Assessment of Learning 1 JSDV

Preliminary Concepts and Recent Trends

Overview
The goal of education is learning, and the vehicle used to accomplish this goal
is teaching. In the teaching-learning process, the fundamental component which determines
the degree of learner outcomes’ achievement is assessment. Assessment has the express
objective of determining whether learners have learned what they are supposed to learn.
Thus, assessment is an integral part of education. In this module, basic concepts and principles
in educational assessment is discussed.
The common terminologies used in assessment are defined to establish common idea on the
terms used in assessment. Further, this module includes topic on high quality
assessment components and the recent trends and focus in assessment.
Learning Outcomes
After learning this module, you should be able to:

¬explain the basic concepts and principles in educational assessment.

¬compare and contrast assessment, evaluation, measurement, and testing.

¬discuss on the role of assessment in making instructional decisions to improve

teaching and learning; and

¬reflect on and discuss the applications and implications of assessment to teaching and
learning.

Lesson 1.1 What is Educational Assessment?

•According to Evangeline Harris Stefanakis (2002), "The word assess comes from the Latin
assidere, which means to sit beside. Literally then, to assess means to sit beside the
learner."

•Assessment is the systematic collection, review, and use of information about

educational programs undertaken for the purpose of improving student learning and
development.

•Assessment is a formative process that focuses on student learning. It involves setting

explicit student learning goals or outcomes for an academic program; evaluating the extent
to which students are reaching those goals; and using the information for program
development and improvement.

•Assessment is defined as a process for documenting, in measurable terms, the

knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs of the learner (Delclos, Vye, Burns, Bransford, &
Hasselbring, 1992; Poehner, 2007).

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•Assessment is the collection of relevant information that may be relied on for making
decisions (Fenton, 1996).

•Oosterhof (2001) defined assessment as “a related series of measures used to

determine complex attribute of an individual or group of individuals. It is the process of
observing and measuring learning.

•The most common form of assessment is giving a test.

•Educational Assessment seeks to determine how well students are learning and is an
integrated part of the quest for improved education. It provides feedback to students,
educators, parents, policy makers, and the public about the effectiveness of
educational services (National Research Council)
Principles and Indicators of Assessment of Student Learning
Principle 1: The Primary Purpose of Assessment is to Improve Student Learning.
Assessment systems provide useful information about whether students have reached
important learning goals and about the progress of each student. They employ practices and
methods that are consistent with learning goals, curriculum, instruction, and current
knowledge of how students learn.
Principle 2: Assessment for Other Purposes Supports Student Learning.
Assessment systems report on and certify student learning and provide information for school
improvement and accountability by using practices that support important learning.
Important decisions, such as high school graduation, on the basis of information gathered
over time, not on a single assessment.
Principle 3: Assessment Systems Are Fair to All Students.
Assessment systems, including instruments, policies, practices and uses, are fair to all
students. Assessment systems ensure that all students receive fair treatment in order not to
limit students' present and future opportunities. They allow for multiple methods to assess
student progress and for multiple but equivalent ways for students to express knowledge
and understanding. Assessments are unbiased and reflect a student's actual knowledge.
Principle 4: Professional Collaboration and Development Support Assessment.
Knowledgeable and fair educators are essential for high quality assessment.
Assessment systems depend on educators who understand the full range of
assessment purposes, use appropriately a variety of suitable methods, work
collaboratively, and engage in ongoing professional development to improve their
capability as assessors. Schools of education prepare teachers and other educators well
for assessing a diverse student population. Educators determine and participate in
professional development and work together to improve their craft. Their competence is
strengthened by groups of teachers scoring student work at the district or state levels.
Schools, districts, and states provide needed resources for professional development.

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Principle 5: The Broad Community Participates in Assessment Development.

Assessment systems draw on the community's knowledge and ensure support by
including parents, community members, and students, together with educators and
professionals with particular expertise, in the development of the system. Discussion of
assessment purposes and methods involves a wide range of people interested in
education. Parents, students, and members of the public join a variety of experts, teachers,
and other educators in shaping the assessment system.
Principle 6: Communication about Assessment is Regular and Clear. Educators,
schools, districts, and states clearly and regularly discuss assessment system practices
and student and program progress with students, families, and the community.
Educators and institutions communicate, in ordinary language, the purposes, methods,
and results of assessment. They focus reporting on what students know and are able to do,
what they need to learn to do, and what will be done to facilitate improvement. They report
achievement data in terms of agreed-upon learning goals.
Principle 7: Assessment Systems Are Regularly Reviewed and Improved.
Assessment systems are regularly reviewed and improved to ensure that the
systems are educationally beneficial to all students. Assessment systems must evolve
and improve. Even well-designed systems must adapt to changing conditions and increased
knowledge. Reviews are the basis for making decisions to alter all or part of the assessment
system. Reviewers include stakeholders in the education system and independent expert
analysts.
Types of Classroom Assessment
1. Assessment for Learning (Formative Assessment)

•The philosophy behind assessment for learning is that assessment and teaching should be
integrated into a whole. The power of such an assessment doesn't come from intricate
technology or from using a specific assessment instrument. It comes from recognizing how
much learning is taking place in the common tasks of the school day – and how much insight
into student learning teachers can mine from this material (McNamee and Chen, 2005).

•Assessment for learning is ongoing assessment that allows teachers to monitor students on
a day-to-day basis and modify their teaching based on what the students need to be
successful. This assessment provides students with the timely, specific feedback that they
need to make adjustments to their learning.

•After teaching a lesson, we need to determine whether the lesson was accessible to all
students while still challenging to the more capable; what the students learned and still need
to know; how we can improve the lesson to make it more effective; and, if
necessary, what other lesson we might offer as a better alternative. This continual
evaluation of instructional choices is at the heart of improving our teaching
practice (Burns, 2005).

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2. Assessment of Learning (Summative Assessment)

•Assessment of learning is the snapshot in time that lets the teacher, students and their
parents know how well each student has completed the learning tasks and activities. It
provides information about student achievement. While it provides useful reporting
information, it often has little effect on learning.

•It refers to strategies designed to confirm what students know, determine whether or not
they have met curriculum outcomes or the goals of their individualized programs, or to certify
proficiency and make decisions about students’ future programs or placements. It is designed
to provide evidence of achievement to parents, other educators, the students themselves,
and sometimes to outside groups like other educational institutions
Comparing Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning

3. Assessment as Learning

•Assessment as learning develops and supports students' metacognitive skills. This for engage
in peer and self-assessment, they learn to make sense of information, relate it to prior

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knowledge and use it for new learning. Students develop a sense of ownership and efficacy
when they use teacher, peer and self-assessment feedback to make adjustments,
improvements and changes to what they understand Purpose of Educational Assessment
Assessment is used to:

•Inform and guide teaching and learning. A good classroom assessment plan gathers evidence
of student learning that informs teachers' instructional decisions. It provides teachers with
information about what students know and can do. To plan effective instruction,
teachers also need to know what the student misunderstands and where the misconceptions
lie. In addition to helping teachers formulate the next teaching steps, a good classroom
assessment plan provides a road map for students. Students should, at all times, have access
to the assessment so they can use it to inform and guide their learning.

•Help students set learning goals. Students need frequent opportunities to reflect on where
their learning is at and what needs to be done to achieve their learning goals. When students
are actively involved in assessing their own next learning steps and creating goals to
accomplish them, they make major advances in directing their learning and what they
understand about themselves as learners.

•Assign report card grades. Grades provide parents, employers, other schools,
governments, post-secondary institutions and others with summary information about
student learning.

•Motivate students. Research (Davies 2004; Stiggins et al. 2004) has shown that
students will be motivated and confident learners when they experience progress and
achievement, rather than the failure and defeat associated with being compared to more
successful peers

The Assessment Process

An effective classroom assessment:

•addresses specific outcomes in the program of studies

•shares intended outcomes and assessment criteria with students prior to the assessment
activity

•assesses before, during and after instruction

•employs a variety of assessment strategies to provide evidence of student learning

•provides frequent and descriptive feedback to students

•ensures students can describe their progress and achievement and articulate what
comes next in their learning informs teachers and provides insight that can be used to modify
instruction

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The assessment process starts with planning based on the program of studies learning
outcomes and involves assessing, evaluating and communicating student learning, as shown
in the following diagram

Assessment Task 1.1

• 1. Why is assessment important? Cite some instances/situations where assessment is
used.
• 2. Prepare a chart or diagram showing the basic concepts of assessment. Show the
features of each.
• 3. Interview at least three teachers on their methods of assessing student learning.

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Lesson 1.2. Common Terminologies

Measurement

•Thorndike and Hagen (19860 define measurement as “the process of quantifying

observations and/or descriptions about quality or attribute of a thing or process of
measurement involves three steps: identifying and defining the quality or attribute
that is to be measured; determining a set of operations by which the attribute may be made
manifest and perceivable; and establishing a set of procedures or definitions for
translating observations into quantitative statement of degree or amount. McMillan (1997)
stated that measurement involves using observation, rating scales, or any other non-test
device that secures information in a quantitative form. The term measurement can
refer to both the score obtained and the process used.

•Gredler (1997) defined measurement as the process of making empirical observations of

some attribute, characteristic, or phenomenon and translating those observations into
quantifiable or categorical form according to clearly specified procedures or rules.

•Educational measurement refers to the process of determining a quantitative or

qualitative academic attribute of an individual or group of individuals.

•One common example of measurement is when a teacher gives scores to the test of the
students like getting 23 correct answers out of 25 items or getting 95% in the first quarter
exam.
Testing

•Test is a formal and systematic instrument, usually paper and pencil procedure designed to
assess the quality, ability, skill or knowledge of the students by giving a set of question in
uniform manner.

•A test is one of the many types of assessment procedure used to gather information about
the performance of students.

•A test refers to a tool, technique or a method that is intended to measure students’

knowledge or their ability to complete a particular task. In this sense, testing can be
considered as a form of assessment. Tests should meet some basic requirements, such as
validity and reliability.

•Testing is one of the different methods used to measure the level of performance or
achievement of the learners.

•Testing also refers to the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the procedures
designed to get information about the extent of the performance of the students.
Standardized Testing

•Standardization is the process of trying out the test on a group of people to see the scores
which are typically obtained. This process provides a mean (average) and standard
deviation (spread) relative to a certain group.

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•A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a consistent manner. The tests are
designed in such a way that the “questions, conditions for administering, scoring
procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a
predetermined, standard manner (Popham, 2003).

•Standardized tests also determine a student’s academic level. They become the basis for
early tracking then ongoing tracking, reflecting the belief that homogeneous
achievement groups facilitate more efficient and effective teaching and learning (Perrone,
1991).

•Standardized tests are tools designed to allow measure of student performance relative to
all others taking the same test.
Types of Standardized Testing
1. Norm-referenced testing. It measures performance relative to all other students taking the
same test. This is the type of test you can use if you want to know how a student is compared
to the rest. This type of testing is the most common found among standardized testing. For
example, If a student is ranked in the 86th percentile, that means he/she did better than 86
percent of others who took the test.
2. Criterion-referenced testing.
It measured factual knowledge of a defined body of material. Multiple-choice tests that
people take to get their license or a test in fractions are both examples of this type
of testing

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High Stakes Testing

•High-stakes tests are tests used to make important decisions about students. These include
whether students should be promoted, allowed to graduate, or admitted to
programs.

•High-stakes tests are designed to measure whether or not content and performance
standards established by the state have been achieved.

•High-stakes testing in schools is based on the premise that student learning will
increase if educators and students are held accountable for achievement.

•By definition, testing becomes high stakes when the outcomes are used to make
decisions about promotion, admissions, graduation, and salaries.

•High-stakes testing is often associated with public reporting of testing results as a way to
bring attention to the assessment results. For schools with high or improved
performance on assessments, there are typically rewards (often monetary), and
for schools that underperform, there are often penalties that can result in the replacement
of administrators or teachers or retention of students at grade level.
Major Theories Underlying Test-Based Accountability on High-stakes Tests
1. Motivational theory is the predominant theory underlying test-based accountability.
According to this concept, the extrinsic rewards and sanctions associated with the
high- stakes test serve to motivate teachers to improve their performance. This presumes
that educators require external pressure to improve their teaching.
2. The theory of alignment holds that system-wide improvement is most likely to
occur if educators align the major components of the educational system (standards,
curriculum, and assessments) surrounding schools so that they reinforce each other.
Alignment is usually thought of in terms of synchronizing the surrounding system, but can
also be thought of as alignment between the external accountability of schools and
schools' sense of internal accountability (Abelmann and Elmore, 2004).
3. Information theory maintains that student performance data are useful for teachers
and administrators to make decisions about students and programs and that providing such
data to local educators and giving them incentives to improve their performance
will guide classroom and organizational decision-making.
4. Symbolism theory has also contributed to the growth and prevalence of high-stakes testing.
In this model, the accountability system is seen to signal important values to stakeholders
and, in particular, the public. This particular theory is manifested in the notion of "public
answerability" — that is, the idea that the public has a right to expect its resources to be used
responsibly and that public institutions are accountable for caretaking the public trust. High-
stakes assessments thus serve as evidence that public education is, in essence, responsible
and rigorous and further provide symbolic of the system

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Evaluation

•The verb evaluate means to form an idea of something or to give a judgment about
something. The term comes from the French word ‘évaluer’, meaning “to find the value of”.
The origin is from the Latin term ‘valere’ meaning “be strong, be well; be of value, or be
worth”.

•In the educational context, the verb ‘to evaluate’ often collocates with terms such as: the
effectiveness of an educational system, a program, a course, instruction, and
curriculum.

•According to Weiss (1972), evaluation refers to the systematic gathering of information for
the purpose of making decisions. It is not concerned with the assessment of the
performance of an individual, but rather with forming an idea of the curriculum
and making a judgment about it. This judgment is made based on some kind of criteria and
evidence. The purpose is to make decisions about the worth of instruction, a course, or even
the whole curriculum. Evaluation is thus larger and may include an analysis of all the aspects
of the educational system.

•Evaluation is a process of summing up the results of measurements or tests, giving them

some meaning based on value judgments (Hopkins and Stanley, 1981).

•Educational evaluation is the process of characterizing and appraising some aspect or

aspects of an educational process. It is a systematic determination of merit, worth, and
significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards.

•Educational evaluation is a professional activity that individual educators need to

undertake if they intend to continuously review and enhance the learning they
are endeavoring to facilitate.

Types and Distinctions of Tests and Assessment Procedures

There are ways of describing classroom tests and other assessment procedures. This table is
a summary of the different types of assessment procedure that was adopted and modified
from Grolund, Linn, and Miller (2009)

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Other types of Test

A. Non-standardized Test versus Standardized Test
1. Non-standardized test is a type of test developed by the classroom teachers.
2. Standardized test is a type of test developed by test specialists. It is administered, scored
and interpreted using a certain standard condition.
B. Objective Test versus Subjective Test
1. Objective test is a type of test in which two or more evaluators give an examinee the same
score.

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2. Subjective test is a type of test in which the scores are influenced by the judgment of the
evaluators, meaning there is no one correct answer.
C. Supply Test versus Fixed-response Test
1. Supply test is a type of test that requires the examinees to supply an answer, such
as an essay test item or completion or short answer test item.
2. Fixed-response test is a type of test that requires the examinees to
select an answer from a given option such as multiple-choice test, matching type
of test, true/false test.
D. Individual Test versus Group Test
1. Individual test is a type of test administered to student on a one-on-one basis using
oral questioning.
2. Group test is a type of test administered to a group of individuals or
group of students.
E. Mastery Test versus Survey Test
1. Mastery test is a type of achievement test that measures the degree of mastery of
a limited set of learning outcomes using criterion-reference to interpret the result.
2. Survey test is a type of test that measures students’ general achievement over a
broad range of learning outcomes using norm-reference to interpret the result.
F. Speed Test versus Power Test
1. Speed test is designed to measure number of items an individual can complete over
a certain period of time.
2. Power test is designed to measure the level of performance rather that speed of
response. It contains test items that are arranged according to increasing degree of difficulty.
Assessment Task 1.2
1. Compare and contrast the terms: assessment, test, measurement and evaluation using a
table.
2. Think of an example of evaluation you have witnessed. Briefly describe the evaluation
strategy/activity and link the evaluation with one of the purposes of evaluation you have
learned.
3. Enumerate 5 uses of measurement, testing, and evaluation.

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Lesson 1.3. High Quality Assessment Components

•High-quality assessments provide results that demonstrate and improve targeted student
learning.

•High-quality classroom assessment involves substituting technical types of validity and

reliability with concerns about how the assessments influence learning and provide fair and
credible reporting of student achievement.

•High-quality assessments inform instructional decision making.

•For teachers, the primary determinant of quality is how the information influences
students.

•High-quality assessments are balanced to provide instructors with ongoing feedback

about student progress.

•High-quality assessments are designed to be relevant, they eliminate anxiety about being
unprepared and help maintain strong student-teacher relationships.

•High quality assessment empowers educators to be more effective by optimizing

assessment use to boost student achievement, and:

• Allow for students to use assessment data to make choices about their
areas of concentration and focus.
• Produce valid and reliable results.
• Offer connections to standards-based instructional resources.
• Provide structured assessments as well as flexible classroom
assessment capabilities.
• Generates meaningful and actionable insights.

•High quality assessment takes the massive quantities of performance data and translates
that into meaningful, actionable reports that pinpoint current student progress, predict
future achievement, and inform instruction
Assessment Components
1. Clear purpose. Students should know the purpose of the assessment and how it is to be
done.
2. Clear and appropriate targets. Students learn more effectively when goals and learning
expectations are clear. As a teacher, you must have a clear picture of what achievement your
assessment intends to measure and communicate that to your students. A teacher cannot
accurately assess if the targets are not precisely defined.
3. Appropriate methods. Does the assessment method match the objectives? The
assessment method should give students an accurate chance to show they have mastered the
objectives.

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4. Adequate sampling. Sampling facilitates the assessment process when it is not feasible to
assess all students—for example when programs/courses have large numbers of students.
5. Objectivity. Assessment should be free from bias, judgment, or prejudice.

Criteria for High Quality Assessment

1. Assessment of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills: Most of the tasks students encounter
should tap the kinds of cognitive skills that have been characterized as “higher-level”—skills
that support transferable learning, rather than emphasizing only skills that tap rote learning
and the use of basic procedures. While there is a necessary place for basic skills
and procedural knowledge, it must be balanced with attention to critical thinking and
applications of knowledge to new contexts.
2. High-Fidelity Assessment of Critical Abilities: In addition to key subject matter concepts,
assessments should include the critical abilities articulated in the standards, such
as communication (speaking, reading, writing, and listening in multi-media forms),
collaboration, modeling, complex problem solving, planning, reflection, and research.
Tasks should measure these abilities directly as they will be used in the real world, rather
than through a remote proxy.
3. Standards that Are Internationally Benchmarked: The assessments should be as rigorous
as those of the leading education countries, in terms of the kind of content and tasks they
present, as well as the level of performance they expect.
4. Use of Items that Are Instructionally Sensitive and Educationally Valuable: The tasks
should be designed so that the underlying concepts can be taught and learned, rather than
reflecting students’ differential access to outside-of-school experiences (frequently
associated with their socioeconomic status or cultural context) or depending on tricky
interpretations that mostly reflect test-taking skills. Preparing for and participating in the
assessments should engage students in instructionally valuable activities, and results
from the tests should provide instructionally useful information.
5. Assessments that Are Valid, Reliable, and Fair: In order to be truly valid for a wide range
of learners, assessments should measure well what they purport to measure, accurately
evaluate students’ abilities, and do so reliably across testing contexts and scorers. They
should also be unbiased and accessible and used in ways that support positive outcomes for
students and instructional quality
Assessment Task 1.3
1. How can high quality assessment empower educators to be more effective?
2. Cite some examples on how high-quality assessment can be achieved

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