EDUCATIONAL
EVALUATION WORKSHOP
EDU – 517
Professor: Pedro Cairo, Ms. Ed.
Assessment
• Assessment may be defined as "any
method used to better understand the
current knowledge that a student
possesses." This assertion implies that
assessment can be as simple as a
teacher's subjective judgment based
on a single observation of student
performance, or as complex as a five-
hour standardized test.
Assessment (continuation)
• The idea of current knowledge
implies that what a student knows is
always changing and that we can make
judgments about student achievement
through comparisons over a period of
time. Assessment may affect decisions
about grades, advancement,
placement, instructional needs, and
curriculum
Promote Growth
Monitoring students’ progress
Modify Making
Programs
Evaluating Programs Instructional Improve Instruction
Decisions
Evaluating students’ Achievement
Recognize Accomplishment
Evaluation
• The process of determining the worth of,
or assigning a value to, something on the
basis of careful examination and judgment.
As used in this course, evaluation is one
use of assessment information
Validity
• The extent to which a test measures what it
was intended to measure. Validity
indicates the degree of accuracy of either
predictions or inferences based upon a test
score.
Reliability
• The extent to which a test is dependable,
stable, and consistent when administered to
the same individuals on different
occasions. Technically, this is a statistical
term that defines the extent to which errors
of measurement are absent from a
measurement instrument.
Knowledge: Remembering Information
Define, identify, label, state, list, match
Identify the standard peripheral
components of a computer
Write the equation for the Ideal Gas Law
Identify the five major prophets of the
Old Testament
Comprehension: Explaining the
Meaning of Information
Describe, generalize, paraphrase, summarize,
estimate
In one sentence explain the main idea of
a written passage
Describe in prose what is shown in graph
form
Translate the following passage from
The Iliad into English
Application: Using Abstraction in
Concrete Situations
Determine, chart, implement, prepare, solve,
use, develop
Using principles of operant conditioning,
train a rate to press a bar
Apply shading to produce depth in drawing
Derive a kinetic model from experimental
data
Analysis: Breaking Down a Whole into
Component Parts
Points out, differentiate, distinguish,
discriminate, compare
Compare and contrast the major
assumptions underlying psychoanalytic
and humanistic approaches to psychology
Identify supporting evidence to support
the interpretation of a literary passage
Analyze an oscillator circuit and
determine the frequency of oscillation
Synthesis: Putting Parts Together to
Form a New & Integrated Whole
Create, design, plan, organize, generate, write
Write a logically organized essay in
favor of euthanasia
Develop an individualized nutrition
program for a diabetic patient
Compose a choral work using four-part
harmony for men’s and women’s voices
Evaluation: Making Judgments about the
Merits of Ideas, Materials, or Phenomena
Appraise, critique, judge, weigh, evaluate,
select
Assess the appropriateness of an author’s
conclusions based on the evidence given
Select the best proposal for a proposed
water treatment plant
Evaluate a work of art using appropriate
terminology
Trends Stemming from the Behavioral
to Cognitive Shift
Emphasis of Assessment Behavorial Views Cognitive Views
View of learner Passive, responding to Active, constructing
knowledge environment
Scope of assessment Discrete, isolated skills Integrated and cross-
disciplinary
Beliefs about knowing Accumulation of isolated Application and use of and
being skilled facts and skills
knowledge
Emphasis of instruction Delivering maximally Attention to metacognition,
and assessment effective
materials motivation, self-
determination
Trends Stemming from the Behavioral
to Cognitive Shift Cont’d
Emphasis of Assessment Behavorial Views Cognitive Views
Characteristics of Paper-pencil, objective Authentic assessments on
assessment multiple-choice,
contextualized problems that
are short answer relevant
and meaningful, emphasize
higher-level thinking, do not
have a single correct answer,
have public standards
known in advance, and are
not speeded
Frequency of assessment Single occasion Samples over time
(portfolios) which provide
basis for assessment by
teacher, students, and
parents
Trends Stemming from the Behavioral
to Cognitive Shift Cont’d
Emphasis of Assessment Behavorial Views Cognitive Views
Who is assessed Individual assessment Assessment of group
process skills on collaborative
tasks which focus on
distributions over averages
Use of technology for Machine-scored bubble High-tech applications such
as administration and
scoring sheets computer-
adaptive testing, expert
systems, and simulated
environments
What is assessed Single attribute of Multidimensional
assessment that learner
recognizes the variety of
human abilities and talents.
CREDITS
The content for Slide No. 4 and the vignettes used
to identify the purpose of the assessment being
depicted were taken from the 1995 NCTM’s
pamphlet: “Assessment Standards for School
Mathematics.” The chart for the trends on
assessment appeared in a 1991 article titled “What
does Research say About Assessment,” by R.
Dietel, J. Herman, and R. Knut.
