Assessment Literacy

Assessment has become the main tool of educational accountability for teachers,

administrators, schools and school districts (Miller, 2016). Assessment literacy is necessary to

ensure students are achieving the standards as well as how to adjust instruction to provide

support. Assessment literacy includes understanding how to recognize sound testing method and

tools, being clear with the learning targets, using data to drive instruction and provide timely,

adaptive feedback about scores. Assessment literacy means designing standardized assessments

that are reliable and valid because the test is authentic and accessible to all learners. The scores

can provide an accurate picture of student achievement at a particular school site as well as

provide constructive feedback about strengths and weaknesses. Both teachers and students need

to part of the assessment process from beginning to end. Teachers are no longer the only ones

that need to be assessment literate. This reliance on external monitoring indicates that children

have assessed themselves as incapable of assessing their own learning (Johnston, 2005). Self-

regulated learners understand how to determine what they know and what they still need to learn

and how to go about completing the task. As an educator, assessment is used to guide and revise

instruction to ensure that students are achieving their learning goals. The teacher can facilitate

the students learning journey using scaffolds specific to their needs that were determined by

both the teacher and the student. The goal is for the students to become driven by their own

needs and to specify what they need as a result of their own assessment for learning.

Eye-opening Idea

Permitting students to demonstrate learning overtime through various forms of teacher

made assessments was new idea that really connected with my thoughts about learning.

Allowing new evidence to replace old conveys an important message to studentsthat teachers
care about their successful learning, not merely their grades (McTighe and OConner, 2005).

Learning is a skill that needs to be honed and polished regularly. The strategies to enhance the

skill to learn need to be modeled by the teacher and appropriate for the student. When

assessments are diagnostic and formative along with timely feedback, the student is part of the

learning journey. The information collected from these types of assessments provide fuel for

the teaching and learning engine by offering descriptive feedback along the way (McTighe and

OConner, 2005). They can learn how to understand what they did incorrectly and demonstrate

their learning with correction of the mistake. When assessment and instruction are appropriately

intertwined students can experience what learning feels like. Drastically different from just

providing feedback with a summative assessment, when it is too late to address misconceptions

and provide scaffolds.

Challenges: Designing Exams and Rubrics

Designing exams was always a challenge. Even though quizzes and tests could be

generated with a provided test bank that came along with the teacher edition text book, selection

of the questions from a large test bank was challenging. Without a blueprint it was difficult to

keep track of the number of each type of cognitive level of a questions. It is important that the

assessment is directly linked to the state standards and the provided instructional activities for an

assessment to accurately produce data that is consistent with a students level of achievement. A

quality exam allows the teacher and the student needs to be able to glean information from their

performance on the exam. Prior to this course, I did not have a regular assessment-making

method that produced quality, balanced, reliable exams. Rubrics design presented challenges as

well and as result premade rubrics were utilized when necessary. I found difficulty with

choosing between a holistic or analytical rubric for a performance assessment as well as

describing the different performance levels. Step-step guidance was needed to ensure that rubric

effectively assessed the performance but also was student-centered and provided specific

feedback about how to improve.

Application of Assessment Knowledge

The modules and applications provided opportunities to build and grow my assessment

literacy. Assessing assessment literacy at the beginning of the course allowed me to develop my

own content mastery and skill development goals. Analysis revealed that my weakness were in

exam writing and including students in all phases of the assessment process. Feedback, when

used as a part of a formative assessment system, is a powerful way to improve student

achievement (Frey and Fisher, 2011, p.2). I learned that without constructive, adaptive and

timely feedback, formative assessments can put learning at risk. To ensure that this does not

happen, a diagnostic and formative assessments were integrated in a curriculum map designed

during this course. Time will be spent with the students reviewing their scores of these

assessments to clearly communicate that they are included in the assessment process as well as

responsible for monitoring their learning. The development of the student-centered assessment

allowed for the practice of developing a rubric. An effective rubric provides clear explanations

of the level of performance expected at each level and coherent criteria. Students will become

partners in the assessment process when student-centered assessments are used on a regular basis

to measure student learning. Designing a variety of assessments ensures that all students can be

assessed for learning because different strengths and weaknesses can be revealed with each type

of assessment. A performance assessment provides different information than a traditional

assessment. Being assessment literate is necessary to understand the differences in the

information obtained from each type of assessment and how to effectively use the information to

guide instruction and student learning.

During this course a test-specification model was introduced and applied during module

2. The test-specification table alleviated the challenges associated with developing a teacher-

made assessment. Also referred to as an assessment blueprint, it should be created before the

writing of a test (Miller, 2016). The method provided guidance to ensure that the questions on

the assessment were directly related to learning objectives for the unit. In addition, each

question was analyzed to ensure a balanced representation of all the cognitive levels on the

exam. A balance number of cognitive questions on the exam allow the exam data to indicate the

level of understanding the student achieved. For example, the student may have answered all of

the questions categorized as remembering and applying correctly but demonstrated difficulty

with questions that required analyzing. Learning about this practice ensures that the questions

selected for the assessment are valid, relevant and consistent with the learning targets. Question

selection from a test bank or self-made questions is now with purpose and direction and ensures

that the assessment provides information about the students learning that is meaningful.

A Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) is a research-based method that allowed for the analysis of

a student-centered assessment. The PDSA allowed me to plan how I would use student

performance data to guide instruction of the students learning goals. During this application I

feel that I was able to demonstrate assessment literacy by designing a sound, reliable, authentic

and unbiased assessment that would allow all students to demonstrate their learning.

Conclusion

Familiarity with test process, awareness of principles and concepts that guide and

underpin practice" is how Fulcher (2012) describes assessment literacy. Assessment literacy
involves multiple components that contribute to an effective, balanced assessment system.

During this course, assessment literacy was strengthened during applications that required

analysis of assessment literacy and assessment practices as well as designing of a variety of

assessments that were sound, valid, reliable and unbiased. Creating diagnostic and formative

assessments that involve students in the learning process ensures that the students needs were

being addressed.

References

Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2011). The formative assessment action plan: Practical steps to more

successful teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Fulcher, G. (2012). Assessment Literacy for the Language Classroom. Language,

Assessment Quarterly, 9(2), 113-132.

Johnston, P. (2005). Assessment: Literacy assessment and the future. The Reading

Teacher, 58(7), 684-686.

McTighe, J. and OConnor, K. (2005). Seven practices for effective learning. Educational

Leadership 63(3), 10-17.

Miller, J. (course lecture). (2016). Including students in the assessment process: Module 4

[presentation]. American College for Education. Retrieved from: http://ace.edu