Factors to be Considered for

Successful Assessment
Factors to be Considered for Successful
Assessment

 While the assessments used in school settings have varying degrees of

standardization and psychometric properties, most have more than acceptable
levels of reliability and validity. So, when used appropriately with fidelity,
assessments can be expected to provide useable information about students.

 However, in addition to whether standardized testing is a good indicator of

student performance, there is also debate on whether certain aspects in life—
physical, mental, or situational—affect students’ assessment results.
 Physical factors

 • Age level—The chronological age of a student is typically accounted for in test or

assessment form selection

 • Developmental level—Should be considered if a student is developmentally

delayed or advanced when comparing to same-age cohorts

 • Physical disabilities—Hearing loss, visual impairment, motor ability, etc.

 • General health condition
 Mental/behavioural factors

 • Motivation level
 • School learning ability level
 • Activity/attention level (e.g., impulsive, distracted, etc.)
 • Cognitive level (developmentally delayed or advanced)
 • Specific mental health history (including comorbid or previous diagnoses, past
trauma)
 • Behaviour (e.g., agitated, noncompliant, aggressive, shy, withdrawn, compulsive,
anxious, frustrated, insecure, rejected, etc.)
 Home factors

 • Does the student have a stable home life, or have they had a recent
• Is the child homeless?
change at home?
 • Is the child in foster care? • Do the parents support assessment? Do they have issues with
assessments and tests?
 • Is the child a member of a • Is the student a native speaker of another language, is he/she
migrant family? bilingual, or is the primary home language not English?

• Do the parent(s) or caregiver take an interest in their child’s

 • Are there cultural differences?
education or do they have an issue with education?
School factors

 • Does the student feel safe and/or connected at school?

 • Does the student have a history of chronic absenteeism?

 • Is the student markedly over- or under-age for the grade?

 Does the student have cultural support or disconnection?

 • What is the student’s level of socialization and peer support?

 How well does the student relate to teachers and other school professionals?

 • Was the child pulled from a class or school event he/she enjoys for the
session?

 • What is the testing environment (e.g., classroom or office lighting, noise

level, temperature, number of interruptions)?
 Teacher factors

 • Cultural differences
 • Rapport and management skills
 • Previous experience with the student
 • Fidelity to assessment qualifications and instructions
 • Familiarity with the testing environment and test materials
 • Interpretation experience/knowledge (e.g., discrepancy analysis,
growth scale values, etc.)
 Recent Trends in Assessment and
Evaluation

 The following are the issues concerning suitable use of examination.

 The obtained results should be carefully systematized and conclusions should be

scientifically drawn and reported to the stakeholders involved in the system including
the students.

 The number of external examination should be reduced. More scientific and systematic
methods of evaluation need to be devised.

 While conducting evaluation, the student’s work throughout the year should be assessed.
 Evaluation procedures should include variety of techniques and tools, new types of tests
among which objective type tests are of considerable importance.
 In testing performance of students focus should be on what and how much the student knows,
not on what he does not know. Scoring should be objective and transparent.

 The evaluation should be treated, not as the end, but only as the means, since the purpose of
evaluation is to aid education/learning in achieving its primary goals.
 Oral testing should be given a suitable place in the system of evaluation.
 Evaluation should be in parts and not at one stroke.
 There is great need for reform and improvement in the question papers
employed in the prevailing system.

 The questions should be so designed that the child is stimulated to think for
himself seeking for the answers. Questions to test higher abilities should be
included.

 Evaluation needs to be diagnostic, comprehensive and continuous. Stress

should be on performance in both scholastic and co-scholastic areas.
 Keeping the above points in consideration, many new initiatives
and trends are recently being witnessed in our evaluation system.
Learner-centred assessment strategies, Question banks, Semester
system, CCE, Choice Based Credit System, Grading system, Open
book examination etc are some of the recent trends in evaluation
system.
 Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
(CCE)

 Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system was introduced by the

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India to assess all aspects of a
student’s development on a continuous basis throughout the year.

 The assessment covers both scholastic subjects as well as co-scholastic areas such
as performance in sports, art, music, dance, drama, and other cultural activities
and social qualities.
 Evaluation of Scholastic Areas

 Scholastic subjects are assessed using two modes: Formative Assessment (FA) and
Summative Assessment (SA). Formative Assessment usually comprises of Class Tests,
Homework, Quizzes, Projects, and Assignments directed throughout the year.
Summative Assessment measures how much a student has learnt from the class through
an examination/test conducted at the end of a term.
 For institutions following the CCE grading system, typically an academic year is divided
into two terms. Each term will have two FAs and one SAs. The weightage allotted to
each term and assessment is as follows.
 Term 1 Term 2

FA1 FA2 SA1 FA3 FA3 SA2

Weightage 10% 10% 30% 10% 10% 30%

Term FA1+FA2+SA1=50% FA3+FA4+SA2=50%

Weightage
 Total: Formative Assessments (FA) = FA1+FA2+ FA3+FA4 = 40%

 Summative Assessments (SA) = SA1+SA2 = 60%

 Scholastic Assessment grades are generally given on a 9 point

grading scale.
 Evaluation of Co-Scholastic Areas

 Co-Scholastic areas are assessed using multiple techniques on the basis

of specific criteria. Assessment of co-scholastic areas are done at the
end of the year, and grades are generally given on a 5 point grading
scale.
 Outcome, Results and Effect

 The outcome of the CCE system at the initial level varies. Though most of the schools
implemented it quickly, teachers and students who were accustomed to the older system
of evaluation and examination faced difficulties coping with the changes.

 The main aim of CCE is to reduce pressure on students who are unable to effectively
participate in the educational system and leave it dejected and with low self-confidence.
However, the system has also been criticised for focussing more on projects and
activities than actual learning.
 Critics also state that students' workload has not actually gone down
because even though exams have been reduced, stressed students wrestle
with projects and oral tests all the year round. Students are required to
participate in activities even if the syllabus is not covered.
 Despite these criticisms, the outcomes of this system were projected to be
better that the rote learning of the previous system, which placed an undue
emphasis on memory and facts instead of understanding and creating a
learning environment.
 Grading System

 The usual practice of assessment in schools is through conducting examinations. One

of the major drawbacks of our examination system is reporting students’ performance
in terms of marks.

 In order to minimize the limitations of present-day examinations system, a major

reform concerns transforming the marking system into a grading system.
 Grading is a process of classifying students based on their performance into
groups with the help of predetermined standards, expressed in a symbolic form
i.e., letters of English alphabet.
 As these grade and corresponding symbols are pre-determined and well defined,
the entire stakeholder would understand them uniformly and consistently. While
developing the grading system, it is of utmost significance that the meaning of
each grading symbol be clearly spelt out.
 Comparing grades awarded by a single teacher (intra-group) and by, different teacher
(inter-group) with reference to a larger group is considered as norm-referenced.
 This would help in locating the position of a student in a larger group. Hence, norm-
referenced measures would help in comparing the grades awarded by different
teachers and institutions.
 Thus, the grades may be used for communicating the students’ performance with
reference to specified criteria and also the relative position of students with reference
to their peer group.
 Merits of Grading System

- As grading involves grouping the students according to their attainment levels, it helps
in categorizing the students as per their attainments of instructional objectives also.

- One of the significant arguments in favour of the grading system is that it creates
favourable conditions for classification of students’ performance on a more convincing
and justifiable scale.

- In order to understand why grading is a better proposition than the marking system, it
is necessary to look closely into the various procedures of scaling.
- Grading is a far more satisfactory method than the numerical marking system.

- The justification for the superiority of grading system over marking system is that
it signifies individual learner’s performance in the form of a certain level of
achievement in relation to the whole group.

- Achievement of examinees in different subjects can be known separately.

- Errors of measurement are reduced to minimum base i.e. achievement of different

students may by easily compared.
- In grading system, inter-subject comparison of the same examinee
and inter-examinees comparison in a particular subject is possible.

- Grading system takes the emphasis away from marks.

- This system is a boon to weak students than the bright students.

- It reduces fear and complexities among the students.

 Demerits:

- There is lack of consensus among the educators with regard to points of the scale.

- The grade system is very sensitive. While awarding marks, examiner may switch
over from 60 to 65 easily, but the same is not in the case of grades.

- Subjectivity in evaluation is possible like marking system.

- It is easy to convert marks into grades but vice-versa is difficult.

- Lack of uniformity in grading creates confusion and interpretation of the result.

Types of Grading System

 On the basis of the reference point of awarding grades,

grades are classified as Direct and Indirect, it is also
divided into two as Absolute and Relative. The reference
point in former classification is an approach and in the
later, a standard of judgment. Absolute and relative
grading come under indirect grading.
 Direct Grading

 There are some occasions when it is neither desirable nor feasible to measure learning
performance in terms of quantitative measures and hence assessment is made
qualitatively. The process of assessing students’ performance qualitatively and
expressing it in terms of letter grades directly is called direct grading.

 This type of grading can be used for assessment of students’ performance in both
scholastic and co- scholastic areas. However, direct grading is mostly preferred in the
assessment of co-scholastic learning outcomes.
 Ifthe assessment is reported by assigning letter grades, the method is known as
direct grading. Thus, when a student's performance (in an activity or in
response to a question) is assessed qualitatively by the evaluator through
assigning letter grades like A for 'outstanding', B for 'very good', C for 'good',
D for 'satisfactory' and F for 'unsatisfactory', the method is known as 'direct
grading’.
 This method can be used for grading both cognitive and noncognitive learning
outcomes. But it is normally used when the number of questions or testing
situations are few and the numbers of examinees are also few. The method is
preferred for assessment of noncognitive learning outcomes.
 The merits of direct grading are:

 (i) It minimizes the inter-examiner variability; and

 (ii) It is easier to use when compared with other methods of grading.

 De merits:

 (i) Direct grading lacks objectivity and precision and also diagnostic value.

 (ii) It does not have transparency and diagnostic value

 (iii) It does not encourage competition to the extent required.