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Overview of
Assessment
Glossary
Accountability:
The demand by a community (public officials, employers, and taxpayers) for
school officials to prove that money invested in education has led to measurable
learning. Most school districts make this kind of assessment public. It can
affect policy and public perception of the effectiveness of taxpayer-supported
schools and be the basis for comparison among schools. Accountability is often
viewed as an important factor in education reform.
Source: New
Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm
)
Assessment:
The Latin root assidere means to sit beside. In an educational context,
it concerns the process of observing learning; describing, collecting,
recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student's or one's own
learning. It is most useful as an episode in the learning process; part of
reflection and autobiographical understanding of progress.
In the context of
institutional accountability, assessments are undertaken to determine the
institution’s performance, effectiveness of schools, etc. In the context of
school reform, assessment is an essential tool for evaluating the effectiveness
of changes in the teaching-learning process.
Source:
New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm
)
Bloom's
Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives: Six levels arranged in order of
increasing complexity (1=low, 6=high):
- Knowledge
– Recalling or remembering information without necessarily understanding
it. Includes behaviors such as describing, listing, identifying, and
labeling.
- Comprehension
– Understanding learned material and includes behaviors such as
explaining, discussing, and interpreting.
- Application
– The ability to put ideas and concepts to work in solving problems. It
includes behaviors such as demonstrating, showing, and making use of
information.
- Analysis
– Breaking down information into its component parts to see
interrelationships and ideas. Related behaviors include differentiating,
comparing, and categorizing.
- Synthesis
– The ability to put parts together to form something original. It
involves using creativity to compose or design something new.
- Evaluation
– Judging the value of evidence based on definite criteria. Behaviors
related to evaluation include: concluding, criticizing, prioritizing, and
recommending.
Source:
State University at Pottsdam (http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html)
Course-embedded Assessment:
Reviewing materials generated in the classroom. In addition to providing a basis
for grading students, such materials allow faculty to evaluate approaches to
instruction and course design. Data gathering about
learning that occurs as part of the course, such as tests, papers, projects, or
portfolios; as opposed to data gathering that occurs outside the course, e.g.,
student placement testing.
Source: New
Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
and California State University, Long
Beach (http://www.csulb.edu/~senate/assessment/assessment_glossary.html)
Criteria:
Statements about the dimensions of competency that will be assessed. Criteria
specify important components of the desired knowledge or skill that the student
should learn and be able to demonstrate. For example, for oral communication,
one criterion could be maintaining eye contact with the audience.
Source: New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
and California State University, Long
Beach (http://www.csulb.edu/~senate/assessment/assessment_glossary.html)
Curriculum Alignment:
The degree to which a curriculum's scope and sequence matches a testing
program's evaluation measures, thus ensuring that teachers will use successful
completion of the test as a goal of classroom instruction.
Source: New Horizons for Learning
(http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
Direct
Assessment of Learning: Gathers
evidence, based on student performance, which demonstrates the learning itself.
Can be value added, related to standards, qualitative or quantitative, embedded
or not, using local or external criteria. Examples: most classroom testing for
grades is direct assessment (in this instance within the confines of a course),
as is the evaluation of a research paper in terms of the discriminating use of
sources. The latter example could assess learning accomplished within a single
course or, if part of a senior requirement, could also assess cumulative
learning.
Source:
Beyond Confusion: An Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and
Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)
EBI
Assessments: EBI
Assessments include exit surveys administered to graduating students
(undergraduate or MBA) in business schools. Questions ask students for their
perceptions regarding the learning experience in their program (including
support services). Confidential comparative data is reported to institutions to
serve as benchmarks.
ETS
Major Field Tests: The
Major Field Test in Business, administered by the Educational Testing Service,
has 120 multiple-choice items to measure student knowledge in business content
areas including Accounting, Economics, Management, Finance, Marketing and
Quantitative Business Analysis.
Source:
Educational Testing Service (http://www.ets.org)
Goals
for Learning or Learning Goals: Goals
are used to express intended results in general terms. The term is used to
describe broad learning concepts, for example: clear communication, problem
solving, and ethical awareness.
Source:
State University at Pottsdam http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html
Indirect
Assessment of Learning: Gathering of information
about learning or other secondary evidence. For example, a student survey about
whether a course helped develop a greater sensitivity to diversity or an
employer survey asking for feedback on graduates’ skills.
Source:
Beyond Confusion: An
Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)
Learning
Outcomes: Observable behaviors or
actions on the part of students that demonstrate that intended learning
objectives have occurred.
Source:
State University at Pottsdam (http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html)
Methods
of Assessment: Selected procedures used to gather data on student
learning. These methods are selected in relation to the specified learning
outcome to be assessed, type of evidence of learning available, type of
performance to be observed, and agreed-upon scoring procedures.
Source:
California State University, Long Beach
(http://www.csulb.edu/~senate/assessment/assessment_glossary.html)
Objectives
for Learning:
Objectives are used to express intended results in precise terms. Further,
objectives are more specific as to what needs to be assessed and thus are a more
accurate guide in selecting appropriate assessment tools.
Source: State University at
Pottsdam (http://www.chapman.edu/provost/assessment/glossary.html)
Primary Trait Method:
A type of rubric scoring constructed to assess a specific trait, skill,
behavior, or format, or the evaluation of the primary impact of a learning
process on a designated audience.
Source:
New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
Rating Scale: A
scale based on descriptive words or phrases that indicate performance levels.
Qualities of a performance are described (e.g., advanced, intermediate, novice)
in order to designate a level of achievement. The scale may be used with rubrics
or descriptions of each level of performance.
Source:
New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm
)
Rubric:
Description of the standards that will be used to judge a student's work on each
of the criteria or important dimensions of learning. It is a scoring guide that
is used in subjective appraisals of student work. It makes explicit statements
about the expected qualities of performance at each point on a scale.
Source:
New Horizons for Learning (http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm)
Sampling:
A way to obtain information about a large group by examining a smaller, randomly
chosen selection (the sample) of group members. If the sampling is conducted
correctly, the results will be representative of the group as a whole. Sampling
also may refer to the choice of smaller tasks or processes that will be valid
for making inferences about the student's performance in a larger domain.
"Matrix sampling" asks different groups to take small segments of a
test; the results will reflect the ability of the larger group on a complete
range of tasks.
Standards:
Sets a level of accomplishment all students are expected to meet or exceed.
Standards do not necessarily imply high quality learning; sometimes the level is
a lowest common denominator. Nor do they imply complete standardization in a
program; a common minimum level could be achieved by multiple pathways and
demonstrated in various ways. The
instructor develops the standards to describe the proficiency level that must be
attained by each student. Each student's work is compared to the standard,
rather than to the work of other students.
Source:
Beyond Confusion: An
Assessment Glossary, Association of American Colleges and Universities (http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp02/pr-sp02reality.cfm)
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