
those works. In the second essay, the number of examples required and the societal
aspects to address are specified. Furthermore, Maria emphasizes the explicit focus of
the task by stating, “A good essay will briefly describe the aspect, then use persuasive
language to tell other people why they will want to live there.”
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Case Study Application 257

TA B L E 8 . 1 0
Essay Questions on Utopia/Dystopia Unit
1. Given what we know about utopia—that it is an ideal place, state, or condition—we
know that the existence of a utopia is impossible. Conversely, a dystopia often reflects a
society taken to the worst possible extreme. Given the two extremes, do you think the
United States is more utopic or dystopic? Support your answer with three characteristics
of utopia or dystopia and relate these reasons to examples from works we have read.
(Example: You might say that the United States is more like a dystopia when police want
to use video surveillances to monitor public places. In 1984, we see constant surveillance
when the government uses telescreens to monitor the citizens of Oceania.)

2. Each group in this class has created a version of a utopian society. Write an
(individual) 2–3 page essay that will persuade other classmates that they would want
to move to your group’s community. Your essay should describe at least three societal
aspects. One must be the government, and two others can be chosen from work,
family, religion, education, attitude toward technology, or others on which your group
has focused. A good essay will briefly describe the aspect, then use persuasive
language to tell other people why they will want to live there.

Performance Criteria Proficiency Levels

6 9 12
Description Describes fewer than 3 Describes 3 aspects; however, Clearly describes 3 aspects
aspects and/or the descriptions are vague and with vivid, detailed
descriptions are very need more detail. language.
limited.

6 9 12
Persuasion Support for position is Position supported but some Position supported with
limited or missing. reasons or examples are relevant reasons and
not relevant or well-chosen. well-chosen examples.
2 4 6
Organization Is disorganized and lacks Is organized, but may lack Is focused and well
transitions. some transitions. organized, with effective
use of transitions.
2 4 6
Mechanics Frequent errors in Errors in grammar, spelling, Few errors in grammar,
grammar, spelling, or or punctuation do not spelling, or
punctuation. These inhibit understanding. punctuation. These
errors inhibit errors do not inhibit
understanding. understanding.

FIGURE 8.21 Rubric for Scoring Students’ Essays

Reprinted with permission.
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258 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

Maria limits the scoring guide to four criteria: description, persuasion, organiza-
tion, and mechanics. The criteria description and persuasion most directly relate to the
unit learning goals. When students write persuasively about the United States as a
utopia or dystopia, the description dimension of the task requires them to support their
argument by providing examples of either utopic or dystopic qualities. Similarly, in the
second essay students must describe the utopian qualities of the society that they create.
The descriptions the students provide will help Maria to gauge whether students have
developed an understanding of the utopia concept. The language and arguments the stu-
dents use in their essays will allow Maria to assess their grasp of writing persuasively.
The criteria of organization and mechanics are less directly related to the unit.
However, these two criteria are part of the content standards for writing in most states.
Many English language arts teachers will address organization and mechanics (i.e., con-
ventions) in their instruction all year long. Thus, including them in the scoring guide
makes sense.
The organization and mechanics criteria are generic in that they will apply across
writing assessments throughout the course of the year. However, given their indirect
relation to the learning goals of the unit, the lower weighting of organization and mechan-
ics (12 total possible points) as compared to description and persuasion (24 possible
points) helps to ensure most of the grade for these essays will be based on the learning
goals that are specifically the focus of the unit.
Also notice that the proficiency levels for each performance criterion use specific
language to establish a continuum of performance. Descriptors for persuasion, for
example, state the following:
• Support for position is limited or missing.
• Position supported, but some reasons or examples are not relevant or well chosen.
• Position supported with relevant reasons and well-chosen examples.
The descriptors avoid evaluative terms, such as “poor,” “good,” and “excellent.” In addition,
the four criteria address key qualities and do not focus on criteria that are frivolous
(e.g., neatness) or untaught (e.g., creativity).

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we looked at various forms of constructed-response items, such as short
answer and essay formats. Short-answer items take the form of a question or an incom-
plete statement, and student responses may be a single word, a phrase, or a few sen-
tences. A teacher can use the short-answer format to assess student understanding of
knowledge and concepts that are limited in scope. Essay items pose a question for
students to answer or present a task to which students respond. Essay items should be
used to assess learning goals associated with cognitive processes related to analysis,
evaluation, and synthesis.
General guidelines for item development include assessing knowledge and cogni-
tive skills associated with class instruction, using new interpretive material, keeping the
language in the items simple, and attending to the developmental level of students.
In preparing content-based essay items, we stated that teachers should write
directions that define the task clearly, focus students on the key ideas to address in
their response, and use formatting features to clarify the task. In developing prompts
for which writing skills are the focus, we suggested developing interesting prompts,
incorporating key elements, focusing on students’ cultural or social experiences, and
avoiding prompts addressing personal values, religious beliefs, or criticism.
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Chapter Review Questions 259

We next turned to scoring constructed-response items. Short-answer items can

be scored by reviewing your instructional materials and using this information to pre-
pare a list of answers. Essays and writing prompts require you to develop a scoring guide
to identify important elements that should be evident in student responses. We then
described the checklist, analytic rubric, and holistic rubric as three scoring frameworks.
Checklists and analytic rubrics allow a teacher to report a score for each criterion. In
the case of a holistic rubric, the criteria are integrated to describe students’ responses
for each proficiency level, and a teacher can report only one overall score.
We next discussed factors contributing error to students’ essay scores. We then
turned to identifying common pitfalls in developing essay items and scoring guides.
After identifying students as a valuable resource in developing essays and scoring
guides, we pointed out that short-answer and essay item formats present physical and
cognitive demands that may interfere with student expression of knowledge. Such
demands can be lessened if you plan for accommodations in your instruction and
assessment. The case study section addressed application of the guidelines for essays
and analytic rubrics.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
A website with constructed-response items and scoring guides from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP). Includes items in the subject areas of civics, economics,
geography, mathematics, reading, science, United States history, and writing. All NAEP
questions and rubrics in this chapter come from this website.
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
A website that provides templates for constructing rubrics. You also can look at rubrics made by
teachers.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. For a test item to engage the students at the understanding cognitive level
or higher, the interpretive material must be new. Suppose that during instruc-
tion you used the bar graph item in Figure 8.1. As you prepare a test on
interpretation of graphs, how could you change the interpretive material in
the bar graph item so your students must use the understanding cognitive
level or higher?
2. Use the elements of a prompt from the “Developing Writing Prompts” section
to review the persuasive writing prompt in Table 8.4. The persuasive prompt
addresses which elements? Support your answer. Which elements are absent?
Support your answer.
3. Read the descriptor for the rating level of 1 for the voice criterion in Figure
8.18. Rewrite the descriptor to use positive language.
4. A student in your class has difficulty with spelling, and her errors in spelling
interfere with the meaning of her writing. What form of accommodation would
be appropriate?
5. What criteria would you include in a scoring guide for the essay about Laura
McFadden’s pen and ink drawing? Refer to Figure 8.12. Would you use a
checklist, analytic rubric, or holistic rubric? Why?
6. Design an essay prompt and an analytic rubric for a writing assignment that you
might assign in your class. Which guidelines did you find hardest to follow?
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260 Chapter 8 Teacher-Made Assessments: Short Answer and Essay

7. Revisit the accommodations for selected-response tests in Table 7.6 of Chapter 7.

Select two of the accommodations for students who have difficulty focusing
attention that would apply to a test that used essays. State why the accommodations
would be useful for this group of diverse learners.
8. Download one of the writing prompts from the NAEP website: http://nces.ed.gov/
nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/searchresults.asp. Write two of the strengths of the
prompt according to the guidelines that we have presented.

REFERENCES
Albertson, B. 1998. Creating effective writing prompts. Newark: Delaware Reading and Writing
Project, Delaware Center for Teacher Education, University of Delaware.
Arter, J., and J. Chappuis. 2007. Creating and recognizing quality rubrics. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
California Department of Education. 2008. California standards test released test questions: Grade
8 science. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp.
Chase, C. 1986. Essay test scoring: Interaction of relevant variables. Journal of Educational
Measurement 23: 33–41.
Coerr, E. 1977. Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. New York: Puffin Books.
Creighton, S. 2006. Examining alternative scoring rubrics on a statewide test: The impact of
different scoring methods on science and social studies performance assessments.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Daly, J., and F. Dickson-Markman. 1982. Contrast effects in evaluating essays. Journal of
Educational Measurement 19(4): 309–316.
Dunbar, S., D. Koretz, and H. Hoover. 1991. Quality control in the development and use of
performance assessments. Applied Measurement in Education 4(4): 289–303.
Florida Department of Education. 2005. Florida Writing Assessment Program (FLORIDA
WRITES!). Retrieved December 26 from http://www.fldoe.org/asp/fw/fwaprubr.asp.
Gredler, M., and R. Johnson. 2004. Assessment in the literacy classroom. Needham Heights, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
Grobe, C. 1981. Syntactic maturity, mechanics, and vocabulary as predictors of quality ratings.
Research in the Teaching of English 13: 207–215.
Hogan, T., and G. Murphy. 2007. Recommendations for preparing and scoring constructed-
response items: What the experts say. Applied Measurement in Education 20(4): 427–441.
Hopkins, K. 1998. Educational and psychological measurement and evaluation. 8th ed. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Allyn and Bacon.
Hopkins, K. D., J. C. Stanley, and B. R. Hopkins. 1990. Educational and psychological measurement
and evaluation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Johnson, R., J. Penny, and B. Gordon. 2009. Assessing performance: Developing, scoring, and
validating performance tasks. New York: Guilford Publications.
Kuhs, T., Johnson, R., Agruso, S., and Monsod, D. 2001. Put to the Test: Tools and Techniques for
Classroom Assessment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Lane, S., and C. Stone. 2006. Performance assessment. In R. Brennan (ed.), Educational
measurement, 4th ed., pp. 387–431. Westport, CT: American Council on Education and
Praeger Publishers.
Markham, L. 1976. Influences of handwriting quality on teacher evaluation of written work.
American Educational Research Journal 13: 277–284.
National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP questions. Retrieved June 19, 2008, from
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrls/.
National Center for Educational Statistics. 2008. What does the NAEP Writing Assessment
measure? Retrieved June 19, 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/writing/
whatmeasure.asp.
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Nitko, A., and S. Brookhart. 2007. Educational assessment of students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson.
Ohio State Department of Education. 2003. Academic content standards: K–12 fine arts.
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ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=336&ContentID=1388&Content=12661.
Richter, H. 1987. Friedrich. New York: Puffin Books.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2004a. Extended response scoring rubric. Retrieved
May 24, 2008, from http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/assessment/pact/rubrics.html.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2004b. Released PACT history item. Columbia, SC:
Author.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2006. South Carolina High School Assessment Program:
Release form. Retrieved July 1, 2008, from http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/assessment/
programs/hsap/releaseitems.html.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2007. PACT math release items. Retrieved February 18,
2008, from http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/assessment/pact/PACTMathReleaseItems.html.
Starch, D., and E. Elliot. 1912. Reliability of grading high school work in English. School Review
20: 442–457.
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Stewart, M., and C. Grobe. 1979. Syntactic maturity, mechanics of writing, and teachers’ quality
ratings. Research in the Teaching of English 13: 207–215.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 9

TEACHER-MADE ASSESSMENTS:
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
We cannot be said to “understand” something unless we can employ it wisely,
fluently, flexibly, and aptly in particular and diverse contexts.
–Grant Wiggins

❖ Chapter Learning Goals

• Apply general guidelines to
At the conclusion of this chapter, the develop performance assessments
reader should be able to do the that require students to use the
following: cognitive strategies of apply,
• Describe the two forms of response analyze, evaluate, and create.
in performance assessments. • Design methods for scoring
• Align the learning goals and the performance assessments.
form of assessment. • Involve students in the
• Describe when to use performance development of performance
assessments. assessments.
• Explain the advantages and • Describe ways to accommodate
disadvantages of performance the performance assessment
assessments. format for diverse learners.

 INTRODUCTION
Now that we have described teacher-made selected-response and constructed-
response formats for designing assessments in Chapters 7 and 8, we move on to the
most complex teacher-designed assessment type. Performance assessments require
students to construct a response to a task or prompt to demonstrate their achieve-
ment of a learning goal. In the previous chapter, we noted that the essay is a special
case of a performance assessment. In responding to an essay prompt, students
retrieve the required facts and concepts, organize this information, and construct a
written response. However, not all performance assessments require a written
response. In music, for example, students sing or play an instrument. In masonry,
students might lay a brick corner.
To illustrate the power of performance assessments, let us take you into one
of our classes. Actually, we are taking you into the media center at Germanton
Elementary. In the biography section of the media center, you see a group of fifth-
grade students standing by the bookshelves. At each shelf a student counts the
books from left to right. After counting five books, the student pulls the fifth book,
reads the title to determine who the biography is about, and sometimes reads the
blurb inside the book cover. Each student then tells another student, who is serving
as a recorder, the ethnicity of the person who is the focus of the biography. The
student then returns the book to the shelf, counts five books, and pulls the next
263
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264 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

biography. After completing this process for each of the shelves in the biography sec-
tion, the students return to the classroom to compile their data. In the classroom, the
students graph their results, showing that a majority of the biographies focused on
European Americans. Students then write a brief report about their findings and pre-
sent the report to the media specialist.
What was the purpose of this exercise? The students had just completed a
learning unit on the use of pie charts and bar graphs to show patterns in data.
Why bother with students actually counting the biographies? Why not simply give
students some fabricated data to graph? Enhancing the meaningfulness of a prob-
lem is a key quality in performance assessment (Johnson et al., 2009). By involving
students in the data collection, we make real the use of visual representations of
data to detect patterns and answer significant questions. This particular exercise
also involves students in examining equity in representing the diversity of our
culture—linking their critical thinking skills with issues relevant to participation
in a democracy.
In performance assessment, the form of response required of students may be
Process a process (e.g., delivering a speech) or a product (e.g., a house plan). Process should
The procedure a student uses to be the focus of a performance assessment when (a) the act of performing is the target
complete a performance task. learning outcome, (b) the performance is a series of procedures that can be observed,
or (c) a diagnosis of performance might improve learning outcomes (Gronlund,
2004). For example, in elementary schools, when a student engages in the process of
retelling a story, the teacher can examine the student’s ability to capture the main idea
of the text, identify key details of the narrative, and use this information to summa-
rize the story.
Product A product, on the other hand, should be the focus of learning outcomes
The tangible outcome or end result when (a) a product is the primary outcome of a performance, (b) the product has
of a performance task. observable characteristics that can be used in evaluating the student’s response,
and (c) variations exist in the procedures for producing the response (Gronlund,
2004). For example, in the visual arts the student engages in a process to create
a sculpture; however, the focus should be the qualities expressed in the final
product.
A systematic method for scoring student responses must accompany any perfor-
mance assessment. In Chapter 8, we described three types of scoring guides: checklists,
holistic rubrics, and analytic rubrics. We will revisit analytic rubrics later in this chap-
ter as the preferable means of scoring performance assessments.

 TAHINKING
LIGNING ITEMS WITH LEARNING GOALS AND
SKILLS
As with any item type, a critical component of developing a quality performance
assessment is the alignment of the task with the understanding and skills that were the
focus of instruction. Figure 9.1 presents an example of how content of learning goals
can affect the selection of performance tasks versus selected-response, short-answer,
or essay formats. As shown, to assess whether a student uses appropriate instruments
and tools safely and accurately, a teacher will need to use a performance assessment
and observe the student in the process of conducting a scientific investigation. How-
ever, the teacher can use selected-response items to assess students’ learning to classify
observations as quantitative or qualitative or to categorize statements as observations,
predictions, or inferences.
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When to Use Performance Assessments 265

Standard 4-1:
The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry, including the processes,
skills, and mathematical thinking necessary to conduct a simple scientific investigation.

Possible Assessment
Indicators (i.e., Learning Goals) Formats

4-1.1 Classify observations as either quantitative or Selected Response

qualitative.

4-1.2 Use appropriate instruments and tools (including a Performance Assessment

compass, an anemometer, mirrors, and a prism) safely
and accurately when conducting simple investigations.

4-1.3 Summarize the characteristics of a simple scientific Essay

investigation that represent a fair test (including a
question that identifies the problem, a prediction that
indicates a possible outcome, a process that tests one
manipulated variable at a time, and results that are
communicated and explained).

4-1.4 Distinguish among observations, predictions, and Selected Response

inferences.

4-1.5 Recognize the correct placement of variables on a Selected Response

line graph.

4-1.6 Construct and interpret diagrams, tables, and graphs Performance Assessment
made from recorded measurements and observations.

4-1.7 Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting Performance Assessment

investigations. (SCDE, 2005, p. 31)

FIGURE 9.1 Aligning Content Standards and Learning Goals with Assessment Forms
Adapted from South Carolina Department of Education. 2005. South Carolina science academic standards. Columbia,
S.C.: Author. From http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/standards/science/. Reprinted with permission.

 WHEN TO USE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS

In deciding whether to use a performance assessment, the first issue to consider is
whether the learning goals to be assessed require students to use higher-level cognitive
strategies such as evaluation or creation. If, for example, you want to assess whether
students can incorporate the elements and principles of the visual arts into a drawing,
a task that engages students in producing an actual drawing is necessary. A test that
uses multiple-choice items can tap into a student’s ability to analyze a drawing and
identify elements displayed in the piece. However, a test that relies solely on multiple-
choice items cannot inform you about a student’s ability to create. Writers in the field
of assessment agree that performance assessment should be used to assess students’
use of higher-level cognitive strategies (Hogan & Murphy, 2007).
Another issue to think about is your goals for the development of student under-
standing. Consider the example of the students investigating the diversity in the biog-
raphy section in the school media center. Their understanding, in part, could have
been assessed using multiple-choice items, or the teacher could have provided the
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266 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

frequency counts for the types of vegetables or fruits displayed in textbooks. Instead,
students were engaged in the more meaningful task of investigating the representation
of the diversity of our society, summarizing the data in graphs, and writing a written
report with recommendations. Performance assessments are best utilized when the con-
sequences broaden your students’ understanding and contribute to their development.

 AOFDVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
A major advantage of performance assessment is the potential to engage students in
more cognitively complex, relevant tasks in which they must organize information in
formulating a response. Performance tasks allow a teacher to assess students’ under-
standing and skills in depth. Such tasks require students to recall, organize, and syn-
thesize concepts that were the focus of a learning unit. Also, performance tasks can be
embedded in contexts that contribute to the meaningfulness of a task. Consider, for
example, students demonstrating their achievements in public speaking when they host
the morning newscast on their school’s closed-circuit television broadcast. The context
of a broadcast makes the task more authentic to the students.
In terms of disadvantages, we should talk about the time required for students to
complete a performance task. Having students actually collect the data on biographies,
generate the appropriate graphs, write the report, and present their findings to the
media specialist consumed several class periods. We would have taken perhaps one class
period if we simply handed our students a set of data and asked them to put the infor-
mation into the appropriate graph form and write an interpretation. Given the demand
on time, we suggest using performance assessments primarily in the culminating activi-
ties of a unit when you need to assess students’ abilities to analyze, evaluate, and create.
As the opening quotation suggests, a performance assessment should give your students
an opportunity to demonstrate their deeper understanding of the learning goals by
employing it “wisely, fluently, flexibly, and aptly” in a carefully chosen context.
A second disadvantage in the use of performance assessment lies with the dif-
ficulty of achieving high reliability in scoring. As a teacher grades numerous student
responses, the teacher’s scoring may become more severe (or sometimes more lenient).
For some students, the grade might reflect the teacher becoming fatigued rather than
the quality of the performance. All is not lost, however, because we have learned to
develop scoring guides that will improve the consistency of our grading of perfor-
mance tasks. We will examine scoring guides more closely in a later section.

 GUIDELINES FOR TASK DEVELOPMENT

In this section, we provide guidelines that contribute to a well-designed performance
task (see Table 9.1).

Specify the Understanding and Skills to Be Addressed

As you begin writing the task prompt, you should specify the understanding and skills
to be addressed in the student response. Here we mean both the knowledge the student
will demonstrate and the cognitive processes the student will use. In Figure 9.2, Gloria
Ham, a high school Spanish teacher, identifies the content that is the focus of the task
Libro de Niños Sobre el Medio Ambiente. Gloria’s task engages students in application
of conventions of Spanish language to create a book. She identifies the focus to be
sentence structure, verb tenses, and vocabulary. By explicitly specifying the content, as
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Guidelines for Task Development 267

TA B L E 9 . 1
Guidelines for Developing Performance Assessment Prompts
Specify the content knowledge and cognitive strategies the student must demonstrate in
responding to the prompt.

Create a task that is meaningful to the students.

Determine the format (i.e., oral, demonstration, or product) of the final form of the
student’s response.

Consider the supplies and resources to complete the task.

Address the degree of structure appropriate for this task.

Keep the reading demands at a level that ensures clarity of the task directions.

Address logistics in the task directions.

L I B R O D E N I Ñ O S S O B R E
E L M E D I O A M B I E N T E

[Children’s Book About the Environment] Your book . . .

Gloria Ham • Should be an original story.

• Should be bilingual.
Assignment: • Should include minimum 6 – maximum 10 pages (in
Spanish and same number in English), plus front and
• Option 1: You will write a book for small children
back covers.
(5–7-year-olds). You will write it in story form to
• Should have an illustration on each page. The
educate and/or persuade small children to protect
illustrations must be appropriate for small children
the environment, do community service, and/or be
(bright, colorful, and big). You may use original
aware of our role in society.
pictures or drawings, appropriate clip art, pictures
• Option 2: You will write a children’s story that is a
from a fairy tale, etc.
retelling of a well-known fairy tale. It shouldn’t be a
• Should have at least one sentence per page, but not
direct translation of the fairy tale, but your own
more than five sentences per page.
original story.
• Should include a title page with a graphic and fancy
Structure, grammar, and vocabulary: lettering, the title, author’s name, illustrator’s name, and
• You should use simple and compound sentences and the year.
they should follow the structures that we have studied • Due on November 13.
in Units One and Two. Submit a rough draft for corrections (20 points)
• Your verbs should include the subjunctive and the
• Typed, double spaced.
indicative moods in all tenses and forms necessary to
• Due on November 1.
tell the story.
• Make sure to include vocabulary, conjunctions of time, We will go to one of the elementary schools in the district to
phrases and expressions from Unit Two. read our books.

FIGURE 9.2 A Performance Task for Students in a High School Spanish Class
Reprinted with permission.
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268 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Gloria did, you can determine whether the task addresses the knowledge, skills, and
strategies that were the focus of instruction. In addition, a review of the content
requirements allows you to make sure the cognitive strategies required for the task
engage students in analyzing, evaluating, and creating.
In some instances, teachers write performance tasks to assess student learning
across content areas. As discussed in Chapter 8, assessing student development of
writing skills can be integrated with assessing their content knowledge. In Figure 9.3,
the prompt for an art class directs students to create a painting in one of the artistic
styles they have studied. In addition, students develop a placard describing the ele-
ments of the painting. In this task, the teacher assesses in an integrated way her stu-
dents’ learning in both the visual arts and writing.

Build Meaningfulness into the Task

Meaningfulness is considered a critical element to incorporate into performance assess-
ments. In the task shown in Figure 9.4, a high school mathematics teacher, Denise
Derrick, establishes a scenario in which students must use their skills in developing

We have been studying several artistic styles, such as cubism, life using one of the styles of art that we studied. Also, write a
impressionism, and pointillism. We are going to turn our description of what it is that your family member should see
classroom into an art gallery for when your families come to in your painting that will help him or her understand which
our school’s open house. Galleries usually have a variety of style you used. Your description should address the elements
art styles in their exhibits and hanging beside each piece is a and principles of the visual arts. In writing your description,
placard that tells about the artwork. Your contribution to our be sure to follow the conventions of written language that we
gallery is to create a painting of some person or event in your have studied.

FIGURE 9.3 Performance Task That Integrates Art and Writing Skills

Q U A D R A T I C R E L A T I O N S A N D
C O N I C S E C T I O N S

Denise Derrick be expected to spread in dangerous levels for 20 miles in all

directions. Beyond the 20 miles, everyone will be safe. There
Objective: The student will analyze a situation involving a is a hospital located 11 miles east and 17 miles north of the
nonlinear real-life problem and devise a method to solve point of origin of the leak. If you don’t evacuate the hospital,
the problem. will the patients be safe? If you do evacuate and it is not nec-
essary, there will be a tremendous financial loss and unneces-
Directions: sary suffering for patients.
You are the director of the Disaster Preparedness Agency
for Richland County. It is your job to assess the situation Do you evacuate the hospital?
when a disaster occurs and make decisions regarding evacu- After having studied the four conic shapes: parabolas, cir-
ations for any affected areas in the county. On December 10, cles, ellipses, and hyperbolas, choose one of the shapes to help
a toxic spill involving chlorine gas occurs at one of the local you make your decision. Write an algebraic model equation/
industries. The gas is lethal when inhaled. You immediately inequality to represent the affected or unaffected area; show the
consult with local climatologists regarding wind patterns and calculations necessary to make your decision; and defend your
are informed that due to prevailing wind patterns, the gas can decision by writing an explanation of your procedures.

FIGURE 9.4 A Mathematics Performance Task That Incorporates “Meaningfulness”

Reprinted with permission.
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Guidelines for Task Development 269

 C Ó M O L L E G O ?

Carmen Nazario Our room will be transformed into “Downtown E. L. W.”

Situation: Imagine that you are lost in “Downtown
Standard 1.1 Students engage in conversations, provide and E. L. W.” You will be given two starting and two ending
obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and ex- points. Your partner and you will take turns requesting di-
change opinions. rections and giving instructions in Spanish on how to get to
We have been studying how to identify places, give ad- your final destination.
dresses, request directions, and give instructions. You will be graded according to the following rubric:

Performance Proficiency Levels

Criteria 0 1 2 Weight Score

Request directions. Student does not Student asks for Student asks for 2
know how to ask directions but with directions with no
for directions. some difficulty. difficulty.

Follow directions. Student can’t follow Student can follow Student can follow 3
directions given by directions with directions without
partner. some difficulty. hesitation.

Use of affirmative tu Commands are barely Commands are Commands are 5

commands. or not used. used but not correctly used
consistently. throughout.

Use of prepositional Prepositions are not Prepositions used Prepositions used 5

phrases to express used correctly. but with some correctly.
location. mistakes.

Identifying places. Student can’t identify Student identifies Student can identify 5
places in and places but with the places without
around the some difficulty. mistakes.
destination.

Accuracy in the Instructions were not Instructions were Instructions were 5

giving of clear or accurate. clear but with very clear and
instructions. some mistakes. accurate.

Earned points_______
Total possible points: 50

FIGURE 9.5 A Spanish Performance Assessment That Incorporates the Element of “Meaningfulness”
Reprinted with permission.

algebraic models to make a decision about evacuating areas of a county that may be
affected by a toxic spill. In “Quadratic Relations and Conic Sections,” students see real-
life implications for the algebraic skills they are developing.
Carmen Nazario, a middle-school Spanish teacher, incorporated meaningfulness
into the task she developed in which students ask for directions and provide directions
in Spanish (Figure 9.5). Students in her class recognize giving directions as a necessary
skill and, thus, the task is likely to be more meaningful to students than textbook
exercises at the end of a unit.
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270 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Ethics Alert: In the “¿Cómo Llego?” task in Figure 9.5, the grade of the student depends
in part on the quality of the instructions he receives in Spanish from his partner. Because
the student’s grade should be based only on his understanding of directions stated in the
correct Spanish form, the teacher will need to correct any directions in which the Spanish
is incorrect. Then the grade of the student who is receiving directions will represent his
understanding of directions stated in Spanish.

Audiences and Meaningfulness

Contributing to meaningfulness of the “¿Cómo Llego?” task in Figure 9.5, is the use
of students’ peers as the audience for their performances. In our teaching, we have
experienced the excitement of students who had articles published by their local
newspapers about their visits to museums. As students wrote the articles, they knew
the community was their audience. Contrast the meaningfulness of writing for a
community-wide audience with completing short-answer items or writing brief
essays that only a teacher will see.
If students are engaged in a content-area task, potential audiences extend beyond
the teacher or other students to other writers, mathematicians, artists, and scientists.
These audiences impose realistic demands for the task. For example, in “Libro de Niños
Sobre el Medio Ambiente” (Figure 9.2), the teacher indicates the high school students
will read their books to elementary students. This audience has implications in terms of
vocabulary: the students in the Spanish class will need to use vocabulary appropriate
for elementary students. In the art example (Figure 9.3), students will need to use
language their parents or guardians will understand when they read the placard.

Context and Meaningfulness

Context is another element that potentially contributes to the meaningfulness of a task
by providing a setting and a purpose that realistically focus and constrain the task. The
example at the beginning of the chapter focused on the media center as the setting
and had the purpose of using students’ skills in creating graphs to summarize their
findings about the diversity reflected in the biography collection.
Context can be provided by the subject area being studied, the themes associated
with learning units, or students’ personal experiences (Kuhs et al., 2001). In the task
shown in Figure 9.6, Angela Black, a fourth-grade teacher, uses the subject area being
studied—organizing data in graphical display—as the context. She also links the task
to students’ personal experiences when she bases the data on a survey about the sports
that fifth-grade students liked to watch on television. Linking the task to students’
personal experiences is one of the most effective ways to enhance meaningfulness
(Ovando, 2005).

Determine the Response Format

In the prompt directions you should specify the form the response should take.
Some learning goals may best be assessed by attending to the processes in which a
student engages in responding to a performance task (Table 9.2). For other learning
goals, a product is the best response form to gauge achievement. A review of the
types of activities in Table 9.2 reminds us that student assessments can include an
array of forms.
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Guidelines for Task Development 271

D A T A A N A L Y S I S A N D P R O B A B I L I T Y

Angela Black
Student Name:_________________ Date:____________
Standard: Mathematics Grade 4: Data Analysis and Probability
Standard 4-6.3: Organize data in graphical displays (tables, line graphs, bar graphs with scale increments greater than one).
We have been learning about collecting data, interpreting (reading) the data, organizing the data for a reader, and the different
types of graphs that are used for data.
You will create a graph using Microsoft Excel from the data that were collected in class from the survey on the sports that
fifth-grade students liked to watch on television. The graph should represent the data clearly and meet the grading categories
in the rubric.
Directions:
1. Bring collected data to Computer Class during Related Arts time.
2. Enter data into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
3. Create graph using Chart Wizard.
4. Label and adjust graph to make graph clear and accurate to the reader.
5. Attach your graph to this sheet before turning it in.

FIGURE 9.6 A Data Analysis Performance Task That Links to Students’ Personal Experiences
Reprinted with permission.

The “¿Cómo Llego?” task in Figure 9.5 engages students in providing directions
using Spanish—an example of a process performance task. Other process tasks include
making patterns with math manipulatives, passing a basketball, and playing a musical pas-
sage. The outcomes in the previous performance tasks in which students write a bilingual
children’s book (Figure 9.2) and create a graph (Figure 9.6) are examples of products.
Today, the distinction between process and product can become blurred because
students’ responses or demonstrations can be recorded and scored later. Previously,
students’ performances of a play or a dance could be observed and evaluated only at
the time students engaged in the process. We do not advocate delayed scoring because
the amount of time required to grade a recorded performance is likely to be added
to the time spent watching the original presentation.

TA B L E 9 . 2
Examples of Process and Product Performance Tasks
Processes Products
Oral Demonstration

• Delivering a newscast • Performing a play • Play script

• Interviewing a senior citizen • Searching for websites related to a topic • Floor plan
• Retelling a story • Applying first-aid skills • Spreadsheet
• Modeling a decision-making process • Operating a fire extinguisher • Musical score
• Reciting a memorized poem or speech • Performing a dance choreographed by a student • Scale model
• Timelines
• Written reports
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272 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Consider the Materials and Resources Required

Performance assessments frequently go beyond the pencil and paper modes of response.
In the examples we have seen thus far, students needed access to computer programs
to create graphs, clip art to use as illustrations for a children’s book, and art supplies.
Not all students have the resources at home to complete such tasks; in planning a
performance assessment, you need to consider the availability of these resources to
ensure that all students have equal access.

Address the Degree of Structure for a Task

You should also consider the amount of structure needed by your students for the task.
One method to provide structure is to use numbers or bullets to outline critical pro-
cedural steps in a task. As shown in Figure 9.7, Frank Harrison, a high school English
teacher, numbers the steps students should follow in writing a poem. Notice the use
of bullets in “Libro de Niños Sobre el Medio Ambiente” in Figure 9.2 and the use of
numbers in “Data Analysis and Probability” in Figure 9.6. These formats guide students
as they complete a task.
In the sonnet task, Frank also developed a grid for added structure to guide
students as they write. The grid indicates the number of lines, the stresses, and the
rhyming pattern. Finally, when scoring guides are provided with the task, as done in
“¿Cómo Llego?,” the guide provides structure by highlighting for students the critical
features to incorporate into their responses.
Another way to help students structure and visualize the performance task is to
show examples of responses completed by students in previous years. Reviewing and
discussing the qualities of exemplary responses will help to make the directions and
rubric more concrete for your students. We stress the use of multiple models because if
you show only one example, students may be led to think the model is the right answer.
If you use such models, you should show several versions of exemplary responses.

Monitor the Reading Demands

As you develop a performance assessment, you will also want to pay attention to lan-
guage used in the prompt. Instructions often require a heavy cognitive processing load
based on the reading required. Text is used to describe the problem, place it within a
context, and specify the form of the students’ responses. In constructing a prompt, you
need to attend to choice of words and sentence structure of the prompt. After drafting
your prompt, reread it to see whether you can use less-demanding vocabulary and
whether you can add graphics or other visual organizational tools to reduce reliance
on language alone (e.g., the grid used in the sonnet lesson in Figure 9.7). Also check
the structure of sentences to see if you can simplify them.
In Chapter 7 we described how to check the reading level of your test materi-
als using the Spelling and Grammar feature in Microsoft Word. The analysis in
Word indicated that the grade-level readability is 8.5 for the NAEP science item in
Figure 9.8. Given the item is for the twelfth-grade NAEP, the reading level should
be appropriate for the students.

Address Logistics in the Task Directions

A final element to consider is the logistics of the task, or a listing of your expectations
in terms of the due date, the number of pages for any written responses, the acceptable
font, the length of time for oral responses or demonstrations, and the point value for
the task.
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Guidelines for Task Development 273

S O N N E T S E Q U E N C E :
E N G L I S H I I I C O L L E G E P R E P

Frank Harrison 3. In the last six lines, resolve the problem, make general
comments or conclusions, or answer the question.
Instructions: Write a Petrarchan sonnet about any topic, 4. The grid will help you as you draft your sonnet. Follow
character, theme, setting, period, etc., you’ve encountered the pattern for stressed and unstressed syllables shown
thus far in your study of American literature. Use your text, along the top of the grid.
required novels, summer reading, videos shown in class, 5. Follow the pattern for end rhymes shown along the
and/or class discussions/notes for sources. right side of the grid.
1. Write exactly fourteen lines, putting one syllable in 6. Final drafts should be typed and double-spaced.
each box of the grid below.
2. In the first eight lines, describe a problem, introduce
an issue, or pose a question.

“ⴚ” indicates an unstressed syllable; “´ ”indicates a stressed syllable

ⴚ ´ ⴚ ´ ⴚ ´ ⴚ ´ ⴚ ´
1 A

2 b

3 B

4 a

5 a

6 b

7 b

8 a

9 c

10 d

11 e

12 c

13 d

14 e

FIGURE 9.7 An English Performance Task That Uses a Grid to Guide Student Development of a Sonnet
Reprinted with permission.

When students are working on long-term projects, teachers should review stu-
dents’ progress at several points during the process. (We have addressed some of the
benefits of such formative assessment in Chapter 4.) Periodic reviews also teach stu-
dents to pace themselves and not wait until the last minute to complete a task. No one
wants to grade projects done the night before.
Another benefit to incorporating checkpoints and working with students during the
process is to reduce the likelihood of shoddy last-minute work or even plagiarism. For
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274 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Questions 4–5 refer to the following investigation.

A student took a sample of water from a pond and examined it under a microscope. She
identified several species of protozoans, including two species of Paramecium that are
known to eat the same food. The student decided to examine the water sample every day for
a week. She added food for the Paramecia each day and counted the number of each species.
Her findings are summarized in the table below.

Number of Paramecia in Pond Water Sample

Day Species S Species T
1 50 50
2 60 80
3 100 90
4 150 60
5 160 50
6 160 30
7 160 20

4. Using the axes below, construct a graph showing the number of each species of
Paramecium the student found each day. Be sure to label the axes.

FIGURE 9.8 An NAEP Science Task for Twelfth-Grade Students

SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics. 2005. NAEP questions. From http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
itmrls/. Reprinted with permission.

example, after reading and discussing a historical novel, students in one class prepared to
write their own historical novelettes. To frame the collection of information about a time
period, the teacher prepared a chart with the headers of historical events, clothing, food,
etc. (Kuhs et al., 2001). Students used the chart to take notes about people during the
historical period that was the focus of their novel. After reviewing their notes with the
teacher, students then began writing a five-chapter novelette. The student reviewed each 3-
to 4-page chapter with the teacher and revised as needed. At the end of the process, students
had an original novelette of approximately 15 pages. Think of the different position of the
students if the teacher had simply instructed them to write a historical novelette, assigned
a due date for the final project, and not monitored student work as they progressed.

 SCORING THE ASSESSMENT

In this section we examine the elements of the scoring guides accompanying perfor-
mance tasks. To supplement this information, you should review the section on scor-
ing guides in Chapter 8.
The teachers in our examples for this chapter favored analytic rubrics to score the
performance tasks. Analytic rubrics list separate performance criteria for reviewing stu-
dents’ responses. For example, in the rubric for the task “Sonnet Sequence: English III
College Prep,” the teacher includes criteria related to number of lines, rhyming pattern,
syllable patterns, etc. (see Figure 9.9). Thus, students receive a score for each perfor-
mance criterion. Because performance tasks are usually complex with several
performance criteria to be addressed, we recommend analytic rubrics for providing the
clearest scoring and feedback for students.
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Scoring the Assessment 275

Student Name: Date

Proficiency Levels
Performance
Criteria 0 1 2 3
Has 14 lines Sonnet does not Sonnet does have
have 14 lines. 14 lines.
Has correct rhyming Sonnet does not Sonnet has some Sonnet has correct
pattern rhyme. rhymes, but the rhyming pattern.
rhyming pattern is
not correct.
Ten syllables per line No regular pattern of Some lines are ten All lines are ten
with alternating syllables. syllables and some syllables and
stressed/unstressed alternate stresses. alternate stresses.
syllables
Is about a topic The sonnet does not The sonnet attempts The sonnet’s topic is
covered in class deal with a topic to deal with a directly related to
covered in class. topic covered in a topic covered in
class, but it is class and is well-
underdeveloped developed.
or unclear.
Last 6 lines comment No identifiable An obvious attempt A clear and clever
on the first 8 lines comment (shift). is made to make a shift is evident
comment, but it is where the second
underdeveloped or portion of the
unclear. sonnet comments
on the first.
Correct grammar Sonnet contains Sonnet contains a few Sonnet has correct
and conventions errors in grammar, errors in grammar, grammar,
punctuation, or punctuation, or punctuation, and
spelling that spelling, but they spelling.
distract the reader. don’t distract the
reader.
Contains descriptive Specific nouns, The selection of Specific nouns,
words adjectives, and specific nouns, adjectives, and
adverbs that paint adjectives, and adverbs that paint
a picture for the adverbs that paint a picture for the
reader are not a picture for the reader are
used. reader is attempted. effectively selected.
Correct format Not typed. Typed, but not Typed and double-
double-spaced. spaced

FIGURE 9.9 The Scoring Guide Used with the Task “Sonnet Sequence: English III College Prep”
Reprinted with permission.
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276 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Accompanying each performance criterion is a scale with numerical ratings

and a descriptor for each proficiency level. Notice in the rubric for writing a sonnet
(Figure 9.9), the performance criterion for rhyming pattern has a scale that ranges
from 1 to 3. (The teacher did not include a rating of 0 for this criterion.) The descrip-
tor that accompanies the proficiency level of 3 is Sonnet has correct rhyming pattern;
whereas for the proficiency level of 2, the descriptor is Sonnet has some rhymes, but
the rhyming pattern is not correct.

Weighting Performance Criteria

You may find that some performance criteria in your scoring guide are more important
than others and choose to weight the critical ones more heavily (Arter & Chappuis,
2007). For example, in the rubric for the “¿Cómo Llego?” task in Figure 9.5, the teacher
assigned a weight of 2 to the student’s request for information, but assigned a weight
of 5 to the student’s accuracy in giving instructions. A student who gets the highest
proficiency level for requesting directions receives a score of 4 (i.e., a rating of 2 ⫻ a
weight of 2). So, a student with the top proficiency level for each performance criterion
would receive 50 points (4⫹6⫹10⫹10⫹10⫹10).

Attaching a Grade Scale

Teachers in our classes have found attaching a grade scale with the rubric useful when a
performance assessment serves as a summative assessment. Look at the rubric that Angela
Black developed for her performance task “Data Analysis and Probability” (Figure 9.10).
She added a grading scale so that students would know the points required for each grade.
Adding such a scale avoids confusion in expectations for grades.
How do you determine the range of scores for an A or B? Look again at the
rubric (Figure 9.10) for “Data Analysis and Probability.” Of course, a student who earns
the top rating for all the criteria would earn an A; so the maximum score required for
an A is 18 (i.e., 4⫹3⫹4⫹4⫹3). What about the lowest score for an A? Look at each
criterion and think about what rating is essential for an A. Perhaps you think that
losing a point for labeling each axis and the design is a bare minimum for an A. If so,
your low score is 15 (4⫹3⫹3⫹3⫹2) and the score range for an A is 15–18 points.
A high B would be 14 points. Then you must decide what score ratings would be
acceptable for the lowest score in the B range. For example, is a rating of 3 acceptable
for the data criterion? If students can earn 2 for the title, labeling the X axis, labeling
the Y axis, and design, then combined with the 3 for data, you have a minimum score
of 11 (3⫹2⫹2⫹2⫹2). You systematically review each criterion and decide the rating
that is acceptable for each grade. Then add the ratings to get your score range for an
overall grade.
Sometimes you must convert letter grades to numerical scores. Letter grades
from rubrics can be converted to numerical grades that parallel those given on
report cards. One method we have used in our classrooms is to post the following
scale:

Letter Grade Numerical Grade

A⫹ 100
A 96
A⫺ 94
B⫹ 92
B 88
B⫺ 84
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Scoring the Assessment 277

Proficiency Levels
Performance
Criteria 1 2 3 4 Score
Data Data in the table Data in the table Data in the table Data in the table
need to be are somewhat are organized, are well
organized, organized, accurate, and organized,
accurate, and accurate, and easy to read. accurate, and
easy to read. easy to read. easy to read.
Title A title that clearly Title is somewhat Title clearly
relates to the related to the relates to the
data should be data; it is data graphed
printed at the present at the and is printed
top of the top of the at the top of
graph. graph. the graph.
Labeling of The X axis needs The X axis has The X axis has a The X axis has
X axis an accurate a label, but clear label that an accurate
and clear label the label is describes the and clear label
that describes not clear or units, but the that describes
the units. accurate. label lacks the units.
accuracy.
Labeling of The Y axis needs The Y axis has a The Y axis has a The Y axis has
Y axis an accurate label, but the clear label that an accurate
and clear label label is not describes the and clear label
that describes clear or units, but the that describes
the units. accurate. label lacks the units.
accuracy.
Design The graph is The graph is The graph has
plain. It needs somewhat an attractive
an attractive plain. It needs design.
design. an attractive
Colors that go
design.
Colors that go well together
well together Or are used to
should be make the
Colors should be
used to make graph more
used that make
the graph readable.
the graph
more readable.
more readable.

TOTAL SCORE: ____________

Grading:
15–18 Points ⫽ A
11–14 Points ⫽ B
7–10 Points ⫽ C
3–6 Points ⫽ D
Less than 3 points ⫽ F

FIGURE 9.10 Analytic Rubric and Grading Scale for the Task “Data Analysis and Probability”
Reprinted with permission.
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278 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Students then use the conversion chart and calculate their grades from performance
tasks and their other grades during a nine-week grading period.

 PINITFALLS TO AVOID: TOP CHALLENGES

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS
In Figure 9.11, we highlight the biggest challenges for teachers as they design perfor-
mance tasks and the rubrics for them.

Keep the Task Related to Learning Goals

Sometimes teachers get so excited about a performance task that the original learning
goals are lost. For example, a performance task in a history class involved students in
the development of posters modeled after propaganda posters from World War I and
World War II (Angle, 2007). However, the students’ propaganda posters, while in the
style of the war years, were designed to create support for clean-up day at the school
and did not deal with the historical content associated with these wars. Instead of
assessing student knowledge and understanding of World War I or World War II, the

Common Errors Poor Design Fixes Better Design

Developing a task that We have been studying the Keep the task related to We have been studying the
generates excitement but use of propaganda posters learning goals. use of propaganda posters
is detached from the in WWI and WWII. in WWI and WWII.
learning goals. Develop a propaganda Develop a poster that
poster that will get students America could have
involved in the upcoming used for anti-German
clean-up day at school. propaganda.

Assigning a task without A school prepares students Incorporate all the elements Preparation for the science
providing students with for the annual science fair of the task into instruction fair is integrated with
practice in the knowledge by sending home a and class activities. science instruction and
and skills required in the booklet on how to do a activities. Prior to the
task. science fair project. science fair, in class
activities, teachers and
students conduct
experiments, record the
outcomes, and write
summaries of their
findings.

Including too many criteria To guide students in writing Limit the number of criteria The teacher focused the
in a rubric. a novelette, a teacher in the scoring guide. checklist on the criteria
developed a checklist with of character and plot
15 criteria that reflected development, voice, and
the skills learned during conventions.
the year.

FIGURE 9.11 Top Challenges in Designing Performance Tasks and Scoring Guides
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The Value of Student-Generated Items and Critical Thinking 279

performance task emphasized the propaganda aspects of the lesson. This type of error
also occurs when teachers find an interesting activity on the Internet but forget to
check the alignment with their learning goals. Care must be taken to align the activi-
ties in the performance task with the learning goals.

Provide Practice Before Assigning the Task

A second error that teachers make is to misalign their instruction and the performance
task. Let’s use the “Sonnet Sequence: English III College Prep” in Figure 9.7 as an
example. If the teacher’s learning activities are confined to students reading sonnets
and analyzing their structure, then the students are not necessarily prepared to create
a sonnet. To align instruction and the performance task, students need to engage in
writing sonnets as part of the learning experience.

Limit the Number of Performance Criteria in the Rubric

Earlier in our teaching careers, we thought that a scoring guide should list every sin-
gle performance criterion relevant for a task. Recall the novelettes students wrote after
studying historical fiction. The scoring guide for the task was a checklist in which the
performance criteria were based on the learning goals for writing for the year. Students
used the list to guide their writing of each chapter. A major problem with the check-
list was its length of 10+ performance criteria. The checklist attempted to cover every-
thing our students learned about writing. Later we realized the value of identifying
critical performance criteria. For students in primary grades, 1 to 3 performance cri-
teria are the maximum to which students can attend, given their level of cognitive
development. Elementary and middle school students can attend to 3 to 5 criteria, and
high school students can attend to 5 to 7.
A final note: You will benefit from revisiting Chapter 8 where we presented com-
mon challenges in the development of essays and scoring guides (see Figure 8.20). We
noted the importance of assessing higher-order thinking skills, clearly communicating
the task to students, aligning the criteria in the scoring guide and task directions,
avoiding criteria that are frivolous (e.g., neatness) or untaught (e.g., creativity), and
steering clear of evaluative terms, such as “poor” and “excellent” in the descriptors of
the scoring guide. These guidelines will also assist you in developing prompts and
scoring guides for performance assessments.

 TAND
HE VALUE OF STUDENT-GENERATED ITEMS
CRITICAL THINKING
Performance assessments allow you to gauge student understanding of complex con-
cepts and skills. The meaningfulness of the task to students is a central quality of this
form of assessment. To establish meaningfulness, a teacher specifies an audience for
the task and provides a context. Establishing an audience and context, however,
increases the cognitive load of the task. Students have to read directions and then
determine the demands of the task. To keep the task directions and response require-
ments from becoming too overwhelming, we recommend you draft the task and then
review it with students to put it into their language. This process supports you in mak-
ing valid decisions about student learning because your students are more likely to
clearly understand the task. Students benefit from being engaged in a process that
allows them to see the meaning of the directions and the form their response should
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280 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

take. If students are similarly engaged in developing the scoring guide, they are more
likely to see the connections between the task expectations and the way their response
will be scored.
Developing or reviewing the task and scoring guide with students helps them to
internalize the criteria and develop a metacognitive awareness of the critical elements
they should attend to in a task (Shepard, 2006). In developing these skills, students
can more easily take responsibility for their own learning and develop the self-governing
skills needed for participation in civic culture.
Also consider involving your students in brainstorming the form (i.e., oral, dem-
onstration, or product) of the performance assessment. Use Table 9.2 to show students
the possible forms an assessment might take. Then discuss potential assessment activi-
ties and the reasons some would be appropriate and others not. For example, if you are
studying visual artists’ use of the elements of art to create a response in the viewer, a
timeline about an artist’s life would be inappropriate. Instead, you might discuss the
appropriateness of an assessment in which your students write journal reflections on
artists and the responses the artists’ work provokes. Such participation in decision mak-
ing gives students a sense of control over their learning, which promotes mastery goals
and increases how much they value the tasks (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006).

 APERFORMANCE
CCOMMODATIONS FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS:
TASKS
When diverse learners use writing in their response to a performance task, the chal-
lenges they face will be the same as those discussed in Chapter 8 for short-answer and
essay items. Also relevant are the accommodations related to reading demands and the
testing environment discussed in Chapter 7 about tests with selected-response items.
So, you will want to revisit Table 7.6 and Table 8.9 to gain additional ideas for accom-
modations that diverse learners may benefit from when completing constructed-
response assessments.
Because not all forms of performance assessment require writing, we expand our
consideration of accommodations here. Products such as photographs, graphs, and
framing for a house do not require written responses. Neither do process-oriented
assessments, such as story retelling (an oral assessment) or application of first-aid skills
(a demonstration).
Before considering the needs of specific groups of diverse learners, we want to
discuss a few issues relevant to all learners. For example, all students grade 2 and above
are likely to benefit from having a set of written directions and a copy of the rubric.
Often our directions are communicated orally and students have to recall the various
tasks they must complete. Their memory, like ours, is faulty, so students will benefit
from having directions presented in both written and oral forms. Similarly, providing
a rubric with the task and discussing it will benefit all students.
As you write the performance assessment, use plain language (i.e., simple vocabu-
lary and sentence structure). We are not suggesting you “dummy down” your tasks. For
instance, it is appropriate to use the new vocabulary terms that are part of the learning
unit. Our point here is that as you write a performance task, keep simplicity and clarity
in mind. If you have the choice between writing two simple sentences or combining
them into one complex sentence, choose the simpler structure of two sentences.
As you plan an assessment, decide whether, for all students, the form of the
assessment (i.e., oral, demonstration, or product) is the only appropriate manner to
gauge student achievement of learning goals. For example, if you have a student with
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Accommodations for Diverse Learners: Performance Tasks 281

TA B L E 9 . 3
Accommodation Considerations for Performance Tasks
Issue Type of Accommodation

Difficulty with fine • Use assistive devices to control tools (e.g., paint brushes).
motor skills • Use head/eye controlled input pointers for computer.

Sensory challenges • Provide speech/communication devices for students with speech

(e.g., visual, production impairments.
auditory) • Provide a translator for students who are deaf and/or have speech
production impairments.
• Use software that allows students with visual impairments to zoom
in on the contents of a computer document.
• Use screen reader programs to present computer graphics and text
as speech.

Learning English • Provide voice-recorded and written directions.

Learning goal • Engage student in multimedia representations of knowledge.

already mastered

Difficulty focusing • Provide structure within the task (e.g., list of steps to complete).
attention • Keep oral assessments and demonstrations to a short period of time.

Literacy skills below • Keep oral assessments and demonstrations to a short time frame.
those of typical • Provide voice-recorded and written directions.
peers (e.g., learn-
ing disability)

Lack of familiarity • Allow much of the task to be completed in class.

with school • Ensure necessary resources are accessible to all.
culture

a speech impairment, is retelling a story the only method to assess her understanding?
If so, you may need to consider speech production devices for students with severe
impairments. Also ask yourself whether you might on some occasions allow the stu-
dent to write a brief paragraph about the story she read.
You should also consider whether the activity you developed is the only possible
mode for students to use in demonstrating their knowledge. A well-intentioned teacher
may decide that during the year all students will present a newscast on the school’s
closed-circuit broadcast. However, the stress of being broadcast on closed-circuit tele-
vision will have a negative effect on some students’ performance. Students who are
English language learners and students with speech impairments may perform poorly
in such a situation; however, they may be quite effective in a small-group setting. We
want to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their achievement of learn-
ing goals, and this may be achieved using different forms of performance assessment
or different types of activities for different students.

Students with Fine Motor Difficulties

In accommodating a performance assessment for students with impaired fine motor
skills, determine whether assistive devices will allow students to use the tools needed
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282 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

to complete a task. For example, some students may benefit from hand grips that can
be used with pencils or paint brushes. Some performance tasks may require students
to use a computer to work on a spreadsheet or use graphics to develop a presentation.
However, lack of fine motor control may make work at the computer difficult. An assis-
tive device referred to as a head pointer allows students to complete such activities.

Students with Sensory Challenges

Responding orally or demonstrating a skill may pose challenges to students with sensory
challenges. For oral assessments, students with speech impairments may require speech/
communication devices or the assistance of translators to respond to the task. In com-
pleting a task that requires the use of a computer, students with visual impairments may
need software to zoom in on relevant text or to read graphics on a computer screen.

Students Learning English

Students who are learning English may benefit from having directions in print and voice
recorded. Because directions require time for mental processing, having the directions in
both forms gives students the resources to process the information at their own pace.

Students Who Have Already Mastered the Learning Goals

Performance tasks can engage students who have mastered many of the learning goals
associated with an instructional unit. Consider having gifted students portray their under-
standing using a multimedia format. For example, a student may write a poem in the style
of poems the class is studying, design a PowerPoint presentation to contrast this type to
others, or choose a favorite poet who writes this type of poem to showcase on a personal
website. Meaningful extensions or alternative assessments can expand learning.

Students Who Have Difficulty Focusing Attention

Building structure into the performance task may be an appropriate accommodation
for students who have difficulty focusing their attention. The need for structure is
related to the complexity of the task. For example, providing a visual that organizes a
task, such as the grid in Figure 9.7 that organizes the key building blocks of a sonnet,
can help students be more systematic in their approach. Designing checkpoints for
completing a complex performance task will also benefit students who lose focus and
need structure to complete the task by a deadline.
You should also establish reasonable expectations for the time frame for an oral
response or a demonstration. Students who have challenges maintaining focus may
perform appropriately if they are required to give a 5-minute speech, but they may
have more difficulty delivering a 15-minute speech. Usually the length of a speech is
not the focus of typical learning goals. Instead, learning goals for a speech address
whether a student includes relevant details to support main ideas, illustrates main ideas
through anecdotes and examples, or cites appropriate information sources (Virginia
Department of Education, 2003). If your learning goals address the latter, deemphasizing
the length of time in the rubric is reasonable.

Students with Literacy Skills Below Those of Typical Peers

(e.g., Learning Disability)
Oral language skills present challenges for some students. To assist these students, keep
oral assessments and demonstrations to a short time frame.
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Case Study Application 283

Students Who Lack Familiarity with School Culture

Students who lack familiarity with school culture may lack the resources required to com-
plete a task at home. For this reason much of the work should be completed at school. In
addition, thorough explanation of requirements through examples and discussion can be
particularly helpful for students who may not be familiar with your typical expectations.

 CASE STUDY APPLICATION

For this chapter we return to the high school English unit on utopias and dystopias.
Maria Mensik develops a performance task (see Figure 9.12) for her unit addressing the
guidelines we have presented in this chapter. She identifies the content by listing the
learning goals at the beginning of the task. Thus, the focus of the assessment is whether
students can compare and contrast characteristics of utopias and dystopias and use
persuasive language in their writing and speaking. The response form for the task
includes a PowerPoint slideshow (i.e., a product) and a presentation (i.e., a process). To
establish meaningfulness, Maria uses the theme of the unit to provide the context of
the task, and she specifies the audience for the students’ responses will be their peers
and their teacher. Using the Microsoft Word review tool, we find the Flesch-Kincaid
reading level is 11.3, a demanding level. She may want to review and edit the prompt,
shortening sentences and simplifying vocabulary where possible. Finally, she specifies
such logistics as the use of PowerPoint, presentation length of 10 to 12 minutes, and
the requirement that each member participate in the presentation.
Recall that a scoring guide is a critical component of any performance assess-
ment. For her performance assessment, Maria develops a three-part rubric with per-
formance criteria for Presentation Content, Presentation Quality, and Individual

Student Will Be Able To (SWBAT) compare and contrast characteristics of a utopia and
dystopia.
SWBAT use persuasive language in writing and/or speaking.
Assignment:
Based on the characteristics we have learned about utopias and dystopias, work to-
gether in groups (3–4 people) to apply your knowledge and create your own society.
An anonymous billionaire has donated a large, remote island and practically unlimited
funds to your group so that you may create a new society. Your new country exists in the
present time, on earth, and all natural laws apply—anything else is up for debate. Name
your country and give it a meaningful motto or creed. Then, create some form of govern-
ment and fully describe at least two other institutions or aspects of society like work, family,
religion, education, entertainment, or technology (including the government, your group
should present as many institutions as there are group members). These institutions should
represent your motto. Finally, your group must present your country to the class (each
group member should present an institution or aspect) and the class will vote to determine
which new society is “best.” An important part of this assignment is persuading others why
they might want to become a citizen of your new country.
Group presentations will take the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Presentations
should be 10–12 minutes long, and each member must present information. The group will
receive a grade and each individual will receive a grade. Keep in mind public speaking con-
cerns we have discussed like clarity, volume, and eye contact.

FIGURE 9.12 Maria’s Performance Task for Utopias and Dystopias

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284 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

Component (see Figures 9.13–9.15). When Maria includes the rubric with the task
directions, it can provide students some structure for completing the task. Maria’s
rubric reminds us of the possibility of weighting the evaluative criteria. Notice for the
performance criterion of persuasive language, at the highest proficiency level a student

Presentation
Content
Performance
Criteria Proficiency Levels
Country Name 0 1
No Yes

Country 0 1 2
Motto No motto, or motto does Motto makes an attempt Motto describes the
not describe any to describe society, basic beliefs of the
beliefs. but it is unclear. society.

Description 1–3 4–6 7–9 10–12

of Utopic Descriptions are lacking Descriptions are less Descriptions are less Thoroughly describes
Societal or missing, or the developed. Fewer developed and not each institution (one
Institutions government is not than two instances all of the institutions of which must be the
addressed. Fewer per institution. have three instances. government) and gives
than one instance Explanations and The institutions are three instances of how
per institution. examples frequently less clearly utopic. each institution would
Little or no attempt do not exhibit utopic Explanations and function in a typical
to consider utopic characteristics. examples sometimes citizen’s life. Through
characteristics. only imply that they explanation and/or
are meant to be example, the institu-
utopic. tions exhibit students’
thorough knowledge of
utopic characteristics.

Persuasive 1–5 6–10 11–15 16–20

Language Little or no attempt to Attempts persuasive Persuasive language needs Effectively uses
use persuasive language, but only polishing. Gives sev- persuasive language.
language. States one or two reasons eral reasons, but some Gives several relevant,
opinion, but no given without reasons or examples well-chosen, and well-
reasons or support. support. need more support supported reasons as
or are not relevant or to why the position is
well chosen. superior.

Organization 1–3 4–6 7–9

Information is Information is orga- Logical progression from
disorganized and nized, but it may one point to another.
lacks transitions. lack some transitions. Reasons and examples
Reasons and are listed and inte-
examples are not grated. Obvious
effectively organized. and meaningful
transitions.

FIGURE 9.13 Rubric Section for Scoring the Content in the Presentation
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Case Study Application 285

Presentation
Quality
Performance
Criteria Proficiency Levels
Visuals 1–3 4–6 7–9
Slides are very hard to Slides are not as easy Slides are easy to see
read/see. Effects are to read/see as they and read. Effects
distracting. could be. A few enhance rather than
distractions. distract.

Mechanics 1–3 4–6 7–9

Frequent errors in Errors in grammar, Few errors in grammar,
grammar, spelling, spelling, or spelling, or punctua-
or punctuation. punctuation do tion. These errors
These errors inhibit not inhibit do not inhibit
understanding. understanding. understanding.

FIGURE 9.14 Rubric Section for Scoring the Quality of the Presentation
Reprinted with permission.

Individual Component
Performance Criteria Proficiency Levels
Preparedness 1 2 3
Speaker gets lost in Speaker needs to Speaker knows and
the presentation. practice a few is comfortable
more times. with the material.

Clarity 1 2 3
Speaker mumbles, Speaker attempts Speaker enunciates
is unintelligible, to enunciate, well. Speed is
or speaks too but occasionally appropriate.
quickly. slips. Speed
needs work.

Volume 1 2 3
Only people right People in the People in the back
next to the middle can hear can hear the
speaker can hear. the speaker. speaker.

Body Language 1 2 3
Speaker does not Speaker tries to Speaker makes eye
attempt to make make some eye contact, does
eye contact, contact, mostly not read the
reads the slides, uses the slide for slides, does not
and fidgets. reference, and fidget, and uses
tries to use appropriate
appropriate movements like
movements. pointing.

FIGURE 9.15 Rubric Section for Scoring the Individual Contribution to a Presentation
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286 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

might earn from 16 to 20 points and for the lowest level from 1 to 5 points. A student’s
score for country motto, in contrast, can be a maximum of 2 points and a minimum
of 0 points. The differences in possible points make sense because persuasive writing
is a key component of the learning unit, and the motto is less central.
Notice also that Maria includes a section in the rubric for an individual component
(see Figure 9.15). Group projects teach our students to work together to accomplish a
goal, a key skill in a democracy. However, if the students are to be graded, the teacher
must include some aspects of the task that students complete individually. This is impor-
tant because we want a student’s grade to reflect his or her learning. The grade should
not reflect which group the student was in. Members of a group bring different levels of
participation to a task. Some students contribute and others do little. As a teacher you
can monitor participation levels. In addition, some groups will function better than
others. Focusing on whether each individual has met the learning goals is the key to
judgment. Therefore, incorporating tasks individuals can complete independently of
the group is important. As we saw in previous chapters, Maria also assesses individual
mastery through several other summative assessments targeting the learning goals.

Ethics Alert: When students are assessed for their work in a group, you must include an
individual component of the assessment that allows you to gauge each student’s achieve-
ment of the learning goals. A student’s grade should not be largely determined by the group
to which the student was assigned.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

In this chapter we learned that performance assessments require students to respond
to a prompt by constructing a product (e.g., balanced spreadsheet) or engaging in a
process (e.g., debating). In considering when to use a performance task, we indicated
that performance tasks, like essays, lend themselves to assessing students’ abilities to
analyze, evaluate, and create.
In our discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of performance assess-
ment, we noted that performance assessments engage students in cognitively complex
tasks in which they identify relevant information, organize the information, and
develop a response. A disadvantage of performance assessment is the amount of time
required to move through the process.
We next presented issues to consider as you develop a task, which included con-
tent of the learning unit, meaningfulness, response form, materials needed, the degree
of structure, language level, and logistics. We discussed the value of using analytic
rubrics for scoring performance assessments, and we recommended use of weighting
to allow a teacher to allocate more points for the most important criteria.
In our discussion on pitfalls to avoid in developing tasks and scoring guides, we
noted the importance of aligning the task to the learning goals for the instructional unit
and students practicing the skills required before completion of the task. We also cautioned
against using too many criteria in the scoring guide. We suggested involving students in
reviewing directions and rubrics and in brainstorming ideas for performance tasks.
Finally, we described accommodations to consider with performance assess-
ments related to alternative forms of demonstrating understanding and alternative task
structures. The case study illustrated implementation of the guidelines for designing
performance assessments and the rubrics for scoring them.
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Chapter Review Questions 287

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.intranet.cps.k12.il.us/assessments/Ideas_and_Rubrics/Assessment_Tasks/Ideas_Tasks/
ideas_tasks.html
An extensive list of activities to consider in designing your performance tasks. Lists tasks in the
visual and performing arts, health and physical development, language arts, mathematics,
biological and physical sciences, and social science. Published by Chicago Public Schools.
http://palm.sri.com/palm/
A website with mathematics performance assessments and scoring guides aligned with the
mathematics standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
http://pals.sri.com/
Website with science performance assessments for grades K–12. Each performance assessment
has student directions and response forms, administration procedures, scoring rubrics,
and examples of student work.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Name an example of a real-life performance assessment for each of the three
forms: oral, demonstration, and products.
2. Which type of assessment—selected response, essay, or performance assessment—
can be used to gauge student achievement of the following learning goals?
Measurement and Geometry
1.0 Students choose appropriate units of measure and use ratios to convert
within and between measurement systems to solve problems:
1.1 Compare weights, capacities, geometric measures, times, and temperatures
within and between measurement systems (e.g., miles per hour and feet per
second, cubic inches to cubic centimeters).
1.2 Construct and read drawings and models made to scale (California, 1997,
p. 32).
3. Reread the example of the performance task involving students collecting
information about the diversity of biographies in the school media center.
Which of the guidelines in developing a performance are evident in the task?
Which guidelines are not evident?
4. A colleague asks you, What is the greatest advantage of using performance
assessments? What would you tell him? Be sure to provide support in your
answer.
5. Following is a section of the rubric from Figure 9.13. Label each part of the rubric.

label
⎩
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎧

Persuasive 1–5 6–10 11–15 16–20

Language
⎧
⎪
⎨
⎪
⎩

Little or no Attempts to use Persuasive Effectively uses

attempt to use persuasive language needs persuasive
persuasive language, but polishing. Gives language, like
label language. States only on a several reasons, opinion and
opinion, but no limited basis. but they are argument. Gives
support. Only one or unclear or several reasons
two reasons tentative. as to why the
given. position is
superior.
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288 Chapter 9 Teacher-Made Assessments: Performance Assessments

6. What criteria would you use in a rubric for the visual arts performance task in
Figure 9.3? Which criteria would you weight more than others?
7. Review the grading scale in Figure 9.10. What would be a reasonable grading
scale for the rubric for scoring sonnets (Figure 9.9)?
8. A teacher and students read limericks and then identify common characteristics
of the poems. Subsequently, the teacher assigns a performance task in which the
students must write an original limerick. What type of common error does this
exemplify?
9. After finding a copy of a performance assessment and accompanying rubric
from the Internet or from a teacher, analyze whether and how it avoided the
most common errors for designing performance assessments and rubrics
described in Chapters 8 and 9.
10. Design a performance assessment that addresses one or more key learning goals
in your content area. Make sure you carefully address each of the guidelines for
development of performance tasks.
11. Design an analytic rubric for the performance assessment you designed in item
10. Include the relevant number of performance criteria for the age group you
work with. Carefully label each proficiency level for each performance criterion
using guidelines in Chapters 8 and 9.

REFERENCES
Angle, M. 2007. An investigation of construct validity in teaching American history portfolios.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Arter, J., and J. Chappuis. 2007. Creating and recognizing quality rubrics. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
Arter, J., and J. McTighe. 2001. Scoring rubrics in the classroom: Using performance
criteria for assessing and improving student performance. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
California State Board of Education. 1997. Mathematics content standards for California Public
Schools kindergarten through grade twelve. Retrieved April 18, 2008, from http://www.cde.
ca.gov/re/pn/fd/.
Gredler, M., and R. Johnson. 2004. Assessment in the literacy classroom. Needham Heights, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
Gronlund, N. 2004. Writing instructional objectives for teaching and assessment. 7th ed. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Hogan, T., and G. Murphy. 2007. Recommendations for preparing and scoring constructed-
response items: What the experts say. Applied Measurement in Education 20(4):
427–441.
Johnson, R., J. Penny, and B. Gordon. 2009. Assessing performance: Developing, scoring, and
validating performance tasks. New York: Guilford Publications.
Kuhs, T., R. Johnson, S. Agruso, and D. Monrad. 2001. Put to the test: Tools and techniques for
classroom assessment. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ovando, C. 2005. Language diversity and education. In J. Banks and C. Banks (eds.), Multicultural
education: Issues and perspectives, 5th ed., pp. 289–313. New York: Wiley.
Shepard, L. 2006. Classroom assessment. In R. Brennan (ed.), Educational measurement,
4th ed., pp. 623–646. Westport, CT: American Council on Education and Praeger
Publishers.
South Carolina Department of Education. 2005. South Carolina science academic standards.
Columbia, SC: Author. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/cso/
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structures, social relationships, and competence beliefs. Journal of School
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Wiggins, G. 1993. Assessing student performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 10

GRADING AND COMMUNICATING

ABOUT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Teachers are asked to nurture learning and growth; yet they are also
asked to be judges at report card time. In most endeavors in life,
the advocate is not also the judge.
–Dale Whittington

❖ Chapter Learning Goals

At the conclusion of this chapter,
the reader should be able to do the • Compare different types of
following: summarizing systems (e.g., letter
• Explain why difficulties arise in the grades, standards-based,
grading process. percentages, “not yet” grading).
• Develop a thoughtful process for • Distinguish among different
determining grades that avoid purposes for portfolios.
these difficulties. • Describe key portfolio
• Differentiate between norm- implementation issues.
referenced and criterion- • Explain the advantages and
referenced grading practices. limitations of portfolios.

 INTRODUCTION
In Chapter 1 we touched on grading as one area where we have found teachers
often have difficulty agreeing about what practices are ethical. We recently asked
more than 100 teachers to write about a situation related to classroom assessment
where they found it difficult to know what was the right or wrong thing to do.
About 40 percent of them described a dilemma related to grading. This category
had the largest number of responses by far—issues related to large-scale standard-
ized testing was a distant second with only about 20 percent of the responses. You,
too, can no doubt draw on personal experiences where a grade caused some con-
flict. In this chapter, we address the thorny issue of grading and do our best to give
you practical guidelines to help you grade confidently and fairly. We define a grade
as a score, letter, or narrative that summarizes the teacher’s judgment of student
achievement of the relevant learning goals.

 SWOHYMANY
DOES GRADING CAUSE
PROBLEMS?
First, we discuss several reasons why grading frequently seems to produce pre-
dicaments and quandaries for teachers. Table 10.1 presents some issues that we
will consider.
291
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292 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

TA B L E 1 0 . 1
A Few Reasons Why Grading Can Cause Problems for Teachers
Grading brings into conflict teachers’ role as student advocate vs. their role as evaluator
and judge of student achievement.

Grades are a powerful symbol and have the capacity to impact students profoundly in
positive and negative ways.

Teachers rarely agree on how to determine grades.

Grades represent different things to different people.

TA B L E 1 0 . 2
Practices That Overstress the Advocate and Nurturer Role
1. Giving numerous extra credit opportunities.

2. Emphasizing work completion rather than quality of the work.

3. Raising grades because of high effort.

4. Providing easy rather than challenging assessments to “build self-esteem.”

Advocate Versus Evaluator

As the opening quotation for this chapter points out, teachers often wrestle with their
grading practices because of the tension between their role as nurturers and advocates
for students versus their role as graders and judges. Many teachers who take their
advocate role seriously are reluctant to give bad grades because they fear the grade may
demoralize a student. For example, one teacher we know had a bright but troubled
student who never got assignments in on time. The points he lost for late work caused
him to fail the quarter, and the teacher blamed himself the next marking period when
the student completely gave up. Similarly, other teachers we know want to nurture and
encourage borderline students by incorporating points for good effort even if a student
has not met the standard required for the higher grade. But at some later point a teacher
may find parents on her doorstep, demanding an explanation for the discrepancy
between their child’s grades and the test scores when that student fails to pass the large-
scale high-stakes exam in the spring. Based on the grades, the parents had assumed
their child had been doing just fine. But those grades did not communicate their child’s
performance relative to the larger world. Table 10.2 describes practices that, when taken
to extremes, will overemphasize the advocate role and thus convey an unwarranted
impression of mastery. Think for a moment about how such practices can foster what
former President George W. Bush termed “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” espe-
cially when they are employed with low-performing poor and minority students.
On the other hand, when teachers stress their power as an evaluator more, they
can intimidate or disillusion students, which can interfere with learning. Practices used
by teachers who take their role as “sorter” of students too seriously may actually
impede mastery of the learning goals because such actions can demoralize students
and reduce their motivation. When teachers engage in practices intended solely to
separate the most mentally agile students from their peers, they are not focusing on
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Why Does Grading Cause So Many Problems? 293

TA B L E 1 0 . 3
Practices That Overstress the Judging and Sorting Role of Teachers
1. Test questions covering obscure points or skills/understanding not addressed in
learning goals.

2. Test question intentionally designed to mislead the test taker to provide the wrong
answer (“trick” questions).

3. Making tests too long to complete in the available time allotted.

4. Comments suggesting that doing well is very rare. (“I hardly ever give an ‘A’. ”)

their duty to encourage every student to learn. Table 10.3 describes several such prac-
tices that often appear unnecessarily punitive to students. Such practices can under-
mine the integrity of the student teacher relationship. Teachers instead must take their
role seriously as an adult authority figure who uses power fairly.
Finding the right balance between the advocate role and the judge role can be
difficult. If teachers accentuate advocacy too much when assigning grades, they may
overestimate level of mastery by always giving students “the benefit of the doubt.” If they
emphasize judging too much, they may end up sorting students based on the under-
standing and skills they bring to class rather than focusing on teaching everyone the new
content to master. The middle ground requires development of assessment practices and
grading policies that explicitly take into account both of these important roles.

Symbolic Value of Grades

In our competitive culture, grades loom large. We all have stories about the impact a
grade has had on us. We still can picture a pop quiz with an angry-looking purple “F”
on it handed back to us in fifth grade. Similarly, a colleague of ours recently had to do
some serious counseling with her ninth-grade son who received what looked like a
pretty arbitrary “D2” on his first essay in English. The son decided he was a terrible
student and a poor writer and knew he should never have taken any Advanced Place-
ment courses. Our friend later discovered the teacher had given everyone a bad grade,
regardless of the actual quality of their work, to “motivate” them. Bad grades and the
judgment they imply can leave an emotional residue that colors self-perception and
motivation. For students who habitually receive bad grades, this effect is multiplied
exponentially. (Recall our misbehaving student from Chapter 1 who told us, “It’s better
to be bad than dumb.”)

Ethics Alert: No teacher should ever assign artificially low grades to “motivate” students.
Instead, grades should communicate what students know.

Such stories, the numerous blog entries we have encountered about perceived
unfair grading, and perhaps some experiences in your own academic career illustrate
the intense impact grades can have on our psyches. As one student pointed out, “OK,
that grade, that’s me. I am the grade. I did that” (Thomas & Oldfather, 1997). Thus
another reason grading practices so often cause problems is the sway they hold over
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294 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

us and our sense of self-worth. This relevance to our ego magnifies the effects of the
judgments that accompany the translation of assessments into grades. As teachers, we
must remember the power grades possess so we grade thoughtfully and judiciously.

Lack of Agreement on the Judgment Process

Grades are based on judgment, and judgments by their nature have a subjective ele-
ment. The range in judgment is reflected in the enormous variation in what different
teachers consider important as they formulate grades. Some teachers use only one or
two important assessments, whereas others may use dozens. Some teachers give great
weight to homework, and others stress tests or projects more. There probably are as
many disparities related to which academic work should count toward grades (and
how much it should count) as there are teachers.
In addition, teachers also vary on which nonacademic elements they include in
a grade. Some teachers have a personal philosophy that takes student effort into
account; others do not. Some teachers penalize students for lack of participation or for
absences. Others consider how they perceive students’ abilities and whether they are
making the most of them. To exacerbate matters, most teachers are not methodical
about weighing these nonacademic factors. They may give a little boost to one student
whose parents are going through a divorce, or they may inadvertently be a little easier
(or harder) on a “suck-up.” And they are usually not explicit and systematic about how
they consider nonacademic issues such as ability, effort, and attitude. Rarely, for exam-
ple, does a teacher note a score on “attitude” or “effort” each day for every student.
You can see that the judgments teachers make in assigning grades may be influ-
enced by a number of considerations that do not directly relate to mastery of the
learning goals. These judgments are unique for each teacher, and many struggle with
these decisions (Zoeckler, 2007). Furthermore, most school district grading policies do
not explicitly address the weight that should be assigned to different types of assign-
ments or the role of nonacademic considerations. With the tremendous range of aca-
demic and nonacademic factors influencing the grading process in different ways for
different teachers, you can see why students and their parents can sometimes see
grades as capricious or unfair.

Ambiguous Meaning of Grades

One basic reason so many variations in grading practices arise is that a grade may
represent fundamentally different things to different people. For example, Janet Pilcher
(1994) found in several case studies that parents assumed grades reflected only whether
their child had mastered course content, and they questioned the interpretability of
grades that included considerations of effort. Teachers, on the other hand, believed
they should adjust grades for ability, effort, and attitude, and they did so. (The students,
as you might guess, thought teachers should include effort when it improved their
grade, but not when it penalized them.)
Similarly, Robert Marzano, who frequently presents workshops on grading, begins
by asking the assembled teachers if they, themselves, have ever received a grade that
did not accurately represent their achievement. Most of the time, every hand goes up
(Marzano, 2000). And in our own classrooms, teacher candidates hotly debate the pros
and cons of whether a grade should ever include considerations other than the degree
of mastery of the learning goals.
James Allen (2009) suggests a way to reach consensus about the meaning of grades.
He recommends that when grading, we as teachers consider the following: “If I was
given a student’s transcript with a single letter grade listed next to the subject I teach,
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The Grading Decision Process 295

what would be the most logical interpretation I could make about what the grade
represents about the student’s knowledge of that academic subject?” He believes this
question should focus us on the essential meaning each grade should communicate.
You can see that Allen’s question assumes the primary purpose of grading is to
communicate about levels of student achievement. Most members of the assessment com-
munity in education strongly agree (Brookhart, 2004; Guskey & Bailey, 2001; Marzano,
2000, 2006; O’Connor, 2002). Surveys of practicing teachers, however, suggest that many
nonetheless weight heavily some factors unrelated to level of achievement (e.g., Brookhart,
1994; Cross & Frary, 1999; McMillan et al., 2002). These findings illustrate some of the
dimensions of this ongoing struggle.

 THE GRADING DECISION PROCESS

With the complexities and pitfalls in mind that can make grading decisions difficult,
we turn to discussing guidelines that should enable you to make fair and accurate
decisions when grading your students. These principles will help guide you safely
through the minefield grading decisions often present. They summarize and synthesize
current recommendations for best practice (Brookhart, 2004; Guskey & Bailey, 2001;
Gronlund, 2006; Marzano, 2000, 2006; O’Connor, 2002; Shepard, 2006; Winger, 2005).
The guidelines are presented in Table 10.4.

TA B L E 1 0 . 4
Guidelines for Fair and Accurate Grading Decisions
1. Learn and follow your school district’s grading policy.

2. Design a written policy in which you base grades on summative assessments that
address your learning goals derived from the standards.

3. Ensure quality of assessment by having sufficient information (reliability) and by using

different types of assessments that address the learning goals (validity).

4. Communicate with and involve students in developing standards of performance for

graded assessments.

5. Allow recent and consistent performance to carry more weight than strict averages.
6. Avoid unduly weighting factors unrelated to a student’s mastery of the learning goals,
such as the following:
• Effort
• Participation
• Attitude or behavior
• Aptitude or ability
• Improvement
• Extra credit
• Late work
• Zeroes
• Group grades

7. Avoid using grades as rewards and punishments.

8. Review borderline cases carefully.

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296 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Follow School District Grading Policy

School districts develop grading policies to guide teachers; and in formulating your
own grading practices, you should carefully follow the policy to which your district
adheres. A review of grading policies posted online by districts in several states reveals
that these documents vary widely in what they include and their degree of specificity.
Most discuss purposes for grades, suggestions of the types of assessments that should
be used in grading, and the grading system (e.g., 93–100 ⫽ A). Some go further and
specify the minimum number of grades necessary per marking period, the weights
that should be applied to different types of assignments, and even what to do in bor-
derline cases. Because of the tremendous variation across school districts, you must
familiarize yourself early on with your own district’s requirements and use them as the
foundation for constructing your own policy.

Base Grading on Summative Assessments

Students have a right to know your grading policy. A clearly spelled-out grading policy
also protects you. If your policy is arbitrary and unstated, it can be perceived as capri-
cious or unfair and may even lead to legal action against you. Make sure you formulate
your grading policy in writing and provide it to your students and their parents.
In designing your policy, we recommend that you build on the bedrock assump-
tion that the grade you assign represents your evaluation of each student against the
learning goals based on the standards and benchmarks available for your subject and
grade level (Brookhart, 2004; Marzano, 2006; O’Connor, 2002). In the teaching profes-
sion, our models of instruction and assessment are “anchored” to learning goals based
on standards (Brookhart, 2004). With the learning goals as the focus of your evalua-
tion, your assessments—and therefore your overall evaluations of your students—must
be aligned with these goals, as we discussed in Chapter 2. Studies examining different
grading criteria across a number of school districts indicate that academic achievement
is the primary and most frequent factor used in formulating grades (Marzano, 2000).
Gronlund (2006) gets to the point when he states, “Letter grades without an achieve-
ment referent tend to have little meaning.”
In addition, grades should be based on summative rather than formative assess-
ments. Because formative assessments are designed to provide feedback to help students
learn, grades on formative assessments penalize students who do not master everything
quickly. In addition, feedback on formative assessment is one of your best opportunities
to play the advocate role for your students. You do all you can to help them make prog-
ress and learn more as they practice skills and master complex ideas. You encourage
them to take the next step and note their progress. Remember also that formative assess-
ments enhance mastery goals, which increase motivation and help students take respon-
sibility for their own achievement. Students will be more likely to do their best on your
summative assessments if they have been able to make progress on the formative ones.
Then, after formative assessments have helped students do all they can to narrow
the gap between where they started and where they need to be to master a learning
goal, you can administer summative assessments to ascertain mastery. At this time,
your role changes from advocate to evaluator and judge of student achievement.
Let’s look at an example of the progression from formative assessment for learning
to summative assessment of learning. Consider a unit including a learning goal covering
the causes and course of the Civil War and its effects on the American people. One
learning focus could be examination of the different cultures at the time (e.g., enslaved
people, Southern plantation owners, Northern city dwellers). Formative assessments
could include student journal entries, documentation of progress on personal research
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The Grading Decision Process 297

for a culminating project, and use of Venn diagrams to compare and contrast beliefs
and practices, material adaptations to the environment, and social organizations. These
could allow students to work on reasoning and research skills as well as to organize and
master the content of the unit.
Summative assessments for grading purposes could then include students inde-
pendently constructing a Venn diagram (addressing a different focus from any earlier
Venn diagrams), and projects or presentations on specific persons of the time, focus-
ing on their relationship to their culture and the impact of the war. Tests and quizzes
could also be administered at several points during the unit, and they might use
excerpts from original sources, asking students to explain their significance or compare
perspectives of people. The summative assessments would cover similar content to the
formative assessments, but they would also provide novel opportunities for students
to summarize their understanding of the period and its cultures and to apply their
knowledge to new examples to demonstrate mastery. Grades for the unit based on
these summative assessments would then reflect the degree to which each student had
met the learning goals. This is because the instruction, as well as both formative and
summative assessments, would have been carefully aligned with those goals.

Ensure Quality of Assessment

As discussed in Chapter 6, sufficiency of information is the key to ensuring reliability
in your classroom assessment. You need enough information to assure yourself that
you have a reasonable sample of each student’s performance. Having enough different
kinds of assignments addressing the learning goals through different assessment meth-
ods is important for ensuring the validity of the inferences you make about each stu-
dent. You don’t want to use only tests, because some students do not do their best
work on tests, and you want other methods of determining their ability to apply what
they have learned. You also don’t want to use only projects, because these tend to focus
in depth in only one area of the learning goals. You need a range of different types of
assignments across the different areas of strength and weakness of your students and
across the different understanding and skills addressed in the unit.
For example, Greenville County Schools in South Carolina specify that middle
school English Language Arts teachers should base 50 percent of a student’s grade on
12 minor grades per marking period. Minor grades might be based on classwork,
quizzes, journals, or informal presentations. The other 50 percent should be based on
3 or 4 major tests, formal writing assignments, or research-based projects. This district
specifies weightings and types of assignments in all subjects and at all grade levels to
increase consistency in grading across teachers. See Table 10.5 for the specifications
for English Language Arts across grade levels. Notice how the weight of major assess-
ments increases as students move up in grade level.
Paradoxically, most teachers grade too many things, rather than too few. One
principal we know is on a crusade to get teachers to substantially reduce the 40–50
items he finds in their grade books each marking period. He wants them to focus on
fewer, more meaningful assessments. For example, if you give a grade on every home-
work and in-class assignment, you have lots of grades to summarize at the end of the
marking period. But most of these activities should probably be considered practice,
or formative assessment, rather than summative assessment. As such, they are not
usually effective for checking on true mastery of the learning goals. Marzano (2006)
recommends no fewer than four assessments per topic in each grading period, adding
another when you are uncertain about a student’s level of performance in relation to
the learning goals. Carefully choosing several different types of summative assessment
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298 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

TA B L E 1 0 . 5
Greenville County Schools Grade Weighting for English Language Arts at Elementary, Middle, and
High School Levels
Minor Assessments Major Assessments Other

Elementary (7) 60% (2) 40%

Reading Comprehension Strategies and Skills, Retelling Selection Assessments and
Protocols, Responses to Literature, Novel/Chapter Book Tests
Observations, Checklists, Name Test, 20%; Integrated Themes
Portfolio, HM Theme Skills Test, etc. Skills Test 20%

Elementary (7) 60% 30% (1) Writing Portfolio Spelling: (8–9) 10%
Language Arts Response Journals, Learning Logs, Writer’s (1) Major Test
(Writing, Research, Craft, Writing Conventions, Writing
Communication and Process, Writing Rubrics, Research Process,
Language Skills) Reference Materials, Use of Technology,
Presentation Rubrics, Writing Prompts,
Constructed Responses, Anecdotal
Records, Observation Checklists, etc.

Middle School (12) 50% (3–4) 50%

English Including but not limited to quizzes Including but not limited
Language Arts (vocabulary, reading, skill based), small to tests, formal writing,
writing assignments, journals, write to portfolios, research-based
learn assignments, informal oral products, culminating
presentations, other class work. products

High School (12) 40% (3–4) 60%

English Including but not limited to quizzes Tests, formal writing,
Language Arts (vocabulary, reading, skill based), small research-based products,
writing assignments, journals, write to culminating products
learn assignments, informal oral
presentations, other class work.

Reprinted with permission of the Greenville County SC School District.

can save you grading time, and your summative assessments will allow students to
thoughtfully demonstrate what they have learned.

Involve Students
As we have discussed previously—in relation to formative assessment, designing rubrics,
and progress monitoring—involving students in the assessment process fosters their
development of mastery goals and a sense of ownership of their learning. It also helps
to ensure that your grading is perceived as fair. At a minimum, before any summative
assignment or project is due, you must inform students of the specific characteristics
you are looking for in it. We will never forget our frustration as students when we
received a paper back with 10 points marked off for not including a diagram we had
not known was expected and had therefore not included. Those of us in the class never
saw the rubric until we found it stapled to our paper with our (unsatisfactory) grade.
We also recommend you share with your students a clear picture of the types of
questions you will ask on exams as well as a sense of the areas of content on which
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The Grading Decision Process 299

the exam will focus and the relative weight of the different areas. We have found that
providing students with a list of topics or learning goals and the number of questions
or percentage of points on each one helps reduce anxiety and gives students an under-
standing of the relative importance of different topics.
Remember also the benefits of not just informing students about how assess-
ments will be graded, but also allowing students to help discuss and contribute to some
aspects of assessments. Discussing and defining criteria on a rubric using good and
poor models can help students clarify and internalize the standards of quality. Design-
ing sample questions can help students take a teacher’s perspective on what’s important
and how to think critically.

Weigh Recent and Consistent Performance Most Heavily

When you are combining into a grade the set of assessments for each student for a
marking period, you must keep in the forefront of your mind your primary goal of
providing an accurate representation of each student’s level of mastery. This assump-
tion implies that a simple average of the grades collected from the first week to the
last during the marking period may not be your best interpretation of a student’s
performance. One of the most robust educational research findings is that learning of
new skills increases incrementally across time; therefore, more weight should be given
to assessments later in the learning sequence (Guskey & Bailey, 2001; Marzano, 2006;
O’Connor, 2002). This suggestion is consistent with our recommendation to rely pri-
marily on summative assessments in formulating grades. They are completed after
students have had opportunities to practice and consolidate skills.
Looking at the consistency of student performance is also a key consideration in
providing the most accurate reflection of mastery. As you learned in Chapter 6 from
our discussion of reliability, any measurement of student learning has some error. If
one score deviates from a student’s typical performance, there may be a chance that
some kind of error is detracting from that score’s consistency.
One extreme score (or outlier) can distort the mean, as we demonstrated in
Chapter 5. For this reason, some teachers use median scores rather than average scores
when calculating grades. Use of the median reduces the effect of a low test score on
the final grade. However, the use of the median can also reduce the effect of a test that
a student aced (i.e., made a 100) on a final grade, if that score is significantly different
from other scores. You can see the difference between mean and median grading
in Table 10.6. Considering consistency and recency can help you assign grades that

TA B L E 1 0 . 6
Calculating Grades Based on Median Scores Versus Mean Scores
Consistent Student Inconsistent Student A Inconsistent Student B

Test Grade 82 82 82

Presentation 85 85 100

Quiz Grades 83 83 83

Venn Diagrams 80 40 80

Mean 82.5 72.5 86.25

Median 82.5 82.5 82.5

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300 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

capture more accurately the level of student achievement (Marzano, 2006; O’Connor,
2002). However, you must not build disincentives into your grading policy. Students
may take advantage of a median-based grading policy and “take a break” on the last
assessment or two without affecting their grade if they have done well on a majority
of the earlier ones (see Inconsistent Student A).

Avoid Unduly Weighting Factors Unrelated to Mastery

of the Learning Goals
One of the basic tenets of this text is that assessments (and grading) should primarily
reflect mastery of the learning goals. Yet many teachers believe that other factors, par-
ticularly effort, should also be explicitly considered when calculating grades. Instead, we
suggest these factors should contribute to grades indirectly rather than directly (Brookhart,
2004). For example, a student who spends hours revising a paper based on your forma-
tive feedback (thus investing high effort) will probably earn a better grade on the final
product than a student who invests low effort by making only a few superficial changes
at the last minute before turning in the paper. The teacher of these two students need
not explicitly assign points for effort in the final grade. The two final papers already dif-
fer in quality based solely on the grading criteria for the assignment.
We will discuss several factors in turn and the rationales against allowing them
to influence your calculation of grades directly. We are not absolute purists, because
we do believe some of these factors can play a minor role. However, to avoid score
pollution, we suggest nonachievement factors should count for 10 percent or less of a
grade. This approach provides some flexibility, because you can draw student attention
to nonacademic factors without significantly detracting from the strong link you need
to establish between grades and mastery of the learning goals. Two or three points on
a 100-point assignment do not much alter a grade. Another approach is to report
nonachievement factors independently from grades for academics by giving a separate
grade or report on “work habits” (Winger, 2005). Either approach does not detract
from the key point we are driving home: grades should primarily represent level of
achievement of the learning goals.

Effort
The most common nonachievement factor teachers like to include in grades is effort
(Marzano, 2000). We have heard teachers say that students who work hard should
receive a higher grade than students at the same level of mastery who do not try hard.
Similarly, many teachers also believe that they should lower the grade for “lack of
effort” if a student turns in no homework but gets “A”s on summative assessments.
Teachers like to take effort into account because they feel they can then use
grades as a motivational tool to increase effort (Gronlund, 2006). However, measuring
effort is not easy. Some teachers try to look at specific behaviors, such as turning in
homework. But a student may not turn in homework because he is the sole caretaker
of his siblings every night after school, or because she has already mastered the mate-
rial and doesn’t need additional practice. Besides, if homework is considered formative
assessment, scores on it should make a minimal contribution to the total grade.
Others look at demeanor of students during class. But most students at one time
or another have pretended to be diligent when their minds were a million miles away.
Having a systematic means of choosing behaviors that represent effort and assigning
points for their presence or absence would be time consuming, not to mention contro-
versial. But simply adding a few points to one student’s grade and subtracting a few from
another’s depending on your momentary perception of effort is arbitrary and unfair.
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The Grading Decision Process 301

We believe other, more effective methods for increasing effort exist than assign-
ing a bad grade. For example, as we have discussed throughout this text, use of forma-
tive assessment, student involvement in decision making, and challenging, relevant
assessment tasks have been shown to increase mastery goals on the part of students
and enhance motivation and persistence (Ames, 1992; Schunk et al., 2008). Ultimately,
effort will be reflected directly in the level of mastery attained on the learning goals.
Students who invest effort to take advantage of feedback on formative assessments and
revise their work or sharpen their thinking will perform better on the summative
assessments you provide.

Participation
Some teachers like to allocate some percentage of the grade to participation because
they believe students learn more when they actively take part in classroom activities,
and participation enlivens instruction. However, defining participation (like defining
effort) can be a difficult task. If you simply count the number of times students speak
up in class without regard to the quality of their comments, you could be encouraging
a lot of talk without a lot of thought. Also, introverts and students from cultures that
discourage assertive speaking from children are penalized unfairly if they participate
less than other students.
Jeffrey Smith and his colleagues (2001) suggest instead that you consider “con-
tribution” as a small percentage of the grade rather than participation. You can clearly
specify to your students what counts as a contribution, including a range of possibili-
ties, such as bringing in articles or artifacts that offer new information on what the
class is studying, asking an important question, and making comments in class or in
written work that relate the subject matter to previous topics of study. These authors
suggest you note contributions weekly in your grade book, but we know of at least one
teacher who passes out “Constructive Contribution” slips at appropriate moments and
has students keep track of them until the end of each marking period. If you use this
type of approach, it should count for 10 percent or less of the grade.

Attitude or Behavior
Teachers sometimes include attitude or behavior as a factor in grading, sometimes
weighted quite heavily (Marzano, 2000). They naturally prefer students who conform
to their rules and have a positive attitude and may tend to favor them when it’s time
to calculate grades. Such considerations dilute the key role of grades as an indicator
of achievement. Similar to the problems with considering effort, figuring out systematic
and fair ways to quantify teachers’ range of impressions of “appropriate” attitudes and
behavior is daunting. Usually, attitudes and behaviors are more effectively addressed
in the teacher’s day-to-day classroom management plans.
In addition, researchers have found some systematic patterns suggesting that
behavior is taken into account in grading more often in “troubled” schools, where
discipline is a problem and teachers may be concerned more with compliance than
with fostering achievement (Howley et al., 2001). Because these schools tend to serve
students from poorer and minority backgrounds, the emphasis on behavior issues
may overshadow and interfere with encouraging the advances in learning that must
be gained to close achievement gaps. In other words, when the focus on discipline
and control is manifested in grades, high expectations for achievement may drift to
lesser status.
Cheating is one of the most difficult issues related to behavior and grading
because it concerns both behavior and achievement. You should have a clear policy on
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302 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

cheating (usually determined at the school or district level) that addresses plagiarism,
cheating on tests, and other academic dishonesty issues, as well as their consequences.
Carefully explaining this policy to students with explicit examples educates them about
appropriate academic behavior and demonstrates that you take cheating seriously.
Because cheating involves achievement concerns as well as behavioral ones, academic
consequences should be applied (O’Connor, 2002). Such consequences would probably
include, for example, a reduction in grade on the assignment. Notice we stated a reduc-
tion in grade, not assigning a zero. Again, the issue is moderation. Just as effort or
participation should have a minor effect on grades, so should behavior have a minor
effect. Lowering the student’s grade, and/or having the student complete another task
to show actual achievement, communicates that cheating doesn’t have a role in educa-
tion and maintains the overall integrity of the student’s grade.

Aptitude or Ability
Some teachers, in their role as advocate, believe they must give a student of “low abil-
ity” high grades even if the student doesn’t meet the learning goals as long as the
student is “working to potential.” On the other hand, teachers may believe that a stu-
dent with high ability should not receive an “A,” even if the student masters the learn-
ing goals, if the student is not “working to potential.” If you had this perspective and
these two students were in your classroom, you might give the first student an “A” and
the second a “B” for similar performances on summative assessments. We exaggerate
a bit here to show how this would distort the usefulness of the grades in communicat-
ing levels of mastery.
In addition, experts in cognition over a number of years have found aptitude or
ability very elusive and difficult to measure apart from achievement (see Chapter 11).
We as teachers, then, should hesitate to jump to conclusions about the learning poten-
tial of students in our classrooms. As we noted in Chapter 3, conveying high expecta-
tions for all students is important. In addition, if we are modeling mastery goals for
our students, we must help them internalize the conviction that they can learn new
things and master new challenges.

Improvement
Sometimes teachers see a student improve across a marking period and want to give
that student’s grade a boost because an average grade doesn’t reflect the gains. If you
follow our suggestion to weight recent and consistent performance more heavily than
strict averages, this problem is considerably diminished. In addition, if you rely on
formative assessments to help students move toward mastery of the learning goals,
improvement across time should be expected from everyone, and scores on the sum-
mative assessments should accurately reflect gains the students have made.

Extra Credit
Sometimes teachers offer extra credit assignments. We (and probably most other
teachers) also find a few students pleading for extra credit opportunities if they are
worried about a grade, especially as the end of the term approaches. If you do offer
extra credit, it must be offered to all students. It should also be crafted as an oppor-
tunity for showing mastery of some aspect of the learning goals rather than busywork
(e.g., bringing in photos from magazines). Finally, it should contribute a very small
amount to a final grade. If students do not do the extra credit assignment, they should
not be penalized.
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The Grading Decision Process 303

Late Work
Most teachers have policies for penalizing students who turn in work after the due date.
In addition to encouraging responsibility among students, specific due dates and late pen-
alties allow us to sequence instruction based on knowing exactly which content students
have mastered. They also ensure our grading workload is manageable. Often, however,
penalties are so severe (e.g., 10% for each day late) that they reduce student motivation—
why turn in something four or five days late if you will get an “F” on it anyway? We
agree with Marzano (2000), who suggests that teachers deduct no more than 1 percent or
2 percent per day with a maximum of 10 percent. We also recommend that permission
for extensions be secured before the due date. Using this approach ensures that a grade
still primarily represents the quality of the work. Rectifying frequent tardiness is, however,
important to address as part of developing a sense of responsibility and the other personal
qualities that contribute to academic success. But punitive grading has not been shown
to be effective for accomplishing this (Guskey & Bailey, 2001; O’Connor, 2002). Instead,
supporting students by learning why their work is late and establishing assistance or
supervision of make-up work can be more helpful in addressing the problem.

Zeroes
Teachers sometimes assign zeroes for missing assignments or for misbehavior. But if
grades are to communicate the level of achievement, zeroes may significantly distort
them. Such distortion is particularly significant if grades are averaged. A zero is an
outlier that noticeably lowers the mean. In Table 10.7 we changed one of Inconsistent
Student A’s grades (from Table 10.6) to zero. Note the mean fell from 75 to 62.5, while
the median remained the same. Zeroes have an enormous impact because there is a
much bigger numerical distance between them and the next higher grade—usually at
least 50 points—than there is between any other two grades. For example, the distance
between any “B” and an “A” on a grading scale (where 90–100 ⫽ A and 80–89 ⫽ B)
is only 10 points. For this reason, some schools have grading policies that require
teachers to give no score lower than one point less than the lowest “D.”

Group Grades
If a grade is meant to represent the individual’s level of mastery of the learning goals,
you can already see the argument against all students in a group receiving exactly the
same score on a group project intended as a summative assessment. Chances are the

TA B L E 1 0 . 7
Showing the Impact of Zeroes on Mean Versus Median Scores
Consistent Student Inconsistent Student A

Test Grade 82 82

Presentation 85 85

Quiz Grades 83 83

Venn Diagrams 80 0

Mean 82.5 62.5

Median 82.5 82.5

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304 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

score will represent the performance level of some, but probably not all, students in
the group. If you want to use a team project in your classes, it should be designed to
have a large individual accountability component and a smaller group component. For
example, in a group presentation, individuals can be scored on their delivery and
content contribution, and then a smaller group score related to some aspects of the
overall presentation might be given. The key in designing group projects is keeping in
mind the understanding and skills you want individuals to demonstrate.

Avoid Using Grades as Rewards and Punishments

From the points we have made about grading so far, you can see that we dilute the
meaning of grades when we use them for purposes other than communicating the level
of mastery. Because grades are one source of power teachers have over students, we
may sometimes be tempted to use grades as incentives for motivation and compliance
or as punishments when students don’t conform to our expectations. Do your best to
avoid this temptation.
To understand why, let us consider grades as punishments. The research is clear.
No studies have found that low grades are effective as punishments (Guskey & Bailey,
2001; O’Connor, 2002). Because grades are connected to self-concept and carry emotional
meaning, a low grade usually causes students to question their abilities (recall our col-
league’s son with the D2 on his first English essay), to withdraw, or to disparage the
importance of the grade and the importance of learning. Rather than punitively assigning
a zero for uncompleted homework, a more effective approach could be to consider an
assignment as “incomplete” and to require additional (sometimes supervised) work (Guskey
& Bailey, 2001). Conversely, to consider using positive grades as a reward apart from an
indication of mastery of learning goals can encourage students to focus on getting the
grade rather than getting the learning. For example, we know an English teacher who
guaranteed students at least a “B” on a paper if they followed all formatting directions,
which, by the way, were not addressed in the learning goals for the class. Many of her
students focused more carefully on the formatting than on the content. Such an approach
emphasizes performance goals over mastery goals, so the importance of acquiring under-
standing and skills may take a back seat to figuring out how to get the best grade.

Review Borderline Cases Carefully

No matter what process you use in determining grades, you will always have borderline
cases. And because any measurements related to achievement contain error, you know
you must rely on judgment as you examine scores in the grade book. We believe you
must review borderline cases carefully, bearing in mind the grade you assign should
be your best judgment of the student’s level of mastery. If you have implemented
Guideline 5 (Table 10.4) to make sure recent and consistent performance carries the
most weight in the grade, this problem may already be mitigated somewhat. For addi-
tional guidance, you may need to consider which evidence is most important in rela-
tion to the goals in the course. For example, a paper that demonstrates application of
course concepts to a practical setting may reflect mastery more comprehensively than
quiz or test grades. Through this process, focus on mastery rather than on effort or
other nonachievement considerations. If you are still wavering after review, it is reason-
able to give the student the benefit of the doubt and the higher grade (Gronlund, 2006).
Whatever decision you make should be applied to students consistently. Table 10.8
details the components of an effective grading policy based on our guidelines that
should be communicated to and discussed with students.
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The Grading Decision Process 305

TA B L E 1 0 . 8
Elements of an Effective Grading Policy to Communicate to Students
Describes formative assessments and their purpose and distinguishes them from
summative assessments

Provides descriptions of summative assessments, including

• Detailed scoring guide with criteria and weights
• Due dates

Explains grading scale, including

• Cutoff points for final grade levels
• Amount each assessment contributes to final grade
• Borderline policy

Addresses cheating
Addresses consequences for late work

Addresses extra credit, if any

A Special Case: Students with Disabilities

Many teachers we have worked with have worried extensively about grading students
with disabilities. One middle school science teacher we know has said that trying to
grade students fairly who receive special education services is one of the hardest parts
of her job. Figuring a grade is difficult when you are teaching eighth-grade standards
to a student who reads at the second-grade level, and you don’t simply want to put a
string of “F”s in the grade book.
Dennis Munk and William Bursuck (2003) have worked extensively to address
this dilemma. They suggest that the key is collaborating with the team that designs
the student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The IEP is the program designed Individualized Education Plan
each year for students with disabilities by the parents and teachers who work with each (IEP)
student. It defines the student’s current level of performance and contains goals The program designed each year for
a student with disabilities. The pro-
and how they will be measured, as well as the specific services provided to the stu- gram is designed by the teachers
dent, including any modifications of the typical program or accommodations to who work with the student and the
enhance access. student’s parents.
Recognizing that grades can serve different purposes and mean different things
to different people, these authors recommend the IEP team explicitly decide what each
grade should signify for a special education student. During the IEP process, they sug-
gest parents and teachers should openly discuss what each grade should represent. For
example, they could agree for a mainstream science class that the student should be
graded on three rather than five key assignments, and improvement across the semester
will count for a certain percentage of the grade. This agreement is written into the IEP
as a grading modification. Then the teacher applies that system in calculating a grade
for the student. Monk and Bursuck suggest that providing a “menu” of grading adapta-
tions or modifications for special education students can encourage more access to
grade-level curriculum as well as support these students’ efforts toward success. Grading
modifications are helpful for dispelling any ambiguity about what a student’s grade
represents. They allow teachers to use different but explicit criteria with students who
would have great difficulty meeting standard learning goals. In our experience, many
teachers aren’t aware grading adaptations can be written into the IEP.
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306 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Ethics Alert: Parents must participate in this decision-making process about grades. If
parents are not made aware of modifications to grading, they may be surprised if their child
does not do well on a state test. Remember, the role of the grade is to communicate to others
(e.g., parents) about a student’s achievements.

Grading as a Skill
Learning to grade consistently and fairly is a complex set of skills that requires careful
thought and practice (Brookhart, 2004). This issue doesn’t come into play when you
are grading multiple-choice tests with only one correct answer. But when you are scor-
ing writing assignments or performance assessments, your first step in fair grading is
to be sure to formulate a clear scoring guide to delineate key elements of quality for
you as well as your students, as we discussed in Chapters 8 and 9. You must then take
special care to apply the criteria from the scoring guide consistently. The first few times
you grade a set of papers or projects, we recommend reviewing the suggestions for
avoiding the pitfalls listed in Table 8.8 in Chapter 8.

 TYPES OF GRADING APPROACHES

We now turn to the more technical considerations in converting performance on
assessments into grades. Two issues are important at this point: the basis for com-
parison and the type of summarizing system you intend to use. For most teachers,
these are determined by school or district grading policies.

Basis for Comparison

From the beginning, you must decide whether you assign grades based on comparing
Criterion-Referenced Grading student work to a specific criterion or standard of mastery (criterion-referenced
A grading process in which student grading) or to the work of the other students you are teaching at the same time
work is compared to a specific cri-
terion or standard of mastery.
(norm-referenced grading).
Norm-Referenced Grading
The assignment of grades according Criterion-Referenced Grading
to a pre-specified distribution (e.g., A criterion-referenced grade is determined by comparing a student’s performance to
exactly 10% will receive an “A”).
an absolute standard. Most of us have experienced criterion-referenced grading when
we completed the driver’s licensing examination; we wanted to get at least 85 percent
correct (the absolute standard) to pass the test. In the classroom, we might review the
tasks we will be using to assess student learning and decide that a percentage grade of
at least 90 percent (the standard) is required for an “A.”
We recommend criterion-referenced grading. If you have aligned your instruction
and your assessment with the learning goals, combined scores should provide a strong
indicator of each student’s level of mastery of the learning goals. In addition, with criterion-
referenced grading, any number of students can attain high grades if they have demon-
strated mastery. Criterion-referenced grading stresses mastery and lessens competition
among students. For criterion-referenced grading to be most effective, you must be sure
to keep your expectations high and your learning goals challenging.
Also, notice that one student’s grade of “A” does not depend on the number of
other students who earned an “A.” In fact, if you were teaching a class of gifted students,
they might all earn “A.” This is not the case with norm-referenced grading.
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Types of Grading Approaches 307

Norm-Referenced Grading
Norm-referenced grading, sometimes referred to as “grading on the curve,” requires you
to arbitrarily decide how many students can achieve each letter grade. For example, you
may decide the grades in your classroom should approximate a normal distribution:
10% of the students will get an “A” and 10% will receive an “F.”
20% will get a “B” and 20% will earn a “D.”
40% will receive a “C” (Frisbie & Waltman, 1992).
Unfortunately, if 15 percent of your students have high levels of mastery, 5 percent of
them must receive a “B” if you are using the 10 percent cutoff. This approach is clearly arbi-
trary, and the meaning of an “A” will vary with every new group of students. A student’s
grade depends on how many people do better. You can see why norm-referenced grading
often weakens the morale and effort of poorer performing students. It also functions
as a method of “sorting” students from best to worst and thus fosters competition among
students. We recently heard from a student who was taking a class where the teacher
used norm-referenced grading. He told us that as students finished each exam, they
would make as much noise as possible when leaving the classroom—dropping books,
scraping their chairs, slamming the door—to distract the remaining students and interfere
with their concentration in hopes of lowering their grades.
In our own classes, we often ask students which form of grading they prefer.
Surprisingly, we always have a few who favor norm-referenced grading. They inevita-
bly reveal they have had several classes where everyone would have failed tests if
criterion-referenced grading were used, so norm-referenced grading was their only
shot at doing well. But if you align your assessment with your instruction and use
formative assessment with feedback to help students improve before the summative
assessments, students should not be failing your tests in droves.

Types of Summarizing Systems

After you have chosen and weighted your summative assessments in terms of the
contribution they represent to mastery of the learning goals, you must choose a way
to combine them for a grade. Several methods exist, and often the method is chosen
at the school or district level.

Letter Grades
Letter grades are the most familiar method of summarizing student achievement. For
many years, teachers have used letter grades, from “A” to “F,” for individual assignments
and then have combined them for final grades, usually weighting more important
assignments more heavily than less important ones.
Even though letter grades are so common, the actual meaning of letter grades
may vary and even confuse. Sometimes the label for each of the five grade categories
can suggest a norm-referenced interpretation (e.g., “C” ⫽ Average), whereas at other
times it can suggest a criterion-referenced interpretation (e.g., “C” ⫽ Satisfactory)
(Guskey & Bailey, 2001). If you grade using a criterion-referenced approach, the labels
conveying the meaning of your grades should be consistent with this approach.

Standards-Based
To tie grading categories more closely to standards on which learning goals are
based, some school districts have abandoned letter-grade categories for categories
that indicate degree of mastery on the standards. They explicitly design assessments
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308 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Benchmark Tests termed benchmarks that indicate levels of proficiency in meeting the standards, and
Assessments tied explicitly to aca- grades are based on these benchmarks. Grading status is then assigned based on
demic standards and administered
at regular intervals to determine
categories such as below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced or beginning, progress-
the extent of student mastery. ing, proficient, and exceptional. Some educators find this approach particularly useful
for connecting student performance to the standards and view it as the best approach
for capturing student performance (Marzano, 2006; O’Connor, 2002). For example,
when you design scoring guides, the categories can be tied explicitly to the profi-
ciency levels of the standards (see Table 5.8). For this approach to be effective, the
standards designated must be broad enough to communicate an overall sense of
student achievement, but narrow enough to provide useful information for future
learning (Guskey & Bailey, 2001).

Percentage
A common method for summarizing grades is to calculate the percentage of total
points earned on each assessment. After weighting assignments proportionally, letter
grades can then be assigned based on specified ranges, or in some schools, the percent-
ages themselves are reported. Many teachers prefer using percentages because they
believe they can make finer discriminations between students with a 100-point range
than with the 5-point letter grade range (i.e., A–F). Because of the error involved in
all measurement, however, the difference between a 72 and a 75 may not actually be
meaningful. In addition, a score of 100 percent, especially if it is on an easy test, may
not necessarily equate to complete mastery of the material. You can’t necessarily assume
that the percentage correct increases directly with the degree of mastery of the learn-
ing goals (McMillan, 2007). In addition, students may perform quite differently on the
different learning goals addressed during a marking period, and a single total doesn’t
allow a picture of strengths and needs in these different areas.

Total Points
A point system is another method teachers often use in calculating grades. The
outcome is similar to the percentage method. Instead of weighting assignments after
the percentage correct is calculated to get a total, you assign a weighted proportion
of the total points to each assignment at the beginning of the term. For example,
instead of weighting the percentage correct on a test twice as much as the percentage
correct on a quiz, you simply have a quiz worth 20 points and a test worth 40 points.
You add up all the points, calculate the percentage of total points earned, and assign
grades on this basis. The drawbacks of this method are similar to those for the
percentage system.

Other Methods for Summarizing Grades

Grades as a summary representation of achievement have a long tradition, but they
also have significant problems, as we have seen. In a standards-focused educational
environment, grades based on percentage or total points may not link achievement
clearly enough with standards. In addition, single grades may have included charac-
teristics of students other than achievement, such as effort and ability. Other methods
for summarizing grades have been proposed, and we describe two of these. Although
they are not widely used at this time and may have logistical concerns, they illustrate
efforts to remedy some of the unease teachers, parents, and students have expressed
about traditional grading systems. They provide ideas about possible directions schools
may take in the future.
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Portfolios and Communicating About Achievement 309

“Not Yet” Grading “Not yet” grading assumes not all students learn at the same “Not Yet” Grading
pace, but all students will learn. On benchmark assessments tied to grade-level stan- A grading system in which students
receive either an “A”, “B”, or “NY”
dards, students receive an “A,” a “B,” or “NY” for each learning goal. “Not Yet” implies (not yet) for each learning goal.
all students will reach the goal when they put in more work, conveying high expecta-
tions and promoting the connection between student effort and achievement. These
systems also offer students systematic opportunities to improve their “NY” grades, so
this approach is one way to capture the positive results of differentiated instruction
and formative assessment. Students who did not do well on an assessment the first
time may need different instructional strategies or more time. Instead of assuming the
fault is in the student, this approach provides more opportunities to master the content,
thus encouraging rather than demoralizing anyone who tends to lag behind peers. You
may protest that this method is not “fair” to those who do well on the first try. But we
must remember that in providing equal access to educational opportunity, we have an
obligation to help all students learn rather than merely sorting them into “strong” or
“slow” learners.

Narrative Reports Rather than using report cards with a single letter grade for each
subject, some elementary schools have teachers write narrative reports describing Narrative Reports
student achievement and progress each marking period. The difficulty of combining a Written descriptions of student
range of disparate factors into one letter or number is thus eliminated. Teachers can achievement and progress.
describe student work habits, reasoning skills, communication skills, and other facets
of learning and performance that may not be captured by a single grade in a content
area. This type of summary of student achievement can work effectively when teachers
employ a structured approach that addresses specific learning goals in their reports
(Guskey & Bailey, 2001). Otherwise, narrative reports can be too vague in their descrip-
tions to pinpoint achievement strengths and needs. Narrative reports are rarely used
in middle and high schools because they are quite time consuming for teachers who
may have more than 100 students each term. In addition, earning credits toward grad-
uation requires more explicit tracking of accumulated understanding and skills.
We next turn to a discussion of portfolios. Portfolio assessment is a popular and
growing means of documenting and communicating about learning in a more com-
prehensive way than a single grade or score might offer.

 APORTFOLIOS AND COMMUNICATING

BOUT ACHIEVEMENT
A portfolio is a purposefully organized collection of student work. We believe that the Portfolio
key words in the definition are “purposefully organized.” We have seen many teachers A purposefully organized collection
collect a variety of student work in individual folders without a clear rationale in mind. of student work.
However, a portfolio is most valuable when work samples are chosen by teachers and
students with a clear objective (Belgrad et al., 2008).

Portfolio Purposes
Because portfolios require time and energy, they should be used only if they enhance
communication about learning. Therese Kuhs and her colleagues (2001) suggest that
teachers ask themselves, “What is it I want to know about student learning that I can-
not find out in another way?” and “What can a portfolio tell about student learning
that cannot be told by a single performance task?” We thus first turn to the purposes
portfolios can serve so you get a clear picture of the functions they can perform.
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310 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Growth Portfolios
If you intend to promote mastery goals among the students in your classroom, a
Growth Portfolio growth portfolio could be a helpful strategy. The growth portfolio is designed to
An organized collection of students’ document student growth over time. It therefore contains items such as progress mon-
work gathered to document devel-
opment and growth over time.
itoring charts and graphs tracking progress toward specified goals, samples of similar
assignments (e.g., lab reports, critiques, perspective drawings, descriptive paragraphs)
across time, and performance assessments, plus other projects, including early drafts
and final product, with the feedback from earlier drafts incorporated.
In our own teaching, we have used portfolios to document student growth in
writing. At the beginning of each school year, our third-grade students wrote a fictional
story. These stories generally consisted of four or five sentences on 1-inch lined paper.
By the end of the year, stories had greatly improved. They often filled two or more
pages of regular notebook paper. Students now established a setting, developed a char-
acter, presented a problem, and brought the problem to a resolution. They also had
learned to follow the conventions for capitalization, punctuation, quotations for dia-
logue, and paragraphing. At the year-end conference, parents viewed their child’s learn-
ing progression through the stories, which dramatically illustrated their child’s growth.
Thus, in our experience, a portfolio of student writing can be a powerful method for
documenting and communicating about learning.
Another essential element of growth portfolios is focused student reflection. For
example, students may be asked to describe their strengths and weaknesses at the
beginning of the year and then note how they have changed, using evidence from the
items collected over several months in the portfolio. Students may choose a personal
goal and then later describe how portfolio entries illustrate their progress toward
reaching that goal. Sometimes students write a “biography” of a piece of work that
describes the development over time of the assignment. These types of assignments
help students focus on their own progress and improvement rather than comparing
themselves to others, a key element of promoting mastery goals. Stronger mastery goals
then tend to increase student motivation, enhance persistence, and increase student
willingness to attempt challenging tasks (see Chapter 1).
Reflective assignments also encourage students to take responsibility for their
own learning by providing them with opportunities to think about their work as mean-
ingful evidence of their learning rather than as arbitrary assignments to get out of the
way. Growth portfolios also allow students to personalize the learning goals and to
internalize the standards for evaluation, which help them develop the self-governing
skills needed for continued learning and, ultimately, for democratic participation.

Showcase Portfolios
Showcase Portfolio The showcase portfolio is designed to display a collection of work illustrating students’
An organized collection of students’ finest accomplishments in meeting the learning goals. It therefore contains only the
work designed to illustrate their best examples of student work. For example, a math showcase portfolio might show a
finest accomplishments in meeting
learning goals. student’s most effective attempts related to specific problem-solving abilities and com-
munication skills (Kuhs, 1997). A writing showcase portfolio might show a student’s
best writing for different purposes, such as one journal entry on current events, one
poem or piece of fiction, one persuasive essay, and one nonfiction report.
If you decide to use showcase portfolios, you must be sure students have more
than one opportunity to complete each type of assignment. One goal for the showcase
portfolio is to encourage students to learn to apply the evaluation standards to their
work, a strategy we have suggested can help students develop self-governing skills. For
this reason, students usually choose the portfolio entries from categories designated
by the teacher. They must, therefore, have several pieces to compare in order to choose
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Portfolios and Communicating About Achievement 311

the one they believe represents their best work. A reflective piece explaining why each
item was chosen for the showcase portfolio can reinforce students’ use and internaliza-
tion of the standards.

Documentation Portfolios
Some states and school districts, because of dissatisfaction with large-scale standard-
ized tests, have made an effort to use portfolios for large-scale assessment for reports
to government agencies and the public. The documentation portfolio is intended to Documentation Portfolio
provide an evaluation of student achievement status for accountability purposes. An organized collection of students’
Entries for these portfolios must be strictly standardized so they are comparable across work that provides information for
evaluating achievement status for
students and classrooms. Entries may include performance assessments and written accountability purposes.
assignments, as well as teacher-completed checklists (especially in the early grades).
Entries are determined at administrative levels rather than by teachers and/or students.
In contrast to growth and showcase portfolios, student self-assessment is not usually
an essential component. Documentation portfolios are also sometimes employed by
classroom teachers for evaluating levels of student achievement. Table 10.9 presents an
overview of the three types of portfolios.

TA B L E 1 0 . 9
Types of Portfolios
Importance of Importance
Standardized of Student Who
Type of Entries and Self- Chooses
Portfolio Purpose Types of Entries Procedures assessment Entries?

Growth Show progress • Progress monitoring charts and graphs Low High Teacher
over time tracking progress toward specified goals and
• Samples of similar assignments (e.g., lab student
reports, critiques) across time
• Performance assessments or other projects,
including early drafts and final product
with feedback incorporated
• Student reflections on progress

Showcase Demonstrate A student’s best work, such as the following: Low High Student
best accom- • Most effective attempts related to specific
plishments problem-solving abilities and communi-
cation skills in math
• Best writing for different purposes in
language arts
• Best pinch pot, best hand-built pot, and
best thrown pot in art class on pottery
• Student reflection on rationale for entries

Documen- Provide a record Comparable entries across students and High Low Adminis-
tation of student classrooms, such as trators
achievement • Performance assessments
status • Written assignments
• Teacher-completed checklists (especially in
the early grades)
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312 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Implementation Issues
Several issues must be addressed if you decide to implement some variation of growth
or showcase portfolios in your classroom. These issues are not as salient for documen-
tation portfolios required by external authorities.

What’s the Point?

The first issue you face is deciding exactly what you want to get out of implementing
portfolios. You must make sure you design the system to provide information on student
learning that you are not getting in other ways. For this reason, the decision cannot be
taken lightly. Using portfolios often requires considerable effort and significant modifica-
tion of your teaching practices. For example, when you choose to use growth portfolios,
your primary purpose is to help students focus on their own progress in ways they may
never have done before. You must teach students the skills and strategies they need to
monitor their progress and reflect on their growth. You must design class work and
assignments with this focus in mind, so you must ensure that you structure formative
assessment and student self-assessment into your teaching. We recommend that you
initiate portfolios with only one subject area because of the intense work required.
In addition, a strong focus is necessary. You must concentrate portfolio work on
specific learning goals that you address in your curriculum (Belgrad et al., 2008). For
example, learning goals in mathematics that lend themselves to documentation by
portfolio could include “collects and uses data to support conclusions” or “makes gen-
eralizations and creates classification systems” (Kuhs et al., 2001). “Uses persuasive
language in writing” or “demonstrates the ability to write in a variety of formats” could
be learning goals in language arts that are appropriate. These topics are broad enough
that progress across a whole semester or year can be addressed.

Student Involvement
Another issue in getting started is to foster meaningful student participation. Students,
too, need to understand what they will get out of developing portfolios. Helping students
feel responsible for their work is a key issue facing teachers today, and portfolios can
help. Preparing an opening statement for the portfolio at the beginning of the year, such
as describing themselves and what they hope to gain in school this year (“Who are you
and why are you here?”), focuses students on ownership of their work and provides a
benchmark for examining progress later (Benson & Barnett, 2005). Some of the sugges-
tions we have made for promoting mastery goals are also relevant here. Allowing students
choice and control in the types of items to be included is one step. Another factor we
have discussed in terms of fostering mastery goals is relevance. Students need to under-
stand why the work they are doing is important and has value for them and their future.
Involving them in analyzing their own work related to learning goals whose significance
they understand helps make their efforts meaningful and relevant.
Systematically requiring student reflection is probably the most important aspect
of generating student engagement in the portfolio process. Involving students in
explaining and reviewing the process of creating their entries as well as evaluating their
products is useful. These reflections should allow them to analyze their work in com-
parison to the learning goals, to see their strengths and weaknesses, and to develop
new strategies to improve future efforts.
One important job of the teacher is to help students see how such efforts foster
significant insights that expand their learning, and three guidelines are recommended
(Fernsten & Fernsten, 2005). First, you must create a supportive environment in which
you encourage candid reflection, even if student revelations don’t correspond to your
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Portfolios and Communicating About Achievement 313

ideas of appropriate strategies (e.g., doing a large project at the last minute). Only hon-
est dialogue about work habits or study strategies can lead to new learning insights.
Second, you must take special care in designing effective prompts for student
reflection. These should be based on the learning goals for the portfolio entries. For
example, if students are to use imagery in their writing, you might ask them how and
why they chose the imagery they used rather than asking a vague question about the
writing process. Similarly, if an entry requires revision after formative feedback, you
might ask students to specify the changes made and how they helped the student move
toward mastery of the learning goals.
Third, for effective student reflection, you and your students must develop a
common language. Your modeling of the language to use when analyzing work is
crucial in the early stages (Gredler & Johnson, 2004). You must also designate periods
for specific instruction related to student learning of evaluation and reflection skills.
Such instruction could include class discussions involving careful analysis of work
samples based on scoring guides and comparison of one piece to another. Discussion
and examples of appropriate goals that can be monitored across time can also be
helpful. Opportunities for students to examine samples of portfolios and generate their
own questions about them may help make the process more concrete for them.

Logistics
After you have clearly established a purpose and have your students involved, you must
choose work samples on which to focus, incorporate the portfolio process into your
instructional activities, and decide how to organize and store the portfolios.

Choosing Work Samples Bailey and Guskey (2001) suggest that the most effective
approach in selecting pieces for inclusion involves a “combination of teacher direction
and student selection.” For example, for growth portfolios, teachers may mandate cer-
tain progress monitoring charts be included (e.g., documenting writing fluency growth),
but students may also choose an additional goal and a personal method to monitor
progress toward it. For showcase portfolios, a language arts teacher may specify that
three types of writing progress will be monitored, but students may be able to choose
which three out of the four types of writing studied they want to represent, and they
also decide which pieces constitute their best work. Sometimes teachers specify a few
entries that must be included (e.g., monthly performance of scales on audiotape for
instrumental music students, written reflection on progress in a specified area in art).
These are added to other entries students choose, including favorite pieces, work
related to their special interests, or items into which they put the most effort or learned
the most. In addition, items chosen collaboratively by students and teachers can be
included (Gredler & Johnson, 2004).

Portfolio Classroom Activities Portfolios require instructional time. As discussed,

you must first help your students become comfortable with the common language and
the skills required for appropriate reflection about portfolio entries. You must also
address the understanding and skills required for developing each entry and its con-
nection to the learning goals. Then you should build into your classroom routine
periodic opportunities to employ these skills to develop the content of the portfolios
and the reflections about the entries.

Organizing and Storing Portfolios Portfolios can be harbored in file folders,

large envelopes, large cereal boxes, or pizza boxes (unused). Another possibility is for
students to keep their work in a computer file, an MP3 file, or on a CD or DVD.
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314 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

TA B L E 1 0 . 1 0
Growth Portfolio Reflection Form
Portfolio Reflection

Assignment: ___________________________ (attached if using paper copies)

Date: ______________

1. What is the main thing I learned from this assignment/performance?

2. What was strongest about my work on this assignment?

3. In what specific ways have I improved from the last assignment (or last draft of this
assignment)?

4. What problems did I encounter and how did I solve them?

5. Which aspect of my performance do I need to work on most?

6. What specifically will I do to improve this aspect?

Developing password-protected sites such as MySpace for portfolio purposes (perhaps

“MyAchievementSpace”) are among other interesting possibilities (Callison, 2007). The
sequence of materials in the portfolio should be clearly specified from the beginning.
For example, a growth portfolio is usually organized chronologically, whereas a show-
case portfolio is organized by using a consistent order for the different types of entries.
You may want to keep specific forms in each student’s file that they complete as they
include a piece of work in their portfolio. For example, in a growth portfolio, variations
on the form in Table 10.10 could be employed in art, music, or physical education, as
well as for writing, math, science, or social studies. Students can refer back to older
reflections when considering new entries or examining their progress.

Evaluation
The evaluation approach to portfolios depends on the type of portfolio. For growth and
showcase portfolios, the emphasis is on student self-evaluation and reflection rather
than on using portfolios for traditional grades. The key to encouraging accurate student
self-evaluation is establishing clear criteria and providing practice with these skills. If
you include a learning goal related to self-assessment or reflection, the most recent
portfolio entries in which students demonstrate these skills may be used as a summative
assessment for grading purposes. You must make clear what you are looking for in these
reflections, preferably with discussion of examples using a well-designed scoring guide.
Then the early reflections for the portfolio should serve as formative assessments on
which the same rubric is used, and feedback and suggestions for improvement are
offered. Many other key items in growth and showcase portfolios (e.g., persuasive essays,
performance assessments) probably serve as summative assessments in their own right
and therefore will have been graded separately by the teacher.
If you do want to assign grades using portfolio assignments, developing a written
assessment plan such as the one depicted in Table 10.11 for a social studies unit can
be helpful (Rushton & Juola-Rushton, 2007). Such a plan provides an opportunity for
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Portfolios and Communicating About Achievement 315

TA B L E 1 0 . 1 1
Portfolio Assessment Plan
Student Assignment Teacher Assignment
Learning Goal Choice Score Choice Score

Students will be able to Essay: Julius Venn diagrams with

appraise the impact of Caesar: Ruthless paragraph summaries
significant political dictator or ambitious comparing Roman
features of the Roman reformer? citizenship, law, and
Empire on civilization governmental
today. structures to those
of the U.S.A.

Students will be able to PowerPoint on an Design a Roman villa

evaluate the Roman architectural feature for your family
Empire’s legacy in (e.g., column, arch) project.
the arts. then and now.

both teachers and students to choose entries that exemplify the student’s level of per-
formance for each learning goal.
Documentation portfolios, in contrast to growth and showcase portfolios, are
formally designed to demonstrate student level of mastery of the learning goals, and
entries are not usually a matter of student or teacher choice because of the need for
standardization across many students. Currently, judges assessing large-scale use of
documentation portfolios have difficulty scoring portfolios consistently, but efforts are
continuing to improve reliability by improving training and scoring guides (Azzam,
2008). The variations in conditions under which the entries in the portfolios are devel-
oped may also cloud the meaning of scores. Circumstances often vary between stu-
dents and between classrooms. For example, the amount of support students have
received from others may fluctuate from classroom to classroom, and revision oppor-
tunities may also differ (Gredler & Johnson, 2004). Such discrepancies may detract
from the validity of the judgments made about students’ level of mastery.

Communication Beyond Student and Teacher

Many educators view portfolios as an effective vehicle for communicating with parents
and others about student achievement. This process can also encourage students to take
responsibility for their learning, one of the major goals of preparing students for demo-
cratic participation. Portfolio conferences involving parents or guardians with their stu-
dent and the teacher can be an excellent vehicle for communication between school and
home. In particular, student-led conferences, in which students take the primary respon- Student-Led Conferences
sibility for explaining their own strengths, needs, and progress to their parents or others, A conference where students take
exemplify efforts to aim toward improved communication (e.g., Bailey & Guskey, 2001; primary responsibility for explaining
their own strengths, needs, and
Benson & Barnett, 2005; Stiggins & Chappius, 2005). When students are responsible for progress to their parents or others.
explaining their own learning and progress to their parents or other interested people,
they begin to see more clearly the connection between their own actions and their out-
comes. A formal and public presentation of evidence of their learning requires them to
see themselves in a new light. They become accountable for learning rather than seeing
the evaluative process as beyond their control or their interest.
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316 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

Our own experience in parenting leads us to endorse student-led conferences.

We, like most parents, often had only a very sketchy picture of what went on in the
classroom and would have loved to know more about our child’s school activities and
learning process. A weekly folder, occasional paper, or annual open house just aren’t
enough to convey the complex learning going on in any classroom. So one big advan-
tage of student-led conferences is parents being able to understand the range and depth
of their child’s experiences by hearing their child discuss their learning in the context
of tangible ongoing classroom assignments.
Student-led conferences may also change the relationship between student and
teacher or student and parent in a positive way (Stiggins, 2008). The student and the
teacher form an alliance as they work together to face the challenge of showcasing the
student’s work to others. And parents’ new understanding of their child may open up
new opportunities for communication that continue over time.
Student-led conferences have advantages for improving communication between
home and school and enhancing student ownership of learning. But they also require
intense planning and careful structuring of the conference process (Bailey & Guskey,
2001). Students must possess a clear understanding of the learning goals. Portfolio items
must illustrate the student’s progress toward these learning goals, and students should be
able to explain why. Role-playing (both a good conference and a bad conference) and
discussion are often needed so students develop the self-presentation skills they need to
lead the conference. Conference plans or checklists for student-led conferences, such as the
one shown in Figure 10.1, are also helpful to keep everyone focused on the procedure.

Portfolio Conference Plan

Language Arts Grade 3

Introduce parent/guardian to teacher.

Get portfolio and explain your learning goals in reading and writing, including your
personal goal and why you chose it.
Find your graph for writing progress. Explain how the graph shows your writing has
improved since the beginning of the year.
Find your best example of writing to describe something. Explain how your
paragraphs use a topic sentence with supporting details.
Find your copy of your favorite poem. Explain how the author chose words to convey
ideas (e.g., imagery, figures of speech).
Find your reading log. Describe examples of the four major types of literary texts
(fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, and drama) that you have read.
Explain the ways you have made progress in reading so far this year.
With your parent and teacher, write down two things you still want to work on in
reading and writing:

Your signature: _____________________________________

Parent/guardian signature: ______________________________________
Teacher’s signature: _________________________________

FIGURE 10.1 Student-Led Conference Plan for Grade Three Language Arts
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Portfolios and Communicating About Achievement 317

Portfolio Advantages and Limitations

To summarize our discussion of portfolios, see Table 10.12 for some advantages and
limitations. By far the most important advantage of portfolios is opportunities for
student ownership of learning based on development of self-assessment skills and the
focus on individual progress across time. Implementing portfolios as a centerpiece of
your instruction can profoundly affect students’ approach to learning by providing a
structure for promoting mastery goals and self-governing skills. If, however, the port-
folio process lacks a clear focus, omits student self-evaluation, and is not integrated
with your instruction, these benefits will not materialize.
Portfolios can also be used flexibly by teachers to differentiate instruction to
meet individual student needs. Portfolio assessment has been used successfully
with a wide range of students, including those with cognitive disabilities (Klein-
Ezell & Ezell, 2004). Student control over learning and these opportunities for
individualization are particularly useful for students who lag behind peers. Their
experience of academic success increases confidence, perhaps rekindling their
motivation to learn and ultimately contributing to closing achievement gaps (Stiggins &
Chappius, 2005).
Designing an effective portfolio system does, however, require a considerable
investment of time for both teachers and students. In addition, although individual
assignments may serve a summative grading purpose, we don’t recommend the port-
folio itself receive a summative grade. Typical inconsistency in scoring makes the
interpretation of the degree of student learning problematic when based on only one
combined grade for a portfolio. Although using a rubric will help improve consistency
of scoring, portfolios may be best suited for communication purposes.

TA B L E 1 0 . 1 2
Advantages and Limitations of Portfolios
Advantages Limitations

Provide opportunities for student Superficial understanding of portfolios can

ownership of learning through self- lead to random collections of documents
evaluation and focus on own progress. without a clear purpose or effective
student reflection.

Provide comprehensive evidence of Difficult to use for summative grading

progress over time, mastery of learning purposes because of lack of
goals, and opportunities for formative consistency in grading and variation
assessment. in conditions under which entries are
developed.

Provide opportunities for differentiated Require considerable investment of

instruction based on curriculum, time for planning, training students,
student interests, and levels of providing feedback, organizing
understanding. conferences.

Provide opportunities for in-depth Management tasks may require time that
communication with parents and others detracts from attention to mastering
about student learning and progress. learning goals.
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318 Chapter 10 Grading and Communicating About Student Achievement

In fact, the final strength of portfolios is their ability to communicate to parents

and other interested adults about the complexities of student learning. In the earlier
sections on grading in this chapter, we pointed out the difficulty of trying to summa-
rize a student’s academic achievement with a single letter or number. Portfolios provide
multidimensional, tangible evidence of students’ learning outcomes, their approach to
learning, and their self-evaluation of their progress, strengths, and needs. This com-
prehensive picture can communicate more compellingly than a single grade the reality
and context of each student’s achievement.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

We began the chapter by discussing the difficulty teachers often have in grading students
fairly. First, grading brings into conflict the teacher’s role as advocate of the student
versus the role as evaluator of student achievement. Second, grades are a powerful
symbol and have the capacity to impact students profoundly in positive and negative
ways. Third, teachers rarely agree on how to determine grades. And fourth, grades
represent different things to different people.
Next we described the grading decision process, including recommended guide-
lines for fair and accurate grading decisions. These include learning and following your
school district’s grading policy, designing a written policy in which you base grades
on summative assessments that address learning goals based on standards, ensuring
quality by having sufficient information (reliability) and by using different types of
assessments (validity), communicating with and involving students in developing stan-
dards of performance, weighting recent and consistent performance most heavily,
avoiding unduly weighting factors unrelated to a student’s mastery of the learning goals
(e.g., effort, participation), avoiding using grades as rewards and punishments, and
reviewing borderline cases carefully.
We next described the elements of an effective grading policy that should be
communicated to students. We also discussed methods for grading students with dis-
abilities through designing an explicit agreement with the IEP team.
Subsequently, we discussed types of grading approaches such as the basis for
student comparisons (criterion-referenced or norm-referenced) and the types of sum-
marizing systems. Letter grades and percentages were discussed, as well as more
recently developed approaches such as “not yet” grading and narrative reports.
The next section of the chapter was devoted to portfolio assessment, a popular and
growing means of documenting and communicating about learning in a more compre-
hensive way than a single grade or score can offer. We first discussed three purposes or
approaches to portfolios (growth portfolios, showcase portfolios, and documentation
portfolios). Implementation issues were then described, including deciding what purpose
the portfolio should serve, choosing the learning goals to address, and involving students.
Then we described logistical issues. Evaluation of portfolios and using portfolios to com-
municate with parents were explained next. Finally, the advantages and limitations of
portfolios were discussed.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.guilderlandschools.org/district/General_Info/Grading.htm
The Guilderland, New York Central School District grading policies provide explicit
guidelines for elementary, middle, and high school teachers, including purposes of
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References 319

grades, type of criteria, borderline cases, weighting of grades, and number of grades
required per marking period.
http://essdack.org/?q=digitalportfolios
This site for the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central
Kansas presents information about designing digital portfolios and provides a
related blog.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Describe personal examples of the tension that can occur between the teacher
roles of advocate versus evaluator. How did you see this tension exhibited in
terms of grading?
2. Survey two other teachers or teacher candidates and compare the elements they
consider in grading and the weight they assign these elements. On what
elements do they agree and disagree with you?
3. Generate examples that illustrate why factors unrelated to mastery of the
learning goals (e.g., effort, participation) should not be heavily weighted in the
grading process.
4. Do you believe that some factors unrelated to mastery of the learning goals
should be weighted heavily in grading? Justify your position, taking into account
the arguments in the chapter against such practices.
5. Describe several strategies you could use in your classroom other than grades to
increase student motivation.
6. Using Table 10.8, design a grading policy that you could distribute to students
in your classroom.
7. How would you go about determining the grading policy you would use for a
student with an IEP who reads two grade levels below the rest of your class?
8. Why do most educators recommend criterion-referenced grading over norm-
referenced grading practices?
9. Which type of summarizing system (letter grades, percentages, “not yet”
grading, etc.) would you prefer to use in your classroom? Explain why.
10. Compare and contrast the different purposes for portfolios. Which approach do
you prefer and why?
11. Addressing the implementation issues described in the chapter, describe a
portfolio system you might consider adopting in your classroom.
12. Addressing the advantages and limitations of portfolios, explain why you are
likely (or not likely) to implement portfolios in your classroom.

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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 11

LARGE-SCALE STANDARDIZED
TESTS AND THE CLASSROOM
As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be
reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously.
–E. M. Forster, British novelist and essayist

What gets inspected is respected.

–Marilyn Rahming, Principal, Pineview Elementary School

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Explain the types of

At the conclusion of this chapter, the accommodations available for
reader should be able to do the testing of diverse learners.
following: • Interpret the results of norm-
• Explain differences between referenced tests using percentiles,
norm- and criterion-referenced normal curve equivalents, and
scoring and between aptitude and stanines.
achievement tests. • Critique the use of grade- and
• Refute common misconceptions age-equivalent scores.
about large-scale standardized • Interpret results of tests using
tests and describe practices that criterion-referenced scoring.
enhance their benefits and reduce • Explain the results of large-scale
their pitfalls. tests to students and parents and
• Prepare students for optimal formulate ways to use the results of
performance on large-scale tests. large-scale tests in the classroom.

 INTRODUCTION
This chapter addresses large-scale, standardized, summative tests. They are the focus
of possibly the most controversial discussions in education today, with passionate
defenders and detractors. One key reason large-scale tests loom so large in the
national discourse on education is that they are the primary means by which states
assess student performance to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) of 2001. They are also used for high-stakes decisions related to college
and graduate school entry and for access to some special programs.
As you may recall from Chapter 5, the goal of NCLB is to increase academic
achievement of lower-performing groups and to have all students in the United
States achieve proficiency in math and reading by 2014. Each state accepting federal
assistance is required to assess students in math and reading in grades 3 through 8
323
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324 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

FIGURE 11.1
© The New Yorker Collection 2002 Edward Koren from cartoonbank.com.
All rights reserved.

each year and once in high school. Science must also be assessed at least once in elemen-
tary, middle, and high school. The results must be disaggregated by major ethnicity
groups, disability status, English proficiency, and status as economically disadvantaged.
These results are reported publicly. If any of the groups in a school fail to make annual
yearly progress (AYP) two years in a row, the school is designated as needing improve-
ment, and students may transfer to another public school in the district. If the school
continues to fail to make annual yearly progress, other corrective actions must be taken,
eventually leading to “restructuring” the school with curriculum and staff changes.
Because such important consequences result from these tests, they have become
high-stakes assessments. With so much riding on the results, these tests definitely get
“inspected.” If “respect” equates to crowding other issues out of the spotlight, these
tests do that, too. The cartoon in Figure 11.1 underlines the burgeoning prominence
of such test scores.
To begin navigating this high-profile controversy, you must become familiar with
large-scale summative assessments. Thus, we devote this chapter to the issues sur-
rounding them. We first describe some basic definitions and misconceptions related
to large-scale standardized tests, then we appraise their benefits and pitfalls. Next, we
explain preparation for and administration of these tests, including accommodations
that can be made for diverse learners. We also discuss how to interpret these tests and
describe how classroom teachers can use the results.

 SDTEFINITIONS RELATED TO LARGE-SCALE

ANDARDIZED TESTING
Before we discuss the controversy around large-scale summative testing, we will pro-
vide some important background and basic terms. We differentiate among different
ways of scoring these tests, and we describe several kinds of large-scale tests.

Criterion-Referenced Scoring Criterion-Referenced Scoring and Norm-Referenced Scoring

A scoring process that compares
an individual student’s score to Large-scale standardized tests can be scored in two different ways. Criterion-referenced
predefined standards. scoring compares the individual student’s score to predefined standards. The scores
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Definitions Related to Large-Scale Standardized Testing 325

provide information about the degree to which test content is mastered (similar to
criterion-referenced grading in Chapter 10). For example, most states set a criterion level
of performance for their accountability tests at each grade that represents proficiency. If
students reach this predetermined score, they are categorized as “proficient” or “meeting
standards.” Criterion-referenced scoring is also termed standards-based scoring in educa-
tion because students’ outcomes determine whether they meet the standards the state has
chosen for levels of understanding and skills for that subject and grade.
When we address criterion-referenced scoring in our classes, we ask students for
examples from their own experiences. An example often given is the test to get a
driver’s license. You must obtain a score at or above a certain cutoff level to pass it.
Our students think of this example because that cutoff score still looms large in their
memories, especially if they had to take the test more than once. Most teachers grade
classroom summative tests using criterion-referenced scoring. If a teacher sets the cut-
off score at 94 percent correct for an A, everyone above that score receives an A, even
if it is half of the class.
Norm-referenced scoring, on the other hand, compares individual scores to the Norm-Referenced Scoring
scores of a group of students who has taken the test. Instead of indicating level of Compares a student’s score to a
content mastered, scores indicate standing relative to that group. Your score reflects a group of other students who have
taken the test.
comparison to people taking the test rather than to the amount of content learned.
The score you are assigned depends on where your performance (number of items
correct) fits in the range of scores obtained by a group, called the norm group. Norm Group
When we ask our students for examples from their experience that illustrate A carefully constructed sample of
norm-referenced scoring, they mention their high school class rank or their band or test takers used for evaluating the
scores of others.
football team’s annual ranking. These examples also illustrate why careful attention
must be directed to just who composes the norm group. If you had 10 National Merit
Semi-Finalists in your graduating class, your class rank is likely to be higher than if
you had 40.
Similarly, your scores may look very different if you are compared to a norm
group of students from a nationwide sample rather than to local norms, which are Local Norm
based on school district or state performance. Figure 11.2 illustrates this point. It rep- A norm group made up of test
resents the distribution of test scores along a continuum of low scores (on the left), takers from a restricted area
(e.g., school district).
average scores (in the middle), and high scores (on the right). If your school district
is above the national average, your scores will be lower when compared to local norms.

National test takers Local test takers

Your score

1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 95 99
Percentile ranks for Percentile ranks for
national test takers local test takers

1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 95 99

FIGURE 11.2 With Norm-Referenced Scoring, the Group You Are Compared to Determines Your Score
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326 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

For example, in Figure 11.2, your test score at the 70th percentile nationally (see the
lighter gray scale) will be at the 50th percentile locally (see the dark scale). If, instead,
your school district is below the national average, your scores will be higher when
compared to local norms than when compared to national norms.
A test using norm-referenced scoring is not useful unless the norm group is
composed of a representative sample of individuals from the entire population of the
type of people expected to take that test. If a test is used only in one school district,
local norms will suffice. If a test is used widely across the whole country, the sample
of students for the norm group should also represent the student population in the
United States in terms of demographics, geography, race, gender, age, and socioeco-
nomic and cultural factors.
If the norm group does not include a representative sample, using that sample’s
distribution of scores to interpret scores in your school will provide misleading infor-
mation and lead to decisions that lack validity. For example, one of our students found
a published norm-referenced test whose norm group consisted of students from only
two states, yet the test developer suggested the norms based on this group could be
applied to students across the United States. Similarly, questions have been raised about
the legitimacy of comparing English language learners to norm groups made up of
native English speakers (Solorzano, 2008).
Because people know that norm- and criterion-referenced scoring require dif-
ferent processes for interpreting scores, they assume that you cannot use both methods
on the same test. Many tests offer only one or the other kind of scoring option. How-
ever, any test can be scored both ways if (1) appropriate criteria for acceptable perfor-
mance have been specified (for criterion-referenced scoring), and (2) if representative
norms have been developed (for norm-referenced scoring). Sometimes people are
interested in indicators of content mastery and comparisons to a national or state norm
group for the same set of scores.

Achievement Tests and Aptitude Tests

The large-scale summative tests used by each state for No Child Left Behind are
Achievement Test achievement tests. Achievement tests are designed to measure how much students
A test that measures how much have learned in various academic content areas such as science or math. Aptitude
students have learned in academic tests, in contrast, attempt to estimate students’ potential or capacity for learning
content areas.
apart from what they have already achieved and with less reference to specific aca-
Aptitude Test
demic content. Intelligence tests or ability tests are other common names for
A test that estimates a student’s
potential or capacity for learning. aptitude tests.
The two types of tests often have a different look. Aptitude tests cover a broader
range of life experiences than achievement tests do. They often focus on learning that
has occurred informally and incidentally. For example, aptitude tests may include solv-
ing puzzles, determining which geometric figure in a series would occur next, or ques-
tions about solving problems related to interpersonal relations. In contrast, achievement
tests focus more on formal learning in school subjects such as math, English, or history.
They would include questions related to solving math equations or comprehension of
an excerpt from a novel or a report. See Table 11.1 for examples of possible questions
from achievement versus aptitude tests.
As you might imagine, devising a pure aptitude test is difficult. In fact, the rela-
tionship between scores on tests designed as achievement tests and tests designed as
aptitude tests is quite strong. This confirmed positive relationship is due in large part
to the difficulty of separating “potential” from what has already been learned, from
background factors and experience, and from motivation.
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Misconceptions Related to Large-Scale Testing 327

TA B L E 1 1 . 1
Questions Similar to Those on Aptitude Versus Achievement Tests
Aptitude Achievement
What’s the right thing to do if you see a car Explain the difference between the rotation
accident? and the revolution of the earth.

What is the next number in the following If there are five ducks in the water and
series? 5 10 20 40 three fly away, how many ducks are left?

Although schools sometimes use aptitude tests for placement of students in

special education or gifted programs, many are moving toward gathering a much
wider variety of information about students, including their response to academic
interventions (see Chapter 5). This change makes sense to us because we have found
in our school experiences that aptitude tests did not have much use for determining
the best ways to help children learn. We view aptitude tests as having a limited
classroom role because they provide general information that cannot be translated
into practical ways to help teachers work effectively with their students. English
language versions of aptitude tests are especially problematic for students of limited
English proficiency (Solorzano, 2008). In contrast, information from an achieve-
ment test related to specific academic strengths and needs in a subject area is much
more useful for planning instruction. In our experience, especially when scores on
aptitude tests are low, they can unintentionally and harmfully lower teacher expec-
tations without providing compensatory gains in information about how to help
students learn.

 LMARGE
ISCONCEPTIONS RELATED TO
-SCALE TESTING
In our years of teaching, we have found that teacher candidates have certain miscon-
ceptions about large-scale standardized tests, especially published norm-referenced
tests. Table 11.2 lists the five most common misconceptions.

TA B L E 1 1 . 2
Misconceptions About Standardized Tests
1. The obtained score always accurately represents the test taker’s true score.

2. Only commercially published multiple-choice tests can be standardized.

3. Norm-referenced tests always compare people who took the test at the same time.

4. Standardized tests with multiple-choice items address only basic facts at the knowledge
level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

5. Teachers should be able to use large-scale test results to address individual student
needs in the classroom.
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328 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

Misconception 1. Obtained Score Represents the True Score

Many of our students believe the scores on standardized tests must be interpreted
literally. That is, they believe each score pinpoints precisely a student’s true level of
competence in the subject area tested. Yet you know from our discussion of reliability
in Chapter 6 that any obtained score has some degree of error that makes it only an
estimate of proficiency. In fact, test developers use information they have collected on
the reliability of their tests to provide an estimate of how much error can be assumed
Standard Error of to occur on a given test. Called the standard error of measurement (SEM), this esti-
Measurement (SEM) mate indicates the average magnitude of error for the test.
An estimated amount of error for When we were trained to administer individual standardized tests, our professors
a test.
recommended we never give parents or children the obtained score, but always provide
Confidence Interval them instead with a range of scores, called a confidence interval, determined by the
The range of scores determined standard error of measurement. To determine the range covered by the confidence
by the SEM that a student would interval, you add the SEM to the obtained score to get the high end of the range, and
attain if the test were taken
many times. you subtract it from the obtained score to get the low end of the range. For example,
if the standard error of measurement for a test was 3 points, and the student’s obtained
score was a 70, we would report the score was likely to be in the range of 67 to 73.
This practice helps people understand error is involved every time a student takes a
test. Some score reports for achievement tests also follow this practice by showing a
figure with band or range of scores indicated rather than only a single score. In Fig-
ure 11.3 we have one student’s individual profile for the TerraNova Achievement Test.
You can see on the first two pages that the scores are presented on the right as mid-
points within a confidence interval.

Ethics Alert: The report is simulated and the student’s name is fictional. Providing an
actual student’s report would violate confidentiality. As teachers, we should share stu-
dent test scores only with the student, his or her parents, and other school faculty with
a need to know.

Misconception 2. Only Commercially Published

Multiple-Choice Tests Can Be Standardized
As we discussed in Chapter 1, an assessment is standardized if it is administered,
scored, and interpreted exactly the same for everyone who takes it. This practice is
essential for large-scale summative assessments because they compare large numbers
of students across districts, states, or countries. For such comparisons to be valid,
equivalence in administration and scoring is necessary.
Many large-scale standardized tests do employ multiple-choice questions, but
many also include essays or performance assessments. For example, the SAT is a
nationally standardized test that includes an essay. These essays are standardized in
their administration with the same instructions and time limit for all test takers. Their
scoring also requires standardization, which is achieved through extensive training of
the teachers who score the essays.
We must remember that the practice of standardization with noncommercial
methods of assessment can also be useful in an individual classroom. For example, if
you are using some form of general outcome measurement to monitor progress, such
as curriculum-based measures of reading or writing (see Chapter 5), you will also use
standardized administration and scoring so you can logically compare one score with
another score from a later time. Standardization allows you to compare “apples and
 TM
TerraNova , Third Edition

COMPLETE BATTERY
Performance on Objectives
Individual Profile
Objectives Performance index (OPI)* Objectives Performance Index (OPI)*
with InView™, Part I

Diff

Obj. No.
Student
Natl OPI
Diff
Obj. No.
Student
Natl OPI
Moderate
Mastery
Range

Objective
Titles

Objective
Titles
Moderate
Mastery
Range
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Reading Social Studies
gre78720_ch11_322-357.indd Page 329

PAT WASHINGTON
02 Basic Understanding 91 79 12 48-70 26 Geographic Perspectives 79 91 -12 48-70
 
Grade 4 03 Analyze Text 92 84 8 52-75 27 Historical & Cultural 84 92 -8 52-75
 
04 Evaluate/Extend Meaning 65 66 -1 50-70 28 Civics & Government 66 65 1 50-70
4/4/09

Simulated Data  
05 Identify Rdg Strategies 70 74 -4 45-73 29 Economic Perspectives 74 70 4 45-73
 
Language
Purpose
07 Sentence Structure 63 68 -5 45-70
This report presents information about 
this student's performance on the 08 Writing Strategies 59 74 -15 50-75
TerraNova and InView assessments. 
Page 1 describes achievement in terms 09 Editing Skills 78 63 15 55-75
of performance on the objectives. Together 
with classroom assessments and Mathematics
classwork, this information can be used
to identify potential strengths and needs 10 Number & Num. Relations 71 69 2 47-77

3:28:55 PM user-s172

in the content areas shown.

11 Computation & Estimation 83 72 11 45-75

13 Measurement 66 86 -20 45-60

14 Geometry & Spatial Sense 71 72 -1 50-78

15 Data, Stats. & Prob. 61 83 -22 52-78

16 Patterns, Funcs, Algebra 77 88 -11 44-73

17 Prob Solving & Reasoning 71 74 -3 52-75

Birthdate: 02/08/98 18 Communication 69 68 1 43-73
Special Codes: 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Science
3 59 732 1 1 1
Form/Level: G-14 19 Science Inquiry 47 74 -27 50-75

Test Date: 04/15/07 Scoring: PATTERN (IRT) 20 Physical Science 49 69 -20 52-77
QM: 31 Norms Date: 2007 
Class: JONES 21 Life Science 46 83 -37 45-78
School: WINFIELD

22 Earth & Space Science 52 84 -32 48-73 Key
District: GREEN VALLEY
 * OPI is an estimate of the number
23 Science & Technology 48 78 -30 52-69 of items that a student could be Moderate Mastery Range
 expected to answer correctly if there Low Mastery 
24 Personal & Social Persp. 52 56 -4 50-73 had been 100 items for that objective.
City/State: ANYTOWN, U.S.A.  Moderate Mastery 
High Mastery 
Pg. 1

329
FIGURE 11.3 TerraNova Test Scores for Fictitious Students (Continued)
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330
TM
TerraNova , Third Edition
COMPLETE BATTERY Anticipated Obtained
Normal Normal Anticipated National National Percentile Scale
Scale 1
Curve Curve National National Percentile
Norm-Referenced Scores Score DIFF Equiv. Equiv. Percentile Percentile Range 1 10 25 50 75 90 99
Individual Profile Reading 664 35 47 23 45 32-56 
with InView™, Part I _
_
Language 678 Above 34 57 22 64 53-72 
_
_
Mathematics 674 41 48 29 47 37-60 
_
_
gre78720_ch11_322-357.indd Page 330

Total Score** 679 Above 35 55 24 59 50-66 

Simulated Data Science 668 36 45 26 41 36-50 
Social Studies 662 38 43 28 37 27-48 
_
_
4/4/09

Purpose
**Total Score consists of Reading, Language, and Mathematics.
Page 2 of this report presents 1
Above or Below appears when there is a significant difference.
obtained norm-referenced information 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
(TerraNova) and anticipated norm- National Stanine Scale
referenced information (InView), as well Skills and abilities the student demonstrates:
as descriptions of the skills and abilities
the student demonstrated, and the skills Reading...
and abilities the student can work toward Students use context clues and structural analysis to determine word meaning. They recognize homonyms and antonyms in grade-level text. They identify important
details, sequence, cause and effect, and lessons embedded in the text. They interpret characters' feelings and apply information to new situations. In written responses,
to show academic growth. they can express an opinion and support it. Integrate the use of analogies to generalize an idea; identify paraphrases of concepts or ideas in text; indicate specific thought
processes that lead to an answer; demonstrate understanding of an implied theme; assess intent of passage information; and provide justification for answers.
The student demonstrated some understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities in this content area.

Language Arts...
Students identify irrelevant sentences in paragraphs and select the best place to insert new information. They recognize faulty sentence construction. They can combine
3:28:57 PM user-s172

simple sentences with conjunctions and use simple subordination of phrases/clauses. They identify reference sources. They recognize correct conventions for dates,
closings, and place names in informal correspondence. Understand logical development in paragraph structure; identify essential information from notes; recognize the
effect of prepositional phrases on subject-verb agreement; find and correct errors when editing simple narratives; correct run-on and incomplete sentences; eliminate all
errors when editing their own work.
The student demonstrated some of the knowledge, skills, and abilities in this content area.
Mathematics...
Students identify even and odd numbers; subtract whole numbers with regrouping; multiply and divide by one-digit numbers; identify simple fractions; measure with ruler
to nearest inch; tell time to nearest fifteen minutes; recognize symmetry; subdivide shapes; complete bar graphs; extend numerical and geometric patterns; apply simple
Birthdate: 02/08/98 logical reasoning. Locate decimals on a number line; apply basic number theory; compute with decimals and fractions; measure to the nearest quarter-inch; read scale
drawings; find areas; identify results of geometric transformations; construct and label bar graphs; find simple probabilities; find averages; use patterns in data to solve
Special Codes: problems; use multiple strategies and concepts to solve unfamiliar problems; express mathematical ideas and explain the problem-solving process.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ The student demonstrated some of the knowledge, skills, and abilities in this content area.
3 5 9 7 32 1 1 1
Form/Level: G-14 In Science...
Students are familiar with the life cycles of plants and animals. They can identify an example of a cold-blooded animal. They infer what once existed from fossil evidence.
Test Date: 04/15/07 Scoring: PATTERN (IRT) They recognize the term habitat. They understand the water cycle. They know science and society issues such as recycling and sources of pollution. They can sequence
QM: 31 Norms Date: 2007 technological advances. They extrapolate data, devise a simple classification scheme, and determine the purpose of a simple experiment. Differentiate between instinctive
Class: JONES and learned behavior; develop a working understanding of the structure of the Earth; create a better understanding of terms such as decomposers, fossil fuel, eclipse,
and buoyancy; interpret more detailed graphs and tables; understand experimentation.
School: WINFIELD The student demonstrated little of the knowledge, skills, and abilities in this content area.
District: GREEN VALLEY
In Social Studies...
Students demonstrate skills in organizing information. They use time lines, product and global maps, and cardinal directions. They understand simple cause and effect
relationships and historical documents. They sequence events, associate holidays with events, and classify natural resources. They compare life in different times and
understand some economic concepts related to products, jobs, and the environment. They give some detail in written responses. Synthesize information from sources
City/State: ANYTOWN, U.S.A. such as maps and charts; create a better understanding of the democratic process, the basic principles our government was founded on, as well as roles and
responsibilities of government and citizens; recognize patterns and similarities in different historical times; understand global and environmental issues; locate continents
and major countries; summarize information from multiple sources in early American history; describe how geography affected the development of the colonial economy;
Pg. 2 thoroughly understand both sides of an issue.
The student demonstrated most of the knowledge, skills, and abilities in this content area.
For more information, visit CTB’s website, CTB.com/TerraNova3

FIGURE 11.3 TerraNova Test Scores for Fictitious Students (Continued)

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 TM
TerraNova , Third Edition

Norm-Referenced Scores
Individual Profile
with InView™, Part II National Percentile Scale

PAT WASHINGTON NP by NP by 10 25 50 75 90 99
GE NCE SS NS Age Grade
gre78720_ch11_322-357.indd Page 331

Grade 4 Sequences 78 66 567 6 54 61

Analogies 69 78 687 7 51 48
Simulated Data
4/4/09

Quantitative Reasoning 88 89 568 5 64 75

Total Non-Verbal Score 70 78 687 7 80 74
Verbal Reasoning-Words 65 66 677 6 65 63
Purpose
Part II of this report provides details Verbal Reasoning-Context 77 56 766 8 88 78
regarding this student's performance
on InView. Total Verbal Score 89 79 789 5 70 65
Total Score 78 80 599 6 85 77

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3:28:59 PM user-s172

CSI (Range) = 111 (92–127) National Stanine Scale

Cognitive Skills Index requires student birthdate and Total Score.
= National Percentile by Age
= National Percentile by Grade

Observations

Birthdate: 02/08/98 InView consists of five tests that measure cognitive ability. The five scores. For example, in Sequences, the National Percentile by Age
Special Codes: tests are Sequences, Analogies, Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal is 54 and the National Percentile by Grade is 61. This can be
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Reasoning-Words, and Verbal Reasoning-Context. Explanations of interpreted to mean that with respect to age, this student scored
3 59 732 1 1 1 what these tests measure can be found on the next page. All five higher than 54 percent of the students nationally who are at the
Form/Level: G-14
tests are combined to create a Total Score. Sequences, Analogies, same age. With respect to grade, this student scored higher than 61
Test Date: 04/15/07 Scoring: PATTERN (IRT) percent of the students nationally who are in the same grade.
and Quantitative Reasoning are combined to yield a Total
QM: 31 Norms Date: 2007
Non-Verbal Score; Verbal Reasoning-Words and Verbal
Class: JONES
Reasoning-Context are combined to create a Total Verbal Score. The Cognitive Skills Index (CSI), which is shown beneath the
School: WINFIELD
District: GREEN VALLEY table, is an age-dependent standardized score based on an
Displayed on the left are the norm-referenced scores for every individual's performance on InView. This score indicates a student's
content area tested. The National Percentile by Age and the overall cognitive ability relative to other students for the same age
National Percentile by Grade are listed in the last two columns. A without regard to grade. The CSI has a mean of 100 and a standard
City/State: ANYTOWN, U.S.A.
National Percentile by Age is based on the student's cognitive deviation of 16. This means that two-thirds of the students in the
ability with respect to students of the same age, regardless of their national norm group had CSI scores between 84 and 116. The CSI
Pg. 3 grade in school. A National Percentile by Grade compares a student range indicates that if the student had taken the test numerous
with other students in the same grade, regardless of their times, two-thirds of the scores would have fallen within the range
ages. Displayed on the right is a graph of both National Percentile shown.

331
FIGURE 11.3 TerraNova Test Scores for Fictitious Students
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332 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

apples” rather than “apples and oranges.” The equivalence of administration and scor-
ing methods supplies you with the confidence that you can attribute gains to student
growth as you see scores improve across time. Without standardization, gains could
be attributed to irrelevant things such as changes in your directions, variations in time
for the assessment, or idiosyncratic scoring.

Misconception 3. Norm-Referenced Tests Compare People

Who Took the Test at the Same Time
Our previous discussion of norm groups should have alerted you that norm groups
for most published norm-referenced tests take the test before current students take the
same test. Test publishers must expend great effort and expense in developing repre-
sentative norms, so they don’t usually do it every year. If you examine reports of your
own norm-referenced tests, you can usually find a date for the norms used. One inter-
esting fact about norm-referenced aptitude tests is that as years go by, people seem to
do better on them. When tests are re-normed, average scores are higher for the new
norm group than for the previous norm group (Flynn, 1999). Students who take the
test and are compared to the new norm group must then get a higher score to be in
the average range than students who took it the year before with the old norms.

Misconception 4. Standardized Tests with Multiple-Choice

Formats Address Basic Facts Only
In Chapter 7 we shared several methods for developing multiple-choice items that
address higher-level cognitive skills, such as comprehension, analysis, application, and
evaluation. One especially helpful approach to increasing the level of cognitive skills
required is the use of interpretive exercises, where students analyze introductory infor-
mation (e.g., passages to read or graphs) to answer questions. Many published stan-
dardized tests incorporate interpretive exercises and other items going well beyond
basic facts.
The widely held but mistaken belief about the inability of the multiple-choice
format to tap critical thinking skills is the most dangerous misconception on our list.
People who believe multiple-choice items address only knowledge-level skills may
needlessly disparage the tests based on false assumptions that they are undemanding
and lack challenge. If teachers believe this misconception, they may spend unnecessary
time on drills of basic facts rather than stimulating children with more complex and
interesting assignments that expand their horizons and help them develop the skills
they need for participating in civic life.

Misconception 5. Using Large-Scale Tests to Address

Individual Student Needs
One misconception about large-scale tests is that they should provide useful diagnos-
tic information on individual students for teachers to use in classrooms. As you may
recall from Chapter 1, the purpose of large-scale tests is to provide a “panoramic view”
covering content spanning a year or more. When you assess so broadly, only a few
items on each concept or skill can be included. These few items cannot generate the
detailed information teachers need for planning lessons or figuring out which concepts
a student may be missing. Large-scale tests instead provide a general picture useful for
showing how a group of students compares to standards, how a school or district
compares to others, and how performance from one year compares to the next. Thus,
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Benefits and Pitfalls of Large-Scale Assessments 333

their primary purpose is to generate information for accountability, planning, and

resource allocation, not for instructional uses for individual teachers and students.
Diagnostic and formative assessments are much better suited to these purposes.

 LBARGE
ENEFITS AND PITFALLS OF
-SCALE ASSESSMENTS
We will discuss the complexities of large-scale assessments primarily in the context of
No Child Left Behind. Since the law was implemented, researchers have begun to
gather information about its intended and unintended impact on education in the
United States. We can glean some important lessons from these trends that apply to
other high-stakes tests as well.
As we begin to sort out the issues associated with the increased use of large-scale
achievement tests, we must remember the basic purpose of the NCLB law. It started
with very good intentions—closing the widely acknowledged achievement gaps that
have developed in the United States. The law had bipartisan support in Congress
because everyone supports this important goal. We address three issues related to
large-scale assessments: comparisons, curriculum concerns, and addressing improve-
ment. Table 11.3 summarizes these issues.

Comparisons
One of the most important benefits of large-scale tests is their standardization,
which is implemented to allow systematic, meaningful comparisons across different
groups on the same content. Evidence has begun to accumulate that the large-scale
tests initiated to comply with the NCLB legislation have helped school districts
focus on struggling children by using disaggregated data to compare groups and
pinpoint weaknesses. Districts that previously looked only at average scores often

TA B L E 1 1 . 3
Benefits and Pitfalls Related to Use of Large-Scale Tests
for NCLB Accountability
Issue Benefit Pitfall

Comparisons Allows comparisons across Nonequivalent standards across

demographic groups within a states inhibit state-to-state
state, providing opportunities to comparisons and may encourage
find and fix achievement gaps. weakening of standards.

Curriculum Focuses educators on alignment May narrow the curriculum

between standards, curriculum, excessively: “teaching to the
and instruction and assessment. test” instead of to the standards.

Addressing Focus on enhancing learning: Test Focus on increasing scores: Test

Improvement scores seen as providing one scores seen as the all-important
piece of information useful for outcome, minimizing focus on
improving educational processes. educational processes needed to
improve learning.
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334 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

discovered that minority or poor children in their districts were not faring as well
as their middle-class European American peers. In a recent analysis, Time magazine
suggested that spotlighting “the plight of the nation’s underserved kids” is NCLB’s
“biggest achievement” (Wallis & Steptoe, 2007). One principal we know who is an
expert on working with low-achieving African American children attributes the
burgeoning number of requests he gets to consult with other schools about how to
enhance achievement of African American males to NCLB and the awareness it has
generated. Working to close achievement gaps is an important assessment focus we
have stressed throughout this text as necessary for preparing students for participa-
tion in a democratic society.
Unfortunately, different states require different levels of proficiency on their
large-scale tests. Because levels of quality are determined by each state, wide variations
in what students know and can do to be “proficient” for NCLB occur (Nichols &
Berliner, 2007; Wallis & Steptoe, 2007). For example, to achieve proficiency in Wyo-
ming, you must perform significantly better than you have to in Oklahoma. The lower
Oklahoma standards make it appear that more students are proficient. One way this
happens is through variations in the reading difficulty of items. For example, two states
may both require fourth graders to be able to distinguish between fact and opinion,
but one state may use simple sentences for this task while another uses complex pas-
sages. Even with standardized administration and scoring, you can only compare
scores within a state and not across states when this is the case.
Paradoxically, states with higher requirements for proficiency find themselves at
a disadvantage with NCLB accountability. Fewer of their students, compared to other
states, meet annual goals, and so they are more likely to miss annual yearly progress
targets and to receive sanctions. The fact that standards of proficiency declined in
30 states between 2000 and 2006 is a worrisome trend suggesting possible “watering
down” of expectations under the pressure of NCLB sanctions (Wallis & Steptoe, 2007).
To address this issue, some national policy groups are making the case for international
benchmarks (McNeil, 2008).
We can draw lessons from these events about the importance of comparisons for
large-scale tests. For any standardized large-scale test taken by your students, whether
norm- or criterion-referenced, you should know the basic facts about the test. If the
test uses criterion-referenced scoring, you should know the understanding and skills
required for attaining proficiency so you know what your students must aim for. If the
test uses norm-referenced scoring, you should know whether the norm group is appro-
priate for your students. For tests with either (or both) kinds of scoring interpretations,
you and your fellow teachers and administrators should be able to use the scores to
disaggregate the data for use in pinpointing groups who may need extra attention.
Familiarity with standards and understanding what comparisons are meaningful will
help you keep these tests in perspective.

Curriculum Concerns
The second issue related to the high-stakes test controversy we must address is cur-
riculum concerns. How do these tests affect the curriculum? Several studies have sug-
gested that NCLB assessments have influenced educators to develop policies and
programs that better align curriculum and instruction with state standards and assess-
ments (Center on Education Policy, 2006). Other research suggests that a well-designed
exit exam, another type of high-stakes test, can produce positive impact on curriculum
alignment, improve the quality of instruction, and generate positive attitudes and use-
ful dialogue among teachers (Yeh, 2005). Most assessment experts believe alignment
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Benefits and Pitfalls of Large-Scale Assessments 335

between learning goals, instruction, and assessment ensures that instruction addresses
the understanding and skills students need to learn. It also helps guarantee that students
are fairly assessed on that specific content, and it helps keep standards high for all
students, as discussed in Chapter 2. NCLB outcomes related to enhancing alignment,
then, suggest a positive influence of high-stakes tests on instruction consistent with
recommendations for best practice.
On the other hand, evidence suggests that curriculum is narrowing excessively
as a result of the NCLB focus on math, reading, and science (Au, 2007). Educators
fear subjects not tested, such as art, history, or the skills needed for democratic
participation, will not be taught. We have anecdotal indicators of this, such as recent
complaints we heard from a middle school principal that student handwriting is
becoming impossible to decipher because elementary schools no longer teach cur-
sive writing because “it’s not in the standards.” Broader evidence comes from a study
that queried educators from all 50 states. In that study, 71 percent of the respon-
dents reported they had increased time for reading and math and decreased time
for science and social studies in response to NCLB (Center on Education Policy,
2006). Even more alarming, this curriculum narrowing occurred more in high-
poverty districts (97%) than in others (55–59%). Critics of high-stakes tests have
suggested teachers perceive pressure to “teach to the test” and therefore spend time
having students drill on facts as they eliminate more demanding activities they see
as unlikely to contribute to increasing scores. These lackluster strategies in turn
reduce student interest and motivation, leading to further depression of educational
achievement.
Such actions, however, are not effective and they do not increase either test
scores or student achievement. To buttress this point, research is emerging suggest-
ing that teachers who teach to high standards (and not to the test) have students
who excel on large-scale tests. A study in the Chicago public schools analyzed teach-
ers’ assignments to students in math and writing in Grades 3, 6, and 8 (Newman
et al., 2001). They found teachers who gave more challenging work had students who
made larger than average gains on annual standardized tests. Similarly, Reeves (2004)
studied schools with 90 percent low-income and ethnic minority students, yet with
90 percent also achieving mastery on annual state or district tests. He found
schools with these characteristics emphasized higher-order thinking, in particular by
requiring performance assessments with written responses demonstrating students’
thinking processes. Finally, studies show teachers who take time to systematically
develop formative assessment strategies have students who do better on general abil-
ity tests or end-of-year tests (e.g., Wiliam et al., 2004). Formative assessment and
more challenging work involving critical thinking allow students to develop and
apply multiple, flexible strategies so they can capitalize on their strengths and com-
pensate for their weaknesses when confronted with the broad content of a large-scale
test (Sternberg, 2008).
These findings suggest a lesson to take away from the controversy about the
impact of large-scale high-stakes tests on curriculum. “Teaching to the test” by focus-
ing on knowledge-level thinking and rote memory learning is a no-win strategy. Stu-
dents are shortchanged, class is boring for teacher and learners, and test scores will
not rise. Instead, providing students with thought-provoking work and tasks with real-
world applications aligned to standards and learning goals will be more effective. The
other element, of course, is plenty of formative assessment along the way so students
receive feedback on how to close the gap between where they are and where they need
to be and are provided opportunities to improve. See Box 11.1 for the experience of
one of our own colleagues who took this path.
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336 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

B O X 1 1 . 1

Preparing Students for Annual for teaching reading, and stressing writing for authentic pur-
Large-Scale Tests? poses (e.g., writing editorials). So she ended up using only
about a third of the material in the test prep notebooks. At the
In her fourth year of teaching, Barbara Blackburn was as-
end of the year, when test scores were received, the principal
signed two language arts classes filled with students who had
called Barbara into his office. She was apprehensive, worrying
scored below average on the annual large-scale test the year
her students had failed because she had not spent enough
before. The principal provided her with lots of “test prep”
time specifically on preparation for the tests. Instead, the
materials and told her this was a “make or break” year for the
principal was overjoyed. Almost all the students in those lan-
students. She found her students responded much better to
guage arts classes had achieved proficiency. He was eager to
activities aligned with standards but with real-life implica-
know how Barbara had worked this miracle.
tions, such as using the state driver’s manual and USA Today

Addressing Improvement
The third issue we must address related to the high-stakes test controversy is improve-
ment. The point of implementing NCLB was to improve the nation’s schools and close
achievement gaps. Has the use of large-scale tests enhanced achievement, narrowed
achievement gaps, and helped improve schools that fail to make annual yearly prog-
ress? Evidence is currently mixed.
Extensive studies of all 50 states by the Center on Education policy (2007, 2008)
report scores on reading and math have climbed since NCLB was enacted in 2002.
They also report evidence that achievement gaps between groups are narrowing. The
authors temper the reports, however, by stating they cannot necessarily attribute these
gains to NCLB because many schools have implemented other significant policies to
increase student achievement since NCLB began. The impact of NCLB is entangled
with the impact of these other programs.
Critics believe the problems with NCLB overshadow any gains, even if gains can
be directly attributed to this law. They believe NCLB accountability tests have become
an end in themselves, rather than a check on the real goal, which is enhanced under-
standing and skills for all children. As a farmer relative of ours is fond of saying, “The
hogs won’t gain weight just because you weigh them more often.”
An inordinate focus on the “weighing” (in this case, the NCLB accountability
test) can lead to problems. As you already know from our discussions of reliability and
validity in Chapter 6, you should never make important decisions on the basis of one
test because error is always involved. In addition, the fact that these test scores are
used to decide on significant sanctions leads to great pressure to enhance scores with-
out necessarily enhancing student achievement (which we termed score pollution in
Chapter 1). This trend has been called “Campbell’s Law” (Nichols & Berliner, 2007).
Donald Campbell, a social psychologist, philosopher of science, and social researcher,
pointed out that when a single social indicator is increasingly used to make important
decisions, it will also come under increasing pressure to be corrupted and will become
less and less useful as an indicator of progress. Examples of augmenting scores at state
and local levels using unethical means (e.g., teachers reviewing specific test content
before the test) are documented by Nichols and Berliner. Their examples provide con-
firmation of such pressure and evidence the scores themselves may not always be an
accurate and valid indicator of student achievement gains.
In our view, if the results of any large-scale assessments are to be at all useful
for addressing educational improvement, the focus must be on increasing learning, and
not simply on increasing test scores. Test scores must be seen merely as one indicator
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Preparation for and Administration of Large-Scale Tests 337

of broader learning, and not as an end in themselves. After all, when students have
left school and become adults participating in a democratic society, they are judged
on their accomplishments and their character, not on their test scores. We lose sight
of these larger issues when we focus on improving test scores rather than on develop-
ing all facets of learning. From this larger perspective, test scores can provide general
information used to modify educational programs and procedures put in place by
schools. Results can generate ideas for improving teaching and learning at the school,
district, and state level. Examples could include using scores to decide to increase staff
development in areas where a school shows weakness, or using scores to see whether
programs in place are having the intended impact on learning. When scores are used
to provide clues about how to fine-tune educational processes, they are used forma-
tively rather than summatively.
In contrast, efforts will be superficial and test results will become less valid and
less useful if educators merely aim to increase scores. Examples include teachers
reviewing specific test content before the test, schools removing less able students from
testing, or districts focusing interventions only on students close to the proficiency
cutoff while ignoring lower achievers. Such practices may influence test scores, but
they will not enhance overall achievement for all students.

Ethics Alert: All these practices contribute to score pollution and may warrant an ethics
review of a teacher.

Unfortunately, much of the funding to augment student achievement originally

promised for NCLB implementation was not included in the final version of the law. This
lack of funds exacerbates the problem. As one of our colleagues (a superintendent of
schools) says, the stress on testing and the lack of funding for equipping teachers to help
children learn is like “trying to kill a lion with a toothpick.” Lack of resources may produce
shallow (but less expensive) efforts to increase scores, but it hampers comprehensive efforts
to design significant reforms to enhance learning. More emphasis needs to be placed on
finding resources and strategies to help schools and teachers bolster learning rather than
on punishing schools that do not make annual yearly progress.
The problem of resources is intensified by the wide disparity in school funding
in the United States. Whereas Asian and European countries fund all schools equally,
in the United States, wealthy school districts commonly spend $3 for every $1 that
poor school districts spend. Furthermore, the richest 10 percent of school districts
outspend the poorest 10 percent by nearly a 10 to 1 ratio (Darling-Hammond, 2007).
Poverty level and minority status strongly predict the percentage of students not meet-
ing proficiency levels for NCLB. These characteristics of students also strongly predict
low levels of resources in their schools. Thus, attempts to sever the strong relationship
between poverty and low achievement must consider the disparities in resources
between rich and poor school districts.

 POFREPARATION FOR AND ADMINISTRATION

LARGE-SCALE TESTS
We now turn to the subject of preparing your students for large-scale tests, and then we
offer a brief discussion of issues related to administration of these tests. Although we are
addressing these topics in this chapter on large-scale tests, we ask you to place the infor-
mation in the broader context of all classroom testing.
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338 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

TA B L E 1 1 . 4
Suggestions for Test Preparation
1. Know the standards and teach them.

2. Promote mastery goals throughout the year to enhance student motivation.

3. Foster appropriate attitudes toward tests.

4. Teach students general strategies for taking tests.

Preparation for Tests

We build our suggestions around the basic question we urged you to use in Chapter 1 to
judge all your assessment practices: Will this help my students learn? We believe any
efforts you make to prepare your students for large-scale (or any other) tests should be
judged by the value of the learning your students acquire. Remember, our goal isn’t to
improve test scores, it is to improve learning. Using this question to guide your decisions
also helps you avoid score pollution, one of the important ethical principles we have
discussed. We offer several suggestions in the following sections listed in Table 11.4.

Know the Standards and Teach Them

The most important strategy for helping your students do well on large-scale tests is
to know the instructional content standards for which you are responsible and to teach
that content to your students. Table 11.5 suggests several ways to address instructional
content standards. Collaborating with other teachers on designing instruction and
assessment tied to the standards is an effective means for developing familiarity with
the standards and related teaching activities.
You should also help your students become familiar with the standards. As we
discussed in Chapter 4, one of the first actions you should take in designing good
instruction and assessment is to make students aware of the learning goals you are
working on together. Doing so encourages students to become more autonomous
learners and lets them set their sights on clear targets. Discussing how learning the
content addressing the standards enables your students to excel, not only in your

TA B L E 1 1 . 5
Suggestions for Knowing and Teaching the Standards
1. Collaborate with other teachers to design instruction and assessments aligned with the
standards.

2. Make students aware of the learning goals and evaluation standards you are working
on together.

3. Use instructional activities and assessments promoting higher-order thinking and

application to new situations.

4. Provide equal access by differentiating instruction using more than one method of
gaining and demonstrating learning.
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Preparation for and Administration of Large-Scale Tests 339

classroom but also on large-scale tests and in their daily life, and can provide meaning
as well as a larger context to your classroom activities. It can also help students see the
large-scale tests as nonthreatening and more connected to their ongoing work (Taylor
& Nolan, 2008).
Another part of knowing and teaching the standards is stressing instruction and
assessment activities in your classroom that address higher-order thinking skills, espe-
cially if you want students to use the learning they acquire in your classroom in other
contexts. They must be able to apply concepts they are learning to novel situations if
they are to use them effectively in large-scale assessments, or, of course, in daily life
or for future work or learning.
A final issue related to knowing the standards and teaching them is providing
equal access to the content for all of your students. Using differentiated instruction,
including supplying students with alternative methods of gaining information and
demonstrating their learning, are key strategies.

Promote Mastery Goals Throughout the Year

Motivation is a crucial, but intangible, ingredient in students doing their best in any
evaluative situation, including large-scale testing. Some schools or teachers may go all
out right before large-scale testing time with pep assemblies or exhortations emphasiz-
ing to students how important it is for them to do well. Such practices can backfire,
however, by raising stress levels and producing too much anxiety. We recommend you
don’t blow these tests out of proportion. A better strategy is to focus on enhancing
mastery goals throughout the school year. Refer often to Figure 1.1 in Chapter 1 as
you design your instruction and assessment. This figure provides guidelines for design-
ing meaningful and challenging tasks, for encouraging student participation in decision
making, and for helping students focus on personal goals and track their own progress
as you employ formative assessment. Each of these elements enhances students’ moti-
vation and increases their effort to do well at whatever challenges (including tests)
come their way.

Foster Appropriate Attitudes Toward Large-Scale Tests

If you want your students to take a serious but positive approach to large-scale tests,
you must first examine your own attitudes. If you see these assessments as a waste of
time, or if they raise your anxiety level, you will unintentionally communicate your
feelings to your students. You should neither apologize for nor complain about these
tests. The goal for both you and your students is to see these tests as useful. Students
should know the results will be most useful if they do their best. To accomplish this,
explain the test and its purpose. The “panoramic view” of learning provided by these
tests offers information to help decision makers improve learning. Across time, the
tests can also provide valuable information about individual students and their prog-
ress in the curriculum. In addition, without the standardized test scores, we have no
way of answering this fundamental question: How are your students doing as com-
pared to others? With this information, we can examine our areas of strengths and our
areas to improve. If both you and the students see value in the test results, attitudes
can be positive, and excessive anxiety is reduced.
Another factor in generating positive and confident attitudes toward large-scale
tests is to make sure students understand that the tests are integrated with what you
do every day. They are explicitly connected to your regular learning goals, instruction,
and assessment; they are not a foreign and difficult trial by fire. A matter-of-fact remark
to this effect every so often can help students put these assessments in perspective.
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340 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

TA B L E 1 1 . 6
Skills Useful for Taking Tests
1. Use time wisely. • Answer all easier items your first time through the test while
skipping the harder ones.
• Give yourself enough time to address all questions (e.g.,
allocate more time for questions with more points).

2. Determine exactly • Focus on key words in the question.

what each • With multiple-choice questions, don’t choose an answer just
question asks. because it’s a true statement. It must also answer the question.
• With essay questions, don’t answer a different question or
provide superfluous information.
• Consult the scoring guide, if available.
3. Avoid careless • Read directions carefully.
mistakes. • Mark answers carefully, especially if they are on a separate sheet.
• For questions involving calculations, estimate the answer to be
sure yours makes sense.
• Make sure you have answered all parts of each question.

4. Use logic. • With multiple-choice questions, read all choices and eliminate
incorrect answers (distracters) before choosing the correct
answer.
• Make sure you take into account any words that reverse the
meaning of a question such as “LEAST,” “NOT,” or “EXCEPT.”
• With complex multiple-choice items, eliminate any single
answer first, as well as multiple answer choices that include
the single answer.

5. Use shrewd • Be sure to answer all questions, especially if you can eliminate
guessing. at least one alternative.

Some educators also recommend occasionally showing students released items from
previous tests related to a learning goal you are working on. Such a practice familiar-
izes students with the format and style of the test as well as reassuring them about the
familiar content.

Teach Students General Strategies for Taking Tests

Equal access to education for all students includes equal access to skills that are useful
when taking tests of all kinds. Some students pick up these skills on their own. Others
have parents who can provide expensive test-preparation coaching. We have found
that even a number of our teacher candidates are not yet aware of all of these strategies,
so as a college student, you may find a useful tip or two among our suggestions.
Table 11.6 lists key strategies.

Administration of Large-Scale Tests

Teachers usually administer large-scale tests to their own students. The rules are easy
to follow—the chief concern is following the directions exactly. If a test is norm-
referenced, you cannot use the norm group for valid comparisons unless your group
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Large-Scale Test Accommodations for Diverse Learners 341

takes the test under the same circumstances as the norm group. Also, the only way
results from different classrooms, schools, and states can be compared fairly is if the
conditions under which all students take the test are the same.
Testing directions go into detail about the arrangement of desks and the class-
room (e.g., educational posters or academic information on the classroom walls must
be covered), how to pass out the tests, whether students can have scratch paper, and
how to time the test precisely. Written instructions you read aloud to the students are
also provided. If you and your students remember these procedures are designed to
make the test fair and to allow useful interpretations, they will make sense and not
feel intimidating to students.

 LFOR
ARGE-SCALE TEST ACCOMMODATIONS
DIVERSE LEARNERS
Now that we have discussed the importance of standardization with the administration
of large-scale tests, we must also point out that a few exceptions to these strict stan-
dardization practices, called testing accommodations, are permitted for certain chil- Testing Accommodations
dren with disabilities and for students with limited English proficiency. Accommodations Exceptions to the strict standardiza-
are formally chosen by a team of educators that includes classroom teachers and others tion practices that allow students
to demonstrate their learning
who regularly work with designated children. Each state has a list of acceptable accom- without altering the basic meaning
modations your team of educators may use for making accommodations decisions of the score.
based on students’ demonstrated needs. These accommodations should be in place for
all assessments, not just for large-scale assessments. The accommodations should be
consistent with those incorporated into typical classroom practices throughout the year
(Thompson et al., 2002).
The purpose of such accommodations is to allow students to demonstrate their
understanding and skills without being unfairly restricted by a disability or limited
English proficiency. For example, one of the most common accommodations is extend-
ing the amount of time available for an assessment. Extra time can remove an obstacle
to doing well for those who work slowly because of either a disability or limited pro-
ficiency with English.
No accommodation is supposed to change the constructs the test measures. Change
to the content brings into question the validity of the student’s results and eliminates the
value of the comparisons that can be made with them. For example, simplification of
test questions or eliminating some alternatives could alter the meaning of a student’s test
score. This practice would be considered a testing modification, or a change made to Testing Modification
the testing process that does change the construct being measured. A change in the testing procedures
Sometimes, a modification depends on the content of the test. If a reading com- that alters the meaning of the score.
prehension test is read aloud to a student, the test no longer measures the construct
of reading comprehension. Instead, it measures listening comprehension. Similarly,
using spell-check devices for a test measuring writing skills, or using a calculator for
a test measuring math computation skills, are testing modifications because they alter
the interpretations that can be made about students’ level of proficiency based on the
test results.
The most common testing accommodations are grouped into four categories:
flexibility in scheduling, flexibility in the setting in which the test is administered,
changes in the method of presentation of the test, and changes in the method of stu-
dent response to the test. The effectiveness of accommodations should be regularly
evaluated by the team working with any student who receives them. Table 11.7 lists
examples of accommodations.
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342 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

TA B L E 1 1 . 7
Examples of Common Testing Accommodations for Use with Students
with Disabilities or Students with Limited English Proficiency
Type of Accommodation Examples

Flexibility in timing/scheduling • Extended time

of the test • Multiple sessions
• Break after specified time period (e.g., 30 minutes)
Flexibility of the setting for • Separate room
the test • Small-group administration
• Adaptive furniture or special lighting

Changes in the presentation of • Large print

the test • Braille
• One question per page
• Sign language interpreter
• Examiner can repeat or explain directions in native
language
• Revised directions (e.g., verbs highlighted)
• Use of assistive technology (e.g., audiotape, visual
magnification device, computer)
• Use of dictionary
Changes in the method of • Marking answers in test booklet instead of on
response answer sheet
• Use of word processor
• Provide oral rather than written answers
• Provide answers in native language

 RINELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

LARGE-SCALE TESTS
We discussed the importance of reliability and validity in designing high-quality class-
room assessments in Chapter 6. Researchers who work with large-scale summative
assessments have devised measures to examine these concerns. Such evidence is
extremely important for large-scale assessments. Many of these tests are used for mak-
ing decisions with important consequences (e.g., retention in grade, placements in
special education or gifted programs), so they are referred to as high-stakes tests.
Technical manuals describing evidence for reliability and validity are available
for most published standardized norm-referenced tests, and they are an important
indicator of the quality of the test. Table 11.8 lists several questions that should be
addressed for any large-scale test used for important decisions.

Reliability
To examine reliability related to assessment occasion, test developers have a group of
students take the same test twice, usually several weeks apart. They then conduct cal-
culations to see how much variation occurs between the two scores for each student.
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Interpreting Norm-Referenced Tests 343

TA B L E 1 1 . 8
Questions That Should Be Addressed in the Technical Manual
for a Large-Scale Test
Reliability

• Is test-retest reliability high for this assessment?

• Is internal consistency high for this assessment?

Validity

• What empirical evidence is available for the legitimacy of comparing results of this test
across persons, classrooms, and schools?

• Has a table of specifications been provided to gauge alignment between local learning
goals and this assessment?
• Is the process used in consulting experts and reviewing major textbooks in the
development of test content described?

• Is empirical evidence of relationships to other established, relevant criteria based on

logic and theories provided?

The resulting measure of stability is termed test-retest reliability. Another form of Test-Retest Reliability
reliability provides a measure of internal consistency by comparing student scores on The degree of stability between
items within the test. An example of this is to split the test in half, correlating students’ two administrations of the same
test to the same students.
scores on even items with their scores on the odd items.

Validity
Designers and evaluators of large-scale tests also assemble evidence supporting the
accuracy of test score interpretations. They must make sure that the norm group is
appropriate and that the test content representatively samples the subject areas
addressed. This process should be carefully described in the technical manual, and a
table of specifications is often provided. Large-scale tests of achievement in a particu-
lar subject usually cover a broader range of material than is covered in any one school
district’s assessments. The degree of overlap between the large-scale test’s coverage and
local coverage can vary. The degree of overlap should be considered when drawing
inferences about children’s achievement. The test publisher must demonstrate in the
technical manual that evidence relating this test to other established measures shows
it is an accurate, representative, and relevant measure of student performance for the
intended purpose.

 INTERPRETING NORM-REFERENCED TESTS

We hope the foregoing discussion has provided you with a context for understanding the
use of large-scale tests today. The results of these tests, as well as the pros and cons, are
frequently discussed in public discourse as well as in schools. To be an informed partici-
pant in the dialogue (part of your responsibility as a citizen living in a democracy), you
need to know how to interpret them. You also need to understand these test scores for
your own use, as well as for explaining them to students and their parents.
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344 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

Foundational Issues in Interpretation of Test Scores

Quantifying a person’s level of academic achievement is much more difficult than mea-
suring something concrete about that person, such as height or weight. These physical
measurements start with a zero that means absolutely none of the trait, and the inter-
vals between each level of measurement are equal. These characteristics allow you to
say that a person who is six feet tall is twice as tall as a person who is three feet tall.
With academic achievement, though, you cannot say with certainty that a person who
gets 50 percent of the test items correct knows half as much as someone who got
100 percent. We cannot be sure tests measure equal intervals, and there can be no
absolute zero representing no achievement at all. Complicating the picture further,
people do not agree on exactly what levels or even what kinds of mastery constitute
academic achievement.
Educators have persisted in their efforts to quantify achievement, though, because
they know we need some shared basis for understanding—a common frame of refer-
ence. Quantifying achievement in some way allows for comparisons across types of
instruction, locales, and student characteristics. We are no longer a nation of small
family farmers where impressionistic judgments of teachers or parents suffice. If the
content and the measurement methods are left vague, enormous variations in what
counts as high achievement will occur, and some students will be shortchanged. Edu-
cators have developed several means for deriving meaning from test scores. We begin
with norm-referenced interpretations.

Importance of the Norm Group

As you recall, the focus for comparison when using a norm-referenced interpretation
of scores is the performance of other students who form the norm group, not the
amount of content mastered. Most commercial, nationally known norm-referenced
achievement tests such as the Terra Nova, Metropolitan Achievement Test, Iowa Test
of Basic Skills, or Stanford Achievement Test, use a national sample of thousands of
students chosen to represent the whole population of the United States.
Characteristics of the norm group can be summarized so you can get a clearer
picture of it. As we discussed in Chapter 5, information on distributions of scores for
groups of students, including norm groups, can be described using measures of central
tendency (e.g., the mean). Other useful methods of summarizing data that take into
Standard Deviation account how much variation occurs within the group are the range and the standard
The average distance between the deviation. As you recall from Chapter 5, the range is simply the difference between
individual scores and the mean of the lowest and highest scores earned on a test. The standard deviation for a group of
the group score.
scores is the average distance between the individual scores and the mean of the group.
If the scores are widely dispersed across the whole range of scores, the standard devi-
ation will be larger, as in Distribution A of Figure 11.4. If, instead, the scores cluster
fairly close to the mean, as in Distribution B, the standard deviation will be smaller.
As you can see from Figure 11.4, the means for these two groups of scores are the
same, so you can also see that knowing the standard deviation adds new information
to your understanding of the overall pattern of the group.
Educators use the mean and standard deviation of the norm group to derive
Normal Curve or Normal meaningful scores for individuals. To do so, they rely on the concept of the normal
Distribution curve or normal distribution. A normal distribution is the theoretically bell-shaped
The theoretically bell-shaped curve curve thought to characterize many attributes in nature and many human traits. When
that characterizes most traits and
attributes. you have a large sample, whatever you are measuring, whether achievement or height,
the measurements or scores tend to follow a predictable pattern. For example, if you
are measuring height, most people fall in the middle of the distribution of scores—most
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Interpreting Norm-Referenced Tests 345

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90

FIGURE 11.4 Two Sets of Scores with the Same Mean but Different Standard
Deviations

Many
Number of People

Some

None

2% 14% 34% 34% 14% 2%

None of the Highest level of
n
n

n
n
n
w Ds

e s
w D

e D
ea
ea

ea
ea
ea

ov SD
lo S

ov 1 S
S

characteristic the characteristic

M
m

m
m
m

be 1
2

ab 2
lo
be

ab

Characteristic Being Measured

FIGURE 11.5 The Normal Curve with Estimates of the Percentage of Scores That Fall
Along Each Part of the Distribution

of us are about average in height. As you move away from the mean in either direction,
fewer and fewer people appear, until only a very few can be found either at the extreme
short end of the height continuum or at the extreme tall end. Figure 11.5 presents the
normal distribution.
When you transform a large group of raw scores to the bell shape of the normal
distribution, the pattern becomes regular and predictable. As you see in Figure 11.5,
68 percent of a group of scores is predicted to fall within one standard deviation on
either side of the mean. Even though each normalized distribution has its own mean
and standard deviation, the pattern of percentages of scores across the normal distribu-
tion always stays constant. If you know the mean and standard deviation of the norm
group, you can estimate with accuracy the percentage of scores that will lie along each
part of the range of possible scores. Whether the mean of the norm group is 15 or 50,
50 percent of the scores will always lie at or below that mean for the group. Similarly,
whether the standard deviation is 15 or 50, 16 percent of the scores will always fall at
or below one standard deviation below the mean.
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346 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

Distribution of Test Scores

9

Number of Students
6

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Test Scores

FIGURE 11.6 A Distribution of Actual Test Scores That Could Be Represented by the
Normal Curve

It can be hard to remember that the foundation of this smooth curve consists of
the actual test scores for a group of test takers. For example, in Figure 11.6 you see a
pattern of actual scores that could underlie a normalized distribution like that in Fig-
ure 11.5. You can see that one person earned a score of 1 on this test, and six people
earned a score of 5. Remember, when you look at a normal distribution (Figures 11.2,
11.4, 11.5), it actually represents a group of real test takers’ scores.

Comparing the Individual to the Norm Group

The mean and standard deviation of the norm group’s scores give us information about
the norm group that helps us interpret an individual’s score. This information deter-
mines where your students fall compared to the distribution found in the norm group.
You can see how this approach could be used to serve the “sorting” function of schools
previously described in Chapter 1. Norm-referenced interpretations rank students as
“higher” or “lower” than peers in their performance on a test.

Percentile Rank
In our experience, the most common type of score used in schools is percentile rank.
Percentile or Percentile Rank A percentile or percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the norm group
A score that indicates the at or below the same score as your student. By looking at Figure 11.5, you can see that
percentage of students in the a student who scores at the mean is at the 50th percentile. If you add up the percentages
norm group at or below the
same score. of the number of students who scored below the mean (2% plus 14% plus 34%), you
arrive at 50 percent. If instead your student’s score is one standard deviation below
the mean, you can see that the student’s score is at the 16th percentile because 2 percent
plus 14 percent of the norm group was at the same score or below.
Percentile ranks range between 1 and 99.9. They reflect the pattern shown in the
normal curve. Typically, average scores are considered to range between the 25th and
75th percentiles. Because more students are clustered around the middle of the distri-
bution, the distance between percentile ranks is smaller near the mean than at the
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Interpreting Norm-Referenced Tests 347

extremes. Because percentile ranks don’t have equal intervals between them, you should
not add them or do other calculations with them.
Sometimes our teacher candidates confuse percentile ranks with percentage cor-
rect. Remember that percentile rank tells you your students’ relative standing com-
pared to students in the norm group. So, if your SAT percentile rank is 87 for the
critical reading section, you did better on the test than 87 percent of the students in
the norm group. Percentile rank therefore provides a norm-referenced interpretation
of scores. Percentage correct instead provides an indicator of the amount of content
mastered and therefore can be used only in criterion-referenced interpretations.
Instead of providing a single percentile rank score, many commercial test design-
ers now provide a range of percentile scores incorporating the standard error of mea-
surement for each section of a test. These are called percentile bands, confidence Percentile Bands
intervals, or percentile ranges. The higher the reliability of a test, the narrower the A range of percentile scores that
band appears. Percentile bands are useful for determining individual students’ strengths incorporate the standard error of
measurement.
and weaknesses. If the bands overlap across different parts of the test, differences
appearing in the specific percentile score on each part are likely due to measurement
error. If the bands do not overlap, a real difference in performance is more likely.
For example, if you return to the Terra Nova results in Figure 11.3, Pat Washington’s
percentile bands are pictured on the right on page 2. You can see that his social stud-
ies percentile band does not overlap with his language percentile band, suggesting a
real difference for him between these areas. On the other hand, his reading, language,
and mathematics percentile bands do overlap, suggesting they are not significantly
different. Also notice the average range (25th–75th percentile) is shaded on the
national percentile scale. You can see that all of Pat’s scores fall within the average
range, even though his language score is his strongest and his social studies score is
his weakest.
Whenever we explain percentile ranks and percentile bands to our students, we
are reminded of a poignant story told to us by one of our teacher candidates. During
the class on interpreting standardized test scores, another student, who happened to
be a P.E. major, wondered aloud why the class needed to learn to interpret these scores.
This candidate spoke about her brother and told the story that appears in Box 11.2.

B O X 1 1 . 2

Story scores were at or above the 95th percentile in every subject,

My brother was having a really hard time in the eighth grade. which he pointed out to those in the meeting. Everyone was
He was beaten up, food was thrown at him in the cafeteria, surprised, because my brother was doing so poorly in his
and he was taunted in the hallways. He began to find ways to classes. The whole mood of the meeting changed. The group
avoid going to school because it was such a horrible experi- decided what my brother needed was a fresh start in a new
ence. Some days he would pretend to leave for the bus stop, environment. They pulled strings so he would not be re-
but then hide in the woods until everyone else had left the tained, provided he did not miss any more days, but could
house. He had missed 41 days of school, off and on, before my enter ninth grade at a high school with an International Bac-
parents found out. Near the end of the year, the principal calaureate Program rather than suffer through another year
called a meeting with all of my brother’s teachers and my at the same junior high school. After graduating from the IB
parents. The meeting’s purpose was to confirm he would have program with honors, he earned an undergraduate engineer-
to repeat the eighth grade due to the absences. During the ing degree and took a job designing silicon chips. He has lots
meeting, the band director was looking through my brother’s of friends and is happy, but if it hadn’t been for that music
permanent record. He noticed all my brother’s large-scale test teacher, his life could have been very different!
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348 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

2% 14% 34% 34% 14% 2%

Standard ⫺3 ⫺2 ⫺1 0 1 2 3
deviations
Normal curve 1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 99
equivalents

Percentile ranks 0.1 2 16 50 84 98 99.9

Stanines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

FIGURE 11.7 Comparison of Percentiles, NCEs, and Stanines

Normal Curve Equivalent

Because percentile ranks do not represent equal intervals along the low-to-high dimen-
Normal Curve Equivalent sion of scores, educators developed a type of score termed normal curve equivalent
A scale ranging between 1 and (NCE). This scale also ranges between 1 and 99.9, but it has equal intervals between
99.9 that has equal intervals all the scores along the continuum, spreading out those scores that cluster around the
between all of the scores on the
continuum. middle. Equal intervals allow adding and averaging, which cannot be done with per-
centile ranks. Normal curve equivalents are also required for reporting results of some
federal education programs for evaluation purposes. You can compare normal curve
equivalents to percentile ranks in Figure 11.7. Note especially the differences near the
middle of the distribution. If you return to Pat Washington’s scores in Figure 11.3, you
will see NCE scores as well as percentile rank scores in the columns on page 2. “Antic-
ipated” NCEs and percentile ranks are based on predictions from the aptitude test
results described on page 3 of the figure.

Stanines
Whereas normal curve equivalents divide the distribution of the norm group’s scores
Stanine into 99 equal parts, stanines divide the norm group’s scores into only 9 equal parts,
A standardized score that indicates with 1 representing scores in the lowest part and 9 representing scores in the highest
where a student’s score falls in part. Scores around the middle of the distribution are represented by a stanine of 5
relation to the norm group when
the distribution of the scores is (see Figure 11.7). With only 9 scores possible, a stanine score therefore represents an
divided into nine equal parts. approximate score within a range rather than pinpointing a single score. Because stanine
scores fall in a range, they often fluctuate less across time than percentile ranks or
normal curve equivalents, which fall at a single point. For this reason, many teachers
find them useful for examining student performance across years to see if a student’s
relative standing changes compared to peers. Teachers can also use stanines to compare
student performance across different kinds of test content. For example, a student who
attains a stanine of five in math and a stanine of two in English appears stronger in
math. Generally, a difference of two stanines suggests a significant difference in per-
formance, whether across years on the same test or between two different types of tests
taken the same year. For example, in Figure 11.3 you can see the stanine range for Pat
Washington’s scores at the bottom of the figure on the right of page 2. His stanine
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Interpreting Norm-Referenced Tests 349

score for social studies is four, and his stanine score for language is six, again suggest-
ing a significant difference between his performance in these two areas.

Other Standard Scores

Test score reports may also include a scale score, which is based on where a student’s Scale Score
performance falls using the arbitrary numbers the test’s designers have assigned for its A score that classifies a student’s
mean and standard deviation. For example, the mean of many IQ tests is 100 and the performance based on arbitrary
numbers that the test designers
standard deviation is 15. If your score is one standard deviation above the mean, your have assigned for its mean and
scale score would be 115, calculated by adding one standard deviation to the mean standard deviation.
score. On the other hand, the mean of each section of the SAT is 500 with a standard
deviation of 100, whereas the mean of the ACT is 21 and the standard deviation is 5.
If your score was exactly one standard deviation above the mean on these tests, your
scale score would be different for each test (600 on the SAT and 26 on the ACT) because
each test company uses these different scales. Yet for every one of these norm-referenced
tests, the mean always falls at the 50th percentile, an NCE of 50, or a stanine of 5. For
teachers, parents, and students, we find it more useful and less confusing to use per-
centile ranks, NCEs, or stanines, because they do not vary across different tests.

Grade Equivalent (or Age Equivalent) Scores and Their Problems

Grade equivalent scores provide you with a number that represents the grade level at Grade Equivalent Score
which the median student gets the same number of questions correct as your student. A number representing the grade
Grade equivalents are expressed in grade levels divided by tenths of the year. Therefore, level at which the median student
gets the same number of questions
a student with a grade equivalent score of 10.2 attained a score roughly similar to a correct as your student.
typical student in the second month of tenth grade. Age equivalent scores work the
same way, except your student is compared to students of different ages rather than in
different grades. Thus, an age equivalent score of 10.2 indicates your student attained
a number correct similar to a typical student who is 10.2 years old.
Some people believe that grade and age equivalent scores are easy to understand,
and so they like to use them. However, grade and age equivalent scores foster incorrect
interpretations of scores, so we strongly recommend against their use. For example, a
grade equivalent score of 3.6 reached by your student who is at the 2.6 grade level
right now does not mean she is performing like a third grader. Nor does it mean she
can do third-grade work. It also does not even necessarily mean she is performing
above grade level. Performance for second graders will fall across a range of scores
much lower and much higher than the exact point in the year that they take a test.
(Remember that average scores fall in the wide range between the 25th and 75th per-
centiles.) Assuming that 2.6 is where students should be ignores the statistical fact
that about half of the students in second grade will always be above this median point
and about half will always be below.
We have heard many parents brag about their children based on their faulty
understanding of grade equivalent scores. Recently, one father mentioned that his son,
who is in fourth grade, was “reading at the 12th-grade level.” He did not realize that
no 12th graders even took the same test his son took—it was designed for fourth
graders, not 12th graders. The grade equivalent scores for 12th graders for that
4th-grade test were most likely estimated by testing some 3rd- and 5th-grade students.
Values for 6th grade and above would be extrapolated, or estimated outside the Extrapolated
known range, based on the medians for these three grades. Commonly, grade equiv- Estimated outside the known range.
alent scores are extrapolated when real data do not exist. Students should be com-
pared only to others in the same grade who took the same test. Grade equivalent
scores vary unpredictably across ages for the same test and across different tests. They
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350 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

are not systematically derived from the characteristics of the norm group like stan-
ines, percentile ranks, or normal curve equivalents. Therefore, grade equivalent scores
are seldom useful for interpreting individual students’ scores on tests or subtests, for
comparing scores on different types of tests, or for exploring growth across time
(Sattler, 1992). Many test publishers are eliminating the reporting of age or grade
equivalent scores for these reasons.

 INTERPRETING CRITERION-REFERENCED TESTS

Most of the large-scale tests used to determine Annual Yearly Progress for No Child
Left Behind (NCLB) use criterion-referenced interpretations. Criterion-referenced
interpretations focus on content mastery as the source of comparison rather than
performance of peers. The tests for NCLB are designed to focus explicitly on the
content of each state’s established academic standards. To derive meaning from
resulting scores, the types of concepts and skills the tests address must be detailed
and clear.
To develop interpretations from these tests, criteria for performance levels are
chosen at the state level. These performance levels are usually termed, for example,
“below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced.” Cutoff scores are set for each per-
formance level by a panel of teachers and other educators. These educators review each
item on the test to determine the score required to be at each performance level. For
NCLB requirements, states report the percentage of students who attain a score of
“proficient” or above. As we mentioned, the degree of mastery for each level varies
significantly from state to state, so comparisons across states by level of proficiency do
not yield consistent information.

 IFOR
NTERPRETING LARGE-SCALE TESTS
STUDENTS AND PARENTS
To help you to summarize the most important points related to interpreting large-scale
test scores, we now turn to the steps to take in explaining them to students and parents.
(You have probably heard one way to learn something really well is to explain it to
someone else, and that is likely to happen as you begin summarizing test scores for
others.) One middle school teacher we know has listed the common questions he gets
about large-scale tests, and these are presented in Table 11.9. As you can see, parents

TA B L E 1 1 . 9
One Teacher’s List of Parents’ Common Questions About
Large-Scale Tests
1. What is the required score to pass this test?

2. What does this score actually mean?

3. How was this score calculated?

4. What was the average score other students received?

5. Has my child made progress since last year?

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Interpreting Large-Scale Tests for Students and Parents 351

TA B L E 1 1 . 1 0
Key Large-Scale Test Interpretation Rules for Students and Parents
1. Explain the purpose of the test and exactly what it measures.

2. Explain the basis for comparison of the student’s scores.

3. Explain the influence of error on scores.

4. Choose one type of score (e.g., percentiles, stanines, proficiency level), explain how it
works, and then use that type of score to describe all parts of the test.

5. Place the scores in the larger context.

6. Work with the parent and student as partners in designing recommendations for what
the next steps should be given the information you have all gleaned from these scores.

want to put these scores in context (e.g., What is required to pass? What was the
average of other students? Has my child made progress?). They also need some basic
information about the test (What does this score mean?) and how scores are derived
(How was this score calculated?).
To answer these questions satisfactorily, we have devised a few rules for you to
follow. These are useful steps for you to take when interpreting scores for your own
use of test scores, and they can be especially helpful as you think about sharing test
results with your students and their parents. We have followed these rules ourselves in
many parent conferences. Table 11.10 shows a summary of the rules.

Explain Purpose and Content

The first step is for you to clearly understand and be able to communicate the purpose
of the test and the content it measures. Many schools administer more than one large-
scale test. Some of these may be criterion-referenced tests such as those used for NCLB,
exit exams, or end-of grade tests that focus on content mastery. Others may be nation-
ally norm-referenced aptitude or achievement tests. Others may be designed to capture
progress with a certain skill across time using benchmarks for progress. You need to
know and be able to explain the differences among these types of tests and how they
are used by your school.

Explain the Basis for Comparison

You should be clear on the type of interpretation used for each test your students take.
If the test uses a norm-referenced interpretation, you should be familiar with the char-
acteristics of the students in the norm group and when results from the norm group
were established. If the test uses a criterion-referenced interpretation, you should
understand the cutoff points and characteristics of the understanding and skills
assumed at each level.

Explain the Influence of Error on Scores

Anyone who receives test scores from teachers needs to know there is error in all mea-
surement. Thus, a single score should be thought of as an estimate of performance. If the
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352 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

test score report illustrates percentile bands, these can be used to explain the range of
Over-Interpretation error around each score. Specific score numbers should not be overinterpreted. Over-
Incorrect assumptions and interpretation occurs when conclusions are drawn that are not warranted by the data.
conclusions that are not warranted For example, if a student scores at the 45th percentile in math and at the 55th percen-
by the available data.
tile in language arts on a nationally normed large-scale test, you should not conclude
the student is “below average” in math. In addition, if you take the standard error of
measurement into account, you would see that a student has a good chance of scoring
higher than the 45th percentile if the mathematics test were taken again. (Of course,
the percentile band will also show the student may score lower if that student were to
take the test again.) Using percentile bands or stanines to explain scores helps reduce
overinterpretation.

Choose One Type of Score to Explain All Parts of the Test

As you can see from the score report in Figure 11.3, test designers provide many types
of scores to choose from when explaining test results. To avoid confusion and to sim-
plify the process, choose just one type of score to discuss and use it for every part of
the test. This strategy allows reasonable comparisons across the parts of the test.
Many teachers prefer to use percentile ranks when explaining norm-referenced
test scores to students and parents. Percentile ranks are easy to explain if you suggest
they visualize 100 students lined up across the back of the room you are in according
to their score, with the lowest student (Student 1) at the left end and the highest stu-
dent (Student 100) at the right end. If your student’s score is at the 75th percentile, you
can point to your estimate of where the 75th student would be along that wall to help
explain the meaning of the score. Then be sure to place these specific ranks in the
broader context of the percentile bands computed for them to show how they are
estimations of true performance.
Stanines are an alternative score to use with students and parents for norm-
referenced interpretations, especially when examining scores across time. If a student
has made a year’s growth in a year’s time, that student should fall in the same stanine
as the previous year. If the student has made more impressive gains, the stanine scores
will be higher than the year before. If the student has lost ground compared to peers,
the stanine score will be lower than the previous year. Avoid using grade-equivalent
scores or normal curve equivalent scores in interpreting scores to students and parents.
In our experience, they cause confusion.
For criterion-referenced or standards-based test interpretations, you will use
proficiency levels to explain each student’s test results. Explain the scale used to the
parents—for example, stating that students’ scores go from the lowest proficiency
level, which is Below Basic, to Basic, to Proficient, to Advanced as the highest pro-
ficiency level. Be sure you have a clear understanding of the specific knowledge and
skills expected at each level. This understanding will help you explain clearly the
strengths or needs the student has regarding particular content from your state
standards.

Put the Scores in the Larger Context

As you should recall from Chapter 6, no decisions about students should be made
on the basis of a single score because of potential problems with error in any test.
Large-scale test scores are no exception. You must take the time to put these scores
in the context of what else you know about this student’s typical performance. Samples
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Using Large-Scale Test Results in the Classroom 353

of student work, comparisons to past large-scale test performance, and comparison

among different parts of a large-scale test help you fill out the complete picture of a
student’s level of understanding and skills. Many educators suggest that students and
their parents should be enlisted in the process of providing this context. Encourag-
ing your students to fully participate can foster in them a sense of responsibility for
their own learning, an important step in developing mastery goals for enhanced
motivation.

Work as Partners to Determine Next Steps

As patterns emerge, the information can be used to enable everyone involved to get a
clear picture of the student and to determine next steps. At all times, you must take
the stance that you, your students, and their families are partners in helping the stu-
dents achieve at the highest possible levels. For example, if trends across several years
suggest a student’s vocabulary is not keeping pace with the student’s other language
arts learning, you might together set up a reading program with specific goals involv-
ing choices of books and activities to enhance vocabulary. If, instead, a student’s math
concepts scores tend to fall below the student’s math computation scores, you can work
with that student to devise more opportunities to articulate the concepts behind the
computations (e.g., explaining on homework assignments why the student’s answer is
a reasonable estimate of the correct answer). Encouraging analysis of patterns helps
students and their parents grasp the results of large-scale tests. It also affords oppor-
tunities for everyone to use them most effectively.

 UINSING LARGE-SCALE TEST RESULTS

THE CLASSROOM
Patterns of scores and trends across time can also be used as you design lessons and
plan instruction. Going beyond the examples we described previously, you can use
such information for differentiating instruction with academic tasks in the classroom.
If you teach a high school math class, for example, you might find that some of your
students have stronger scores in language arts than in math. This information could
lead you to institute math journals in which students describe the design and solution
of authentic problems and/or explain the math concepts you are working on
together.
Similarly, noting different levels of reading comprehension skills among your
students can alert you to differentiate methods for your students to obtain content
(e.g., through websites or books that provide differing reading levels on specific sub-
jects). Thus, large-scale tests can provide information about the range of skills among
your students. This range may also alert you to monitor particular students who fall
either far above or far below others as a first step toward determining whether provi-
sion of special education or gifted programs is needed.
Test scores from a single year can be useful for examining common trends across
a whole group of students. You may find similar patterns among a large group of
students, not just patterns within an individual student’s scores. For example, if you
teach fifth grade, and you notice that fifth graders at your school tended to have low
scores in science compared to other subjects last year, you will want to take a hard
look at your own science instruction to make sure your coverage is sufficient. You will
want to make sure students have the necessary prior knowledge to engage in the activ-
ities you plan. You should also ensure they understand and can apply the key science
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354 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

TA B L E 1 1 . 1 1
Uses of Large-Scale Tests for Classroom Teachers
Determine general strengths and needs of individuals for
• Partnering with student and family to enhance achievement
• Differentiating instructional tasks

Examine trends of scores for a group of students to

• Identify common patterns (e.g., general weakness in science or reading comprehension)
that need to be taken into account when designing instruction
• Learn the range of skills in the class to anticipate materials and types of strategies that
may be required
• Alert you to monitor students significantly different from peers as a first step in
determining whether additional special programs are needed

process skills, such as careful observation. Encouraging your school to sponsor faculty
workshops related to effective methods for teaching science and instituting family
science nights could also be helpful.
Large-scale test results, because they provide only a broad sweep across the
content without a lot of detail, cannot be used for precise diagnostic purposes. From
large-scale test results, for example, you can see whether students tend to do better
in math computation than in math concepts, but the results don’t give you enough
information to know specifically which math concepts to teach or how to teach them.
Instead, you must design your classroom diagnostic and formative assessments for
that purpose. Large-scale test results can point you in the right direction and provide
clues to orient your classroom approach. They are most useful for providing general
information about trends within and across years and across subject content for
groups and individual students. Table 11.11 summarizes the ways you can use large-
scale test scores to add to your understanding of your students’ academic abilities
and skills.

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

We began this chapter by introducing you to important concepts related to large-scale
standardized testing, including differences between norm-referenced and criterion-
referenced scoring and between aptitude and achievement tests. We then described
several commonly held misconceptions related to large-scale testing.
Next, we described the benefits and pitfalls of large-scale tests, using the tests
designed by the states for examining compliance with the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) legislation. Benefits included using comparisons across demographic groups
to find and fix achievement gaps; promoting the alignment of standards, curriculum,
instruction, and assessment; and focusing on improving education. Pitfalls included
nonequivalent performance standards across states that may weaken expectations for
student achievement, excessive narrowing of the curriculum, and a focus on improving
scores without improving learning.
We then provided suggestions for preparation of students for large-scale testing,
which included knowing and teaching the standards, promoting mastery goals through-
out the year, fostering appropriate attitudes toward testing, and teaching students gen-
eral strategies for taking tests. We went on to describe accommodations that may be
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Chapter Review Questions 355

used for students with disabilities and for English language learners to allow students
to demonstrate their understanding and skills of the construct tested without being
unfairly restricted by a disability or by limited English proficiency.
We next discussed reliability and validity in the context of large-scale tests,
then turned to interpreting norm-referenced tests, showing how the mean and stan-
dard deviation of the norm group are used to compare your students’ scores to those
of the norm group using percentile ranks, percentile bands, normal curve equiva-
lents, and stanines. We next explained why grade and age equivalent scores are
problematic.
We moved on to interpreting criterion-referenced tests and then discussed the
steps in interpreting large-scale tests for students and parents. Finally, we talked about
the ways that classroom teachers can use large-scale testing results in their work.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.cep-dc.org/
The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for
more effective public schools. The website provides recent research on current topics such as
No Child Left Behind and standards-based education reform. The organization is funded by
charitable foundations and does not represent special interest groups. Its goal is to provide
information to help citizens understand various perspectives on current educational issues.
www.centerforpubliceducation.org
The Center for Public Education website is an initiative of the National School Board
Association. It offers up-to-date, balanced information on research involving current
issues in public education, such as high-stakes testing. It also provides access to
summaries of recent education reports, polls, and surveys related to improving student
achievement and the role of public schools in society.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Describe examples of the influence of large-scale high-stakes tests based on your
experience.
2. Explain the difference between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced inter-
pretations of test scores. Give an example of each not found in this chapter.
3. Explain the difference between aptitude and achievement tests, with examples
from your own experience. Do you believe tests purely measuring aptitude can
be developed? Why or why not?
4. Give an example of one of the five misconceptions about large-scale tests that
you or someone you know has encountered. Explain how you would refute this
misconception now.
5. Describe specific actions you as a teacher will take in your classroom to ensure
you avoid the three pitfalls of large-scale standardized tests described in the
chapter.
6. Based on the discussion of appropriate preparation practices for large-scale tests,
describe test preparation practices you believe would NOT be appropriate. How
might these practices contribute to score pollution?
7. If you have several students in one of your classes who are learning English,
what accommodations might you request for them when taking tests throughout
the year?
8. Describe the strengths and limitations in using percentile ranks, normal curve
equivalents, stanines, and scale scores. Which would you prefer to use when
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356 Chapter 11 Large-Scale Standardized Tests and the Classroom

interpreting large-scale test results? Complete the table below to answer this
question.

Type of Score Strengths Limitations

Percentile rank

Percentile band

Normal curve equivalent

Stanine

Scale score

Grade- or age-equivalent

9. Provide two reasons for not using grade- or age-equivalent scores when
interpreting large-scale test results.
10. Address the points in Table 11.10 for the test results in Figure 11.3.
11. If a student’s score falls one standard deviation above the mean, what will be her
percentile rank?
12. Describe at least two specific ways you might use the results of large-scale tests
for individual students. Describe two specific ways you might use the results for
a whole class.

REFERENCES
Au, W. 2007. High-stakes testing and curricular control: A qualitative metasynthesis. Educational
Researcher 36: 258–267.
Center on Education Policy. 2006, March. From the capital to the classroom. Year 4 of the No
Child Left Behind Act. Washington, DC. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from http://www.
cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction⫽Page.viewPage&pageId⫽497&parentID⫽481.
Center on Education Policy. 2007, June. Answering the question that matters most: Has student
achievement increased since No Child Left Behind? Washington, DC. Retrieved November 2,
2007, from http://www.cep-dc.org/document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction⫽document.
viewDocument&documentid⫽200&documentFormatId⫽3620.
Center on Education Policy. 2008, June. Has student achievement increased since 2002? State test
score trends through 2006–07. Retrieved June 25, 2008, from http://www.cep-dc.org/
document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction⫽document.viewDocument&documentid⫽
241&documentFormatId⫽3769.
Darling-Hammond, L. 2007. The flat earth and education: How America’s commitment to equity
will determine our future. Educational Researcher 36: 318–334.
Flynn, J. R. 1999. Searching for justice: The discovery of IQ gains over time. American
Psychologist 54: 5–20.
McNeil, M. 2008. Benchmarks momentum on increase. Education Week 27(27): 1, 12–13.
Newman, F., A. Bryk, and J. Nagoaka. 2001. Authentic intellectual work and standardized tests:
Conflict or coexistence? Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research. Retrieved
November 5, 2007, from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id⫽38.
Nichols, S., and D. Berliner. 2007. Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s
schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Reeves, D. B. 2004. The 90/90/90 schools: A case study. In D. B. Reeves, Accountability in action:
A blueprint for learning organizations, 2nd ed. Englewood, CO: Advanced Learning Press.
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Sattler, J. 1992. Assessment of Children. 3rd ed. San Diego: Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher, Inc.
Solorzano, R. W. 2008. High stakes testing: Issues, implications, and remedies for English
language learners. Review of Educational Research 78: 260–329.
Sternberg, R. 2008. Assessing what matters. Educational Leadership 65(4): 20–26.
Taylor, C., and S. Nolan. 2008. Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in real
classrooms. Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Thompson, S., C. Johnstone, and M. Thurlow. 2002. Universal design applied to large scale
assessments (Synthesis Report 44). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, National
Center on Educational Outcomes. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from http://education.
umn.edu/NCEO/OnlinePubs/Synthesis44.html.
Wallis, C., and S. Steptoe. 2007. How to fix No Child Left Behind. Time 169(23): 34–41.
Wiliam, D., C. Lee, C. Harrison, and P. Black. 2004. Teachers developing assessment for learning:
Impact on student achievement. Assessment in Education 11: 49–65.
Yeh, S. 2005. Limiting the unintended consequences of high-stakes testing. Education Policy
Analysis Archives 13: 43. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/
v13n43/.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱠﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬
CHAPTER 12

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children
whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need
to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel
about the fact that we haven’t so far.
–Ron Edmonds

❖ Chapter Learning Goals • Develop efficient strategies

At the conclusion of this chapter, to make the most of student
the reader should be able to do the and teacher assessment
following: activities.
• Explain the importance of six • Compare and contrast the
essential guidelines for effective Knowledge Is Power Program
classroom assessment for ensuring (KIPP) in Charlotte, NC, and the
all children learn to their potential. Center for Inquiry classroom
• Describe how these guidelines will assessment strategies promoting
foster equal access to knowledge, skills for democratic participation.
development of self-governing • Set a personal goal for
skills, and critical thinking integrating assessment strategies
proficiencies important for to promote skills for democratic
democratic participation. participation.

 INTRODUCTION
We wholeheartedly agree with the quotation beginning this chapter—we already
know what to do to successfully teach all children. In fact, we now know even more
about what makes for effective schools than we did when Edmonds wrote those
words in 1979. In particular, studies of schools and classrooms have shown that
effective classroom assessment practices can be one of the most important ingredi-
ents for enhancing student achievement (Reeves, 2004; Wiliam et al., 2004). Through-
out this book we have acquainted you with classroom assessment practices to
motivate students and help them learn to their full potential. In this chapter we take
the opportunity to review some key guidelines, discuss issues related to efficiency in
assessment practices, show you illustrative examples from real classrooms, and help
you set goals for your own classroom assessment practices to equip your students to
become lifelong learners and active participants in a democratic society.

 SIX ESSENTIAL GUIDELINES

We now turn to six fundamental guidelines evolved from conversations between
other teachers and ourselves about the assessment essentials needed by teacher
candidates as they begin their careers. Although our expertise comes from many
359
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360 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

TA B L E 1 2 . 1
Six Essential Assessment Guidelines
1. Begin with the end in mind: Have clear, high expectations for developing understanding
and skills that can be flexibly used across contexts.

2. Find out what students know: Use diagnostic assessment supporting differentiated
instruction.

3. Check as you go: Use flexible formative assessment to help students close the gap
between where they are and where they need to be.

4. Teach students to check as you go: Teach self- and peer-assessment to promote
internalization of goals and performance criteria.

5. Use rubrics creatively to reinforce attainment of student learning goals: Set clear and
concrete criteria for excellence.

6. Assess yourself: Regularly reflect on ways to enhance student learning.

fields, from music and theater to English and biology, and from elementary through
college levels, critical themes converge that guide effective teachers.
These guidelines are based on the foundational assumption that teachers must
be reflective in their practice and aware of the instructional climate they are creating
in their classroom. Reflective teachers weigh what they do against the question we
introduced in Chapter 1: “Will this help my students learn?” Their primary purpose
for assessment is formative rather than summative in nature. They use assessment to
be advocates who help their students learn more, not simply evaluators who gauge
where students are and assign grades accordingly. Using this approach, assessment
becomes a fluid, continuing activity intertwined with instruction rather than mere
documentation of student levels of attainment on end-of-unit tests.
Teachers sometimes struggle to provide rationales for their grading practices and
their assessment strategies. When they explain how and why they assess, they tend to
give more weight to their individual experiences, beliefs, and external pressures than
to principles of effective assessment (McMillan, 2003). We hope these guidelines,
which are based on principles of effective assessment, can serve as an important source
for the justification of the assessment practices you put in place in your classroom. We
believe they should coincide with, rather than contradict, your beliefs about assessment
and your experiences with it. Table 12.1 lists the guidelines.

Guideline 1. Begin with the End in Mind

We borrow our first guideline from Chapter 2 and from Stephen Covey, who wrote
the popular self-help book titled The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey’s
second habit is to “Begin with the end in mind.” We believe his principle is fundamental
for designing and implementing effective assessment practices.
Simply put, beginning with the end in mind suggests you start with a clear
understanding, based on your learning goals and the curriculum, of what you ulti-
mately want your students to know and be able to do after your instruction. This
principle is consistent with the backward design model of Wiggins and McTighe (1998)
in which you first focus on the end goals. You need a well-developed mental image of
what you want to accomplish before you set out to accomplish it.
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Six Essential Guidelines 361

A problem we sometimes see with teacher candidates is that they can be capti-
vated by interesting topics or activities (e.g., “I want to do a zoo unit.” or “I want to
design several lessons around the upcoming election.”) without having learning goals
to anchor and guide their planning. With clear goals, you can easily capitalize on the
teaching potential of creative strategies, materials, and topics (the zoo or the election).
A laser-like focus on the end you have in mind is crucial for separating wheat from
chaff as you design engaging instruction and figure out how to maximize learning.
Remember that merely offering appealing activities such as games does not guarantee
high motivation or strong learning (Sanford et al., 2007). You should build all your
instructional and assessment activities on the foundation of your learning goals and
your curriculum. This habit will make it easy to justify clearly to yourself and others
why you are doing what you are doing in your classroom.

Fostering High Expectations

One important benefit of clear learning goals is that they help you maintain high expec-
tations and standards. Sometimes teachers modify assignments to make them easier if
students complain, or they see students lose interest and, as a result, they relent on a
standard. Sometimes standards of quality can also suffer if a teacher focuses too much
on “raising self-esteem” and “helping kids feel good about themselves” without realizing
that a feeling of self-esteem does not necessarily lead to quality accomplishments. Instead,
research shows the reverse is true: accomplishments based on hard work and mastery of
high standards lead to stronger self-esteem (Leary, 1999; Marsh & Craven, 1997).

Fostering Applications to New Contexts

Another key facet of beginning with the end in mind involves making certain the ends
you choose involve understanding beyond rote memorization. Such effort is important
so students can apply their knowledge beyond the explicit context of the lesson to other
situations. At several points in the text we have helped you see ways to design assess-
ments addressing higher-order thinking and application of concepts to novel situations.
Encouraging students to explain why they are solving a problem in a particular way,
requiring them to find disconfirming as well as confirming evidence for a position,
and having them generalize an idea to a new situation are important ways to challenge
students to extend their thinking. In designing informal discussion questions, in devel-
oping rubrics, and in creating assessments from multiple-choice to performance tasks,
we have stressed that you must ensure students can understand the principles behind
your activities and not just the activities themselves. Learning goals help you keep the
big picture in mind as you guide students through this process.
We once worked with an intern who confirmed this recommendation but also
showed it is sometimes easier said than done. She had provided a worksheet with
carefully varied shapes on it for her students to practice calculating perimeters of dif-
ferent dimensions and sizes. When two students finished early, she asked them to
calculate the perimeter of the worksheet itself. They insisted they could not do it and
seemed at a complete loss. Because they had applied the procedure only to figures on
worksheets, they did not see how it could also be applied to shapes in the real world.
This story illustrates well how teachers must intentionally vary their instructional and
assessment activities to help students see the range of ways an idea or procedure can
be used. The learning goals you choose must keep these ends in mind.

Fostering Overarching Personal Goals

Clear goals may come from your personal aims and teaching identity, as well as from
the national or state standards you use to guide instruction. For example, several music
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362 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

teachers we know want more than anything to instill a love of music in their students,
and they keep this goal in mind as they design each lesson. Other teachers stress pride
in doing a good job as a goal and encourage students to believe that several drafts of
an essay should be the norm and not the exception. Others emphasize the importance
of seeing the classroom as a supportive community for learning, encouraging students
to rely on each other and celebrating their diversity. We also hope many aim to equip
their students as well-informed, active participants in a democracy. The point is to
articulate for yourself the overarching personal goals you care about so you can build
in activities to support them every day.

Guideline 2. Find Out What Students Know

Diagnostic assessment allows you to learn what your students already know, and its
results should guide your instructional activities. High student mobility, coupled with
the wide range of experience and understanding found among students in every class-
room, makes diagnostic activities imperative. Accurately understanding what your
students know and are able to do is critical to designing instruction that challenges
but does not overwhelm them.
As discussed at length in Chapter 3, before teaching a skill or concept, a teacher
must examine prerequisite knowledge needed for working with new material. This includes
knowledge and skills not directly related to content that are also crucial for student suc-
cess. For example, we worked with a student teacher in social studies who discovered that
the students in his history classes did not know how to take notes, but realized this only
after he had delivered a 15-minute lecture a couple of weeks into the term. Because he
was reflective about his practice, he took the time to examine the notes they did have to
devise a template to help structure later note-taking efforts. If he had known from the
beginning that note-taking was a weak skill, he could have addressed it sooner.
Diagnostic assessment is also one of the most important strategies you can use to
guarantee that all your students have an equal opportunity to learn what you want to
teach them, an important function of schooling in a democracy. If students’ prior knowl-
edge, including cultural as well as school experiences, is not taken into account, they may
lack the ability to take full advantage of the classroom activities. At the beginning of one
school year we worked with a kindergartener who had never seen a book before and didn’t
know which side was up, how to hold it, or how to turn pages. Familiarity with different
types of materials—books, maps, computers—can vary greatly among your students.
Also remember that diagnostic activities are the important first step in docu-
menting the growth students make across time. Sometimes progress is difficult to
detect from day to day, so seeing progress over longer periods can be important to the
motivation of both students and teachers. Documenting the earliest student perfor-
mance allows you to make these gains visible and concrete.

Guideline 3. Check as You Go

Monitoring students’ progress during instruction, including giving them feedback to
close the gap between where they are and where they need to be, is our next indispens-
able assessment guideline. In the past, many of us assumed assessment occurs only at
the end of a unit. Many teachers and students continue to think of assessment in this
way. In your classroom, you must change the meaning of assessment from something
dreaded to something that is a natural part of the learning process. Using formative
strategies allows assessment to become an opportunity for providing insights about
learning and ways to improve. It’s no longer a source of anxiety resulting in an
irrevocable stamp of approval or disapproval. In Chapter 4 of the text, we explained
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Six Essential Guidelines 363

why we believe that “checking as you go” using formative assessment is essential. Evi-
dence continues to accumulate that, when used correctly, it is one of the most effective
interventions available to enhance student achievement.

Guideline 4. Teach Students to Check as You Go

Fostering the ability of students to assess themselves is one of the ultimate goals of instruc-
tion. As students begin to self-assess, they must take a more active role and figure out
concrete ways that ensure they personally can meet the goals. Helping students learn to
self-assess also teaches them to look beyond their own point of view and see themselves
in relation to a standard. As students eventually clarify and internalize the standard, they
will not be as dependent on authorities to make corrections or judgments concerning
their work. They will no longer see the standards as arbitrary and external but as something
they have worked through, perhaps contributed to, and now own. They will eventually be
able to use standards and feedback they have encountered to articulate goals to set for
themselves. Also, remember that students who participate in self-evaluation become more
interested in applying the criteria and improving, and they become less interested in get-
ting specific grades for assignments, an important advance for promoting mastery goals.
Teachers can use simple strategies regularly to create a climate that promotes self-
assessment. For example, asking informal questions during class that encourage students
to analyze their work together and alone can be effective. A music teacher we know
peppers her instruction with questions such as “Did everyone match as we clapped the
rhythm, or was there a disagreement?” or “Was everyone silent on the rests?” or “How
can we improve our performance?” This helps students to begin to actively apply stan-
dards of quality to engage in self-reflection and gain insight into their performance.
Student conferences such as those described in Chapter 1 used by third-grade teacher
Tracie Clinton also can help advance student self-assessment. They also allow for teacher
monitoring of student progress toward effective self-assessment.
As students start to see the value of active self-assessment for their growth, they
will also see value in seeking the perceptions and opinions of others as one more way
to improve their own work and their learning. Incorporating peer assessment into your
classroom during the formative assessment process provides opportunities for your
students to reinforce among each other the value of making discoveries (not mistakes)
on the learning journey. Peer assessment affords more opportunities for interpreting
and internalizing standards, for understanding diverse perspectives, and for learning
appropriate ways to offer and accept feedback. These are all skills that students will
need as they move beyond the classroom.
One teacher we know always uses peer assessment with student writing. She
credits this practice for the excellent showing her students made in a recent state
poetry contest. Her students write their first draft, receive a critique from another
student, develop another draft, receive another critique, and so on, until each student
is satisfied with a final draft. As each new perspective is taken into account, the stu-
dents make more changes to transform their work, and then they want more feedback.
She has heard students bragging (not complaining) about the number of drafts they
have been through. Compare this classroom climate to typical situations where many
students try to get by with as little effort as possible.

Guideline 5. Use Rubrics to Reinforce Attainment

of the Learning Goals
We believe rubrics, or scoring guides providing descriptions of different levels of per-
formance in relation to a standard, are vital to effective classroom assessment. If you
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364 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

want students to move beyond simple tasks and memorization of facts, you need learn-
ing activities that require students to manipulate ideas through thinking, writing, and
other complex understanding and skills. Rubrics are a valuable technique to help stu-
dents systematically work through and understand the characteristics of excellent work
for these more complex tasks. They aid students in envisioning the goal and analyzing
the parts that will add up to the whole. With an eye to the important understandings
and skills in your learning goals, you can construct rubrics to help both you and your
students remember what is important.
As discussed in Chapter 8, useful rubrics must communicate the central features
of a quality performance. You must figure out how to put into words the elusive factors
that determine writing is “vivid” or “concise” or that a project is “well-organized” or
“creative.” One of the best ways to do this is to have a discussion with your students
to help you define the levels of quality. Structuring assessment activities with rubrics
is a useful way to get students in the habit of thinking about and evaluating their own
and each others’ work, so that formative and self-assessment automatically become
incorporated into the process.

Guideline 6. Assess Yourself

All teachers have some obvious as well as more subtle influences on their students. As
you think of your own teachers, you can remember ways you would like to emulate
some and avoid the mistakes of others. The point is, we as teachers are significant
models for our students each day they are in our classrooms. Ideally, we need to show
them how to be effective learners. One of the best ways to do this as a teacher is to
practice what you preach. As a teacher, you can demonstrate your commitment to
assessment for learning by regularly obtaining and analyzing feedback on your own
practice in view of your students and, at times, with their assistance.
We explained in Chapters 3 and 4 that actively seeking information from your
monitoring of student learning allows you to become more responsive to individual
student needs. In addition, explaining to students how you are changing your practice
based on information you have collected shows them you find formative assessment
indispensable, just as they should. You want to know when your instructional strategies
are successful, and you want to change any strategies that are not. You can use action
research (Chapter 1) to collect information to check on your own effectiveness and to
search actively for solutions to problems arising in your classroom.
The inquiry stance incorporating action research also helps you avoid “blam-
ing the kid first.” As professionals, we know we should use self-assessment and
analysis to solve classroom problems before we give up on students. Yet, we some-
times tend to attribute problems that arise to unchangeable student traits and then
feel that remedying them is beyond our control. For example, analysis of diaries
kept by 40 student teachers showed they tended to explain the sources of their dif-
ficulties most frequently in terms of pupils’ cognitive or affective characteristics
rather than in terms of their own methods, the lessons, or the instructional content
(Penso, 2002). Using an inquiry stance and action research can allow a more pro-
active and less passive response to problems. A formative-assessment approach to
learning setbacks or classroom difficulties may take more than one “draft.” To get
things right, several rounds of trial and error may be required for ourselves, as well
as for our students. If students aren’t learning or making progress with certain skills,
we must take personal responsibility for coming up with new ways to deal with
problems, just as we encourage our students to take responsibility for their own
learning. The challenge and joy of teaching is finding ways to reach all students. We
suggest teachers model formative assessment by regularly assessing themselves and,
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Assessment Effectiveness and Efficiency 365

when problems arise, checking their instructional toolbox for new solutions for
reaching their goals.
We believe these six principles can be the foundation for excellent assessment
that promotes student growth. By now you understand well that assessment is not just
an afterthought at the end of the term. It is an ongoing process intertwined with your
classroom activities.

 ASSESSMENT EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY

One formative task in our assessment classes is to have teacher candidates write reflec-
tions about how they are relating what they are learning to their own experiences. One
comment they often make relates to time. They wonder how a new teacher can carve
out the time to incorporate these fundamental assessment guidelines. They perhaps
don’t realize that, according to estimates, many teachers already spend a third or more
of their time on assessment (Stiggins & Conklin, 1992).
In our own experience and in our discussions with teachers who incorporate the
six guidelines, we find that several commonsense efficiency strategies can help manage
as well as reduce the assessment load. Table 12.2 lists suggestions for keeping assess-
ment efficient and effective.

TA B L E 1 2 . 2
Efficiency Strategies for Effective Assessment
Strategy Examples

Choose assessment • Rely on assessments aligned with instruction and learning

opportunities selectively. goals that tell you what you need to know to move forward.
• Use instructional activities that can also serve a formative
assessment purpose.
Selectively analyze student • Award points for homework on a random basis.
work. • Rotate which students’ work is analyzed each day.

Carefully target the • Choose only one element for feedback and vary it across
feedback you provide. time.
• Choose only each student’s most problematic element for
feedback.

Build in time for self- and • Have students take responsibility for comparing their work
peer review and feedback. to a standard and make changes consistent with it.

Structure record keeping to • Provide progress monitoring tools and class time for updates.
encourage student self-
monitoring.

Develop an “assessment • Designate a computer file or notebook for selectively

bank.” collecting materials from a variety of sources.

Enlist students in • Clarify rubric criteria with students.

assessment design. • Encourage student input into characterizations of each
level of a rubric.
• Provide opportunities for students to design sample
questions.
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366 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

Choose Assessment Opportunities Selectively

You must prioritize any assessment you consider in terms of whether it provides
information to assist your teaching and whether it helps your students learn (the big
Chapter 1 question). You want to make sure all assessments, whether formative or
summative, are aligned with instruction and learning goals and tell you what you need
to know to move forward. You don’t want to waste any assessment energy on irrelevant
material or tasks that don’t help you understand what students need next. One way
many teachers accomplish this goal is to use instructional activities that can also serve
a formative assessment purpose.
Assessment in conjunction with activities where students are engaged in the learn-
ing process is very efficient. For example, Jesse Schlicher and Naomi Elkin, two seventh-
grade math teachers, set up grocery store “stations” in their classrooms when they are
teaching a learning goal related to applying rates to unit cost. At each station, students
find two or three grocery items (e.g., different types of muffin mixes, jars of cheese vs.
meat spaghetti sauces, cans of fruit). Each student answers three or four questions about
the products (e.g., What is the unit price? Which is the best deal? Which would you buy
and why?). A sample of one of the activities to complete is illustrated in Figure 12.1. The
teachers can circulate among stations to see which elements of problem solving are caus-
ing difficulty, and they can quickly check the written results for patterns of errors. The
class also discusses answers together at the end of the activity.
These teachers use the information from these activities to plan future lessons.
For example, problems several students struggle on are used for a warm-up the next
day. In addition they put challenge problems at each station to see how students do
when they boost the level a bit. A variety of similar assessment items can be developed
easily based on comparison of generic store brands to name brands. Such work has
the side benefit of helping students become discerning consumers.

Selectively Analyze Student Work

As we discussed in Chapter 10, we recommend that you not grade every single piece
of work students complete for you. You need sufficient and varied opportunities so you
have reliable information on each student, but you must also be selective. Some of the
teachers and teacher candidates we know insist students will not do any work for which
they don’t get a grade (clear evidence that they are not motivated by mastery goals). We

Station 2

Slices or Chunks?
Price of Kroger Pineapple Chunks: $1.89
Price of Dole Pineapple Slices: $3.29
1. What is the price per ounce for the Kroger Pineapple Chunks? (show the rate!)
2. What is the price per ounce of the Dole Pineapple Slices? (show the rate!)
3. Which is the better buy?
4. Why might someone choose to purchase the more expensive product?

FIGURE 12.1 Classroom Activity and Formative Assessment for Seventh-Grade Math Unit
Learning Goal, “Apply ratios, rates, and proportions to discounts, taxes, tips, interest, unit
costs, and similar shapes.”
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Assessment Effectiveness and Efficiency 367

wean our own students from expecting every piece of work to be graded by assigning
homework almost every day, but we award points for it on a random basis. We always
collect the work and read through it to look for patterns of errors in thinking or use of
skills, but that usually goes quickly compared to scoring every paper. On average, we
give points for roughly half of the assignments. To ensure quality work, we often use
homework questions as part of the foundation for more involved exam questions. When
we do assign points for homework, if students do not get full credit, they can redo the
assignment. These practices usually stimulate students to produce quality work consis-
tently even when points aren’t awarded. We also encourage them to think about the
benefits of their changing work habits in terms of development of mastery goals.
Grading and feedback on student writing can be a particularly problematic and
time-consuming area for teachers. For example, if eighth graders write just 15 minutes
per day, a class of 25 students produces an average of 375 sentences (Heward et al.,
1991). If you multiply this by several classes, providing feedback can be overwhelming
for a teacher. However, with selective checking it can be managed. Heward and his
colleagues suggest a strategy: The teacher reads and evaluates 20–25% of the papers
written each day. All students’ papers are returned the next day, and the teacher uses
the work she evaluated to develop instruction, similar examples, and feedback for
groups of students who need to work on those particular writing skills. (We caution
teachers not to use too many bad examples directly from student work to avoid dis-
couraging them.) Because this strategy is useful for differentiating instruction, some-
times the whole class and sometimes smaller groups will be involved, depending on
need. Students can receive points for producing writing each day (or on random days).
The whole class can receive additional bonus points if a high percentage of the papers
evaluated on a given day meet the criteria the teacher emphasized in a classwide daily
lesson. A small sample of representative students’ work can provide information about
understanding and skills to work on with a larger group, and this procedure can be
generalized to most subject matter. The teacher can also use this process with other
methods of examining student understanding, such as small discussion groups or
informal teacher conferences.

Carefully Target the Feedback You Provide

You now realize the importance of teacher feedback in helping students learn how to
close the gap between where they are and where they need to be. As you also know
from our Chapter 4 discussion, effective feedback can require considerable time and
effort on the part of teachers. Student work can fall short of the standards you set for
quality in many ways. But if you try to address every element of effective writing or
every aspect of successful defending in a soccer game, both you and the students will
be overwhelmed. Instead, concentrating on one focus for feedback at a time can ensure
your feedback is brief, targeted, and clear. Both you and the students will be able to
focus on that element and work toward improvement. For example, a high school band
director might focus only on helping the ensemble produce a more balanced sound
with several pieces during a practice session. A drama teacher might choose to give
feedback on students’ efforts to use their voices to convey elements of the character’s
personality. Similarly, some teachers we know allow their students to help choose a
focus for improving their writing. The students have furnished ideas such as using
colorful verbs or incorporating interesting metaphors.
Another way to narrow your focus for feedback is to zero in on the most prob-
lematic aspect of the work you are examining and then offer suggestions for improving
that. Using this approach, your focus may change from student to student, but you are
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368 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

still limiting the scope of your comments to concentrate on improving one element of
the work. Even with a narrowed focus for explicit feedback, you should also try to
point out at least one exemplary aspect of student work to reinforce and review previ-
ous instruction.

Build in Time for Self- and Peer Review

Students can help you streamline the assessment process. Used carefully, students’ self-
assessment can decrease the amount of time you must spend examining student work.
For example, elementary teachers who have students needing additional spelling prac-
tice could benefit from a student self-correction strategy described by Okyere and
Heron (1991). Students are first taught four proofreading marks (e.g., the symbol ^ with
a letter above it means the letter should be inserted at that point in a word). Appropriate
spelling words are identified by the teacher tailored to each student’s needs to allow for
differentiated instruction. Each student then takes a spelling test at the spelling center
by listening to their own set of words on a tape recorder or computer and then writing
these words. They then look at the words as they are correctly spelled and correct their
own spelling using the proofreading marks. Finally, they rewrite any words they had
misspelled correctly. The authors report that students who use the self-correction strat-
egy outperform students who use more traditional spelling approaches. The procedures
for this self-correction approach could also be adapted to other subject matter. The basic
idea is to have students explicitly take responsibility for comparing their work to a
standard and making changes consistent with that standard.
This approach can also be used with less clear-cut content. For example, in our
own classes, we encourage teacher candidates in class, and then later on their own, to
compare projects they are designing to the criteria on the rubric for the assignment.
They are often surprised to notice they have forgotten a section or have not addressed
a specific point clearly. Similarly, the math teacher we mentioned in Chapter 4 who
reminds students to think about whether their answers make sense is encouraging
students to take more responsibility for assessing themselves. When students can self-
correct some of the more glaring problems in their work, you are able to focus on
more complex and subtle aspects.

Structure Record Keeping to Encourage Student

Self-Monitoring
Concrete proof of student progress is a potent motivator for teachers as well as students
(Bandura, 1997; Locke & Latham, 2002). Employing graphs, charts, tables, and check-
lists to track progress toward learning goals across time has been shown to be effec-
tive for documenting progress. In our experience, from second grade on, students can
be put in charge of keeping records of their progress on at least one learning goal.
Remember, however, when using student self-monitoring, you must be very selective
in choosing only the most important learning goals.
After a goal has been chosen for a group of students, you can develop the progress
monitoring tool (e.g., a checklist), make copies for each student, and designate a folder
for each student for keeping key assignments and the monitoring sheet. Periodically you
can provide class time for students to update their checklist. Such procedures not only
rescue you from tedious paperwork, they also encourage students to focus on their goals
and internalize a sense of responsibility for their work. In addition, they allow students
to see tangible evidence of their growth, which helps them develop a connection between
their effort and their results, which we discussed as “effort optimism” in Chapter 1.
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Assessment Effectiveness and Efficiency 369

Develop an “Assessment Bank”

Designing key assessments that represent learning goals, require higher-order think-
ing, and engage students can be a challenging and time-consuming undertaking. An
assessment bank—an organized collection of assessments that can be modified and Assessment Bank
reused with different content and different groups—can assist you in maintaining high An organized collection of
standards for your assessment. assessments that can be modified
and reused with different content
You should start now to develop your assessment bank. Think about categories and different groups.
(including content and assessment type) you want to include, and then set up a com-
puter file or a notebook organized with a section for each category. Within these
categories you should list learning goals and arrange the examples you collect by learn-
ing goal for easy access later.
You will find many and varied sources for assessment material (see Table 12.3).
For example, we recently designed a rubric for concept maps related to motivation by
finding four concept-map rubrics online and taking the best points from each, modi-
fying the wording to suit our learning goals. In addition, checking out a range of
textbooks in your content area may offer you projects, thoughtful questions, or other
activities different from the ones provided by the textbooks you may use. National
association websites such as the National Science Teacher’s Association and the National
Council of Teachers of English also provide many resources for assessment and instruc-
tion, and most states’ large-scale testing websites provide examples of released items.
Don’t forget the website of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
With so many possible sources of assessments and rubrics, you must be very
selective in choosing what to include in your assessment bank. If you are not dis-
criminating, you will end up amassing a huge amount of information that overwhelms
you rather than supports you in designing effective assessment for your particular
needs. Remember to select items that address higher-order thinking, and organize
them by key learning goals. These items will serve as a jumping-off point to stimulate
you in designing assessment tailored to your students’ needs, which often vary from
class to class and year to year. The carefully selected foundation of material in your
assessment bank should provide fresh ideas as you reexamine your learning goals,
instruction, and assessment with each new class.
Perhaps the most important source for your assessment bank is the assessments
and rubrics you design yourself. Your assessment efficiency can be increased if you
design assessments such as interpretive exercises, essay questions, or performance
assessments that can be used flexibly. For example, with interpretive exercises devel-
oped to check on student graph-reading skills, you can substitute different graphs for

TA B L E 1 2 . 3
Sources for Assessment Banks
Materials from teachers you know in your content area

World Wide Web

Textbooks and assessment texts in your area

National association websites

Large-scale state testing websites with released items

Assessments and rubrics you design and refine

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370 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

different groups of students, modifying the basic questions to address each graph’s
content. As long as students have not seen the content of the graph before, such items
can allow you to check on this competency. Similarly, many teachers develop perfor-
mance assessments that can be tweaked to address different types of content. For
example, one social studies teacher we know developed a performance assessment
requiring students to design a page of a newspaper reflecting a historical period studied
in the class. The assignment calls for different articles displaying both news and
commentary as well as pictures, drawings, or political cartoons reflecting the period
studied. He uses this assignment only once per class, but he has used it for a variety
of significant periods in U.S. history. His effort to develop a clear assignment and
effective rubric has paid off because he can use and refine the basic elements many
times. Such item “shells” or “models” can be the foundation for a systematic and effi-
cient approach to item writing (Haladyna, 1994; Johnson et al., 2009).

Enlist Students in Assessment Design

Enlisting students in the early phases of designing assessments and rubrics can be useful
in promoting learning, and it can save you time and prevent misunderstanding. Student
involvement can also help tailor the assessments and scoring guides to student needs.
Some teachers we know take time to discuss and clarify criteria on their rubrics
with their students. In the process, students often supply concrete terms and phrases that
pin down different levels of quality the teacher might not have generated alone. These
teachers start by showing students a bare-bones rubric for a project. They next ask for
student questions and comments in an effort to expand and clarify what is most important
to the work. They then incorporate these comments into a revised rubric. These teachers
indicate the time invested in this process is well worth it. Students’ work improves because
the discussions have given them a clearer understanding of the standards on which their
work will be judged (Andrade, 2008). They also understand the rationale behind those
requirements better as they use them to revise their work (Saddler & Andrade, 2004).
Sometimes students also have useful suggestions for designing assessments or test
questions. As we mentioned in Chapter 4, having students design test questions requires
them to take the perspective of the teacher and use high-level thinking skills to formulate
questions showing flexible understanding of key aspects of the learning goals. We know
of one teacher who took this idea too far, however. She had her students each design a
final exam and answer their own questions. The problem with this approach is that stu-
dents can easily concentrate only on what they know best and avoid important facets of
the material that should also be addressed. A more balanced approach to involving stu-
dents in designing assessment allows for meaningful contributions but not total control.

 ASOCIETY
SSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF A DEMOCRATIC
: CLASSROOM EXAMPLES
We now turn to actual classrooms to demonstrate assessment practices in action that
incorporate the essential assessment guidelines and promote the understanding and
skills needed for participation in a democratic society. We visit two schools with very
different approaches and assumptions about teaching and learning. We use them to
illustrate how the elements of effective classroom assessment can encompass various
teaching philosophies and teaching methods. We describe some of the typical assess-
ment practices at each school and illustrate how they address our three themes (equal
access to educational opportunity, promotion of self-governing skills, and development
of critical thinking skills) related to preparation for democratic participation.
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Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Classroom Examples 371

Center for Inquiry

We first visit the Center for Inquiry, a small elementary magnet school from kinder-
garten to fifth grade established as a partnership between a public school district and
a university in Columbia, SC. The mission of the staff, parents, and students is to
develop “as more thoughtful, caring and intelligent people who delight in learning
and are committed to creating a more compassionate, equitable, knowledgeable and
democratic world.” This mission statement explicitly emphasizes developing mastery
goals (“people who delight in learning”) and skills for activist democratic participation
(“creating a more compassionate, equitable, knowledgeable and democratic world”)
throughout their curriculum. The school also focuses on inquiry-based instruction, so
classes center around hands-on learning experiences, high-interest studies, and inte-
grated curriculum. At the Center for Inquiry, 26.5 percent of the students are African
American, 1.5 percent are Hispanic, 72 percent are European American, and 6 percent
are eligible for free or reduced-fee lunch. Table 12.4 shows a rough outline of the daily
schedule for Mr. O’Keefe’s current third-grade class.

Aligning Goals, Instruction, and Assessment

Because the teachers organize their curriculum using broad concepts across disciplines,
they weave multiple state standards through their learning activities and instructional
units, rather than teaching them in discrete pieces. Their use of “kidwatching” as diag-
nostic and formative assessment also helps them determine a flexible order for teaching

TA B L E 1 2 . 4
Sample Schedule from a Center for Inquiry Third-Grade Class
Time Activity Description

8:10–8:45 Exploration Children work in areas of personal interest (e.g., make entries in class journals, read
independently, play chess) and interact with the teacher and each other informally.

8:45–9:30 Morning Meeting Teacher and students engage in wide-ranging discussion (e.g., current events, science,
music) to foster connections between school content and personal lives.

9:30–11:00 Reading Workshop Reading Workshop includes read-alouds, independent reading, reading conferences,
(MWF) and Writing and literature study groups. Writing Workshop includes activities at all phases
Workshop (TTh) in the writing cycle, from choosing a topic, to learning and sharing skills and
strategies of good writers, to self-editing and author’s circle.

11:00–12:00 Lunch and Recess

12:00–12:15 Chapter Book Read- Teacher chooses selections to read that are tied to aspects of the curriculum.
Aloud
12:15–1:15 Math Workshop Children investigate the purposes, processes, and content of the mathematical system
in natural contexts (e.g., calculating the most economical plan for a field trip or
interpreting results of a survey they designed).

1:15–2:30 Focused Studies Children explore integrated units of study related to broad themes such as change,
(Science or Social cycles, or systems, which include emphasis on the central role of oral and written
Studies Units) language.

2:30–2:50 Reflection, Friendship The class gathers materials to take home; then they reflect on the day together.
Circle, and Homework
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372 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

the standards depending more on children’s interests and needs than on the more
specific scope and sequence formats used in many traditional schools.
These teachers also have overarching personal and schoolwide learning goals
related to their shared philosophy of fostering a culture of inquiry to guide the struc-
ture of their classroom activities and their assessments. This philosophy involves inten-
tionally designing learning experiences connected to life outside the classroom based
on broad, integrative concepts that involve collaboration of teachers and students in
the learning process.

Key Assessment Practices

Kidwatching At the heart of all assessment taking place at the Center for Inquiry is kidwatching
An informal assessment technique (see Table 12.5). Kidwatching requires teachers to “watch carefully and listen closely
requiring teachers to watch carefully in order to provide optimal experiences for learning” (Mills et al., 2004). Mr. O’Keefe
and listen closely with the goal
of providing optimal learning always has a clipboard handy with a two-column sheet listing student names in the
experiences tailored to each child. first column and space for comments in the second. He jots down notes about student
questions, their reactions to activities, his reflections about next steps for them, and
other details that help him get to know every student’s preferences, strengths and
needs, and learning breakthroughs.
The significance of kidwatching at the Center for Inquiry clearly dovetails with
our emphasis throughout this text on the importance of formative assessment. Kid-
watching offers a framework for formative data collection that is personalized yet
systematic. Examining these notes can bring out patterns to help the learning process
move forward. For example, Mr. O’Keefe might notice that one child writes about
the same topic during several consecutive writing workshops, and so suggests a new
genre the next time. Kidwatching is also indispensable for diagnostic assessment.
Mr. O’Keefe says he would find it very difficult to begin teaching each fall without first
holding a reading conference and having a written conversation with each student in

TA B L E 1 2 . 5
Key Assessment Practices at the Center for Inquiry
Kidwatching: Assessment strategy requiring teachers to watch carefully and listen closely to
provide optimal learning experiences. Sample sources for kidwatching include the following:
Reading Teacher listens to and tape-records a student reading a book. Both
Conferences listen to the tape together and discuss their insights on the student’s
strengths, needs, and preferences as a reader.

Written Teacher and student hold a back and forth discussion in writing about
Conversations a book the student or the class is reading.

Morning Math Teacher designs a math challenge related to the class’s current math
Messages investigations. Students work individually on the morning message,
then one child describes the strategies he used to solve the challenge.
Other students then respond with questions, connections, and/or
appreciations.
Strategy Sharing At the end of the writing workshop, several authors describe a writing
strategy they believe others might be able to use, or describe a writing
dilemma they are experiencing and solicit advice from classmates.
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Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Classroom Examples 373

his class. Kidwatching occurs during structured assessment opportunities as well as

more unstructured observations over the course of a day.
Morning math messages and strategy sharing allow students to engage in
thoughtful reflection together. Individual comments provide clues to how each student
approaches problems, how they learn from each other, and what next steps should be
taken in the learning process. Making connections (e.g., “It looks like you are using
the rounding strategy we learned last week.” or “I found that I can use strong verbs in
writing nonfiction, not just fiction.”) is a particularly effective tool for helping students
generalize from one situation to another.
Not only is kidwatching used for diagnostic and formative assessment at the
Center for Inquiry, it is also used for summative assessment. Rather than using report
cards with letter grades, teachers at the Center instead issue narrative progress reports
(first and third nine weeks) and standards-based reports (second and fourth nine
weeks). The narrative reports include a description of the child’s growth as a writer,
reader, mathematician, and scientist/social scientist, as well as the child’s growth as a
learner in general. Teachers rely heavily on their kidwatching notes to assemble a
picture of each student’s learning. They also include a description of goals to work
toward next. In addition, the students and their parents each write an evaluation of
the student’s growth over that period and goals for the next one. Videotaping is also
used to capture learning and share student achievement with family members.
As you think about these individualized assessment strategies, they may appear
overwhelming to undertake all at once with a whole class—or several classes—of stu-
dents. But remember the teachers at the Center have evolved their practices across
time and did not implement all of these practices at once in all their classes. Instead,
they tried different approaches at different times and gradually incorporated and mod-
ified assessments to give them the most valuable information about students.
In addition, they intertwine assessment strategies with learning activities. For
example, paired written conversation is an instructional activity that helps students
clarify and sharpen their thinking and become more fluent writers. It also provides
rich opportunities to gather information about their prediction and analysis skills and
other aspects of student reading comprehension and writing patterns.

Teachers Assessing Themselves

Teachers at the Center for Inquiry hold a regular weekly meeting to examine their
classroom practices together using videotapes, examples of student work, and a range
of current issues related to teaching. They have reflected on many aspects of their work,
including development of the features of a supportive and effective learning commu-
nity, improving the assessment and celebration of student achievement, and fostering
a community of inquiry among both students and teachers (Jennings, 2001).

Connections to Fostering Democratic Participation

Classroom assessment practices at the Center for Inquiry also illustrate our three
democratic themes.

Equal Access to Educational Opportunity Because assessment and instruction at the

Center for Inquiry are individualized and tied closely to students’ initial levels of under-
standing and skills, equal access is fostered. Typically, barriers to participation (such as
less-developed reading or writing skills) can interfere with the accessibility of new learn-
ing for students who lag behind peers. But at the Center for Inquiry, activities that don’t
require specific entry-level skills coupled with kidwatching that provides tailored infor-
mation on each child allow for considerable differentiation of instruction. For example,
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374 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

the writing workshop allows attention to specific needs through authors’ circles and
individual writing conferences. During the math workshop, the students work together
in groups and coach each other in problem solving, so children at all levels benefit.
Another opportunity for providing additional literacy experiences for students
who need them is the weekly Literacy Club after school. Activities for this targeted
small group include fellowship and a snack, word games, and intensive reading and
writing activities aimed at accelerating growth, such as helping each other learn to use
effective strategies when encountering a difficult passage in the text. When the class is
working on a literature study of a particular book, Mr. O’Keefe has Literacy Club
students read ahead with coaching on strategies so they can participate more indepen-
dently and successfully with peers.

Development of Self-Governing Skills The Center for Inquiry encourages mastery

goals through specific classroom practices. As you recall, when students are guided by
mastery goals, they are motivated to understand and master learning tasks. They focus
on their own progress, looking inward rather than comparing themselves to peers for
confirmation of their learning, and they recognize the value of effort in increasing
learning. Classrooms promoting mastery goals provide varied, meaningful, and chal-
lenging tasks, offer student opportunities to participate in decision making, and
encourage students to focus on personal goals and track their own progress (Ames,
1992). In Table 12.6 you see listed some of the strategies used at the Center for Inquiry
supporting each classroom element that fosters mastery goals among students.
First, the Center for Inquiry explicitly builds curriculum based on the students’
ideas and interests. The focus on kidwatching as assessment can facilitate thoughtful
attention to student concerns and evolving interests. For example, Ms. Shamlin (2001)
describes the evolution of a unit on growth and change over time in her kindergarten
class, which began based on a student comment about changes she was observing in
the school. Then after a visit to the zoo to observe and develop hypotheses related to
growth and change of animals, another student suggested the class members design
expert projects on animals. As these projects were progressing, several students noticed
their animal lived in a rain forest. Student interest in rain forests next led to a study
of rain forests and then a social action project to collect aluminum cans to raise money

TA B L E 1 2 . 6
Center for Inquiry Assessment Strategies to Enhance Mastery Goals
Classroom Element Center for Inquiry Strategies

Varied, meaningful, • Building curriculum based on students’ ideas and interests

challenging tasks • Designing thematic units across disciplines that address real-
world issues
• Using kidwatching to embed assessment into instructional tasks

Students participate in • Student input into directions that learning takes

decision making • Self- and peer-assessment opportunities

Students focus on • Personalized individual assessment through kidwatching

personal goals, track • Student goal setting
own progress • Progress across time documented through videos, academic
products, kidwatching records
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Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Classroom Examples 375

for a rain forest protection organization. Because these explorations were grounded in
the natural progression of student interests, they also addressed real-world issues.
These engaging instructional units also incorporated key state standards related to
reading, writing, science, and social studies.
Second, at the Center for Inquiry, student participation in decision making, not
only about instruction but also about assessment, is part of everyday classroom life. For
example, when Ms. Shamlin’s class was designing the expert projects on animals, she
negotiated with them the required criteria and a list of suggestions. When Mr. O’Keefe
conducts reading conferences, he first solicits the students’ perceptions about themselves
as readers. When students participate in strategy-sharing sessions after the writing work-
shop, they, themselves, decide which strategies are worth sharing. And, at report-card
time, students complete a self-assessment of their progress during that marking period.
Finally, the individualized assessment embodied in the various kidwatching
strategies encourages students to focus on their own progress and not to compare
themselves to other students. In fact, the students would have a difficult time making
such comparisons because most assessments, such as reading conferences and written
conversations, are geared to the individual student’s level, interests, and needs.
All these elements contribute to Center for Inquiry students developing mastery
goals and high motivation for academic tasks. They know their opinions and questions
are valued. They know how to take action to achieve a goal. They are practicing the
self-governing skills necessary to make good decisions and to develop control over
their own lives as they become active, contributing citizens.

Development of Critical Thinking Skills As we discussed in Chapter 1, providing

opportunities to learn to make good judgments and critically analyze information we
receive is one of the essential functions of schools. Throughout the text we have
addressed methods for you to design high-quality assessment requiring higher-order
thinking by students. The assessment strategies at the Center for Inquiry provide addi-
tional concrete examples of fostering critical thinking among students. For example,
in reading conferences, students discuss with their teachers their own strengths and
needs as readers. Such work engages them from the start in developing their metacog-
nitive skills by engaging in the analyze cognitive strategies of Bloom’s taxonomy. Sim-
ilarly, a morning math message not only calls for students to solve a challenging
problem, it also requires them to respond to each other by questioning an answer they
think may be wrong, by considering more than one way to solve a problem, or by
making a creative connection to another issue that could shed light on the challenge.
Such work employs all the cognitive processes from understand to apply to analyze to
evaluate to create.

Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)

We next visit the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), a newly established public
charter middle school beginning with fifth grade, in Charlotte, NC. The mission of this
school is “to prepare students to thrive in the nation’s finest high schools and colleges
by cultivating the habits, character skills, and knowledge necessary for success.” It will
also “provide an education which enables students to lead full lives and empowers
them to be future leaders of Charlotte and agents of change in the world beyond.” This
mission statement emphasizes cultivation of the constellation of behaviors accompany-
ing success in the larger society, including leadership skills for democratic participa-
tion. KIPP Charlotte is one of 60 KIPP schools around the country focusing on
underserved students, primarily in urban settings. At KIPP Charlotte, 95 percent of
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376 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

TA B L E 1 2 . 7
Typical Schedule at KIPP Charlotte
Time Activity

7:30–8:00 a.m. Morning Meeting: All students and staff have breakfast, announcements,
discussion of whole school issues, and silent reflection.

8:00–9:20 Math

9:25–10:45 English

10:50–12:15 History

12:15–1:15 Lunch with all students and staff

1:15–2:30 Study hall and “No Shortcuts” (reading intervention for lowest third of
students)

2:35–4:00 Science

4:00–5:00 Silent sustained reading (SSR) and “No Excuses” (math intervention for
lowest third of students)

the students are African American, 5 percent are Hispanic, and 65 percent are eligible
for free or reduced-fee lunch.
We focus on the fifth-grade class. These students are termed “the Pride of 2015”
because they will begin college in 2015, and each class is a family (as in a pride of
lions). The outline of a sample daily schedule appears in Table 12.7. Notice the school
day is much longer than the typical middle-school day. This is because all KIPP schools
accept many students with poor academic records—the average KIPP student starts
fifth grade at the 34th percentile in reading and the 44th percentile in math. To enable
KIPP students to catch up to peers, they spend 60 percent more time in school than
average public school students. In addition to the longer day, “KIPPsters” attend school
every other Saturday and for three weeks during the summer.

Aligning Goals, Instruction, and Assessment

During a week in June, well before school started, the KIPP Charlotte teachers devel-
oped their curriculum using the backward design approach described in Chapter 2.
They used the state standards as their broad learning goals describing what they wanted
students to know and be able to do after a year’s instruction. They broke each of these
Objectives learning goals down into a series of objectives, or narrower, concrete descriptions of
Measurable and concrete descriptions desired understanding and skills that could be measured with some precision. They
of desired skills that are derived then worked backward from the objectives to design assessments and then lessons. To
from learning goals.
keep students and teachers clearly focused, in each classroom the objective to be
addressed each day is written on the board. The teachers have also designed their
assessments keyed to each objective.

Key Assessment Strategies

The foundational assessment strategies are all directly tied to the objectives and the
state standards from which they are drawn. The KIPP Charlotte approach thus strongly
emphasizes alignment between learning goals and assessment, and it prevents mean-
dering to topics not directly tied to the learning goals. Using assessments formatively
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Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Classroom Examples 377

TA B L E 1 2 . 8
Key Assessment Strategies at KIPP Charlotte
Diagnostic At the beginning of the school year, all students take a diagnostic
Assessments assessment designed by the teachers directly aligned with the state
standards in each discipline.

Benchmark Every six weeks in each core subject, students take a test tied to the
Tests standards worked on during that marking period. For each subject,
students receive results keyed to each objective with a grade of “A”
(90%), “B” (80%), or “NY” (Not Yet—below 80%).

Mastery For each “NY” objective, students re-study or request tutoring to

Quizzes improve and are then allowed to take a mastery quiz on that
objective so they learn the material and improve their grade.
Exit Tickets Most days at the end of the science and math periods (and to a lesser
extent, English and History), students are asked to complete an exit
ticket requiring them to work a problem or summarize what they
learned that day. These are used to check understanding and plan
instruction.

Checks for During instruction, teachers frequently ask for thumbs up if students
Understanding agree or thumbs down if they don’t.

to carefully keep track of student performance on each objective also helps shape the
next steps in instruction. You can see key assessment strategies in Table 12.8.
These assessments offer a range of information for teachers and students to
enhance learning. For example, the diagnostic tests let Ms. Adams, the math teacher,
know that she needed to start with third- and fourth-grade objectives because her fifth
graders needed a thorough review. The diagnostic tests also determine which students
needed more intense intervention, and the lowest third of the class receives extra
instruction in math and reading. Similarly, tracking benchmark test results (Figure 12.2)
allows students and teachers to determine strengths and weaknesses and to work to
improve in specific areas by later taking mastery quizzes. At first, the teachers weren’t
sure whether students would appreciate such detailed feedback, but as Mr. Pomis, the
science teacher, told us, “The more we share the more they get excited about it.”

Teachers Assessing Themselves

These assessments provide rich material for teacher reflection leading to instructional
modifications. For specific objectives on which students perform poorly, the teachers
design additional lessons and assessments. The teachers also discuss schoolwide issues
during common planning times. One recent discussion addressed ways to emphasize
writing more across all four core subject areas.

Connections to Fostering Democratic Participation

Throughout this text, we have aimed to explain how effective classroom assessment
practices connect to the larger goal of preparing students to take their place as active
participants in a democratic society. Classroom assessment practices at KIPP Charlotte
illustrate the themes we have stressed.
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378 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

I Am a Meteorologist.
I am a science genius.
My name is Keyshawn Davis.
My overall average on Benchmark One is 86%.

Number Description B1 Mastery Quiz

Objective 1 I can explain how the sun heats the earth 80%
during day and night.

Objective 2 I can explain how the sun heats the earth 60% 80%
during the four seasons.

Objective 3 I can explain how the sun heats the land, 100%
water, and air.
Objective 4 I can identify major air masses in North 60% 90%
America.

Objective 5 I can create a bar graph. 100%

Objective 6 I can draw conclusions from a bar graph and 100%

data table.

Objective 7 I can explain that intelligence is not fixed; 100%

hard work increases intelligence.

I strive for 100%.

FIGURE 12.2 Sample Student Results After Benchmark One in Science and Subsequent
Mastery Quiz

Equal Access to Educational Opportunity One important way all KIPP schools focus
on closing the achievement gap and providing equal access to educational opportunity
is through extra instructional time allowing for accelerated learning. Because many
KIPPsters start fifth grade well behind typical peers, a basic necessity is to provide a
60 percent longer school day than typical middle schools so that they will have more
time to catch up. They must make more than a year’s growth in a year’s time. In addition,
KIPP Charlotte provides extensive intervention programs in math and English for the
lowest third of the class during times that do not interfere with the four core courses.
Another element related to KIPP Charlotte efforts to help students close the
achievement gap is a culture of high expectations. For example, when Ms. Young’s
English students were designing sentences using the prefix “bi,” one of the students
offered a sentence with the word “bicycle.” She stopped him saying, “Why did you use
bicycle? You forfeited an opportunity to expand your vocabulary,” because he did not
choose a less-common word.
Toward the end of science class, Mr. Pomis said, “If your table is super focused, you’ll
get the homework first.” This statement conveyed the belief that getting the homework was
something to be anticipated with excitement, not something to dread. Similarly, when ask-
ing a question, he paused as hands flew up saying, “I’m waiting for 100%,” communicating
the assumption that every student should know the answer and should be participating.
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Assessment in the Context of a Democratic Society: Classroom Examples 379

The use of “Not Yet” grading by all KIPP Charlotte teachers also sends a message
of high expectations. On benchmark tests, students receive an “A,” a “B,” or “NY” for
each objective. “Not Yet” implies the student certainly will reach the objective when
the student puts in more work. Providing opportunities to work on “NY” objectives
also conveys the expectation that everyone will reach them.
A recent independent evaluation of a national sample of KIPP schools showed stu-
dents who spent fifth through seventh grades at a KIPP school improved on the Stanford
Achievement Test, a nationally norm-referenced large-scale achievement test, from aver-
age scores at the 34th percentile to average scores at the 58th percentile in reading. In
math they grew from the 44th percentile to the 83rd percentile in those three years.

Development of Self-Governing Skills KIPP Charlotte teachers also encourage mas-

tery goals through a number of classroom practices. In Table 12.9 you see some of the
strategies used at KIPP Charlotte supporting each classroom element fostering mastery
goals among students.
A few examples illustrate tasks building on students’ ideas and interests. When
learning how to construct timelines in history, Ms. Flowers first had students design
a timeline based on their own lives. In English class, Ms. Young had students generate
topics for their persuasive essays. Some of these topics appear in Table 12.10. Similarly,

TA B L E 1 2 . 9
KIPP Charlotte Assessment Strategies That Embody Classroom
Elements to Enhance Mastery Goals
Classroom Element KIPP Charlotte Strategies

Varied, meaningful, • Challenging tasks requiring higher-order thinking aligned

challenging tasks with state standards.
• Building tasks based on students’ ideas and interests.

Students participate in • Students decide when they are ready to take mastery quizzes.
decision making • Self-assessment opportunities during instruction.
• Classes “co-investigate” benchmark test trends and problem-
solve next steps.

Students focus on • Alignment of curriculum and assessment allows specific

personal goals, track articulation of each student’s strengths and needs for
own progress personalized goal setting.
• Progress across time documented on spreadsheets for each
objective in each of the four core subjects.

TA B L E 1 2 . 1 0
Student-Generated Persuasive Writing Topics
Should KIPPsters have more days at school?

Should KIPPsters have the opportunity to eat dinner with teachers every Friday?

Should KIPPsters create their own lunch menu?

Should KIPPsters be allowed to work in groups during study hall?

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380 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

when students do independent reading, they complete written questions about their
book, such as “Explain how this book connects to your life.” and “To whom would
you recommend this book and why?”
In relation to the second classroom element, student participation in decision mak-
ing, the assessments at KIPP are set up so that students must make crucial decisions about
their learning. They can individually decide how to study for and when to take mastery
quizzes to improve their grades on benchmark tests. After benchmark tests, an entire class
“co-investigates” the resulting data on a class spreadsheet. They discuss trends, major
successes and shortcomings, and areas on which the class should focus. As a class, they
look for root causes of poor performance and problem solve how to address them.
In relation to the third classroom element, personal goals and progress monitor-
ing, students are encouraged in every core subject to focus on their individual goals
and track their own progress toward meeting the state standards. The careful alignment
of the benchmark assessments to the standards allows students to see their strengths
and weaknesses clearly. The “Not Yet” grading system and the use of mastery quizzes
allows them to work toward their personal goals and master the understanding and
skills they personally need.

Development of Critical Thinking Skills The ability to think critically is essential for
citizens of a democracy. The assessment strategies at KIPP Charlotte provide some
examples of fostering critical thinking among students.
Students are challenged to think critically with many types of writing assignments.
In science, at the end of a unit, students write five-paragraph information essays to sum-
marize what they have learned about, for example, meteorology. In English, they con-
struct persuasive essays. This focus on nonfiction writing helps students learn to
formulate ideas with clarity and precision. It also provides teachers with insights about
student strategy use, thinking processes, and what challenges and misconceptions remain.
This information is invaluable for identifying obstacles—vocabulary issues, reasoning
problems, writing fluency—to student learning to be addressed later in instruction.
To encourage analysis skills, teachers design mastery quizzes to cover more than
one skill (e.g., both ordering and estimating in math). In the directions, students are
told to do only the items addressing the skill on which they are working. Thus they
must be able to discriminate among different types of problems, which requires them
to move up a level from solving problems to analyzing characteristics of problems
related to different skills.
Similarly, in English class, Ms. Young often asks students to describe strategies
they found useful in completing a homework assignment. Students must think not
merely about appropriate answers to questions, they must also decide which steps they
took to arrive at them were most effective. Stressing these metacognitive skills helps
students monitor themselves so they become more efficient at learning.

 KOFEYDEMOCRA
TO ASSESSMENT IN THE CONTEXT
TIC PARTICIPATION
As we look at what our two schools have in common, we see that formative assess-
ment—checking where students are in relation to the learning goals, providing feed-
back, and then offering opportunities for improvement—is the key. We believe that
formative assessment is the foundation on which skills for democratic participation
can be built. Using formative assessment also addresses all three themes we have woven
throughout this book, about using assessment practices to help students become effec-
tive citizens in a democracy (see Table 12.11).
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Key to Assessment in the Context of Democratic Participation 381

TA B L E 1 2 . 1 1
Formative Assessment and Promoting Democratic Values
Formative Assessment Characteristic Democratic Theme Addressed

• Helps struggling students most by making standards Equal access to educational

of evaluation more understandable and concrete opportunity
• Reduces negative feedback by focusing on
opportunities for improvement

• Emphasizes monitoring of self-improvement Development of self-governing

across time skills (such as independent
• Encourages internalization of standards of thought and a sense of
quality work responsibility) for democratic
• Fosters mastery goals participation

• Requires complex tasks requiring higher-order Development of critical thinking

thinking skills skills that enable good decision
• Increases student analysis of own work rather than making
relying only on external standards

Formative Assessment and Equal Access

First, formative assessment helps struggling students the most, because it allows them
to articulate what stronger students tend to do on their own as they compare their
work to the expected standards. A focus on feedback and opportunities to improve
also reduces the negative criticism struggling students frequently receive, discouraging
them about what they cannot do. For example, at both KIPP, with “Not Yet” grading,
and the Center for Inquiry with narrative report cards, poorer performing students are
not irrevocably labeled as failing. All students, wherever they start, can focus on making
progress and learning more. They can feel positive about their ongoing development
as learners by seeing their progress across time. Effective formative assessment helps
you provide equal access to knowledge and close achievement gaps because it allows
all students to make the most of the learning context.

Formative Assessment and Self-Governing Skills

Second, formative assessment, because it provides opportunities to close the gap
between where students are and where they need to be, emphasizes student monitoring
of their own improvement across time. With opportunities to make progress, students
also begin to develop concrete ways to understand and internalize the standards of
quality for their efforts. They no longer passively rely on the teacher to be the sole
judge of their work. They begin to develop the mastery goals that increase motivation
to make them lifelong learners. For example, both KIPP Charlotte and the Center for
Inquiry encourage student decision making and a focus on individual students’ learning
gains. These aspects of formative assessment facilitate mastery goals and the habits of
mind needed to cultivate the lifelong curiosity and desire for knowledge required for
active functioning in a democratic society.

Formative Assessment and Critical Thinking

Third, formative assessment requires students to engage in critical thinking and use
thinking skills at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. At KIPP Charlotte and the
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382 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

Center for Inquiry, students engage in frequent writing tasks and other complex assign-
ments as formative assessment. Finally, because formative assessment involves compar-
ing one’s own work to a standard for the purpose of improvement, engaging in self- and
peer-assessment fosters the growth of critical thinking. Activities such as strategy shar-
ing, checks for understanding, and student contributions to rubric development are
examples we have seen at our two schools.
We hope this review has consolidated your understanding about formative
assessment and the many ways formative assessment can be embedded in your
classroom practice. As a guide for applying formative assessment across learning
activities, Table 12.12 provides formative strategies for informal classroom activities,
Table 12.13 offers strategies for adapting quizzes and tests for formative purposes,
and Table 12.14 lists some suggestions for formative assessment related to perfor-
mance products.

TA B L E 1 2 . 1 2
Formative Assessment Strategies for Informal Classroom Activities
Oral questions requiring student justification of their answers.

Oral questions at higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy (see Box 4.1 and Tables 4.4 and 4.5 in
Chapter 4).

Journal writing requiring application of concepts, interpretation of data, making

connections.

Quick writes to key questions about learning as homework or at the end of class (e.g., exit
or entry tickets).

Instructional tasks that build in opportunities for formative assessment (e.g., grocery store
“stations,” reading conversations).

Use of white boards or hand signals for student answers or reactions during
instruction.

TA B L E 1 2 . 1 3
Strategies for Adapting Quizzes and Tests for Formative Purposes
Ungraded quizzes.

Collaborative quizzes where students must agree on the correct answer.

Morning math messages where students work on a problem or challenge alone, then share
questions, connections, appreciations.

Label test questions by content area and allow students to analyze strengths and
weaknesses of their results across the content areas tested.

After feedback on a test or quiz, provide an opportunity for students to close the
gap between where they are and where they need to be using mastery quizzes or
other methods.
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Now It’s Your Turn: Setting Personal Goals for Classroom Assessment 383

TA B L E 1 2 . 1 4
Strategies for Formative Assessment Related to Performance Products
Discuss rubric criteria and their application to sample products.

Authors’ Chair where students share writing and receive feedback from classmates and
teachers.

Observation and critique of videotaped performance or activity with individuals or groups

(e.g., music, dance, art, reading, ESL classes).

Critical reflection by student on a work in progress using rubric for the product.

Individual conferences with students to check progress on major product.

 NGOALS
OW IT’S YOUR TURN: SETTING PERSONAL
FOR CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT
We have learned many important lessons about human behavior throughout our
careers in education. One of the most important, as we discussed in Chapter 5, is the
effectiveness of setting goals and monitoring progress for achieving important ends—
including efforts to help us become better teachers. When you write down your goals,
you make them tangible. Explicit goal setting allows you to develop a clear personal
vision of what you want to accomplish based on a strong rationale for why you want
to accomplish it. Monitoring progress toward your goal also provides feedback and
reinforcement that keeps you on track and bolsters your persistence (Locke & Latham,
2002). In terms of usefulness of application to work settings, goal setting is one of the
highest-rated theories of motivation (Latham et al., 1997). We would like you to take
a few moments now to follow a few steps to set a goal to incorporate assessment
strategies that foster preparation for democratic life among your students.

Personal Goal-Setting Steps

As you think about one or more goals, we suggest following several steps recom-
mended for personal goals for teachers and students (Radar, 2005). These steps incor-
porate the important issues we emphasized related to goal setting in Chapter 5.

1. Choose a Specific Goal and Write It Down

In thinking about designing a goal, you should explore assessment strategies you have
never tried, and you should focus on the next term when you will be teaching. Your
personal goal should also fit well with your teaching style, your subject matter, your
overarching personal goals, and the age group with which you work. The best goals
are as specific as possible so you have a clear picture of what you are aiming for, and
you can tell when you have accomplished it. They are measurable in some way. They
should also challenge you and not be too easy to attain. For example, if you wrote a
goal simply stating, “I will use formative assessment,” you are not being specific enough
to have a tangible ambition to set your sights on, and if you ask your class a couple of
“Why?” questions one day, you would be able to reach it. If, instead, you write some-
thing like “I will design a rubric with my speech students to use for self-assessment
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384 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

of video clips of a speech as they are preparing it for presentation,” you have something
a lot more concrete (and challenging) to work from.
If you think you lack the understanding and skills to use some of the types of
formative assessment, you are not alone. A gap between understanding and use of
effective strategies often occurs as teachers try new formative practices (Gearhart et al.,
2006). If you think you need more training, exposure, or experience, you can develop
a goal providing for that. For example, your initial goal might be to (1) find two teach-
ers at your school who use students to help design rubrics for self-assessment, and (2)
secure their permission to allow you to observe the process during your planning
period. The key is first choosing a specific goal to accomplish that fits you and your
school environment and then getting it down on paper. This action fosters your com-
mitment to achieve the goal (Locke & Latham, 2002).

2. Decide a Time When Your Goal Will Be Achieved

Specifying a target date to achieve your goal adds to its specificity and helps you focus
your effort and commitment. Shorter-term goals are easier to shoot for and accomplish
than longer-term goals. We recommend a four- to six-week time frame for accomplish-
ing most personal goals as reasonable for teachers. Six weeks doesn’t seem so far away
that you find it hard to be motivated, yet it is distant enough so you can undertake
the sustained and comprehensive action needed for a nontrivial goal.

3. Develop a Plan
Making a list of obstacles that may impede completion of your goal along with actions to
take to eliminate those threats is the first important step in developing your plan. This step
helps you foresee problems you may run into and gives you an opportunity to anticipate
ways to deal with them and make them manageable. It also increases the likelihood of
success, so your motivation increases. For example, you may expect you will have difficulty
finding time to squeeze out of your busy schedule to spend with students to design that
rubric for your speech class. Pull out your weekly planner and decide right away which
of your usual activities you might shorten or forgo so this activity can be scheduled.
After you have identified and dealt with potential obstacles, you can make a list
of the actions you will take to reach the goal. For example, consultation with other
teachers could be useful, as well as developing documents or figures to support the
process. One of the actions you list should be reviewing progress toward your goal
each week. In fact, you may want to design a mastery monitoring checklist or graph
(Chapter 5) to help you plot your progress toward the goal. Each time you complete
an action, you can then tangibly see your movement toward the goal.

4. Self-Evaluate
Here we find again the importance of teacher reflection. The inquiry stance we have
talked about since Chapter 1 can aid you as you aim to reach new personal goals
associated with designing classroom assessments fostering the understanding and skills
students need to become responsible citizens in a democracy. A formative-assessment
approach to dealing with setbacks realistically acknowledges that reaching your goal
may require some trial and error.
We hope that as you have studied this text, you have learned new skills to help
you achieve your goals as a professional who meets students where they are and helps
all students learn to their potential. Perhaps more important, we hope we have con-
vinced you why that aspiration is so crucial for our future, our children’s future, and
the future of democratic societies around the world.
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Chapter Review Questions 385

KEY CHAPTER POINTS

We began the chapter with six fundamental guidelines for effective classroom assess-
ment: begin with the end in mind, find out what students know, check as you go, teach
students to check as you go, use rubrics creatively to reinforce attainment of learning
goals, and assess yourself.
Next, we discussed the issue of efficiency in classroom assessment. We described
a number of strategies to help reduce the assessment load, including choosing assess-
ment opportunities and grading selectively, choosing a single focus for feedback,
encouraging student record keeping, developing an assessment bank, using a modified
table of specifications for tests, and enlisting students to help design assessment items
and scoring guides.
We followed with classroom examples of assessment practices to foster skills for
democratic participation. We introduced the Center for Inquiry and the KIPP Char-
lotte program. Even though teachers at these two schools have different assumptions
and philosophies underlying their work, they all use their assessment practices to pro-
vide equal access to educational opportunity and to foster self-governing skills and
critical thinking skills among students.
Next, we discussed the importance of formative assessment in fostering prepara-
tion for democratic life. Finally, we laid out steps for personal goal setting so you could
develop a specific goal for your own practice. The steps include choosing a specific
goal and writing it down, deciding on a deadline for achieving your goal, developing
a plan of action, and self-evaluating. These steps should enable you to design and carry
out effective assessments useful for you and your students.

CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Think about the six essential guidelines for assessment. Which do you believe is
most important, and why do you think so?
2. Describe at least two reasons why beginning with the end in mind is crucial to
effective instruction.
3. Why is self- and peer assessment helpful for preparing students for participating
in a democratic society? Use a specific example from your own discipline to
support your argument.
4. Think about three typical assessment practices in your own discipline. How can
the strategies for efficiency (Table 12.2) be applied to make these typical
practices more efficient?
5. Go to the World Wide Web and find at least three sources you could use for your
own assessment bank. Print URLs, sample items, and the learning goals they address.
6. Find three other specific sources (e.g., texts, practicing teachers, professional
organizations) for your assessment bank and provide sample items from them.
7. In your opinion, what strategies are most helpful for closing achievement gaps?
8. Describe two specific ways you might incorporate kidwatching into your
classroom assessment practices.
9. Compare the philosophy and methods of KIPP Charlotte and the Center for
Inquiry. How do they each promote mastery goals? Which approach are you
most comfortable with and why?
10. Describe one classroom assessment practice from each of the two schools that
you might be willing to incorporate into your own teaching. Why do you think
this practice would work for you?
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386 Chapter 12 Tying It All Together

11. What evidence for the six essential guidelines for assessment do you see among
practices at KIPP Charlotte and the Center for Inquiry?
12. Design a specific, challenging short-term goal related to incorporating
assessment strategies fostering skills for democratic participation among your
students using the four steps for personal goal setting at the end of the chapter.

HELPFUL WEBSITES
http://www.nsta.org/
The National Science Teachers Association website has a wealth of resources targeted to different
grade levels that can contribute to your assessment notebook, as well as listserv
connections, publications, and recommendations on lessons and materials.
http://www.ncte.org/
The National Council of Teachers of English website has teaching resource collections related to
many aspects of teaching English, including classroom assessments. It also features
materials related to a wide range of topics from grammar to poetry.

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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬ ‫ﱲ‬
GLOSSARY

A C
achievement gap The disparity in performance between ceiling effect Occurs when a student attains the maximum
student groups (e.g., ethnicity, gender, and/or socioeconomic score or “ceiling” for an assessment and thus prevents
status) on achievement measures such as large-scale tests and appraisal of the full extent of the student’s knowledge.
graduation rates. checklist A list of key elements of a task organized in a
achievement tests Instruments designed to measure how logical sequence allowing confirmation of each element.
much students have learned in various academic content cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) The
areas, such as science or math. formal language that requires expertise in abstract scholarly
action research The process of examining and improving vocabulary used in academic settings in which language
teaching practices and student outcomes using an inquiry itself, rather than contextual cues, must bear the primary
stance. meaning.
affective domain Responses related to students’ emotional cognitive domain Processes related to thinking and
or internal reaction to subject matter. reasoning.
alignment The adjustment of one element or object in complex multiple-choice A type of selected-response item
relation to others. that consists of a stem followed by choices that are grouped
alternate-choice item Type of question that has only two into more than one set.
options instead of the three to five options of a conventional confidence interval The range of scores that a student
multiple-choice item. would attain if the test were taken many times.
analytic rubric A scoring guide that contains one or more construct The basic idea, theory, or concept in mind
performance criteria for evaluating a task and proficiency whenever measurement is attempted.
levels for each criterion. construct-related evidence All information collected to
aptitude tests Instruments that estimate students’ potential examine the validity of an assessment.
or capacity for learning apart from what they have already constructed-response items Questions in which students
achieved and with less reference to specific academic content. must create the response rather than select one provided.
assessment The variety of methods used to determine what Examples include short-answer and essay items.
students know and are able to do before, during, and after content-based essays A prompt that presents students with
instruction. a question or task that assesses student knowledge in a
assessment bank An organized collection of assessments subject area. Students respond in a paragraph or several
that can be modified and reused with different content and paragraphs.
different groups. content-related evidence Refers to the adequacy of the
sampling of specific content, which contributes to validity.
B content representativeness Ensuring that the assessment
backward design A process of planning instruction and adequately represents the constructs addressed in the
assessment. After learning goals are identified, assessments learning goals.
measuring student achievement of learning goals are contextual invisibility The concept that certain groups,
designed, and only then is instruction developed. customs, or lifestyles are not represented or are under-
basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) The represented in curriculum and assessment materials.
informal language used to communicate in everyday social conventional multiple-choice items Questions that begin
situations where many contextual cues exist (such as gestures, with a stem and offer three to five answer options.
facial expressions, and objects) to enhance comprehension. criterion-referenced grading A grading process in which
benchmark tests Assessments tied explicitly to academic student work is compared to a specific criterion or standard
standards and administered at regular intervals to determine of mastery.
extent of student mastery. criterion-referenced scoring A scoring process in which
bias An inclination or a preference that interferes with the individual student’s score is compared to predefined
impartiality. standards. Also termed standards-based scoring.

388
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Glossary 389

criterion-related evidence Information that examines a grade equivalent score A number representing the grade
relationship between one assessment and an established level at which the median students get the same number of
measure for the purposes of discerning validity. questions correct as your student.
curriculum-based measurement One form of general grouped frequency distribution A frequency distribution
outcome measurement in which frequent brief assessments that groups scores in intervals (e.g., all scores in the 90–100%
are used in the basic skill areas of reading, math, spelling, range are plotted together as one point on the distribution).
and written expression to monitor student progress and growth portfolio An organized collection of student work
provide information for teacher decision making. gathered to document student development of skills and
strategies over time.
D H
diagnostic assessment Assessment at the early stages of a
halo effect Effect that occurs when a teacher’s judgments
school year or a unit that provides the teacher with informa-
about one aspect of a student influence the teacher’s
tion about what students already know and are able to do.
judgments about other qualities of that student.
differentiation or differentiated instruction Using
historical distortion Presenting a single interpretation of
students’ current understanding and skills, readiness levels,
an issue, perpetuating oversimplification of complex issues,
and interests to tailor instruction to meet individual needs.
or avoiding controversial topics.
disaggregation of scores Separating the scores of a large
holistic rubric A scoring guide that provides a single score
group of students into smaller, more meaningful groups
representing overall quality across several criteria.
(such as gender, disability status, or socioeconomic status) to
determine whether differences among these groups exist
related to achievement.
I
distracters Incorrect options in multiple-choice questions. individualized education plan (IEP) The program designed
documentation portfolio An organized body of student each year for a student with disabilities by the parents and
work that provides information for evaluating student teachers who work with that student.
achievement status for accountability purposes. inferences Assumptions or conclusions based on observa-
tions and experience.
informative writing A composition in which the author
E describes ideas, conveys messages, or provides instructions.
effort optimism The idea that effort brings rewards. For inquiry stance An approach to dealing with challenges in
example, if you work hard in school, you will learn more. the classroom that involves identifying problems, collecting
environmental sources of error Extraneous factors in the relevant data, making judgments, and then modifying
assessment context that can influence scores on an assessment. practices based on the process to bring about improvement
error The element of imprecision involved in any in teaching and learning.
measurement. internal consistency The degree to which all items in an
essay item A prompt that presents students with a question assessment are related to one another and therefore can be
or task to which the student responds in a paragraph or assumed to measure the same thing.
several paragraphs. interpretive exercise A selected-response item that is
extrapolated Estimated outside the known range. preceded by material that a student must analyze to answer
the question.
interrater reliability The measure of the agreement between
F two raters.
formative assessment Monitoring student progress during item-to-item carryover Effect that occurs when a teacher’s
instruction and learning activities, which includes feedback scoring of an essay is influenced by a student’s performance
and opportunities to improve. on the previous essay items in the same test.
frequency distribution A display of the number of students
who attained each score, ordered from lowest to highest score. J–K
frequency polygon A line graph in which the frequencies
kidwatching An informal assessment technique requiring
for each score are plotted as points, and a line connects
teachers to watch carefully and listen closely in an effort to
those points.
provide optimal experiences for learning.

G L
general outcome measurement A method of monitoring learning goals Learning outcomes, objectives, aims, and
progress that uses several brief, similar tasks (e.g., reading targets.
aloud in grade-level stories for one minute) that can indicate local norm A norm group made up of test takers from a
achievement of a learning goal. restricted area (e.g., school district).
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390 Glossary

M norm group The group chosen by a test designer for the initial
mastery goals Academic goals that focus on a desire to administration of a test to obtain a distribution of typical scores.
understand and accomplish the task and that assume ability Subsequently, test takers’ performances are compared to the
can increase. scores of the norm group to determine their percentile ranks and
mastery monitoring A method of monitoring progress by similar scores when using a norm-referenced scoring system.
tracking student completion of several different tasks that, when norm-referenced grading Assigning grades according to a
all are completed, indicates achievement of the learning goal. distribution (e.g., 10% of the students will get an “A,” 20%
matching format Assessment form in which two parallel will get a “B,” 40% will receive a “C”).
columns of items (termed premises and responses) are listed “Not Yet” grading A grading system in which students
and the student indicates which items from each column receive an “A,” a “B,” or “NY” (not yet) for each learning goal.
belong together in pairs. “NY” implies that all students will reach the goal when they
mean A measure of central tendency that is the average put in more work, conveying high expectations and promoting
of all scores in a distribution. It is calculated by adding all the connection between student effort and achievement.
scores together, then dividing by the number of scores.
median A measure of central tendency that is the exact
O
objectives Measurable and concrete descriptions of desired
midpoint of a set of scores.
skills that are derived from learning goals.
metacognition The process of analyzing and thinking
options The potential answers with one correct response
about one’s own thinking, enabling such skills as monitoring
and several plausible incorrect responses in the multiple-
progress, staying on task, and self-correcting errors.
choice assessment format.
microaggressions Brief, everyday remarks or behaviors
outliers Extremely high or low scores differing from typical
that inadvertently send denigrating messages to the receiver.
scores.
misalignment Occurs when learning goals, instruction,
overinterpretation Incorrect assumptions and conclusions
and/or assessment are not congruent.
drawn when interpreting scores that are not warranted by
mode The score achieved by more students than any other.
the data available.
morning math messages A math challenge each morning
related to the class’s current math investigations. P
multiple means of engagement The variety of possible
percentile or percentile rank A score indicating the percent-
methods used to keep student interest and participation
age of students in the norm group at or below the same score.
strong in a universal design for learning framework.
percentile bands A range of percentile scores that
multiple means of expression The variety of possible
incorporates the standard error of measurement.
methods in which students may respond to instruction or
performance assessments Assessments that require students
assessment tasks in a universal design for learning framework.
to construct a response to a task or prompt or to otherwise
multiple means of representation The variety of possible
demonstrate their achievement of a learning goal.
methods by which instructional or assessment material is pre-
performance criteria The key elements of a performance
sented to students in a universal design for learning framework.
specified in a scoring guide.
multiple true-false items Several choices follow a scenario
performance goals Academic goals that focus on
or question and the student indicates whether each choice is
performing well in front of others and that assume ability is
correct or incorrect.
fixed. Often contrasted with mastery goals.
persuasive writing A composition in which the author
attempts to influence the reader to take action or create change.
N portfolio A purposefully organized collection of student work.
narrative reports Written descriptions of student achievement process The procedure a student uses to complete a
and progress each marking period. performance task.
narrative writing A form of composition in which the product The tangible outcome or end result of a
author relates a story or personal experience. performance task.
negative suggestion effect Concern that appearance in proficiency levels The description of each level of quality
print lends plausibility to erroneous information. of a performance criterion along a continuum in an analytic
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) U.S. federal law aimed to or holistic rubric.
improve public schools by increasing accountability standards. prompt The stem (i.e., directions) of an essay.
normal curve or normal distribution The theoretically psychomotor domain Processes related to perceptual and
bell-shaped curve thought to characterize many attributes in motor skills.
nature and many human traits.
normal curve equivalent (NCE) A scale ranging between 1 Q–R
and 99.9 that has equal intervals between all the scores along range The distance between the lowest and highest scores
the continuum. attained on an assessment.
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Glossary 391

reliability The degree to which scores on an assessment are T

consistent and stable. table A visual representation of relationships between
respondent The student completing the assessment. different pieces of information.
responsiveness to intervention (RTI) An approach in table of specifications A chart that lists the test content
general education that involves collecting data to determine and specifies the number or percentage of test items that
the degree to which underachieving students profit from cover each content area.
specific instruction targeting their needs. taxonomy A classification framework.
rubric Scoring guide with information about levels of testing accommodations Exceptions to strict standardization
quality. practices allowing students to demonstrate their learning
without altering the basic meaning of the score.
S testing modification Changes in testing procedures (e.g.,
scaffolding Temporary support allowing students to meet a simplification of test questions or eliminating some alter-
challenge and increase their understanding. Examples include natives) that could alter the meaning of a student’s test score.
pictorial or graphic organizers, note-taking guides, breakdown test-retest reliability A measure of the degree of stability bet-
of task into smaller components. ween two administrations of the same test to the same students.
scale score A score classifying a student’s performance on a test-to-test carryover Effect that occurs when a teacher
test based on the arbitrary numbers that the test’s designers inadvertently compares a student’s response to the responses
have assigned for its mean and standard deviation. of other students whose papers precede the student’s essay.
scoring guides Instruments that specify criteria for rating triangulation The process of developing an accurate
examinee responses. These include checklists, analytic rubrics, conclusion based on several sources.
and holistic rubrics. trick questions Questions intentionally designed to mislead
self-assessment Process in which students evaluate their the test taker to provide the wrong answer.
own work, usually during formative assessment. true-false format Items that provide a statement, also
short-answer items Items in which students supply short referred to as a proposition, that the student must determine
responses, such as a single word, a phrase, or a few sentences. to be correct or incorrect.
showcase portfolio An organized collection of student true score The score that would represent the actual degree
work designed to illustrate their finest accomplishments in of understanding or skill shown on the assessment if it were
meeting the learning goals. perfectly accurate.
standard error of measurement (SEM) An estimate
indicating the average magnitude of error for a test. U
standard deviation The average distance between the
unfair penalization Putting students who are not familiar
individual scores and the mean of the group score.
with the content, examples, or language of an assessment at a
standardized test A test that is administered, scored, and
disadvantage compared to those who are familiar with them.
interpreted the same way for everyone taking it.
universal design for learning (UDL) A framework for under-
standards-based grading Grading based on an inter-
standing the types of accommodations that should be considered
pretation of a student’s degree of mastery of the learning
for diverse learners. The focus is on proactively designing
goals, sometimes based on periodic benchmark tests.
instruction and assessment to reduce barriers by focusing on
stanine A standardized score indicating where a student’s
three areas: multiple means of representation, multiple means
score falls in relation to the norm group when the distribution
of expression, and multiple means of engagement.
of scores is divided into nine equal parts. Stanine scores have
a mean of five and a standard deviation of two.
stem The premise of a multiple-choice item that usually V
takes the form of a question or an incomplete statement. validity The extent to which an assessment supports accurate,
stereotypical representation Depicting social groups in an representative, and relevant inferences (e.g., conclusions,
oversimplified, clichéd manner in assessments. prediction) about student performance.
strategy sharing A discussion at the end of writing
workshops when students share a strategy or procedure they
found useful in their writing that day. W–X–Y–Z
student-led conference A conference in which students writing prompt An item that presents students with a
take the primary responsibility for explaining their own task that is used to assess student skills and strategies in
strengths, needs, and progress to their parents or others. composing narrative, informative, and persuasive essays.
sufficiency of information Ensuring the collection of written conversations A learning and assessment strategy
adequate data to make good decisions. involving a back and forth discussion in writing on a single
summative assessment A summing up of what the students sheet of paper with a single pencil about a book or article of
know and are able to do after instruction is completed. interest.
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‫ﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟﱟ‬ ‫ﱲ‬
INDEX

Note: The italicized f and t following page numbers refer to figures and tables, respectively.

A Allen, James, 294–295 performance assessments and,

access to educational opportunity. alternate-choice items, 186–187, 187f 281t, 282
See equal access to Always, Sometimes, Never Game, selected-response items and,
educational opportunity 75–76, 103 218t, 219
accommodations for diverse learners Ames, Carole, 9, 9f Audacity (software), 111
in constructed-response items, analytic rubrics audiences, in performance
255–256, 256t for essay scoring, 243, 244f, 246f, assessments, 270
in diagnostic assessments, 83–89, 249t, 250–251 auditory challenges. See sensory
84t, 85t, 88t for performance grading, challenges
in formative assessments, 276–278, 277f AYP (annual yearly progress), 324
113–114, 114t Andrade, Heidi, 104
in homework assignments, 106 annual yearly progress (AYP), 324 B
in large-scale standardized tests, “anticipation guides,” 113 backward design process, 36–37,
341, 342t aptitude tests, 326, 327, 327t 36f, 37t
in performance assessments, art, curriculum-based Badiali, B. J., 19
280–283, 281t measurement in, 136 Bailey, J., 313
in selected-response items, “assessment banks,” 369, 369t ball throwing/catching assessment,
188, 217–219, 218t assessment items, reliability and, 78, 79t, 80t
achievement 155, 158t basic interpersonal communication
formative assessment and, 96 assessment occasion, 154–155, skills (BICS), 85
teacher expectations and, 155t, 158t Beaty-Gordon, Jocelyn, 23
69–70, 69f assessments bell-shaped curve (normal distribution),
achievement gap. See also equal access characteristics of. See characteristics 344–346, 345f, 346f
to educational opportunity of assessments benchmarks for grading, 308
in case study, 147–148, 148t constructing, 213, 215–216, 215t benchmark tests, 377, 377t, 378f
disaggregation of data to show, definition of, 14 biases, in assessments, 168–174.
144–145 diversity represented in, 174–177, See also error
finding out what students 175t, 176t avoiding, 180, 203–204, 204f
know, 362 efficiency strategies, 365–370, 365t, from boredom, 239
Knowledge Is Power Program, 378 366f, 369f from cultural differences, 169
minorities and, 4–5, 144–145 guidelines for. See guidelines for definition of bias, 168
No Child Left Behind impact on, assessments systematic, 169
336–337 judgment approach, 6, from unequal access, 170
achievement tests, 326–327, 327t 110–111 unfair penalization, 169–170, 169t
action research, 20–23, 22t judgment calls in, 26–27, biases, in teachers, 171–174
advocate role, grading and, 292–293, 26t, 27t from handwriting, 173, 252
292t, 293t kidwatching as, 372–373 from interaction pattern
affective domain, 51–53, 52t purposes of, 15–19, 15t observation, 172
age, stereotypical representation of, attention-focusing difficulties microaggressions, 171–172
175, 175t constructed-response items scoring biases, 25, 172–174, 173t
age equivalent scores, 349–350 and, 256t suggestions for avoiding, 173t
alignment, 35–37, 35f, 36f, 37t diagnostic assessments and, 87 BICS (basic interpersonal
ALL CAPS, writing in, 198–199, 213, 237 formative assessments and, 114t communication skills), 85

392
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Black, Angela, 270, 271f reliability, 154–157, 155t, 157t scoring short-answer items,
Black, P., 95 reliability improvement, 157–159, 158t 227, 242
Blackburn, Barbara, 336 reliability vs. validity, 168 short-answer formats, 226–227,
Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy, sufficiency of information, 157, 157t, 228f, 232–235, 232t
46–48, 47t 158t, 179 student-generated items, 255
Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy, revised, teacher biases, 171–174, 173t writing prompts for essay
49–50, 49t validity, 159–166, 160t, 161f, 162f, items, 227, 236–242, 238f,
boys. See gender differences 163t, 165t, 166t 240t, 241t
Bryan, Tanis, 106 validity improvement, 167, 167t constructing assessments, 213,
Buchanan, Beverly, 201 cheating, 25, 301–302 215–216, 215t
Bursuck, William, 305 checklists for scoring essays, 243, 243f, construct-related evidence
248, 249–250, 249t format variety, 163–164, 167t
C chemistry, mastery monitoring chart inferences and, 160–161, 161f, 162f
CALP (cognitive academic language for, 123t logic and common sense, 162–163,
proficiency), 85 Clinton, Tracie, 12 163t, 167t
Campbell, Donald, 336 Cochran-Smith, M., 21 content-based essays, 235–237, 235f,
“Campbell’s Law,” 336 cognitive academic language proficiency 236f. See also essay items
capitals, writing in all, 198–199, (CALP), 85 content-related evidence, 164–165,
213, 237 cognitive taxonomies, 45–50, 47t, 49t 165t, 167t
case studies collaborative quizzes, 104 content representativeness, 164–165, 165t
in characteristics of assessments, communication skills content standards, 39–41, 40t
178–180, 179t, 180t learning goals for, 38–39, 38t, 39f context, in performance assessments,
in constructed-response formats, by students learning English, 85 270
256–258, 257f, 257t complex multiple choice format, contextual invisibility, 176, 200–201
in diagnostic assessments, 89–90, 90t 187–188, 187f conventional multiple-choice items,
in formative assessments, 114–116, computer spreadsheets for mastery 186–187
115f, 116t monitoring, 129 Covey, Stephen, 36, 360
in learning goals, 58–61, 58t, 59t, 60t conceptual knowledge, 50, 51t criterion-referenced grading, 306
in performance assessments, 283–286, confidence intervals, 328, criterion-referenced scoring, of
283f, 284f, 285f 329f–331f, 347 standardized tests, 306,
in preassessment, 89–90, 90t confidentiality 324–325, 352. See also
in progress monitoring, 145–149, of mastery monitoring charts, 129 standardized, large-scale tests
146t, 148t of student examples, 97 criterion-related evidence, 165–166,
in reliability and diversity, of student scores, 26, 328 166t, 167t
178–180, 180t construct, definition of, 160 critical thinking
in selected-response assessments, 220 constructed-response formats, application to new contexts, 361
categorization, 191, 191f 225–259 at Center for Inquiry, 375
CBM (Curriculum-Based Measurement), accommodations for diverse cognitive taxonomies and, 45–50,
133–134, 136, 137 learners, 255–256, 256t 47t, 49t
ceiling effect, 87 case study, 256–258, 257f, 257t in essay items, 253–254
Center for Inquiry, 371–375 constructing the assessment, 242 in formative assessments, 96,
aligning goals, instruction, and content-based essay guidelines, 100, 101
assessment, 371–372 235–237, 235f, 236f importance of, 14, 178
equal access to educational essay format, 227–230, 229f, 230f, informal diagnostic assessment of, 74
opportunity, 373–374 235–237 at Knowledge Is Power Program,
key assessment practices, 372t general guidelines, 230–235, 380, 381–382
kidwatching, 371, 372–373 231t, 232t in multiple choice formats, 332
sample schedule, 371t learning goals and thinking skills, 226 in selected-response assessments,
teacher self-assessment, 373 novelty in, 231 216–217
characteristics of assessments pitfalls to avoid, 253–254, 253t in standardized tests, 335, 336, 339
assessment biases, 168–171, 169t scoring-error sources, 251–252, 251t culture. See also school culture,
case study, 178–180, 179t, 180t scoring essays, 242–247, 243f, 244f, students unfamiliar with
democratic values and, 177–178 245f, 246f, 247f competition vs. cooperation and, 88
diversity representation, 174–177, scoring guides, 242, 248–251, 248t, questioning patterns and, 88
175t, 176t 254–255 unintentional bias and, 169
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curriculum, No Child Left Behind and, before classes start, 70–74, 71t, 73f building in time for self- and peer
334–335, 336 design steps summary, 77f review, 368
Curriculum-Based Measurement high expectations in, 68–70, combining instruction with
(CBM), 133–134, 136, 137 68t, 69f assessment, 366, 366f
importance of, 362 developing “assessment banks,”
D kidwatching, 372–373 369, 369t
data summaries learning goals and, 76–77, 86–87 encouraging student self-
confidence intervals, 328, meeting students, 74–75 monitoring, 368
329f–331f, 347 before new unit of instruction, enlisting students in assessment
disaggregation of scores, 144–145, 75–76, 76t design, 370
144t, 147–148, 148t overview, 15t, 16–17 summary of, 365t
frequency distributions, 136–138, pitfalls of informal methods, 75–76 targeting feedback, 367–368
138t, 139f preassessment analysis, 80–82, 81t effort optimism, 10–11
measures of central tendency, preassessment design and eligibility for special programs, 72
138–139, 344–345, 345f administration, 77–80, 79t, 80t Elkin, Naomi, 366
percentile rank, 325–326, 325f, preassessment KWL charts, 80 English language learners
346–347, 348f, 352 questions addressed by, 76, 76t background information needs, 85t
standard error of measurement, 328, triangulation of results, 70, 71f constructed-response items, 256t
329f–331f utilization of, 82–83, 82t diagnostic assessments, 84t,
tables, 139–144, 140t, 141t, 142t, 143t differentiation, 16 85–86, 85t
decision-making. See also grading directions eligibility for, 73
decision process for essay items, 236–237, 236f formative assessments, 113, 114t
ethical, 27–28, 28t ethics of accurate, 270 learning goals case study,
student participation in, 9t, 10, 375 for performance assessments, 59, 59t
democratic values 272–274, 274f, 280 norm-referenced scoring, 326
assessment practices and, 3–4, 4t scoring and, 254 performance assessments,
at Center for Inquiry, 373–374, 374t for tests, 213, 215 281t, 282
critical thinking. See critical thinking disabilities. See students with disabilities selected-response items, 217–219, 218t
equal access to educational disaggregation of scores, 144–145, 144t, vocabulary specific to disciplines, 86
opportunity. See equal access 147–148, 148t environmental distractions, 155, 155t
to educational opportunity distracters, in multiple-choice items, 186, equal access to educational
at Knowledge is Power Program, 186f, 205–206, 205f, 206f, 213 opportunity. See also
377–380, 377t, 378f, 379t district curriculum guides, 41 achievement gap
mastery goals and, 7–9, 7t diverse learners. See accommodations assessment bias from inequality
self-governing skills. See for diverse learners in, 170
self-governing skills diversity of the classroom. See also at Center for Inquiry, 373–374
Deno, Stan, 126, 129, 130, 131, 133, 134 minorities cultural biases in assessments
design of assessments case study on representing, 180 and, 169
backward design process, 36–37, contextual invisibility, 176, 200–201 as democratic value, 4, 4t
36f, 37t depicted in selected-response items, formative assessments and, 96, 381
construction process, 213, 215–216, 199–203, 201f, 202f, 203f importance of assessments in,
215t historical distortions, 176–177, 5, 177–178
diagnostic assessments, 76–77, 77f, 201–203, 202f, 203f at Knowledge Is Power Program,
89–90, 90t stereotypical representation, 174–176, 378–379
differentiation, 16 175t, 200 error. See also biases, in assessments
preassessment, 77–80, 79t, 80t documentation portfolios, 311, 311t, 315 definition of, 154
selected-response assessments, “do no harm,” 24 due to the occasion of testing,
213, 214f Drews, Leslie, 201 154–155, 155t, 158t
student help in, 370 in essay scores, 251–252, 251t
tables of specifications, 56, 57t E internal consistency, 155–156, 155t
Dewey, John, 19 educational opportunity. See equal access scoring issues, 156–157, 158t, 173t
diagnostic assessments, 67–91 to educational opportunity single scores as estimates, 351–352
accommodations for diverse efficiency strategies, 365–370 sources of, 154–157, 155t, 157t
learners, 83–89, 84t, 85t, 88t analyzing selected student work, standard error of measurement,
case study, 89–90, 90t 366–367 328
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essay items. See also constructed- in diagnostic assessments, 68–70, formative task examples, 99t, 100f
response formats 68t, 69f functions of, 96
accommodations for diverse fostering high, 361 homework for, 106–107, 106t
learners, 255–256, 256t gender differences in, 69–70 importance of, 362–363
advantages and disadvantages, from learning goals, 361 informal classroom activities for,
229–230 outcomes and, 69–70, 69f 382, 382t, 383t
in case study, 256–258, scoring biases and, 173 journals or notebooks, 103, 115–116,
257f, 257t teacher behaviors communicating, 115f, 116t
content-based, 235–237, 68–69, 68t kidwatching, 372
235f, 236f extrapolated grade equivalent overview, 15t, 17, 23, 97t
format of, 227–229, 229f, 230f scores, 349 peer assessments, 104–106
in large-scale, standardized in progress monitoring, 124–125,
tests, 328 F 124t, 126t
performance criteria, 242–244, factual knowledge, 50, 51t purpose and validity, 159–160
244f, 245f, 248–249 families. See also parents quick writes, 104
persuasive essay assignments, assignments related to, 107 scaffolding and, 113
379t, 380 disorganized home life, 170 self-assessment, 96–98, 104, 105t
pitfalls to avoid, 253–254, 253t family homework packets, 22t simple responses in, 98–99
scoring by analytic rubrics, 243, feedback student awareness of learning goals,
244f, 246f, 249t, 250–251 careful targeting of, 367–368 96–98
scoring by holistic rubrics, 244, characteristics of useful, 108–109, student opportunities to make
245f, 247f, 249t, 250–251 108t, 109t improvements, 112
scoring checklists, 243, 243f, 248, 249t in formative assessments, 108–111, students comparing current and
scoring error sources, 251–252, 251t 108t, 109t previous assignments, 103
scoring guides, 242, 248–251, 248t, journal prompts as, 115–116, teacher bias, 173t
249t, 254–255 115f, 116t teacher observations and questions,
when to use, 229 judgment in, 110–111 100–103, 101t, 102t
writing prompts for, 236–242, 236f, on knowledge/understanding, formative tasks, in progress
238f, 240t, 241t 109–111 monitoring, 99t, 100f,
ethics, 23–28 on skills, strategies, and 124–125, 124t, 126t
behavior problems and procedures, 110 format variety, 163–164, 167t
assessment, 107 technology and, 111 frequency distributions, 136–138,
confidentiality, 97, 129, 328 fine motor difficulties 138t, 139f
“do no harm,” 24 constructed-response items frequency polygons, 137–138, 139f
giving low grades as motivation, 293 and, 256t
judgment calls, 26–27, 26t, 27t diagnostic assessments and, G
parents’ participation in grading 84, 84t gender differences
process, 306 formative assessments and, 114t in assessment depiction, 199–200,
receiving accurate directions, 270 performance assessments and, 199f
recommendations for making 281–282, 281t sexist language, 175–176, 176t
ethical decisions, 28, 28t selected-response items and, in stereotypical representation,
score pollution and, 24–25, 154, 337 217, 218t 175, 175t, 200
scoring of major assessments Flesch Reading Ease, 196 in teacher expectations, 69–70
responsibility of teacher, 156 formative assessments, 95–117 test scores and, 143–144
unfair treatment examples, 25 accommodations for diverse general outcome measurement,
evaluation standards learners, 113–114, 114t 129–134
feedback to students on, 109–110 avoiding grading, 111–112, 296 Curriculum-Based Measurement,
student understanding of, 98, 98t case study, 114–116, 115f, 116t 133–134, 136, 137
evaluator role, 292–293, 292t, 293t collaborative quizzes, 104 graphs of, 131–132, 132f
exit exams, 334 content-related evidence from, 165, mastery monitoring vs., 129–131,
exit tickets, 377t 165t, 167t 134–136, 135t
expectations democratic values and, 96, 381 scoring scale for, 131, 131t
achievement gap and, 378 enhancing instruction with, steps in, 130t
avoiding negative information from 112–113 Germundson, Amy, 113–114
previous years, 82 feedback in, 108–111, 108t, 109t gifted programs, eligibility for, 74
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396 Index

girls. See gender differences grading decision process, 295–306. home graphs, 12
goals. See also learning goals; See also data summaries homework, 106–107, 106t
mastery goals in borderline cases, 304, 305t humor, avoided in test settings, 204, 209
of No Child Left Behind Act, guidelines for, 295t
323–324 learning goals and, 300–304 I
performance goal orientation, 6, 7t median vs. mean scores, 299–300, In and Out Game, 75–76, 103
personal goals of students, 9t, 299t, 303, 303t Individualized Education Plan (IEP),
10–11, 122 number and type of assessments, 72, 305
personal goals of teachers, 361–362, 297–298, 298t Individuals with Disabilities Education
383–384 school district policy, 296 Act (IDEA), 72, 133
plan development for completing, 384 student involvement, 298–299, 305t inferences, from assessments, 161–162,
progress monitoring, 122–124, students with disabilities, 305 162f, 168
122t, 123t summative assessments, 296–297 informal assessments, pitfalls of, 75–76
steps in setting, 383–384 grading on the curve, 307 informative writing, 239, 240t
grade equivalent scores, 349–350 graphs inquiry stance, 19–20
grades of general outcome measurement, instructional content standards, student
ambiguous meaning of, 294–295 131–132, 132f, 135t familiarity with, 338–339, 338t
definition of, 291 in mastery monitoring, 126–129, interpersonal sensitivity, 105
as diagnostic data, 71 128t, 129t, 135t interpretation of tests. See test
in formative tasks, 111–112 grouped frequency distributions, interpretation
group grades, 303–304 137, 138t interpretive exercises, 191–194. See also
problems with, 291, 292t group projects, 303–304 selected-response assessments
as rewards and punishments, 304 growth portfolios, 310, 311t, advantages and disadvantages of,
symbolic role of, 293–294 313, 314t 192–194, 193f, 194f, 195f
grading, 291–318. See also scoring guided reading, action research overview, 191–192, 192f
advocate vs. evaluator in, 292–293, on, 22t when to use, 192
292t, 293t guidelines for assessments, 359–365 interrater reliability, 156–157
aptitude vs. ability, 302 beginning with the end in mind, interventions, formative assessment
attitude or behavior, 301–302 360–362 during, 23
cheating punishment, 302 finding out what students invented spelling, 19
extra credit, 302 know, 362 item-to-item carryover effects, 251t, 252
impact of zeroes, 303, 303t monitoring progress, 362–363
improvement and, 302 summary of, 360t J
lack of agreement on judgment teaching students to check as you journal prompts, 115–116, 115f,
process, 294 go, 363 116t, 131
late work, 303 using rubrics in attainment of judging role of teachers, 293–294, 293t
participation vs. contribution, 301 learning goals, 363–364
portfolios, 314–315, 315t Gundersheim, Stephen, 103 K
role of effort, 300–301 Guskey, Thomas, 53, 313 “kidwatching,” 371–372
selected student work only, knowledge and understanding, 50
366–367 H Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP),
as a skill, 306 halo effect, 251t, 252 375–380
grading approaches hand-strengthening exercises, 21, 22t aligning goals, instruction, and
criterion-referenced, 306, handwriting biases, 173, 252 assessment, 376
324–325, 352 Hattie, John, 108 critical thinking skills development,
letter grades, 307 Hertel, Jo Ellen, 122 380, 381–382
narrative reports, 309, 373 higher-order thinking skills. See critical demographics of, 375–376
norm-referenced, 307, 325–326, thinking equal access to educational
325f, 332 high expectations. See expectations opportunity, 378–379
“not-yet,” 309, 377t, 379 high-stakes tests, 342. See also key assessment strategies,
percentage of total points, 308 standardized, large-scale tests 376–377, 377t
portfolios. See portfolios of historical distortions, 176–177, 201–203, self-governing skills, 379–380,
student work 202f, 203f 379t, 381
standards-based, 307–308 holistic rubrics, 244, 245f, 247f, 249t, teacher self-assessments, 377
total points, 308 250–251 typical schedule, 376t
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knowledge types, 50, 51t student input in, 45, 46f matching items. See also selected-
Krathwohl, D., 52t tables of specifications, 53–57, 55t, response assessments
Kuhs, Therese, 309 57t, 178–180, 179t advantages and disadvantages of, 191
KWL charts, 80 from teacher editions, 41 form of, 190–191, 190f
writing, 43–45 guidelines to writing, 211–212, 211t
L learning goals, students who have when to use, 191, 191f
language already mastered mathematics
conventions of written, 198–199, constructed-response items diagnostic assessment of, 74
199f, 213 and, 256t for English language learners, 86f
reading demands in prompts, 272 diagnostic assessments and, 86–87 journal prompts for, 115–116,
simple, in constructed-response formative assessments and, 114t 115f, 116t
items, 231, 232f performance assessments and, McCarter, Lynn, 58, 58t, 60,
stereotypes in, 175–176, 176t 281t, 282 114–116, 131
large-scale standardized testing. See selected-response items and, McTighe, J., 36–37, 36f, 37t, 43, 360
standardized, large-scale tests 218t, 219 mean, 139, 344–345, 345f
learning disabilities. See literacy skills letter grades, 307 measures of central tendency, 138–139,
below typical peers literacy, societal impacts of, 21 344–345, 345f
learning goals, 33–64 Literacy Club, 374 median, 138–139
affective taxonomies, 51–53, 52t literacy skills below typical peers Mensik, Maria
assessment content representativeness constructed-response items essays in assessments, 256–258,
and, 164 and, 256t 357f, 357t
assessment selection and, 265f diagnostic assessments and, 87 learning goals, 58–59, 58t
in backward design, 36–37, formative assessments and, 114t matching items in assessments,
36f, 37t performance assessments and, 220, 220f
benefits of specifying, 37–39 281t, 282 performance assessments, 283–286,
case studies, 58–61, 58t, 59t, 60t, selected-response items and, 114t, 283f, 284f, 285f
178–180, 179t 218t, 219 reliability and diversity, 178–180, 180t
cognitive taxonomies and, 45–50, local norms, in scoring standardized tables of specifications, 178–179, 179t
47t, 49t tests, 325–326, 325f metacognition, 11–12, 96, 375
for communication skills, 38–39, in loco parentis, 24 metacognitive knowledge, 50, 51t
38t, 39f Lytle, S. L., 21 microaggressions, 171–172
in diagnostic assessment design, Mills, Elizabeth, 20–21
76–77, 89–90, 90t M Mîndril™, Diana Luminiτa, 200
from district curriculum guides, 41 Marzano, R. J., 131, 294, 297 minorities. See also diversity of
examples of, 34t mastery goals the classroom
filters for selecting, 41–43, 42t assessment tasks to enhance, achievement gap and, 4–5,
in grading process, 296 9–11, 9t 144–145
high expectations from, 361 Center for Inquiry strategies for, contextual invisibility of, 176
overview, 33–36, 34t, 35t 374–375, 374t depicting diversity, 199–203, 200f,
performance assessments and, individual progress and, 12–13 201f, 202f, 203f
264, 265f Knowledge Is Power Program historical distortions of, 176–177, 203f
performance criteria and, 248, 255 strategies for, 379t stereotypical representation of,
planning activities with the end in performance goals vs., 7, 7t, 13 174–175, 175t
mind, 361 self-assessment and, 11–12 misalignment, 35–36
portfolios of student work and, in standardized test preparation, mistakes, value of, 11
312–313, 315t 339 mode, 138
preassessment for, 89 student characteristics with, 7–9, monitoring. See mastery monitoring;
psychomotor taxonomies, 53, 54t 7t, 121 progress monitoring
as series of objectives, 376 mastery monitoring, 126–129 morning math messages, 373
simplifying, 45 charts and graphs in, 127t, 128–129, motivation
specificity of, 44–45, 44t 128f, 129f giving low grades as, 293
from state and national content comments on, 137 mastery goals and, 374–375
standards, 39–41, 40t general outcome monitoring vs., systematic progress monitoring and,
student awareness of, 37–38, 134–136, 135t 125, 126t, 136
96–98 steps in, 126, 130t in test preparation, 339
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multiple-choice items. See also selected- national tests. See standardized, large- participation, as grading criterion,
response assessments scale tests 97–98
advantages and disadvantages of, Nazario, Carmen, 269 PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), 111
188–189 NCE (normal curve equivalents), peer assessments, 104–106, 363, 368
alternate-choice items, 186–187, 187f 348, 348f percentile ranges/bands (confidence
cognitive levels and, 234f NCLB Act. See No Child Left intervals), 328, 329f–331f, 347
complex, 187–188, 187f Behind Act percentile rank (percentile)
conventional, 186–187, 186f negative language, 82, 250 in explaining to students and
distracters that provide insight, negative-suggestion effect, 190 parents, 352
186, 186f, 205–206, 205f, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, interpreting, 346–347, 348f
206f, 213 17–18, 145. See also norm group used in, 325–326, 325f
in large-scale, standardized tests, standardized, large-scale tests performance assessments, 263–286
328, 332 achievement tests, 326–327, 327t accommodations for diverse
multiple true-false format, benefits and pitfalls of large-scale learners, 280–283, 281t
189–190, 189f tests, 333t advantages and disadvantages, 266
options arranged in logical order, comparisons of school districts, attaching a grade scale, 276–278, 277f
206–207, 207f, 208f 333–334 case study, 283–286, 283f,
providing clues to the answer, curriculum effects of, 334–335, 336 284f, 285f
208–209, 209f evaluation of results, 336–337 degree of structure in tasks,
reasonable options in, 206, 206f goals of, 323–324 272, 273f
stems written clearly in, 186, 186f, inappropriateness of tests for essay items. See essay items
204–205, 205f purposes in, 159 learning goals and, 264, 265f,
when to use, 188, 232–233, 233f score augmentation, 336 278–279, 278t
multiple means of engagement, 83–84, standardized tests required in, limiting performance criteria
113, 114t 323–324 in, 279
multiple means of expression, 83 state differences in requirements, 334 logistics in task directions, 272–274,
multiple means of representation, 83 normal curve equivalents (NCE), 274f, 280
multiple true-false format, 189–190, 189f 348, 348f materials and resources
Munk, Dennis, 305 normal distribution (normal curve), availability, 272
MySpace, portfolio use of, 314 344–346, 345f, 346f meaningfulness of tasks in, 268–270,
norm groups, in test interpretation, 268f, 269f, 271f, 279
N 325, 344–346, 345f, 346f periodic reviews in, 273–274
narrative reports, 309, 373 norm-referenced grading, 307 prompt guidelines, 267t
narrative writing, 239, 240t norm-referenced scoring, of providing practice before assigning
National Assessment of Educational standardized tests, 325–326, tasks, 279
Progress (NAEP) 325f, 332 reading demands in, 272
balanced views of historical events, “not-yet” (NY) grading, 309, 377t, 379 response format, 264, 270–271, 271t
201, 202f, 203f noun phrases, in learning goals, 44 scoring guides, 274–276, 275f, 279,
bias avoidance, 203–204, 204f 280, 284f, 285f
content-based essays, 236–237, 236f O specifying skills to be addressed,
content independent of other objectives, from learning goals, 376 266–268, 267f, 268f, 280
items, 196 options, in multiple-choice formats, 186 student-generated items, 279–280
conventions of written language, 199f oral presentations, rubric for grading, 98t weighting performance criteria, 276
distracters providing information outcome measurement. See general when to use, 265–266
about misconceptions, outcome measurement performance criteria, in essay scoring
205–206, 206f outliers, 139 in analytic and holistic rubrics,
diversity depictions, 199f overinterpretation, 352 243–244, 245f, 250–251
essay items, 229f in checklists, 242–243, 243f,
interpretive exercise format, P 249–250
194, 195f parents. See also families learning goals and, 248, 255
keeping answers independent of interpretation of large-scale tests for, proficiency levels and, 243, 244f,
other answers, 196, 197f 350–353, 350t, 351t 246f, 250–251, 254
multiple-choice format, 188 monthly progress monitoring performance criteria, in performance
short-answer items, 228f and, 134 assessments, 275f, 276, 279, 283
national content standards, 39–41 participation in grading process, 306 performance goal orientation, 6, 7t
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Index 399

performance levels, in criterion- pre-unit assessments. See diagnostic reading level

referenced tests, 350 assessments estimates of, 196–197, 198f
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), 111 problem solving, 19, 20–23, 22t in performance assessment
personal goals procedural knowledge, 50, 51t prompts, 272
of students, 9t, 10–11 product, as focus of learning in selected-response items,
of teachers, 361–362, 383–384 outcomes, 264 196–198, 198f
personification, 112 proficiency levels record keeping by students, 368.
persuasive writing, 230f, 239, 240t, in scoring rubrics, 243, See also portfolios of
379t, 380 244f, 246f, 250–251, student work
physical education, mastery monitoring 254, 257f Reeves, D. B., 335
in, 126, 127t in test interpretations, 352 reflective assignments, 310, 313, 314t
Pilcher, Janet, 294 progress monitoring, 121–149 Reid, Meredith, 112
plagiarism, 302 case study, 145–149, 146t, 148t reliability. See also biases, in
planning charts comparison of methods, assessments; biases, in
alignment and, 35, 35t 134–136, 135t teachers
backward design in, 36–37, 36f, 37t Curriculum-Based Measurement, assessment occasion, 154–155,
tables of specifications and, 55, 55t 133–134, 136, 137 155t, 158t
poetry, learning goals in, 49t data summaries, 136–139, in case study, 179–180, 179t
Popham, W. J., 41, 159 138t, 139f definition of, 154, 168
portfolios of student work data tables, 139–144, 140t, 141t, improving, 157–159, 158t
advantages and limitations, 142t, 143t internal consistency, 155–156, 155t
317–318, 317t disaggregation of scores, 144–145, interrater reliability, 156–157
choosing samples, 313 144t, 147–148, 148t in large-scale, standardized tests,
classroom activities, 313 formative tasks, 124–125, 342–343, 343t
definition of, 309 124t, 126t scoring issues, 156–157, 158t
documentation portfolios, 311, 311t general outcome measurement, sufficiency of information, 157,
evaluation, 314–315, 315t 129–134, 130t, 131t, 132f 157t, 158t
growth portfolios, 310, 311t, 313 goal setting, 122–124, 122t, 123t test-retest, 343, 343t
learning goals and, 312–313 importance of multiple measures, validity vs., 168
organizing and storing, 313–314 148–149 respondent, assessment occasion and,
showcase portfolios, 310–311, as individual growth over time, 155, 158t
311t, 313 125, 126t responsiveness to intervention (RTI),
student involvement, 312–313 mastery monitoring, 126–129, 127t, 133–134
student-led conferences, 128t, 129t, 130t revised Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy,
315–316, 316f by students, 368 49–50, 49t
teacher familiarity with, 72 prompts, journal, 115–116, 115f, Ross, Jim, 126
poverty 116t, 131 rubrics for scoring
achievement gap and, 4–5 prompts, writing. See writing prompts analytic, 243, 244f, 246f, 249t,
compliance vs. achievement and, 301 proofreading marks, 368 250–251, 276–278
students not meeting proficiency psychomotor domain, 53, 54t in case study, 257f
levels and, 337 holistic, 244, 245f, 247f, 249t,
PowerPoint slideshows, 283 Q 250–251
preassessment questioning by teachers for oral presentations, 98t
analyzing results, 80–82, 81t in formative assessment, 100–103, reinforcing learning goals,
case study, 89–90, 90t 101t, 102t 363–364
gathering other useful higher-level questions, 102t student contributions to, 255
information, 80 rules for, 101t Ruiz-Primo, Maria, 103
as measure of validity, 166 “wait time” after, 100–103, 101t
measuring knowledge/ questioning patterns, culture S
understanding, 78, 79t and, 88 Sanders, Ebony, 58–60, 58t, 89–90,
measuring skills/strategies/ quick writes, 104 145–149
procedures, 78, 79t, 80t Satterwhite, Kevina, 74
in progress monitoring, 146–148, R SCAAP (South Carolina Arts
146t, 148t range, of numbers, 137, 344 Assessment Program),
questions answered by, 76, 76t reading aloud, 22t 193–194, 193f, 194f
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400 Index

scaffolding, 113 diversity depictions, 199–203, 201f, sensory challenges

scale scores, 349 202f, 203f constructed-response items and, 256t
Schlicher, Jesse, 366 guideline summary, 196t performance assessments and,
school culture, students unfamiliar with interpretive exercises, 191–194, 192f, 281t, 282
constructed-response items, 256t 193f, 194f selected-response items and,
diagnostic assessments, 87–88 matching formats, 190–191, 217, 218t
formative assessments, 114t 190f, 191f sexist language, 175–176, 176t
performance assessments, 283 matching items, guidelines for Shamlin, M., 374
selected-response items, writing, 211–212, 211t Shepard, Lorrie, 95
218t, 219 multiple-choice formats, 186–189, short-answer items. See also
school records, teacher familiarity 186f, 187f, 204–212 constructed-response formats
with, 72, 73f multiple-choice items, guidelines for accommodations for diverse
schools writing, 204–210, 204t learners, 255–256, 256t
compliance vs. achievement in, 301 negatives in questions, 197–198, 198f advantages and disadvantages,
mastery goals in, 7–9, 7t pitfalls in designing, 213, 214f 227, 227f
performance goals in, 6, 6t range of cognitive levels in, cognitive levels and, 233, 234f
sorting function of, 6 195–196 format, 226, 227f, 228f
score pollution, 24–25, 154, 337 reading level kept simple, 196–198, grammatical clues, 235
scoring. See also data summaries; grading 198f, 216 guidelines for writing, 232–235,
analytic rubrics, 176–178, 243, 244f, student-generated items, 216–217 232t, 233f, 234f, 235f
246f, 249t, 250–251 tables of specification and, 186 scoring, 227, 242
biases in, 172–174, 173t true-false formats, 189–190, 189f stems in, 233–234, 234f
checklists for, 243, 243f, 248, true-false items, guidelines for when to use, 226–227,
249–250, 249t writing, 209–211, 210t 232–233, 233f
confidence intervals, 328, written language conventions used showcase portfolios, 310–311,
329f–331f, 347 in, 198–199, 199f, 213 311t, 313
for general outcome measurement, self-assessment Smith, Janelle, 21, 23
131, 131t autonomy and, 98 Smith, Jeffrey, 301
holistic rubrics, 244, 245f, 247f, formative assessment and, 96–98, sorting function of schools, 6, 143
249t, 250–251 104, 105t South Carolina Arts Assessment
median vs. mean scores, 299–300, metacognition and, 11–12 Program (SCAAP), 193–194,
299t, 303, 303t of portfolios, 314 193f, 194f
percentile rank, 325–326, 325f, providing time for, 368 special education, eligibility for, 72
346–347, 348f, 352 sample questions for, 105t specificity, in learning goals,
performance assessments, 274–278, by teachers, 364–365, 373, 44–45, 44t
275f, 277f, 279, 280 377, 384 spelling, 131–132, 132f
proficiency levels and, 243, 244f, teaching skills for, 363 spreadsheets for mastery monitoring, 129
246f, 250–251, 254, 257f self-awareness, 12 Stachowiak, Dana, 22, 74
reliability and, 156–157, 158t self-governing skills standard deviation, 344, 345f, 348f
responsibility for, 156 assessment strategies to enhance standard error of measurement
score pollution, 24–25, 154, 337 mastery goals, 9–11, 9f (SEM), 328
scoring guides, 242, 248–251, 248t, at Center for Inquiry, 374–375, 374t standardized, large-scale tests, 323–355.
254–255 examples of promoting mastery See also test interpretation
short-answer items, 227, 242 goals, 11–13 accommodations for diverse
standard error of measurement, 328 formative assessments and, 96 learners, 341, 342t
student contributions to, 255 independent thinking, 5–6 achievement vs. aptitude tests,
task directions and, 254 at Knowledge Is Power Program, 326–327, 327t
Terra Nova example, 329f–331f, 347 379–380, 379t, 381 administration of, 340–341
selected-response assessments, 185–221 mastery goals for all children, analysis of trends, 353
accommodations for diverse 6–9, 7t classroom use of results from,
learners, 217–219, 218t sense of responsibility, 178 353–354, 354t
avoiding biases, 180, 203–204, 204f self-monitoring, 368 comparisons from, 333–334, 333t
case study, 220 SEM (standard error of context for scores, 352–353
constructing the assessment, measurement), 328 criterion-based vs. norm-referenced
213–216, 215t sensitivity, interpersonal, 105 scoring, 324–326, 325f, 332
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curriculum impacts from, student self-monitoring, 368 expectations of, 68–70, 68t, 69f, 82,
334–335, 336 students unfamiliar with school culture. 173, 361
definition of, 19 See school culture, students judging role of, 293–294, 293t
as diagnostic data before classes unfamiliar with personal goals, 361–362,
start, 71–72 students who have already mastered 383–384
foundational issues in learning goals. See learning questioning by, 88, 100–103,
interpretation, 344 goals, students who have 101t, 102t
information on individual students already mastered self-assessment by, 364–365,
from, 332–333 students with disabilities. See also 373, 377, 384
interpretation for students and accommodations for diverse “teaching to the test,” 335, 336
parents, 350–353, learners; specific disabilities technical manuals, for large-scale tests,
350t, 351t homework assignments and, 106 342–343, 343t
interpretation of criterion-referenced Individualized Education Plans, technology, feedback using, 111
tests, 350 72, 305 Terra Nova scoring example,
interpretation of norm-referenced responsiveness to intervention 329f–331f, 347
tests, 343–350, 345f, measure, 133–134 testing accommodations. See
346f, 348f stereotypical representation of, accommodations for diverse
misconceptions about, 327–333, 327t 175, 175t learners
multiple choice formats, 328, 332 writing difficulties of, 147, testing modifications, 341
norm group importance in inter- 255–256 test interpretation, 343–350
pretation, 344–346, sufficiency of information, 157, 157t, foundational issues, 344
345f, 346f 158t, 179 grade equivalent scores,
overemphasis on increasing scores summative assessments. See also 349–350
on, 336–337 standardized, large-scale tests measures of central tendency, 139,
overinterpretation, 352 avoiding teacher bias, 173t 344–345, 345f
question formats, 328, 332 characteristics, 15t normal curve equivalents,
reliability, 342–343, 343t classroom vs. large-scale level, 348, 348f
skills useful for, 340, 340t 17–19, 18t norm group importance, 344–346,
standard error of measurement, content-related evidence from, 164, 345f, 346f
328, 329f–331f 165t, 167t percentile rank, 325–326, 325f,
student attitudes towards, essays, 231 346–347, 348f, 352
339–340 kidwatching, 373 proficiency levels, 352
as summative assessments, 17 purpose and validity, 160, 160t scale scores, 349
Terra Nova scoring example, stanines, 348–349, 352
329f–331f, 347 T state-level performance levels, 350
test preparation, 338–340, 338t, 340t tables, data, 139–144, 140t, 141t, test modifications, 341
test presentation changes, 342t 142t, 143t. See also test preparation, 338–340, 338t, 340t
validity, 343, 343t data summaries test-retest reliability, 343, 343t
standardized classroom tests, 328, 332 tables of specifications, 53–57 test-to-test carryover effects,
standards, student familiarity with, benefits, 55–56, 55t 251t, 252
338–339, 338t case study, 178–180, 179t Timperley, Helen, 108
standards-based scoring. See criterion- challenges in using, 56–57 Tomlinson, Carol, 113–114
referenced scoring for content-related evidence, triangulation
stanines, 348–349, 352 164, 167t assessment validity and, 165, 166t,
state content standards, 39–41, 40t developing, 53–55, 54t 167t
stems for selected-response items, 186 in diagnostic assessment, 70, 71f
in multiple-choice formats, 186, in test design, 56, 57t “trick” questions, 293t
204–205, 205f taxonomies, 45–53 true-false items. See also
in short-answer formats, affective and psychomotor, 51–53, selected-response assessments
233–234, 234f 52t, 54t advantages and disadvantages
stereotypical representation, 174–176, cognitive, 45–50, 47t, 49t of, 190
175t, 200 teacher editions, learning goals forms of, 189–190, 189f
student-led conferences, in portfolio from, 41 guidelines for writing, 209–211,
evaluation, 315–316, 316f teachers 210f, 210t
student reflection, 310, 313, 314t biases in, 25, 171–174, 173t when to use, 190
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402 Index

U logic and common sense, 162–163, writing activities. See also

unfair penalization, 169–170, 169t 163t, 167t essay items
universal design for learning, 83 purpose and, 159–160, 160t in assessment format variety,
utopia and dystopia case study. See reliability vs., 168 163–164
Mensik, Maria verbs, in learning goals, 43–44 informal diagnostic assessment
video cameras, feedback from, 74
using, 111 writing prompts
V visual impairments. See sensory clarity of task, 236–237, 236f,
validity, 159–166. See also reliability challenges 238f, 254
case study, 178–180, 179t definition of, 227
construct-related evidence, W examples, 238f, 240t, 241f
160–161, 161f WavePad, 111 formatting features in, 237, 239f
content-related evidence, 164–165, “The Way I See It” quotes, guidelines for writing, 241t
165t, 167t 22, 23t interesting, 239
criterion-related evidence, 165–166, Wiggins, G., 36–37, 36f, 37t, 42–43, key elements, 239, 241f
166t, 167t 42t, 360 specific points to concentrate
definition of, 159, 168 William, D., 95 on, 237
format variety, 163–164, 167t Word 2007, reading level estimates students’ cultural or social
improving, 167, 167t from, 196 experiences in, 241
inferences and, 161–162, 162f, 168 words spelled correctly (WSC), subjects to avoid, 241–242
in large-scale, standardized tests, 131–132, 132f that limit responses, 227, 229,
343, 343t Wrinkle in Time (L’Engle), 43 229f, 230f