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Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment plays a major role in how students learn, their motivation to learn, and how teachers teach. Assessment is embedded in the learning process, helping teachers to gain insight into what students understand, how they learn, and how they can be better served. Student learning is best supported when instruction and assessment are based on clear learning goals and differentiated according to student learning needs.

To ensure that assessment, evaluation and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students, educator practices and procedures must be fair, supportive and carefully planned. Review the following slides to reflect on the seven principles for fair student assessment practices.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) believes that literacy assessment is an integral part of literacy teaching and learning; that literacy assessment contributes to the conditions for literacy teaching and learning; and that professional knowledge about literacy assessment is a critical component of a literacy teacher’s development and practice.

The revised NCTE position statement on literacy assessment (2018) includes the following set of principles:

  • Literacy assessment is a social process, not a technical activity. Accordingly, all student texts are assessed by knowledgeable humans.
  • Literacy assessments always assume a classroom learning context; such assessments help stakeholders focus on strengths, areas of concern, goals for improvement, and actions to be taken. The assessment of literacy development and/or achievement therefore does not rely solely on standardized tests, which are especially disruptive to instruction.
  • Literacy assessment is meaningful to the learner.
  • Literacy assessment includes more than cognitive activities; it also includes a range of practices and perceptions, including beliefs about literacy, dispositions toward literacy, and self-efficacy regarding literacy.
  • Literacy assessments are valid only to the extent that they help students learn.
  • Literacy assessment is purposeful; therefore, assessments designed for one purpose—for example, program assessment—are not used for another—for example, individual assessment.
  • Literacy assessment practices embrace several kinds of diversity, including diversity in languages, in learning styles, and in rates and routes of learning.
  • Literacy assessment is varied and includes multiple measures of different domains, including processes, texts, and reflection. Accordingly, no single measure informs literacy instruction.

(NCTE, 2018)

Student participation in literacy assessment, including reflection on what is being taught and why, is an important component. When students engage in literacy assessment as self-reflective literacy learners, their understanding and appreciation of why it’s important increases. Teachers help their students become self-reflective; in this process, students develop reflective habits of mind, enhancing their learning in literacy classrooms, in classrooms in other disciplines, and, later, in the workplace.

The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a not-for-profit testing and assessment agency, has published a list of recommendations for increasing the benefits of literacy assessment:

  • Students can participate in and create their own academic success when they:
    • understand the reason for the assessment and the literacy skill they are working to develop.
    • have confidence in receiving truthful information about how they are progressing.
    • know they can ask questions and get answers to help them progress.
    • believe they play a role in their own success.
  • Teachers who are assessment literate:
    • understand the connection between instructional decisions and assessments.
    • clearly and appropriately identify each assessment’s purpose.
    • create strategic learning targets to assess and align assessments accordingly.
    • implement appropriate modifications to accommodate each student’s needs.
    • offer varying types of assessments relevant to students’ learning styles.
    • analyze assessment results and adjust instruction as needed to best address students’ needs.
    • model for students how they can participate in their own learning process and academic success.

(NWEA, 2016)

Building Differentiated Tests

In order to effectively assess students for literacy-related skills, teachers should differentiate their tests and assessments by redesigning or building them to best meet students’ various learning styles and needs.

When creating written tests to use in a differentiated classroom, teachers should follow these best practices:

  • Use a variety of question types
  • Pre-teach test-related vocabulary
  • Make the format efficient for students
  • Highlight key words
  • Make test items straightforward
  • Specify the criteria for constructed response items
  • Use authentic assessment

(IRIS Center, 2021a; Wormeli, 2006)

In differentiated tests, a variety of question types, both traditional and non-traditional, can be used, as depicted in the table below.

Traditional Question Types Non-Traditional Question Types
  • Charts
  • Diagrams to label
  • Fill-in-the-blank, including completing sentences
  • Maps
  • Matching
  • Multiple choice
  • Putting items or events in order
  • Short answers or essays
  • True/False
  • Analogies
  • Demonstrations
  • Drawings
  • Real-World Applications

Evaluation

Grading Student Performance

One of the primary roles of a teacher is to document students’ performance and progress through some form of evaluation. This task is relevant for all students, including those who receive differentiated instruction. The challenge for teachers becomes determining how to fairly evaluate each student and assign fair grades, even as students complete different types of work with various levels of difficulty.

Three common types of evaluation that allow each student to demonstrate mastery of various skills based on his or her own level of competency are rubrics, portfolios, and self-assessment.

Rubrics

A rubric provides guidelines for the criteria teachers can use to calculate a score or a grade for an assignment. The rubric addresses the following key points:

  • Describes the assignment’s requirements
  • Clearly defines the available points a student can receive depending on the quality of the work
  • Establishes requirements and expectations for the assignment that a student can follow to ensure compliance
  • Provides a fair basis of evaluation for all students, regardless of what types of assignments different students complete

A rubric should include the following:

  • Learning objective
  • Concepts or skills to demonstrate
  • Performance levels and point values
  • Criteria for each performance level
  • Grading system with point values

Portfolios

A portfolio is a collection of each student’s individual work samples, typically representing the student’s performance over a designated period of time. The portfolio generally accomplishes the following tasks:

  • Provides teachers with a more accurate means of evaluating each student’s true mastery of a skill or content of lessons, compared to a single test at one time
  • Engages and motivates students to perform at optimal levels so they can include their best work
  • Allows students to reflect on their performance and achievement over the designated period
  • Incentivizes students to establishes goals for future work

Various types of portfolios accomplish different purposes:

  • Achievement: Work samples demonstrate achievement for a designated time
  • Growth: Work samples demonstrate progress over time (before, during, after)
  • Process/Project: Work samples demonstrate a process or steps required for completion of a project
  • Competence: Work samples demonstrate the highest level of achievement in a specified area
  • Celebration/Showcase: Work samples demonstrate a student’s pride and sense of accomplishment

Self-assessment

Self-assessment as an evaluation method engages students and encourages them to conduct self-evaluations and self-reflections on their own work. This method of evaluation features the following steps:

  • Develops students’ sense of responsibility for their own work and learning
  • Prepares students to collaborate with their teachers to determine students’ individual learning goals
  • Requires teachers to provide the criteria that students should use to conduct their self-evaluation

Self-assessment tools should be customized to the learning tasks and goals, and may include such things as checklists, rubrics, surveys, self-reflection prompts in the lesson materials, and personal journals.

Fairness in assessment and evaluation is critically important when grading assignments. Among the factors to be considered are:

  • the performance of the student related to established grade-level goals.
  • growth as measured by improvement over time.
  • student work habits including attendance, behavior, participation, and effort.

(IRIS Center, 2021b; Tomlinson & Imbeau, 2010; Wormeli, 2006)

Assignment:

Using the resources provided and your own research, complete the assignment as directed. Be sure to include proper citations for the resources you use, including those provided.

For this assignment, you will write a letter to parents about the role of assessment and evaluation in literacy instruction for the students in your classroom, based on the following scenario:

You are planning a mid-term literacy project for your students. You want to explain to the parents:

  • the importance of the project for your students’ grades.
  • the assessment and evaluation procedures you plan to use.
  • the grading criteria for the project.

Include the following details in your letter to the parents:

  • Proper opening and greeting
  • Project overview: Identify and describe the subject of the project (e.g., weather, marine life, forestry, a period of U.S. history, and so on)
  • Assessment: Choose and describe which question type/s will be on the mid-term test. Include examples based on your identified subject
  • Evaluation: Choose one of the three types of evaluation described in this topic (rubric, portfolio, self-assessment) and describe how you will use it to evaluate student performance on the project
  • Grading: Describe your grading criteria for the project
  • Proper closure, signature, and title

Once you have completed the assignment, save a copy in a document in MS Word format (.doc or .docx) and use the tool below to upload a copy of your work.