Taking the Mystery Out
of Assessments:
Five Essential Qualities of Any Assessment
Ohio Middle Level Association
Friday, February 21, 2014
Donna Snodgrass, Ph.D.
Formative Instructional Training Services
President, Collaborative Assessment Project (CAP)
© 2013 Donna Snodgrass.
Learning Targets, each
participant will:
1. Understand how to place assessments along a
formative/summative assessment continuum.
2. Understand what five conditions result in an
assessment being categorized as a more formative or a
more summative assessment.
1. Understand that summative assessments are products
and formative assessments are processes.
2. Understand the inherent reciprocal relationship
between instruction and assessment in an environment
that promotes learning.
Why are tests
important?
Tests are tools. Make sure the tools you
select are just right for the job!
1. When tests measure what their authors say they
measure the tests are considered valid.
2. When tests function in a consistent manner the
tests are labeled reliable.
List below all the types of assessments used in your
classroom or school that generate data on how your
students are performing.
Balanced Assessment System
Most
Formative
More
Formative
More
Summative
Purpose
Primary Users
Most
Summative
Balanced Assessment System
Most
Formative
For Learning
Users are
people closest
to the
classroom
More
Formative
More
Summative
Most
Summative
Accountability,
Progress Monitoring
Evaluation
Users are people
farthest from the
classroom
The Essential Quality of a
Formative Assessment…
… is that it must take place when there is enough
instructional time left for students to revise their
responses, based on the descriptive feedback.
Assessments…
…have their greatest positive impact on
learning the closer the test results are
made available to the actual instruction!
Assessments…
…have their greatest positive impact on learning
when test items have direct instructional value!
Items with direct instructional value provide
teachers and students with information about
targeted and immediate instructional actions
they can take to help ensure student learning
stays on course.
Objective: The student will tell time to
the minute.
Which of the assessment items on the
next two pages has the most direct
instructional value, item 1 or item 2?
A change in thinking
is needed from:
Being singularly focused on assessment items
that measure skills AT a rigorous level..
To focusing on assessment items that measure
skills TO a rigorous level.
Balanced Assessment System
Most
Formative
More
Formative
More
Summative
Most
Summative
For Learning
PROCESSES
products
products
Support the Learning
PRODUCTS
Sadler’s KEY POINT is
that for student work to
move forward: students
must have the capacity to
monitor the quality of
their own work during
actual production.
Formative Instructional Process
Administer
Summative
Assessment
Provide
Time for
Revision
Students/Teacher
s Decide on the
Next Instructional
Steps
Set
Clear
Targets
Students
as Full
Partners
Provide
Students
with
Descriptive
Feedback
Provide Targeted
Instruction
Gather
Evidence
of
Learning
Reflect on the
Evidence of
Learning
Five Essential Qualities
of Any Assessment
1.
Identify the purpose of the assessment.
2.
Identify the primary users of the data generated by the
assessment*
3.
Determine if the feedback from the assessment is ongoing
during the instructional-cycle or takes place at the end of the
instructional-cycle.
4.
Determine if students have time after they receive the feedback
to use the feedback to revise their original responses.
5.
Decide if the assessment items have direct instructional value.
* Stiggins
Place each of the assessments that you listed earlier in this
PowerPoint on the continuum below. When you are finished,
discuss if changes might be made to create a more balanced
assessment system in your classroom or school.
Most Formative
Most Summative