Toward a Comprehensive Model of Assessment

Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research & Perspective, 2003

2001). The committee issuing this report was charged with synthesizing advances in the cognitive sciences and measurement, and exploring their implications for improving educational assessment. The article opens with a vision for the future of educational assessment that represents a significant departure from the types of assessments typically available today, and from the ways in which such assessments are most commonly used. This vision is driven by an interpretation of what is both necessary and possible for educational assessment to positively impact student achievement. The argument is made that realizing this vision requires a fundamental rethinking of the foundations and principles guiding assessment design and use. These foundations and principles and their implications are then summarized in the remainder of the article. The argument is made that every assessment, regardless of its purpose, rests on three pillars: (1) a model of how students represent knowledge and develop competence in the subject domain, (2) tasks or situations that allow one to observe students' performance, and (3) interpretation methods for drawing inferences from the performance evidence collected. These three elements-cognition, observation, and interpretation-must be explicitly connected and designed as a coordinated whole. Section II summarizes research and theory on thinking and learning which should serve as the source of the cognition element of the assessment triangle. This large body of research suggests aspects of student achievement that one would want to make inferences about, and the types of observations, or tasks, that will provide evidence to support those inferences. Also described are significant advances in methods of educational measurement that make new approaches to assessment feasible. The argument is presented that measurement models, which are statistical exam-ples of the interpretation element of the assessment triangle, are cuuently available to support the kinds of inferences about student achievement that cognitive science suggests are important to pursue. Section III describes how the contemporary understanding of cognition and methods of measurement jointly provide a set of principles and methods for guiding the processes of assessment design and use. This section explores how the scientific foundations presented in Section II play out in the design of real assessment situations ranging from classroom to large-scale testing contexts. It also considers the role of technology in enhancing assessment design and use. Section IV presents a discussion of the research, development, policy, and practice issues that must be addressed for the field of assessment to move forward and achieve the vision described in Section I.

1998

A Case Study of Assessment in a High School Classroom: The Impact of Changes in Assessment on Curriculum, Instruction, Teachers, and Students This study examined the impact of changes in assessment on curriculum, instruction, teachers, and students. The study describes the complex, developmental process by which a particular course, teachers, and a class evolved, articulated goals and standards, and assessed their learning. My coteacher and I used a variety of assessments: conferences, peer review, reflections, portfolios, group projects, and presentations in addition to traditional tests and quizzes. The methodology was a qualitative study by a teacher /researcher in a high school Humanities class. My findings were that new theories about knowledge and its acquisition necessitate changes in our practice. 1) An integral part of this change is the need to shift assessment toward coaching and feedback and away from ranking and grading. 2) Students and teachers need to openly converse and grapple with ideas to assess their learning and to solve problems with a variety of solutions. 3) Assessment must be ongoing for both teachers and students. A variety of standards including the Massachusetts' Curriculum Frameworks were used to help my co-teacher and me to assess the course. My recommendations are that further research is necessary to study the impact of change on students and teachers. CHAPTER I The Context of the Study This study describes the evolution of an interdiscipHnary course and its curriculum; it looks at the complex process by which a particular course, teachers, and a class collaboratively evolved standards and goals. As a teacher/researcher I assessed a Humanities class from within and without. I discovered that setting high standards and goals must be an ongoing, collaborative process of assessment. Daily we monitored and adjusted our curriculum and instruction to the needs of the students to provide a positive environment for growth. In a complex developmental process, my co-teacher and I collaborated as we tried new assessment methods. We evolved our assessments from paper and pencil tests of skills and knowledge to authentic assessment methods including portfolio/timelines, puppet shows, and conferences. As co-teachers we realized that to evaluate complex thinking, and student competencies, instead of skills and facts alone, required us to fine-tune our judgment and develop a common language both with one another and with our students. In this environment, the students were affected positively when they saw their efforts, not their ability or talent, had a direct bearing on their achievement. This study is divided into three major parts:

We are indebted to too many people to list here for enlightening discussions of topics addressed in this paper. We would like to acknowledge Lyle Bachman, Irwin Kirsch, Mary Schedl, and John Norris with regard to issues in language assessment, and, for their comments on an earlier draft, the editor Mark Wilson and two anonymous referees.

International Journal of Educational Research, 1990

2013

2002

This is a report of ongoing work in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) in the area of assessment literacy. An increase in mandates from both state and district and the MPS decentralization of assessment functions to schools has placed a greater demand on teachers and principals to effectively implement and use assessments. Although the district has a history in the last decade of using performance assessments and developing curriculum standards, high teacher turnover and expanding assessment responsibilities for teachers have increased the number of teachers with only a minimum knowledge of assessment and little understanding of how to apply assessments in a standards-based system. Assessment Literacy is defined as the knowledge of 1) the means for assessing what students know and can do, 2) the interpretation of the results from these assessments, and 3) application of assessment results to improve student learning and program effectiveness. The district has transformed its assessment system into a Balance Assessment System, including both external norm-referenced assessments and criterionreferenced,. classroom-based assessments. Teachers and schools are confronted with applying and using the classroom assessments to judge a student's proficiency in a content area in relation to district standards. They have to make sense of the results they obtained from the assessments they administer in their classrooms and correlate these with their students results on the state and district external assessments. Working the Division of Research and Assessment, we have designed a workshop on the assessment basics to be given this Spring (2002). This workshop has been designed to respond to the most immediate needs of the district in this area, while providing more information about the needs of teachers and schools.

Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2015

In this article, David Conley focuses on how to assess meaningful learning in ways that promote student achievement while simultaneously meeting system accountability needs. The article draws upon research that supports the notion that a major shift in educational assessment is needed in order to encourage and evaluate the kind of learning that enables success in college and careers. Over the next several years, almost every state will either implement the Common Core State Standards or develop an alternative version of their own. The question worth posing is whether educational stakeholders should be satisfied with on- demand tests that measure only a subset of the standards, or will they demand something more like a system of assessments in which multiple measures result in deeper insight into student mastery of complex and cognitive challenging standards? This article presents a vision for a new system of assessments, one designed to support the kinds of ambitious teaching and le...

2004

DOCUMENT RESUME EC 309 571

Educational Psychologist, 2016