Exploring classroom assessment practices and teacher decision-making

Exploring classroom assessment practices and teacher decision-making PDF Author: Dennis Alonzo
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832524087
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description


Classroom Assessment

Classroom Assessment PDF Author: Lorin W. Anderson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135657602
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Book Description
This book is based on the belief that decision making is perhaps the most critical of all teaching skills and that good assessments lie at the core of good decision making. To become better teachers then, teachers must learn to make informed decisions about both individual students (learning decisions) and about groups of students (teaching decisions). This book gives equal status to both types of decisions and shows how assessment is integral to both. The organization of the book is sequential, mirroring the way in which information should be used to make decisions. It begins with a conceptual framework linking information to decision making, then moves to the design of assessment instruments and the collection of assessment information, then to the interpretation of assessment information and, finally, to reporting the results of both the assessment and the decision-making process. There is an emphasis throughout on linking why teachers assess with what and how they assess. Other key features include: * Practical Framework -- The book's framework corresponds to the framework that teachers use to grade their students: conduct (classroom behavior), effort (student motivation), and achievement (student learning). * Unique Chapters -- There are separate chapters on interpreting assessment information prior to decision making and on reporting assessment information to parents, teachers, and administrators. * Flexibility -- Because of its modest length and price, and its practical focus on the links between assessment and everyday teacher decision making, this text can be used either in full-length assessment courses for teachers or to teach the assessment units in educational psychology or integrated methods courses.

Knowing What Students Know

Knowing What Students Know PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309293227
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates.

Teacher as a Decision Maker

Teacher as a Decision Maker PDF Author: Jerry A. Redman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781680752144
Category : Curriculum planning
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description


Classroom Assessment and the National Science Education Standards

Classroom Assessment and the National Science Education Standards PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030906998X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Book Description
The National Science Education Standards address not only what students should learn about science but also how their learning should be assessed. How do we know what they know? This accompanying volume to the Standards focuses on a key kind of assessment: the evaluation that occurs regularly in the classroom, by the teacher and his or her students as interacting participants. As students conduct experiments, for example, the teacher circulates around the room and asks individuals about their findings, using the feedback to adjust lessons plans and take other actions to boost learning. Focusing on the teacher as the primary player in assessment, the book offers assessment guidelines and explores how they can be adapted to the individual classroom. It features examples, definitions, illustrative vignettes, and practical suggestions to help teachers obtain the greatest benefit from this daily evaluation and tailoring process. The volume discusses how classroom assessment differs from conventional testing and grading-and how it fits into the larger, comprehensive assessment system.

Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Instruction

Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Instruction PDF Author: James H. McMillan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781292021324
Category : Educational tests and measurements
Languages : en
Pages : 496

Book Description
This text provides prospective and current teachers with a concise, non-technical, and practical guide to conducting a full range of high-quality classroom assessments. The text emphasizes assessment in the context of the realities of teaching and teacher decision-making in an era of standards-based education. Assessment methods are integrated with instruction and presented according to when teachers evaluate students (before, during, and after an instructional unit), the learning targets that are measured, and standards emphasized in state-wide testing. There is considerable emphasis on the nature of learning targets and how different assessments are most appropriate for different targets. For each assessment technique, suggestions for effective practice are presented with examples, case studies, and teacher interviews. This edition includes additional emphasis on formative assessment for student learning.

Mastering Formative Assessment Moves

Mastering Formative Assessment Moves PDF Author: Brent Duckor
Publisher: ASCD
ISBN: 1416622624
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
How do you know if students are with you at the beginning, middle, and end of a lesson? Can formative assessment offer a key to better teaching and learning during instruction? What if you could blend different formative assessment moves in your classroom, with intention and care for all students, to help make better instructional decisions on the fly and enjoy more teachable moments? Educators Brent Duckor and Carrie Holmberg invite you on the journey to becoming a formative assessor. They encourage you to focus on these seven research-based, high-leverage formative assessment moves: ▪ Priming--building on background knowledge and creating a formative assessment–rich, equitable classroom culture ▪ Posing--asking questions in relation to learning targets across the curriculum that elicit Habits of Mind ▪ Pausing--waiting after powerful questions and rich tasks to encourage more student responses by supporting them to think aloud and use speaking and listening skills related to academic language ▪ Probing--deepening discussions, asking for elaborations, and making connections using sentence frames and starters ▪ Bouncing--sampling student responses systematically to broaden participation, manage flow of conversation, and gather more “soft data” for instructional use ▪ Tagging--describing and recording student responses without judgment and making public how students with different styles and needs approach learning in real-time ▪ Binning--interpreting student responses with a wide range of tools, categorizing misconceptions and “p-prims,” and using classroom generated data to make more valid and reliable instructional decisions on next steps in the lesson and unit Each chapter explores a classroom-tested move, including foundational research, explaining how and when to best use it, and describing what it looks like in practice. Highlights include case studies, try-now tasks and tips, and advice from beginning and seasoned teachers who use these formative assessment moves in their classrooms.

Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards

Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309289548
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These documents are brand new and the changes they call for are barely under way, but the new assessments will be needed as soon as states and districts begin the process of implementing the NGSS and changing their approach to science education. The new Framework and the NGSS are designed to guide educators in significantly altering the way K-12 science is taught. The Framework is aimed at making science education more closely resemble the way scientists actually work and think, and making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. It structures science education around three dimensions - the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work, the key crosscutting concepts that cut across disciplines, and the core ideas of the disciplines - and argues that they should be interwoven in every aspect of science education, building in sophistication as students progress through grades K-12. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards recommends strategies for developing assessments that yield valid measures of student proficiency in science as described in the new Framework. This report reviews recent and current work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the Framework's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development will be needed to support an assessment system that fully meets that vision. The report offers a systems approach to science assessment, in which a range of assessment strategies are designed to answer different kinds of questions with appropriate degrees of specificity and provide results that complement one another. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards makes the case that a science assessment system that meets the Framework's vision should consist of assessments designed to support classroom instruction, assessments designed to monitor science learning on a broader scale, and indicators designed to track opportunity to learn. New standards for science education make clear that new modes of assessment designed to measure the integrated learning they promote are essential. The recommendations of this report will be key to making sure that the dramatic changes in curriculum and instruction signaled by Framework and the NGSS reduce inequities in science education and raise the level of science education for all students.

Formative Assessment in United States Classrooms

Formative Assessment in United States Classrooms PDF Author: Cathy Box
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 303003092X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 181

Book Description
This book examines the history of formative assessment in the US and explores its potential for changing the landscape of teaching and learning to meet the needs of twenty-first century learners. The author uses case studies to illuminate the complexity of teaching and the externally imposed and internally constructed contextual elements that affect assessment decision-making. In this book, Box argues effectively for a renewed vision for teacher professional development that centers around the needs of students in a knowledge economy. Finally, Box offers an overview of systemic changes that are needed in order for progressive teaching and relevant learning to take place.

Assessing Student Learning by Design

Assessing Student Learning by Design PDF Author: Jay McTighe
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807779598
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Book Description
How can we help teachers use classroom assessments to gather appropriate evidence for all valued learning goals, and to use those assessments not just to measure learning but to promote it? This book provides an answer in a practical, proven, and principled Assessment Planning Framework that moves away from solely multiple-choice tests toward a wide range of approaches to classroom assessment activities, including performance-based assessments. The Framework examines four different types of learning goals, considers various purposes and audiences for assessment information, reviews five categories of classroom assessment methods, and presents options for communicating actionable results. To the authors, the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and learning, rather than simply to assign grades. This concise resource will be a reliable go-to reference for teachers, school leaders, mentors, and coaches in guiding classroom assessment practices and understanding their underlying principles. Book Features: Builds on the classic book Understanding by Design, written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.Offers a practical, nontechnical presentation appropriate for teacher preparation and busy practitioners (K–16).Explores different purposes for, and methods of, classroom assessment and grading.Addresses assessment of academic standards as well as transdisciplinary outcomes, such as 21st-century skills.Describes the principles and practices underlying standards-based grading.