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Educational Assessment of Students Eighth Edition

Chapter 14 Preparing Your Students to

Be Assessed and Using Students’ Results to

Improve Your Assessments

Key Concepts (1 of 2)

14.1 To prepare students for an upcoming assessment, give students the information and skills they need to perform their best. Testwiseness is the ability to use test- taking strategies, clues from poorly written items, and experience to improve a score beyond that expected from mastery of the subject matter. Test anxiety is increased emotional tension based on a student’s appraisal of a testing situation. Use strategies to mitigate both of these.

Key Concepts (2 of 2)

14.2 The following will help you understand students’ scores and response patterns. Improve multiple-choice item quality by editing items flagged by unacceptable difficulty or discrimination indices or by poorly functioning distractors.

– Correction for guessing formulas adjust scores for expected effects of random choices. They are not recommended for classroom use.

– Item-analysis results can be used to improve the quality of true- false, matching, and multiple-choice items. Analogous statistics can be examined for constructed-response (multi-point) tasks.

– Item difficulty shows students’ average level of performance on a test item.

– Item discrimination shows how students’ performance on an item is related to their total test performance.

Assessment Should Reflect Maximum Performance

• Not typical performance

• Assessment should show what students can do when given the opportunity

• Therefore, students need information about upcoming assessments

Informing Students about Assessment (1 of 2)

• When it will be given.

• The conditions under which it will be given.

• The content areas it will cover.

• The emphasis or weighting of content areas.

• The types of performance the student will have to demonstrate.

• The way the assessment will be scored and graded.

• How the results will be used when making decisions about the student.

Informing Students about Assessment (2 of 2)

• Teach students key skills for taking assessments. – Paying attention to directions – Studying throughout the course – Reflecting, outlining, and organizing – Checking and reviewing answers

• Give them opportunities to practice.

Taxonomy of Testwiseness Skills (1 of 2)

I. General test-taking skills – Begin work as soon as possible. Work with “all

deliberate speed.” – If a test item is too difficult, skip it and go on. Return

after completing the rest of the test. – If you do not know an answer to a multiple choice

item, see if you can eliminate some options you know are incorrect and then guess.

– If you have time, go back and check your work. – Change an answer if, after thoughtful consideration,

you believe the new answer is better.

Taxonomy of Testwiseness Skills (2 of 2)

II. Using clues from poorly designed tests or poorly written items

– Take advantage of cues in poorly designed tests. ▪ Example: The stem of one item includes information that

identifies the correct option in another item. – Take advantage of cues in poorly written items.

▪ Example: Correct answer includes the same or similar vocabulary as the stem.

▪ Example: Correct answer is longer and more detailed than other options.

Test Anxiety

• Four related factors: – Tension – Worry – Test-irrelevant thinking – Bodily reactions

Types of Test-Anxious Students

• Students who do not have good study skills and do not understand how the main ideas of the subject you are teaching are related and organized.

• Students who have a good grasp of the material and good study skills but have fears of failure associated with assessment and evaluation.

• Students who believe they have good study habits but who do not.

Helping Test-Anxious Students

• Do not talk or interrupt while students are working.

• Review the material with the entire class before the assessment is given.

• Do not walk around looking over students’ shoulders.

• Convey a sense of confidence about students’ performance.

Assessment Assembly and Administration

• The assembly and administration of an assessment affect the validity of the scores.

– Arrange an assessment with the easiest items first or in the order that the content was taught.

– Be sure directions include relevant information.

Correction for Guessing Formulas

• Correction for guessing formulas adjust scores for the expected effects of random choices.

• They are not recommended for classroom use.

Classroom Uses for Item Analyses

• Determining whether an item functions as you intended.

• Feedback to students about performance and as a basis for class discussion.

• Feedback to the teacher about student difficulties.

• Information about areas for curricular improvement.

• Revising assessment tasks.

• Improving item-writing skills.

Item Difficulty and Discrimination

• Item difficulty shows students’ average level of performance on a test item.

• Item discrimination shows how students’ performance on an item is related to their total test performance.

Item Analysis of Response-Choice Tests

• Score the tests. Sort them into upper, middle, and lower groups. • Tabulate the number of students choosing each alternative in the

upper and lower groups.

• Tabulate the number of students in the middle group who chose the correct answer.

• Calculate: – Difficulty index: proportion of total group answering correctly – Discrimination index: difference between the proportion of the

upper group and the proportion of the lower group answering it correctly.

Constructed-Response Tests & Performance Assessments

• The difficulty of an essay question or performance task scored by a rubric or rating scale is defined as the average score.

• The discrimination of an essay question or performance task scored by a rubric or rating scale is the difference between the upper and lower group averages.

Improve Multiple-Choice Item Quality

• Improve multiple-choice item quality by editing items flagged by

– Unacceptable difficulty indices (too hard or too easy) – Unacceptable discrimination indices (negative or non-

discriminating items) – Poorly functioning distractors

Look at Response Patterns

• Every distractor should have at least one lower-group student choosing it. More lower-group students than upper-group students should choose it.

• Alternatives are ambiguous if upper-group students can’t distinguish between the keyed answer and one or more of the distractors.

• If a large number of upper-group students select a particular wrong response, it may be miskeyed.

• If many of the alternatives are equally plausible to the upper-scoring group, students may be guessing.

Selecting Test Items

• Statistically based item selection is uncommon in the classroom.

– Usually do not need to know a student’s relative achievement

• Select the best available items that cover the important areas of content as defined by the blueprint.

– Even if the discrimination and difficulty indices are less than ideal

Educational Assessment of Students
Key Concepts (1 of 2)
Key Concepts (2 of 2)
Assessment Should Reflect Maximum Performance
Informing Students about Assessment (1 of 2)
Informing Students about Assessment (2 of 2)
Taxonomy of Testwiseness Skills (1 of 2)
Taxonomy of Testwiseness Skills (2 of 2)
Test Anxiety
Types of Test-Anxious Students
Helping Test-Anxious Students
Assessment Assembly and Administration
Correction for Guessing Formulas
Classroom Uses for Item Analyses
Item Difficulty and Discrimination
Item Analysis of Response-Choice Tests
Constructed-Response Tests & Performance Assessments
Improve Multiple-Choice Item Quality
Look at Response Patterns
Selecting Test Items
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