PRINCIPLES OF HIGH QUALITY ASSESSMENT  Essays – can test the students’ grasp of the higher level cognitive skills

1. Clarity of learning targets(knowledge, reasoning, skills, products, affects)  Checklists – list of several characteristics or activities presented to the subjects of a
2. Appropriateness of Assessment Methods study, where they will analyze and place a mark opposite to the characteristics.
3. Validity b. Product Rating Scales
4. Reliability  Used to rate products like book reports, maps, charts, diagrams, notebooks, creative
5. Fairness endeavors
6. Positive Consequences  Need to be developed to assess various products over the years
7. Practicality and Efficiency c. Performance Tests - Performance checklist
8. Ethics  Consists of a list of behaviors that make up a certain type of performance
CLARITY OF LEARNING TARGETS (knowledge, reasoning, skills, products, affects)  Used to determine whether or not an individual behaves in a certain way when asked
Assessment can be made precise, accurate and dependable only if what are to be to complete a particular taskd.
achieved are clearly stated and feasible. The learning targets, involving knowledge, d. Oral Questioning – appropriate assessment method when the objectives are to:
reasoning, skills, products and effects, need to be stated in behavioural terms which  Assess the students’ stock knowledge and/or
denote something which can be observed through the behaviour of the students.  Determine the students’ ability to communicate ideas in coherent verbal sentences.
1. CLARITY OF LEARNING TARGETS e. Observation and Self Reports
Cognitive Targets  Useful supplementary methods when used in conjunction with oral questioning and
Benjamin Bloom (1954) proposed a hierarchy of educational objectives at the performance tests
cognitive level. These are: PROPERTIES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS
• Knowledge – acquisition of facts, concepts and theories
 Validity
• Comprehension - understanding, involves cognition or awareness of the
 Reliability
interrelationships
 Fairness
• Application – transfer of knowledge from one field of study to another of from one
 Positive Consequences
concept to another concept in the same discipline
 Practicality and Efficiency
• Analysis – breaking down of a concept or idea into its components and explaining
 Ethics
g the concept as a composition of these concepts
3. VALIDITY
• Synthesis – opposite of analysis, entails putting together the components in order
to summarize the concept  Something valid is something fair.
• Evaluation and Reasoning – valuing and judgment or putting the “worth” of a  A valid test is one that measures what it is supposed to measure.
concept or principle. Types of Validity
SKILLS, COMPETENCIES AND ABILITIES TARGETS  Face: What do students think of the test?
 Skills – specific activities or tasks that a student can proficiently do  Construct: Am I testing in the way I taught?
 Competencies – cluster of Skills  Content: Am I testing what I taught?
 Abilities – made up of relate competencies categorized as:  Criterion-related: How does this compare with the existing valid test? Tests can be
i. Cognitive made more valid by making them more subjective (open items).
ii. Affective Validity – appropriateness, correctness, meaningfulness and usefulness of the
iii. Psychomotor specific conclusions that a teacher reaches regarding the teaching-learning situation.
 Products,Outputs and Project Targets - tangible and concrete evidence of a  Content validity – content and format of the instrument
student’s ability - need to clearly specify the level of workmanship of projects i. Students’ adequate experience
i. expert ii. Coverage of sufficient material
ii. skilled iii. Reflect the degree of emphasis
iii. novice  Face validity – outward appearance of the test, the lowest form of test validity
2. APPROPRIATENESS OF ASSESSMENT METHODS  Criterion-related validity – the test is judge against a specific criterion
a. Written - Response Instruments  Construct validity – the test is loaded on a “construct” or factor
 Objective tests – appropriate for assessing the various levels of hierarchy of 4. RELIABILITY
educational objectives  Something reliable is something that works well and that you can trust.
  A reliable test is a consistent measure of what it is supposed to measure. - Positive consequence on students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders
Questions:
 Can we trust the results of the test? 7. PRACTICALITY AND EFFECIENCY
 Would we get the same results if the tests were taken again and scored by a different  Something practical is something effective in real situations.
person?  A practical test is one which can be practically administered.
Tests can be made more reliable by making them more objective (controlled items). Questions:
 Reliability is the extent to which an experiment, test, or any measuring procedure  Will the test take longer to design than apply?
yields the same result on repeated trials.  Will the test be easy to mark?
 Equivalency reliability is the extent to which two items measure identical concepts Tests can be made more practical by making it more objective (more controlled
at an identical level of difficulty. Equivalency reliability is determined by relating two items)
sets of test scores to one another to highlight the degree of relationship or  Teacher Familiarity with the Method
association.  Time required
 Stability reliability (sometimes called test, re-test reliability) is the agreement of  Complexity of Administration
measuring instruments over time. To determine stability, a measure or test is  Ease of scoring
repeated on the same subjects at a future date.  Ease of Interpretation
 Internal consistency is the extent to which tests or procedures assess the same  Cost
characteristic, skill or quality. It is a measure of the precision between the observers Teachers should be familiar with the test,
or of the measuring instruments used in a study. - does not require too much time
 Interrater reliability is the extent to which two or more individuals (coders or raters) - implementable
agree. Interrater reliability addresses the consistency of the implementation of a RELIABILITY, VALIDITY & PRACTICALITY
rating system. The problem:
RELIABILITY – CONSISTENCY, DEPENDABILITY, STABILITY WHICH CAN BE  The more reliable a test is, the less valid.
ESTIMATED BY:  The more valid a test is, the less reliable.
 Split-half method  The more practical a test is, (generally) the less valid.
 Calculated using the The solution:
i. Spearman-Brown prophecy formula As in everything, we need a balance (in both exams and exam items)
ii. Kuder-Richardson – KR 20 and KR21 8. ETHICS
 Consistency of test results when the same test is administered at two different time  Informed consent
periods  Anonymity and Confidentiality
i. Test-retest method 1. Gathering data
ii. Correlating the two test results 2. Recording Data
3. Reporting Data
5. FAIRNESS ETHICS IN ASSESSMENT – “RIGHT AND WRONG”
The concept that assessment should be 'fair' covers a number of aspects.  Conforming to the standards of conduct of a given profession or group
 Student Knowledge and learning targets of assessment  Ethical issues that may be raised
 Opportunity to learn i. Possible harm to the participants.
 Prerequisite knowledge and skills ii. Confidentiality.
 Avoiding teacher stereotype iii. Presence of concealment or deception.
 Avoiding bias in assessment tasks and procedures iv. Temptation to assist students.

6. POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES
Learning assessments provide students with effective feedback and potentially
improve their motivation and/or self-esteem. Moreover, assessments of learning
gives students the tools to assess themselves and understand how to improve.