Creating Quality Assessments
5 steps to creating quality assessments
1. Write clear objectives from the standards that are being used, matching the verbs in the objectives with the level of understanding required in the standards.
2. Create a formal, summative assessment from the objectives that matches the level of understanding required.
3. Create several other formative assessments that line up with the summative assessment.
4. Make a plan for grading the students on their knowledge of the content, and if necessary, create rubrics, answer keys, and/or scoring guides for the assessment(s) that will be used in determining a students' knowledge of the content.
5. Make an 'action plan' to be used after the assessments which will guide the teacher's instruction in building students knowledge if they meet the objectives, partially meet the objectives, or do not meet the objectives.
2. Create a formal, summative assessment from the objectives that matches the level of understanding required.
3. Create several other formative assessments that line up with the summative assessment.
4. Make a plan for grading the students on their knowledge of the content, and if necessary, create rubrics, answer keys, and/or scoring guides for the assessment(s) that will be used in determining a students' knowledge of the content.
5. Make an 'action plan' to be used after the assessments which will guide the teacher's instruction in building students knowledge if they meet the objectives, partially meet the objectives, or do not meet the objectives.
5 essentials about assessments
DO
1. Assess students' understanding of the content at multiple points during each lesson.
2. Give purposeful assessments. 3. Use a variety of techniques to assess students understanding of a topic. 4. Allow students the opportunity to be assessed on multiple levels of understanding (high, mid, low). 5. Inform students of the content expectations there are for a unit or topic, and show students how they will be assessed formally during a unit. |
DON'T
1. Wait until the end of a lesson to assess students' understanding of a topic.
2. Assign "busy work." 3. Always use the same methods of assessment throughout a lesson. 4. Create one main-stream assessment that measures only a medium level of understanding of a topic. 5. Ask students to 'go in blind,' without any knowledge of what they are going to be assessed on. |
Example of a BAD assessment
What's the scenario? The students in Mr. Prine's class have been studying for his unit test for a couple weeks. As the results from the test come back, the students find that most of them did either very well or very poorly. Not many students were able to score in the middle range.
What's the problem? Mr. Prine's test consisted of questions of one level of understanding - high. The students who understood the material at a high level scored very well on the test, while the students who understood the material at a lower or medium level did not know any of the answers to the higher-level questions.
What's the solution? Mr. Prine should include a variety of questions on his assessment that measure the students understanding of the material at a low, medium, and high level. This will distribute the results more evenly, and will enable him to assess the students at a deeper level and arrive at a better understanding of the results.
What's the problem? Mr. Prine's test consisted of questions of one level of understanding - high. The students who understood the material at a high level scored very well on the test, while the students who understood the material at a lower or medium level did not know any of the answers to the higher-level questions.
What's the solution? Mr. Prine should include a variety of questions on his assessment that measure the students understanding of the material at a low, medium, and high level. This will distribute the results more evenly, and will enable him to assess the students at a deeper level and arrive at a better understanding of the results.
Example of a GOOD assessment
What's the scenario? At the beginning of a unit, Mr. Bekins showed his students what they would be assessed on at the end of the unit. He provided a rubric for his students, as well as examples of past work. He laid out the expectations and objectives clearly, and focused his students on what they would be learning and then doing with the information.
What did he do well? Mr. Bekins took time to ensure that his students knew what his expectations of them were. He transferred the responsibility of learning to his students by making them aware of the objectives and assessments.
What did he do well? Mr. Bekins took time to ensure that his students knew what his expectations of them were. He transferred the responsibility of learning to his students by making them aware of the objectives and assessments.
Ideas adapted from
Tomlionson, C.A. & Mctighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction & Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.