Basics of Writing Good Assessments
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The document outlines steps for assessing educational programs, highlighting the need for common assessments as identified by both teachers and the assessment committee. It emphasizes the importance of analyzing final exams to measure student learning and improve instructional effectiveness, as well as analyzing specific questions to determine their difficulty and identify instructional issues. The next steps involve reviewing test results to address concerns and implement remedies for identified issues.
Basics of Writing Good Assessments
- 1. Next Steps in Assessment February 4, 2009
- 2. Assessment Background Identified in my earliest interactions with teachers as a concern Strategic plan also identified the need to review assessments Assessment Committee worked to review the program level assessments CAC’s have spoken for the need for common assessments Clearly identified as a need in SIPs
- 3. Overview Working towards a “balanced” model of assessment Rick Stiggins’s work in this area is important Institutional Accountability Standardized Testing (PSAE, ISAT) Program Improvement MAP, AIMSWeb, AP Exams, etc. Classroom Improvement Final Exams Common Assessments Tests, quizzes, etc.
- 4. Program Improvement Allows administrators, department coordinators, etc. to see trends across groups of students Helps determine the need for and effectiveness of programs AIMSWeb, MAP, etc. also provide useful information on individual students
- 5. Classroom Assessment Measure what students have learned Determine what instruction comes next Encourage students to try to learn Can provide significant improvement in student learning Gains show 0.5 to 1.0 of a SD The SD of the ACT is 4.7
- 6. Why Start with Final Exams? Several instructional design models strongly favor all assessments based on or from the final end of course/term exam
- 7. Item Analysis 1. What did students learn? What did they learn well? What did they struggle with? 2. How can I modify instruction to improve learning
- 8. Item Analysis, cont. Sort of a Goldilocks meets psychometrics Which questions are too hard? Which questions are too easy? Which questions are “just right”?
- 9. Sample Number of wrong answers for each item
- 10. Review the Analysis Look for obvious outliers* More than 50% of students gave the wrong answer 10% or less of students answered the questions incorrectly Look for reasons Testing issues Instructional issues Determine how to change / improve for the future
- 11. Sample: All students got the question correct 7. Which of the following men was not president? 1. George Washington 2. Abe Lincoln 3. Daffy Duck 4. Bill Clinton
- 12. Sample: All students got the question incorrect 13. Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb? 1. President Grant 2. US and Julia Grant 3. George Washington 4. No one
- 13. Sample: 75% of students answered incorrectly 18. Which of the following was not a cause of the War of 1812? 1. British Impressment 2. Citizen Genet 3. US desire for Canadian territory 4. British support of Native tribes
- 14. Next Step Review of the test(s) Showing which questions raised concerns What type of concern(s) for each question What is(are) the remedy(ies) for each