module 4b

Objectives
 List the purposes of assessment in science
education.
 Give numerous examples of ways to conduct
formative and summative assessment.
 Describe the process of developing an
assessment (Learning by Design, LBD).
 Create and evaluate rubrics for science
education projects.

Key Components of the
Assessment Process
 Focus
 Purpose
 Process
 Users

Assessment Process
 Focus – On what aspects of the
teaching-learning process should we
collect, describe, and quantify
information?
 Purpose – How will the information we
collect be used?

Assessment Process
 Method – What methods will we use to
collect the data?
 Users – For whom are we collecting the
data? Who will be provided with this
information?

Focus (NSES, p. 88)
To describe and quantify:
 Student achievement and attitude
 Teacher preparation and quality
 Program characteristics
 Resource allocation
 Policy instruments

Methods (NSES, p. 88)
 Paper and pencil testing
 Performance testing
 Interviews
 Portfolios
 Performances
 Observing programs, students, and
teachers in classroom
 Transcript analysis
 Expert reviews of educational materials

Purpose (Use) (NSES, p. 88)
 Plan teaching
 Guide learning
 Calculate grades
 Make comparisons
 Establish credential
and licensure
 Determine access to
special programs
 Develop education
theory
 Inform and monitor
policy
 Allocate resources
 Evaluate quality of
curricula, programs
and teaching
practices

Users (NSES, p. 88)
 Teachers
 Students
 Educational
administrators
 Parents
 Public
 Policymakers
 Institutions of higher
education
 Business and
industry
 Government

ASSESSMENT STANDARD A:
(NSES, p. 89)
 Assessments must be consistent with the
decisions they are designed to inform.
 Assessments are deliberately designed.
 Assessments have explicitly stated purposes.
 The relationship between the decisions and
the data is clear.
 Assessment procedures are internally
consistent.

Assessments must be consistent with the
decisions they are designed to inform.
 This means that the purpose must
match the process. For example, if you
want to measure how well students
understand the methods of scientific
inquiry, they must be given an
opportunity to engage in scientific
inquiry as part of that assessment.

Assessments are deliberately designed.
 This means that the assessment must
clearly provide the kind and quality of
data you need. For example,
―Classroom observation‖ might be ok to
see if students understand the
directions of an activity, they it would
hardly provide any accurate data of
student understanding of concepts or
achievement.

Assessments are internally consistent.
 This means that if something is measured
several times in the same assessment, the
degree of success should be similar. For
example, if I ask a student multiple choice
questions about a topic and he does well, but
does very poorly over open-ended questions
on the same content, the test is not
accurately measuring his understanding of
the concept.

ASSESSMENT STANDARD B:
(NSES, p. 90)
 Achievement and opportunity to learn science
must be assessed.
 Achievement data collected focus on the
science content that is most important for
students to learn.
 Opportunity-to-learn data collected focus on
the most powerful indicators.
 Equal attention must be given to the
assessment of opportunity to learn and to the
assessment of student achievement.

…opportunity to learn science must be
assessed.
 This means that we cannot state the these
students do poorly and these students do
well unless we are also evaluating such
factors as teacher quality, classroom climate,
availability of resources, whether special
needs are being addressed, etc.
 Equity is an essential factor in interpreting
any social science data.

Achievement data collected focus on the
students to learn.
When we design assessments, we must focus
on:
 The ability to inquire.
 Knowing and understanding scientific facts,
concepts, principles, laws, and theories.
 The ability to reason scientifically.
 The ability to use science to make personal
decisions and to take positions on societal issues.
 The ability to communicate effectively about
science.

Achievement data collected focus on the
students to learn.
 Do not test what is easy to test. Test
what is important to know.

Assessment
 At its best, it is an opportunity to learn:
 what students know in order to
congratulate them.
 what students do not know in order to help
them learn it.
 what direction your teaching should take.

Assessment
 At its best is
Feedback

Assessment
 According to the National Science
Education Standards:
 Assessment and learning are two sides of the
same coin.
 Assessment methods define what teachers
should teach and students should learn.
 Students should not just demonstrate
learning during assessment; they should learn
from assessments.

Assessment
 According to the National Science
Education Standards:
 All aspects of science achievement—ability to
 inquire, scientific understanding of the natural
 world, understanding of the nature and utility
of science—are measured using multiple
methods such as performances and
portfolios, as well as conventional paper-and-
pencil tests.

Assessment
 At its worst, assessment is:
 An opportunity compare and rank students.
 An opportunity to punish students for not
learning.

When do you develop the
assessment?
 According to ―Understanding by
Design,‖ assessment is the SECOND
step in curriculum design.
 Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (nd) Understanding by Design: A
brief introduction. Center for Technology & School Change at
Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved 6/7/07.
 Wikipedia (2010). Understanding by Design. Retrieved on
February 18, 2010, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_by_Design

When do you develop the
assessment?
 FIRST: Select your objectives.
 SECOND: Decide what proof you will accept
that the student has mastered the targeted
knowledge and skills. Your assessment must
provide that proof.
 This is a very important concept. If your
assessment cannot provide that proof, it is
inadequate.

Characteristics of Assessment
 Formative or Summative
 Authentic – i.e. ―real world‖ – or
artificial
 Should be tested as much as possible in
the way it will actually be used, BUT
 Should also be tested as much as possible
in the way it was taught

Developing Assessment
ASK:
 What are the essential skills and
knowledge I am trying to teach?
 How can I find out whether students
are learning them?
 How can I help students learn better?

Key to the process
 Refer back to your objectives. Does
your assessment test THESE items and
to the DEPTH you targeted?

Provide abundant feedback
 Assessments should teach, not just test
prior teaching.
 Assessments should help students
internalize what competency ―looks
like.‖
 Feedback provides this.

Which of the following BEST
describes the role of assessment?
A. Assessments reveal to the teacher what the student
does and does not know.
B. Assessments tell the teacher how to design the
curriculum.
C. Assessments provide data about the students’
current levels of knowledge and skills for the
purpose of improving those levels.
D. Assessments provide a way to assess school quality.

 Assessments show the teacher what the
student does not know.
 Although this is true, it does not BEST
describe the role of assessment. It is
actually more important for the student
to have this information. Can you
explain why?

 Assessments tell the teacher how to design
the curriculum.
 Although this is true, it is not the BEST
answer. Teachers should use this information
to make needed improvements in the
curriculum, but it is also essential that
assessment provide the student information
about his current knowledge and skills. Can
you explain why?

 Assessments provide data about the students’
current levels of knowledge and skills.
 This is the best of the four statements.
Students, teachers, and perhaps parents and
administrators can and should use such data
to improve learning. The most important of
these, however, is always the student. Can
you explain why?

 Assessments provide a way to assess
school quality.
 Although this is true, it is not the BEST
answer. Feedback to others in the
educational community is important,
but most important is feedback to
students. Can you explain why?

ASSESSMENT STANDARD C
 The technical quality of the data
collected is well matched to the
decisions and actions taken on the basis
of their interpretation.

ASSESSMENT STANDARD C
 Assessments are:
 Valid
 Reliable
 Stable
 Authentic
 Multiple measures
 Sufficient opportunity to demonstrate
knowledge and skills

ASSESSMENT STANDARD D
 Assessments must be:
 Fair
 Without bias or stereotype
 Modified appropriately for special needs
 set in a variety of contexts
 engaging to students with different
interests and experiences

ASSESSMENT STANDARD E
 The inferences made from
assessments must be reasonable
and well-supported.

Assessment should develop students as
independent learners. Students should:
 Select a piece of their own work to provide
evidence of understanding of a scientific
concept, principle, or law—or their ability to
conduct scientific inquiry.
 Explain orally, in writing, or through
illustration how a work sample provides
evidence of understanding.

 Critique a sample of their own work using the
teacher’s standards and criteria for quality.
 Critique the work of other students in
constructive ways.

 Involve students in the
assessment process!

For example: Let students to develop
the assessment instrument.
 ―Design your own‖ rubric.
 http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Hints for effective assessment
 Assess often (formative assessment) so
that you can modify instruction to fit
student needs.
 ALWAYS let students know in advance
how they will be assessed.
 Use assessment for its primary purpose,
to provide feedback to you and to the
students.

What can you do for formative
assessment?
 Exit questions: "your
ticket out the door―
 Write a paragraph
 Journaling
 Graphic organizers
 Text-based questions
 Notebook checks
 Quizzes
 Worksheets
 Diagrams/drawings/cartons
 Oral questioning
 Nerf basketball review game
 Pass-the-ball review
 What did you learn?" closure
questions
 Vocabulary/concept skits
 Daily warm-up review
questions

What can you do for formative
assessment?
 Homework assignments
 Review games
 Group work updates
 Timelines
 Compare answers from
students of different
achievement levels
 Compare answers from
students of different
learning styles
 "Ask the Teacher" forms
 Pictionary
 Idea webs
 Making and supporting
predictions
 Metacognitive reports
Minneapolis Public Schools (2010).
Retrieved on February 17, 2010,
from
http://aaa.mpls.k12.mn.us/formati
ve.html

What can you do for
summative assessment?
 Pencil-paper tests
 Multiple choice
 Essay
 Matching
 True/False
 Etc.
 Other ideas….

What can you do for summative
assessment?
 Debate
 Models
 Perform a television show
 Perform a television
commercial/infomercial
 Improvisational role-play
 Create advertisements
play
 Poetry (dialogue poem:
 Students create books
 Letters dialogue
 Plan a museum
exhibit/commemorative
stamps/historical markers
 Research paper
from
http://aaa.mpls.k12.mn.us/summat
ive.html

What can you do for summative
assessment?
 Role-play journals/diaries
 Stand-up comedy routine
 Present and support a
new way of doing
something
 Present and support your
answer to a "what if"
scenario
 Compare/contrasts
 Postcards from time/places
with art and text
 Create and support a
metaphor
from
http://aaa.mpls.k12.mn.us.summat
ive.html

How do you assess these other
(alternative) forms of assessment?
 Rubrics

How do you make a rubric?
 Decide on the criteria that are
important for this assignment.
Examples:
 Content
 Inquiry
 Use of resources
 Higher level thinking
 Communication/Presentation

 Put them in order from the most
important to the least important.
Example:
 Content (most important)
 Inquiry
 Use of resources
 Higher level thinking
 Communication/Presentation (least
important)

 Decide how many levels you will
describe (usually 3-5).
 Decide what scale you will use.
 Example:
 1 = needs improvement
 2 = satisfactory
 3 = exceeds expectations
 4 = clearly outstanding

 Describe each level for each criteria.
 Example:
 Content
 1=many serious errors in content
 2 =a few serious errors in content
 3 = most content correct, a few minor
errors
 4 = no content errors; clear evidence of
understanding

Examples of science rubrics.
Which to you think is best?
 http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?scree
n=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1696498&

Key Points
 Assessment drives the learning process.
 Your assessment methods should be decided
even before the activities for the lesson have
been chosen.
 Formative and summative assessments are
necessary to give students the important
feedback all during the learning process.
 All assessments must be fair, rigorous, valid,
and reliable.

Assessment Resources
 Authentic Assessment
http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/tool
box/whatisit.htm
 Rubistar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
 How to Write Tests
http://www.uleth.ca/edu/runte/tests/
 Portfolio Assessment
 http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/as
sess6.html

module 4b

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module 4b