October 19, 2010

Susan K. Green and Robert L. Johnson write about selected-response assessment in the seventh chapter of their book, Assessment is Essential. At the beginning of the chapter, the authors discuss the purpose of assessment, saying "our tests are to find out what our students know and are able to do (186)." This statement had a lot of meaning for me this week. I took a midterm this week that was timed, similar to standardized tests. Though I had studied hard for the test and worked hard in the class previous to the test, the professor will not see my understanding of the subject matter from my test score because I was unable to finish some of the questions within the time period. I was extremely frustrated leaving that exam, because I know a true educator wants to see what his or her students have been able to learn in the course, not how well a student can perform under a time constraint. This experience has shown me that when I become a teacher to not put short time constraints on long tests and to allow students reasonable time to finish it outside of the class period. The text helped me to feel comfortable with that decision. It also helped me make other decisions about how I will handle assessment in my future classroom.

I had originally thought that my math exams would be similar to ones I have taken, mostly problem-solving in the form of short answer. After reading this chapter, I have some different ideas. I think I will include true-false and multiple choice, as well as problem-solving short answers. I want to align my test in a way that even lower-level thinkers can show what they have learned. I would like to include true-false, multiple choice, and short answer type questions. This way my students have different outlets to prove their understanding. I know most math exams are in a short answer type setup but I think it would be helpful to include the true-false and multiple choice, so that I can help my students prepare for standardized exams like the ITBS or ACTs.

I have learned from current teachers that all subject areas need to put an emphasis on vocabulary. I want to use true-false to test the students knowledge of math vocabulary. I believe its vital to have short answer questions on a math exam because those types of questions can be used to involve higher-level thinking and problem-solving. I hope that the mix of examination questions will give good evidence of the students understanding while still showing what level each student is at.

Green and Johnson noted the significance in involving students in generating items for the the examination. In a previous blog, I had mentioned an idea similar to this. I thought it would be a good idea to have the students develop a test based off the learning goals and activities done in class. The students would be graded on how well they aligned the test with the objectives and how well they did on another's test (if the students did bad on a test that was poorly made, he or she would not be penalized.) I had originally thought I would use that as the summative assessment for the unit, but I now understand that could lead to a very bad outcome. I now think it would be a great way to study for the exam, so I might use the project in my classroom as a study guide. Possibly if the students do well in matching the objectives, I could use one of their questions in the actual exam.

I learned many good tips from this chapter. Most importantly, I learned that assessment is a serious task that requires a lot of planning and knowledge to develop accurate and valid assessments. I think it will be important to check that assessments align with the learning objectives and classroom activities, that the assessment does not contain biases or stereotypes, and that the assessment is concluding the students knowledge in an accurate way.