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60 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Accountability
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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.
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Achievement Test
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A standardized test designed to efficiently measure the amount of knowledge and/or skill a person has acquired, usually as a result of classroom instruction. Such testing produces a statistical profile used as a measurement to evaluate student learning in comparison with a standard or norm.
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Action Research
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School and classroom-based studies initiated and conducted by teachers and other school staff. Action research involves teachers, aides, principals, and other school staff as researchers who systematically reflect on their teaching or other work and collect data that will answer their questions. It offers staff an opportunity to explore issues of interest to them in an effort to improve classroom instruction and educational effectiveness.
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Affective
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Outcomes of education involving feelings more than understanding; likes, pleasures ideals, dislikes annoyances, values.
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Alternative Assessment
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Many educators prefer the description "assessment alternatives" to describe alternatives to traditional, standardized, norm- or criterion-referenced traditional paper and pencil testing. An alternative assessment might require students to answer an open-ended question, work out a solution to a problem, perform a demonstration of a skill, or in some way produce work rather than select an answer from choices on a sheet of paper. Portfolios and instructor observation of students are also alternative forms of assessment.
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Analytic Scoring
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A type of rubric scoring that separates the whole into categories of criteria that are examined one at a time. Student writing, for example, might be scored on the basis of grammar, organization, and clarity of ideas. Useful as a diagnostic tool. An analytic scale is useful when there are several dimensions on which the piece of work will be evaluated. (See Rubric.)
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Aptitude Test
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A test intended to measure the test-taker's innate ability to learn, given before receiving instruction.
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Assessment
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In an educational context, the process of observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student's or one's own learning.
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Assessment Literacy
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The possession of knowledge about the basic principles of sound assessment practice, including terminology, the development and use of assessment methodologies and techniques, familiarity with standards of quality in assessment. Increasingly, familiarity with alternatives to traditional measurements of learning.
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Assessment Task
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An illustrative task or performance opportunity that closely targets defined instructional aims, allowing students to demonstrate their progress and capabilities.
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Authentic Assessment
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Evaluating by asking for the behavior the learning is intended to produce.
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Benchmark
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Student performance standards (the level(s) of student competence in a content area.)
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Cohort
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A group whose progress is followed by means of measurements at different points in time.
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Competency Test
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A test intended to establish that a student has met established minimum standards of skills and knowledge and is thus eligible for promotion, graduation, certification, or other official acknowledgment of achievement.
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Concept
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An abstract, general notion -- a heading that characterizes a set of behaviors and beliefs.
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Curriculum Alignment
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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.
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Curriculum-embedded or Learning-embedded Assessment
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Assessment that occurs simultaneously with learning such as projects, portfolios and "exhibitions." Occurs in the classroom setting, and, if properly designed, students should not be able to tell whether they are being taught or assessed. Tasks or tests are developed from the curriculum or instructional materials.
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Criterion Referenced Tests
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A test in which the results can be used to determine a student's progress toward mastery of a content area. Performance is compared to an expected level of mastery in a content area rather than to other students' scores. Such tests usually include questions based on what the student was taught and are designed to measure the student's mastery of designated objectives of an instructional program. The "criterion" is the standard of performance established as the passing score for the test. Scores have meaning in terms of what the student knows or can do, rather than how the test-taker compares to a reference or norm group. Criterion referenced tests can have norms, but comparison to a norm is not the purpose of the assessment.
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Cut Score
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Score used to determine the minimum performance level needed to pass a competency test. (See Descriptor for another type of determiner.)
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Descriptor
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A set of signs used as a scale against which a performance or product is placed in an evaluation. An example from Grant Wiggins' Glossary of Useful Terms Related to Authentic and Performance Assessments is taken from "the CAP writing test where a 5 out of a possible 6 is described: 'The student describes the problem adequately and argues convincingly for at least one solution . . . without the continual reader awareness of the writer of a 6.'"
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Dimension
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Aspects or categories in which performance in a domain or subject area will be judged. Separate descriptors or scoring methods may apply to each dimension of the student's performance assessment.
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Essay Test
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test that requires students to answer questions in writing. Responses can be brief or extensive. Tests for recall, ability to apply knowledge of a subject to questions about the subject, rather than ability to choose the least incorrect answer from a menu of options.
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Evaluation
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Both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of pupil behavior plus value judgments concerning the desirability of that behavior. Using collected information (assessments) to make informed decisions about continued instruction, programs, activities. Exemplar Model of excellence
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Formative Assessment
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Observations which allow one to determine the degree to which students know or are able to do a given learning task, and which identifies the part of the task that the student does not know or is unable to do. Outcomes suggest future steps for teaching and learning. (See Summative Assessment.)
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Grade Equivalent
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A score that describes student performance in terms of the statistical performance of an average student at a given grade level.
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High Stakes Testing
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Any testing program whose results have important consequences for students, teachers, schools, and/or districts. Such stakes may include promotion, certification, graduation, or denial/approval of services and opportunity. High stakes testing can corrupt the evaluation process when pressure to produce rising test scores results in "teaching to the test" or making tests less complex.
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Holistic Method
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In assessment, assigning a single score based on an overall assessment of performance rather than by scoring or analyzing dimensions individually. The product is considered to be more than the sum of its parts and so the quality of a final product or performance is evaluated rather than the process or dimension of performance. A holistic scoring rubric might combine a number of elements on a single scale. Focused holistic scoring may be used to evaluate a limited portion of a learner's performance.
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I. Q. Tests
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The first of the standardized norm-referenced tests, developed during the nineteenth century. Traditional psychologists believe that neurological and genetic factors underlie "intelligence" and that scoring the performance of certain intellectual tasks can provide assessors with a measurement of general intelligence. There is a substantial body of research that suggests that I.Q. tests measure only certain analytical skills, missing many areas of human endeavor considered to be intelligent behavior. I. Q is considered by some to be fixed or static; whereas an increasing number of researchers are finding that intelligence is an ongoing process that continues to change throughout life
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Item Analysis
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Analyzing each item on a test to determine the proportions of students selecting each answer. Can be used to evaluate student strengths and weaknesses; may point to problems with the test's validity and to possible bias.
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Journals
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Students' personal records and reactions to various aspects of learning and developing ideas. A reflective process often found to consolidate and enhance learning.
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Mean
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One of several ways of representing a group with a single, typical score. It is figured by adding up all the individual scores in a group and dividing them by the number of people in the group. Can be affected by extremely low or high scores.
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Measurement
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Quantitative description of student learning and qualitative description of student attitude.
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Median
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The point on a scale that divides a group into two equal subgroups. Another way to represent a group's scores with a single, typical score. The median is not affected by low or high scores as is the mean. (See Norm.)
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Metacognition
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The knowledge of one's own thinking processes and strategies, and the ability to consciously reflect and act on the knowledge of cognition to modify those processes and strategies.
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Multidimensional Assessment
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Assessment that gathers information about a broad spectrum of abilities and skills (as in Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences
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Multiple Choice Tests
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A test in which students are presented with a question or an incomplete sentence or idea. The students are expected to choose the correct or best answer/completion from a menu of alternatives.
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Norm
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A distribution of scores obtained from a norm group. The norm is the midpoint (or median) of scores or performance of the students in that group. Fifty percent will score above and fifty percent below the norm.
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Norm Group
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A random group of students selected by a test developer to take a test to provide a range of scores and establish the percentiles of performance for use in establishing scoring standards.
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Norm Referenced Tests
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A test in which a student or a group's performance is compared to that of a norm group. The student or group scores will not fall evenly on either side of the median established by the original test takers. The results are relative to the performance of an external group and are designed to be compared with the norm group providing a performance standard. Often used to measure and compare students, schools, districts, and states on the basis of norm-established scales of achievement.
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Normal Curve Equivalent
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A score that ranges from 1-99, often used by testers to manipulate data arithmetically. Used to compare different tests for the same student or group of students and between different students on the same test. An NCE is a normalized test score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 21.06. NCEs should be used instead of percentiles for comparative purposes. Required by many categorical funding agencies, e.g., Chapter I or Title I.
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Objective Test
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A test for which the scoring procedure is completely specified enabling agreement among different scorers. A correct-answer test.
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On-Demand Assessment
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An assessment process that takes place as a scheduled event outside the normal routine. An attempt to summarize what students have learned that is not embedded in classroom activity.
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Outcome
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An operationally defined educational goal, usually a culminating activity, product, or performance that can be measured.
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Percentile
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A ranking scale ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 99 with 50 as the median score. A percentile rank indicates the percentage of a reference or norm group obtaining scores equal to or less than the test-taker's score. A percentile score does not refer to the percentage of questions answered correctly, it indicates the test-taker's standing relative to the norm group standard.
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Performance-Based Assessment
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Direct, systematic observation and rating of student performance of an educational objective, often an ongoing observation over a period of time, and typically involving the creation of products. The assessment may be a continuing interaction between teacher and student and should ideally be part of the learning process. The assessment should be a real-world performance with relevance to the student and learning community. Assessment of the performance is done using a rubric, or analytic scoring guide to aid in objectivity. Performance-based assessment is a test of the ability to apply knowledge in a real-life setting. Performance of exemplary tasks in the demonstration of intellectual ability
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Performance Criteria
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The standards by which student performance is evaluated. Performance criteria help assessors maintain objectivity and provide students with important information about expectations, giving them a target or goal to strive for.
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Portfolio
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A systematic and organized collection of a student's work that exhibits to others the direct evidence of a student's efforts, achievements, and progress over a period of time
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Portfolio Assessment
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Portfolios may be assessed in a variety of ways. Each piece may be individually scored, or the portfolio might be assessed merely for the presence of required pieces, or a holistic scoring process might be used and an evaluation made on the basis of an overall impression of the student's collected work. It is common that assessors work together to establish consensus of standards or to ensure greater reliability in evaluation of student work. Established criteria are often used by reviewers and students involved in the process of evaluating progress and achievement of objectives.
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Primary Trait Method
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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.
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Quartile
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The breakdown of an aggregate of percentile rankings into four categories: the 0-25th percentile, 26-50th percentile, etc.
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Quintile
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The breakdown of an aggregate of percentile rankings into five categories: the 0-20th percentile, 21-40th percentile, etc.
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Rating Scale
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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.
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Reliability
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The measure of consistency for an assessment instrument. The instrument should yield similar results over time with similar populations in similar circumstances
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Rubric
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In general a rubric is a scoring guide used in subjective assessments. A rubric implies that a rule defining the criteria of an assessment system is followed in evaluation. A rubric can be an explicit description of performance characteristics corresponding to a point on a rating scale. A scoring rubric makes explicit expected qualities of performance on a rating scale or the definition of a single scoring point on a scale.
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Standardized Test
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An objective test that is given and scored in a uniform manner. Standardized tests are carefully constructed and items are selected after trials for appropriateness and difficulty. Tests are issued with a manual giving complete guidelines for administration and scoring. The guidelines attempt to eliminate extraneous interference that might influence test results. Scores are often are often norm-referenced.
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Summative Assessment
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Evaluation at the conclusion of a unit or units of instruction or an activity or plan to determine or judge student skills and knowledge or effectiveness of a plan or activity. Outcomes are the culmination of a teaching/learning process for a unit, subject, or year's study. (See Formative Assessment.)
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Validity
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The test measures the desired performance and appropriate inferences can be drawn from the results. The assessment accurately reflects the learning it was designed to measure.
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Standards
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Agreed upon values used to measure the quality of student performance, instructional methods, curriculum, etc.
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Scale
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A classification tool or counting system designed to indicate and measure the degree to which an event or behavior has occurred.
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Scale Scores
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Scores based on a scale ranging from 001 to 999. Scale scores are useful in comparing performance in one subject area across classes, schools, districts, and other large populations, especially in monitoring change over time.
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