Define assessment and evaluation, discuss why these functions are important, and provide definitions of key assessment concepts.

• Assessment and evaluation can be defined as functions performed by teachers to make wise decisions about their instruction and about their students. A fairly large portion of a teacher's time is consumed by assessment and evaluation processes.
• The consequences of testing and grading students are immense. They can determine the colleges students attend, the careers open to them, and the lifestyles they ultimately maintain.
• Evaluation specialists make key distinctions between formative and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation information is collected before or during instruction and is used to inform teachers about their students' prior knowledge and to make judgments about lesson effectiveness. Summative evaluation information is collected after instruction and is used to summarize how students have performed and to determine grades.
• Because the decisions made are so important, it is essential that the information used by teachers to make judgments be of high quality. Measurement specialists use two technical terms to describe the quality of assessment and evaluation information: reliability and validity.
• Reliability refers to the internal consistency of a test, its ability to produce consistent score over time for individuals or groups who take the test more than once, and its ability to produce the same results if two different forms of the test are used.
• Validity refers to the ability of a test or other device to measure what it claims to measure.

Describe the knowledge base on assessment that speaks to the effects of assessment on student motivation and learning and on teacher bias.

• There is an extensive knowledge base about the technical aspects of assessment and evaluation.
• Studies show that external rewards, such as grades, can provide a strong incentive for students to perform work and can affect student learning.
• Studies also show that external rewards can sometimes have negative effects, particularly with tasks students find intrinsically interesting anyway.
• It has been known for a long time that teacher bias can influence the evaluation of students and their work.

Describe the nature of standardized tests and the teacher's role in standardized testing.

• Most states today have testing programs that measure student achievement in grades 3-8. Information from statewide tests is often used to compare how well schools are doing. In some instances, scores on statewide tests determine a student's promotion to the next grade or graduation from high school.
• Standards-based education and frequent testing are believed by many to have positive effects on student learning. Some leading educators and teachers, however, believe that frequent testing may also impede learning.
• Assessment programs include the use of norm- and criterion-referenced tests usually chosen and administered by school district specialists.
• Norm-referenced tests evaluate a particular student's performance by comparing it to the performance of some other well-defined group of students.
• Criterion-referenced tests measure student performance against some agreed-upon criterion.
• It is important that teachers understand the advantages and disadvantages of various types of standardized assessment procedures, be able to prepare students for standardized tests, and be able to communicate these to students and their parents.

Describe the key features of a teacher's classroom assessment program and the three major uses of assessment information.

• The teacher's own classroom assessment program includes features for collecting information that can be used to diagnose students' prior knowledge and skills, to provide students with corrective feedback, and to make accurate judgments about student achievement.
• Formal tests to diagnose students' prior knowledge are more fully developed in fields such as mathematics and language arts. Asking questions, interviewing, and listening to students' responses as well as using portfolios are informal means of ascertaining what students know about a subject.
• Corrective feedback is most useful if it is immediate, frequent, and communicated in nonjudgmental ways.

Describe the general principles of designing and implementing traditional assessment procedures and of classroom testing.

• A variety of guidelines exist for teachers to follow as they construct tests to measure student learning and make judgments and assign grades for student work.
• General principles for test construction consist of making test items in harmony with instructional objectives, covering all learning tasks, making tests valid and reliable, interpreting test results with care, and using the appropriate test items.
• A test blueprint is a device to help teachers determine how much space to allocate to various topics covered and to measure various levels of student cognitive processes.
• Teacher-made tests can consist of true-false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, and essay items. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Teacher bias in judging student work from essay questions is an important issue. To reduce bias, teachers should make their expectations for essay answers clear to students, write sample answers ahead of time, and use techniques to reduce expectancy effects.
• When giving tests, effective teachers find ways to reduce students' test anxiety, organize their learning environments to be conducive to test taking, make instructions clear, and avoid undue competition.

Define performance, portfolio, and authentic assessments and describe the process for designing and scoring these types of assessments.

• Currently, there appears to be a nationwide call for more accountability by schools and better and fairer ways to test and evaluate students.
• Performance and authentic assessments, as well as the use of portfolios, are likely to replace the more traditional paper-and-pencil tests in the near future.
• Performance and authentic assessments ask students to

Describe why grading is important, and compare grading on a curve to grading to criterion.

• Testing students' progress and determining grades is an important aspect of teachers' work, and society expects it to be done well.
• Grading on a curve is when teachers determine a particular student's grade is based on comparing one student's work with that of other students. Grading criterion is when teachers determine students' grades based on the proportion of predetermined criterion or goals they have mastered. Each grading approach has its advantages and its shortcomings.

Describe important overall guidelines for assessment, testing, and grading and discuss the thinking behind the "assessment bill of rights."

• Testing guidelines—making sure there is congruence between test items and what is being taught, testing frequently, testing at all levels, being fair and impartial, and communicating clearly about testing and grading procedures—help teachers devise effective assessment and evaluation programs in their classrooms.
• New interest in accountability and testing has also led to the development of an "assessment bill of rights" to make sure that students are not harmed by educational testing procedures.