Assessment, Evaluation, and Testing
Assessment means a number of different things in different contexts. Sometimes, as
teachers, we assess our classes as learning spaces and thus our teaching of them; other
times, we evaluate tests or written work that our students produce based on our assignments.
Gaining popularity is the practice of allowing students a voice (and thus an investment)
in their own assessment. The links below offer suggestions about how to assess various
activities from class, as well as how to include students in this endeavor.
Classroom Assessment
- Classroom Assessment Techniques (NTLF)
- Discusses classroom assessment as both a "teaching approach and a set of techniques" which
differ from more traditional evaluation instruments in that CATs assist teachers
in knowing what students are and are not understanding during each class period so
that future classes can be modified.
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- Knowledge Surveys:
What Do Students Take from and Bring to a Class? (Delores Knipp, Physics)
- Suggests the value of surveying students' knowledge about course content. Surveys
are especially useful for majors classes where students may enter the class with
different levels of preparedness.
- Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student
Learning (AAHE)
- Highlights key principles like the connection between student learning and educational
values, and recommends assessment practices which are "multidimensional, integrated,
and revealed in performance over time."
Assessing Written Work
- Assessing
Writing Across the Curriculum (Beth Young, U of Central FL)
- A brief overview of assessing writing and useful links to various methods of assessment
(analytic and holistic) in different disciplines (composition, physics, etc.). Young
also provides a check sheet for student self- and peer- evaluation of writing.
- WPA Outcomes Statement
for First-Year Composition
- This statement, adopted by increasing numbers of composition programs in the country,
approaches assessment through the broad categories of Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical
Thinking, Reading, and Writing; Processes; and Knowledge of Conventions. It was re-printed
in College English.
- Writing
Assessment: A Position Statement (CCCC)
- Abstract from the site: "Assessments of written literacy should be designed and
evaluated by well-informed current or future teachers of the students being assessed,
for purposes clearly understood by all the participants; should elicit from student
writers a variety of pieces, preferably over a period of time; should encourage and
reinforce good teaching practices; and should be solidly grounded in the latest research
on language learning."
Testing
- Percentage/Points v. Normal Curve: Two Methods of Grading (Kathleen
McKinney, Sociology)
- McKinney discusses the differences between using percentages/points and using a
normal curve.
- Student-Generated Test
Questions (Francisco Silva, Psychology)
- Silva discusses his use of student-generated test questions; specifically, he encouraged
students after each class to create two essay questions based on the readings, lecture,
and discussion for the class.
- Using Bloom's Taxonomy
to Create Multiple-Choice Tests (U of Cape Town)
- In this appendix to an online book (full book available from this link, too), the
authors offer examples of questions that function on the different levels of Bloom's
taxonomy.
- Writing Multiple-Choice Tests (CTLT)
- A quick tip-sheet of items to consider when creating multiple-choice tests, as
well as the pros and cons of such tests, and a list of resources available in the
CAT library.
Evaluating Group Work
- Peer Evaluation
Tips (G. Kincaid, UTexas)
- Suggestions on creating a peer-evaluation rubric for students so that they can
contribute to the overall assessment.
- Tips for Grading Group Work (Kathleen McKinney, Sociology)
- McKinney offers helpful suggestions for evaluating group work, including group
productivity reports and "ticket in" activities. She also notes the importance of
the teacher's explaining, up-front, the reasons for group work and the outcomes the
teacher expects.
Other Resources
- Assessment Links
for Instructors (Clemson)
- Assessment
Practices in Art & Design (Barry Jackson, Middlesex U)
- Bibliography on Assessing
Writing (J. Pariza, NIU)
- Group Work & Study
Teams (Barbara David, UC-Berkeley)
- Multiple-Choice Tests (Nat'l
Center for Fair & Open Testing)
- Office
of Student Assessment (ISU)
- Writing Multiple-Choice
Questions That Demand Critical Thinking (North Essex CC)
