Chapter 4: Principles of Assessment
Janine Davis
Mr. Santiago is a first-year teacher who has been working hard to learn the ins and outs of his new school building, which was in a different school district from where he completed his student teaching. Glancing down at the midterm Algebra assessment that his PLC leader shared, he felt beads of sweat forming on his brow. While his students knew how to solve these kinds of equations, there was one major problem: he had taught them how to solve them with an online calculating tool called Desmos. The use of any kind of calculator on the assessment was not permitted. What now?
This chapter addresses the highlighted portion of the lesson template below, which asks you to consider the varied assessments that students will complete during the course of a lesson or unit. Our lesson template asks you to consider the formative and summative assessments that you will use during and after your instruction. The need to consider assessments before instruction is shown by its position in the template.
Lesson Plan Template
| Lesson Components | Description |
| Context: Who are the students in the room? (grade, content area, demographics, interests) | |
| Rationale: Why are you teaching this lesson at this time to these students? | |
| Virginia Standards of Learning (VSOL): Include SOL numbers and language | |
| Objective (“KUD”) Students will know: Students will understand that: Students will be able to: |
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| Assessment: What formative assessment will you use during the lesson? Attach it. What will/could be on the end-of-unit summative assessment that links back to this lesson (questions, prompts, portfolio artifacts, etc.)? | |
| Procedures: Provide detailed, numbered steps with simple language/short sentences for easy-to-follow instructions. Use a planning model that fits your purpose. Consider how your lesson approaches varying levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) Make sure your procedures include when/how you would assess students. |
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| Materials: What materials will be integrated during the lesson: books, articles, worksheets, maps, globes, technologies, etc.? | |
| Differentiation/UDL/Technology: What structures/supports will you proactively plan for to meet students’ needs before they arise? How is technology being used to create, facilitate, enhance, or personalize student learning? How does differentiated instruction supported by technology accommodate learner differences and needs in order to promote critical and creative thinking? |
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| Reflection: What went well in this lesson? What changes would you make to this lesson in the future? What did you learn about your students? What will you need to do in subsequent instruction?(Make sure you reference data collected in this lesson throughout the reflection.) |
The Purpose of Assessments
This chapter may serve as a review, especially if you are in the middle or at the end of your teacher education program. When concepts are repeated in different levels of a program at increasing levels of sophistication, it is called spiraling (Bruner, 1960). Another Open Educational Resource that will help as you consider the use, purpose, and format of assessments for your own planning is Chapter 6: Curriculum: Planning, Assessment, & Instruction – Foundations of American Education.
Assessment includes all of the methods and tools that teachers use to evaluate students’ learning and understanding in the classroom. Assessment helps teachers understand what students know and can do, as well as where they need more support. Assessments are not just for teachers; they also provide students with valuable feedback on their own learning and growth. By evaluating their performance on an assessment, students can identify areas where they are excelling and areas where they need to focus more. This self-reflection can be a powerful tool for student motivation and engagement, and can help students take responsibility for their own learning. Consider the role and importance of assessment in the following example:
In Mr. Reynolds’ Behind the Wheel course, nearly every student is eager to earn their driver’s license. However, there is a state-approved checklist of skills that must be demonstrated first. After several sessions, he meets with the student and guardian to explain the checklist and areas of strength and growth. When meeting with Mason and his mom, he shared the checklist and noted that checking mirrors and in blind spots before changing lanes and maintaining speed were areas of growth. Mason’s eyes glazed over, but his mom noticed and made sure he was paying attention–without addressing these areas, it was unlikely that Mason would pass the driving test and earn a license.
Regulations for learning to drive vary across different states, but in Virginia, the process of licensing new drivers includes several layers: a course in rules of the road, a written test administered at the Department of Motor Vehicles, 45 hours of guided practice in varied driving conditions with a guardian, completion of a Behind-the-Wheel course, and a test where students like Mason can demonstrate that they can drive safely. It is crucial that drivers on the road can operate a vehicle safely, or it endangers everyone else.
Data-Driven Instruction
Assessments should be used to track students’ progress over time. Teachers can and should make adjustments to their teaching as needed to support student learning based on their performance. Let’s assume you’ve taught a unit to a class of students and will assess their knowledge of the content with a final test. What should be your next steps if all of the students ace the test? What about if half of the students do well, and the other half fail the assessment? What happens next should be different for those two situations (and all of the other possible outcomes). If a school division’s pacing guide names the actual page that students should be on for any given day, it’s not useful–there is no way to predict with that level of certainty that all students will be ready for what is on that page, or that they won’t already have a solid understanding of it. The teacher should use assessments frequently to ensure that their instruction will be at the appropriate level for the students in the room.
Figure 4.1: Sample Learning Management System (LMS) Data Display
The teacher can use information like the LMS tools illustrated in Figure 4.1 to determine common areas of strength and growth. An average score of 89% on a quiz is reasonable, but these data show that the instructor should determine what questions were most difficult–especially for the students who scored below the average. There will be many tools available to help you compare the performance of students across many different metrics–how a student has progressed over time, how a student’s performance compares to the others in the class, or to what degree a student has mastered certain learning objectives.
Types of Assessments
Assessments serve varied purposes, but generally speaking, the teacher must consider the following: a) when the students will take the assessment; b) what, if anything, the teacher will teach before the student takes the assessment; and c) what will happen with the students’ scores when they complete the assessment. The three main assessment types are diagnostic, formative, and summative.
Diagnostic Assessment
Teachers give diagnostic assessments before they begin teaching; for this reason, they should not be graded. Depending on the format, diagnostic assessments are sometimes called pre-tests. If a teacher asks the class to share what they already know about a topic, whether in writing or orally, that is a kind of diagnostic assessment. Knowing this information helps all involved: students have a preview of the information that will follow in the unit, and teachers know if students have any related prior knowledge that will require them to teach at a different level for certain students. Consider the following two examples of diagnostic performance data on a ten-question, open-response assessment for two groups of students:
| Block A | Block B |
| Student 1: 10% | Student 1: 100% |
| Student 2: 40% | Student 2: 80% |
| Student 3: 100% | Student 3: 100% |
| Student 4: 0% | Student 4: 50% |
| Student 5: 0% | Student 5: 40% |
| Student 6: 10% | Student 6: 60% |
| Student 7: 60% | Student 7: 60% |
| Student 8: 10% | Student 8: 100% |
| Student 9: 30% | Student 9: 90% |
| Student 10: 80% | Student 10: 70% |
| Student 11: 0% | Student 11: 60% |
| Student 12: 20% | Student 12: 90% |
Let’s assume these scores are from the same pre-test that has been given to all sections of a teacher’s 12th grade Government classes; this represents the two courses with the greatest difference in student performance.
What do you see in the data?
You can see that looking at class average scores will not be very useful when considering individual student performance. The average score for Block A is 30% and the average score for Block B is 75%; however, those numbers mask that there are several students who do not show signs of knowing the material at all, and there are others who got every item correct. The test consisted of questions that asked students to provide an open response, so there is no error that might come from counting guesses on multiple choice questions. We can see from the data that fewer students in Block A know this content before the teacher begins instruction. More students in Block B know this content.
What could account for these differences?
While tracking students into courses based on prior performance can be problematic for several reasons (e.g., Oakes, 1990), it is a practice that persists in most schools in the United States. In the school in the above example, the students who take Government in 12th grade have options that affect what class period they are in. Students can take Advanced Placement (AP) Government or regular Government in this school. The students in these two classes are in regular Government, but other classes are also affecting the makeup of these classes: it happens to be the case that most of the students in 5th period Government are in 4th period AP English Literature and 3rd period AP Biology; 5th period Government includes students who have chosen other AP courses for various reasons, and so they are all prepared to do advanced work. This school does not allow students to take more than four AP courses in their senior year, and AP Government did not make the cut for this group of students; however, the students in 5th period Government have had experiences that have prepared them to do well on this pretest, whether it was enrichment activities with their families, access to advanced instruction in their elementary or middle schools, or even just a particular teacher in 11th grade who happened to include some content about Government the year before. The effects of various opportunities can be especially pronounced at the secondary level; for just one example of such effects, see Waldman and Green (2018).
The time or events of the day can also be a factor in student performance. In many U.S. schools after the COVID-19 pandemic, there were shortages of not just teachers, but also bus drivers. The effect was so extreme, that in many schools students did not even arrive at school until after the school day began. Students can also be more tired, hungry, or excited during different times of day. Anyone who has heard the fire drill during an exam or waited to attend a pep rally or leave for vacation or field trip at the end of a school day can attest to just how distracting these kinds of events can be.
Differences in performance are not just present in secondary schools. In some elementary schools, students are grouped into cohorts of ELL students or students with special education accommodations so that aides can be assigned accordingly. If a class with many students who are still learning English take a pre-test, they may not score well on the pre-test, but it may not be because the students do not know the content. It may be simply that the students do not yet know the words in English to convey their prior understanding.
What should be the teacher’s next steps?
The teacher should adjust the lessons in the unit to suit the different student populations. For most of the students in period 5 and some of the students in period 3, the teacher should identify advanced levels of knowledge and skill that could replace the more foundational skills that were in the original version of the unit. This is a complex and challenging process, and there are many strategies that can help. Chapter 6 provides much more information about differentiation, but two simple ways to start are to
- Provide choice when possible. If students know a great deal about the politics of a certain time period, it makes little sense to teach them the same content again. Instead, allow them to explore details about social customs of the time, geographic features, or another detail that interests them.
- Provide video supports for students who need them. These videos may be created or curated by the teacher, but one example might be a Khan Academy video that walks a student through how to solve a problem or do a task that will help them move to the next level of performance. There are millions of instructional videos online that may be useful to you; just be sure to preview any videos that you use in advance to ensure that it will be appropriate and accurate.
Formative Assessment
Formative assessments should be given to students during instruction. During instruction can mean work assigned before or during a class meeting; homework, or review of a concept that was taught earlier in the week. Formative assessments may include quizzes, discussions, and low-stakes writing assignments; they are used to monitor student learning and provide feedback to students as they are learning. Self-assessments are evaluations that students complete on their own to reflect on their own learning and growth. When a teacher circulates through a classroom to observe students as they work, watches for students’ facial expressions or body language as they learn about a topic, or takes brief notes while listening to students read aloud in small groups, these are also kinds of formative assessment.
When learning a new skill, we need to know if we are doing it correctly while we are engaged in the task. While sometimes students can feel anxious about assessments, formative assessments should occur frequently and should not contribute to feelings of anxiety–rather, they should build confidence and help students and teachers know what must happen before the summative assessment for the student to be successful.
Summative Assessment
Summative assessments occur after instruction; these kinds of assessments give students a chance to show everything that they learned. One local math teacher even refers to these kinds of assessments as a “celebration” of what students know. Summative assessments, such as end-of-unit tests, presentations, projects, essays, and final exams, are used to evaluate student learning at the end of a unit or course and provide a final grade. Another important function of summative assessments is to show the teacher whether the students learned what they intended. One possible outcome could be that a teacher learns that students misunderstood key information when they all miss certain questions on the summative assessment. This reveals a need to reteach that material before or while moving on to the next unit. Another practice that could contribute to the summative assessment feeling more like a celebration is to ask students to share what else they know about the topic that was not reflected in the assessment questions or prompt.
Assessment Quality
Some assessments are better than others, and there is no way to judge the quality of an assessment without knowing the instruction the students received before they take the assessment. A multiple choice assessment that asks students to solve ten equations that require skills that they have never learned is not a useful or effective summative assessment. Teachers must be transparent with students about how they will be assessed. If a rubric will be used to score an assignment, the teacher should share that rubric in advance. Good rubrics can be challenging to make, and even experts sometimes disagree about certain aspects of them, such as whether point ranges are appropriate, or what grades should correspond to what cells on the rubric. There are free rubric generators available such as Rubistar and Quick Rubric. Your PLC may share rubrics or develop them together if you have similar student populations and instructional goals. Some students may even be ready to help develop the rubric that the teacher will use to score their work; in addition to helping students understand the components that will contribute to a successful assessment, this kind of interaction can be very empowering for them.
When creating assessments for your classroom, it is crucial that any directions that the students receive about how to complete the assessment should be straightforward and written in language they can understand. Chapter 11 will provide more detail about more advanced components of quality such as validity, reliability, and clarity.
Alignment
Assessments must be aligned with objectives and instruction. When driving a car, keeping the tires aligned means that the angles are optimized for safe driving and minimal wear. The driver can turn the wheel and know which way the tires will go. The classroom should also be aligned: the lessons, objectives, and assessment should all be about the same thing; they should be pointed in the same direction. If assessments are not aligned, they are not an accurate measure of what students know as a result of instruction. Similarly, students must have experience with the formats of their assessments, and should not be penalized if the instruction was not connected to what the assessment is designed to measure. For example, if a teacher asks a student to write a four- to six-paragraph essay that persuades their audience on a topic, students must have had instruction in not just how to persuade, but also how to construct an essay if they will be scored on that skill for the assessment. At times, the instruction may have come in a previous or parallel course, but if the teacher has not verified that skill before this assessment, it is not aligned and is not an accurate representation of what the student knows as a result of instruction.
Bias in Assessment
There is no such thing as a completely unbiased assessment. As Rosales and Walker (2021) explain, “Since their inception almost a century ago, [standardized] tests have been instruments of racism and a biased system. Decades of research demonstrate that Black, Latin(o/a/x), and Native students, as well as students from some Asian groups, experience bias from standardized tests administered from early childhood through college” (para. 4). Rosales and Walker (2021) are referring to Carl Brigham’s 1923 book, A Study of American Intelligence, in which Brigham advocated for testing to prove how the “Nordic race group” was superior to other groups, including immigrants and African Americans. Even earlier, intelligence tests were developed and used to “place 1.5 million soldiers in units segregated by race and by test scores” during World War I (Rosales & Walker, 2021, para. 16).
Ideally, assessments that are designed with some of the principles discussed in this chapter–aligned with standards, objectives, and instruction–reduce opportunities for bias to unfairly influence results. However, it is important to acknowledge that the history of standardized assessment was literally engineered to “prove” that one group of people who represented “mainstream” ideals were better than groups who did not fit into these “mainstream” groups and ideals. If you notice that entire subgroups of students in your class are under-performing on assessments, you should critically analyze your assessment to see how bias may be present.
Key Chapter Takeaways
- Assessments are used to give feedback to teachers and students about the quality of the instruction and how well students received it.
- Assessments, objectives, and instruction should be aligned; they should be about the same things and completed in similar formats.
- Teachers must engage in analysis of student assessment data so that all involved are aware of whether the instruction was effective.
- Diagnostic assessments measure what students know before instruction, formative assessments measure what students know during instruction, and summative assessments measure what students know after instruction.
Application Questions
- Consider a topic that you could teach to a group of students. What would the summative assessment involve so that you know the students learned the content and skills that you taught to them?
- After giving a summative assessment, you conduct an analysis of the data and find the following score breakdown. What steps would you take for each group?
- 12 students scored above an 80%, which was your goal for mastery
- 10 students scored between 60-80%
- 5 students scored below 60%
References
Bruner, J. S. (2009). The process of education. Harvard University Press.
Oakes, J. (1990). Multiplying inequalities: The effects of race, social class, and tracking on opportunities to learn mathematics and science. RAND.
Rosales, J., & Walker, T. (2021, March 20). The racist beginnings of standardized testing. NEA News. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/racist-beginnings-standardized-testing
Waldman, A., & Green, E. L. (2018, October 16). Charlottesville’s other Jim Crow legacy: Separate and unequal education. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/charlottesville-other-jim-crow-legacy-separate-and-unequal-education
