Assessment Types and Purposes

What is the general definition of assessment?

• Used to determine students’ level of knowledge or skills at the beginning of a lesson.

• Measures what students have learned only at the end of a period of instruction.

• The gathering and interpreting information about the level of student achievement around learning objectives.

• Paper and pencil test or quiz used for a grade.

What is the main purpose of formative assessment?

• For informing instruction.

• To change the objectives students will learn.

• To provide grades for a grading period.

What type of assessment is designed primarily to measure student performance of a specific skill?

• summative

• criterion-referenced

• diagnostic

• formative

Formative Assessment activity example:

• Pre-test

• Unit test

• Exit Ticket

Definition of Summative Assessment:

• Used to measure what students have learned at the end of a defined period of instruction.

• It’s the evaluation of an individual learner used to help individual improve performance.

• Refers to a related series of measures used to determine a complex attribute of an individual or group of individuals.

Purposes of the Summative Assessment:

• Motivating students to study

• Measure student achievement at the end of a unit of study.

• Inform instruction in the middle of a unit of study.

Classroom examples of typical Summative Assessment:

• - Initial writing prompts

  - Informal Reading Workshops

  - Pre-tests

• - Exit Tickets

  - Informal Questioning

  - Conferencing

  - Observations

• End of unit tests

  •Final: Exam

  •Culminating: Projects

  Portfolios

What is the most important reason to use different types of assessment?

• To give the teacher many different types of grades for the gradebook.

• To have common points of data for a PLC or team of curriculum writers.

• To provide information of student mastery of content at different stages of instruction.

What is the downside of a norm-referenced assessment?

• Norm-referenced tests show clear mastery of standards between test-takers.

• Norm-referenced tests compare results between test-takers, not mastery of standards.

• Norm-referenced tests show the average time needed to complete the test.

How should a teacher use formative assessment data?

• Enter a quiz grade in the gradebook.

• Group students by mastery of the objectives. and give additional instruction as needed.

• Complete the required number of assessments for a grading period.