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CHAPTER 10:
Assessment Measures Used in Collecting and Interpreting Student Learning Evidence

Assessment in Special Education

Raymond H. Witte

Jane E. Bogan

Michael F. Woodin

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Manage Data Rather Than Letting Data Manage You

During the first part of the 21st century, there was a substantial increase in the number of tests that were mandated for administration in the public schools due to the public and legislative pursuit of greater accountability in education.

Popham (2004) noted this trend and declared that if teachers continued to demonstrate “assessment illiteracy, that they would be committing a form of “professional suicide.”

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Manage Data Rather Than Letting Data Manage You

On the other hand, Popham (2011) later recognized that if tests are used appropriately, they could be seen as an “instructional ally” that could help to make teaching better.

Deluca, Chavez, and Cao (2012) also determined that if preservice teachers were given targeted coursework that promoted assessment literacy, it would positively impact and establish a foundation for valid teacher judgment on student learning.

Many teachers feel as though they have been managed by the data and needs for assessment. If teachers demonstrate a working knowledge of assessment literacy, they can and will be able to successfully organize and manage the data about their students so that it can be used to benefit his or her teaching, professional integrity, and student learning outcomes.

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Manage Data Rather Than Letting Data Manage You

Different Forms of School-Based Assessments

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Informal Classroom Assessment

Classroom assessment incorporates the use of testing, but its ultimate purpose or function changes depending upon the different formats used, the reasons for assessment, and the way the teacher has learned to interpret and communicate the data results obtained.

Informal assessments are measures that teachers have specifically developed or adopted for use in their classrooms.

Informal assessments are more readily used and/or created by teachers for the purpose of gathering direct data that will assist with instructional planning, informal progress monitoring, giving feedback to students, and offering responses to students as they are engaged in the process of learning (Hanna and Dettmer, 2004; Stiggins, 2002).

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Student Work Samples as
Evidence of Learning Standards

It is important for teachers to systematically collect data about the students that will be used to assemble a portfolio or data notebook. The types of information collected may include formal data as well as informal artifacts such as:

Classroom tests and quizzes

Student work samples that correspond to standards

Classroom rubrics

Criterion-referenced measures

Student presentations, and

Data from evidence-based interventions and the core curriculum.

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Using Data Notebooks to Reflect Standards and Student Outcomes

Classroom tests and quizzes

Student work samples

Classroom rubrics

Criterion-referenced measures

Student presentations,

Data from evidence-based interventions and the core curriculum.

Such data notebooks should be organized and set-up to include tables and sections that reflect how student work and outcomes are aligned with specific state and common core standards.

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Using Data Notebooks to Reflect Standards and Student Outcomes

Wiggins (1998) outlined three types of learning standards to help teachers decide which artifacts will accurately reflect student achievement. These include the following:

Content attributes or artifacts that reflect what students know in relationship to published standards or benchmarks,

Performance attributes or work samples that show the level at which students have completed their work, and

Task attributes, or work samples that show that students have completed their work with rigor and success.

Data collected to correspond to such attributes and standards may include writing samples, project details, rough drafts, edits, reports, student artwork, journal entries, lab notes, and math problem solving or conceptual work.

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Classroom Rubrics and Criterion-Based Measures

Within a data notebook, it is also advisable to collect data related to performances by students that are rated according to a rubric.

Rubrics should be used so that the number scale (e.g., 1-3, 1-4, 1-5) and corresponding descriptors (e.g. in need of development, emerging, developing, mastered).

Data from rubrics can be compiled via a spreadsheet to easily depict student progress and performance over time.

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Classroom Rubrics and Criterion-Based Measures

Criterion-based measures are either created by teachers or authors and compare student performance against instructional objectives, goals, or standards used in creating lesson plans.

Criterion-based measures typically indicate whether a student has reached (a) mastery, (b) is progressing well, (c) needs further development, (d) is at risk for not understanding the concept or objective, or (e) lacks many of the foundational skills needed to engage with the concept or skill.

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Classroom Rubrics and Criterion-Based Measures

Scores associated with criterion based measures typically include accuracy (percentages), rate of performance (correct words read per minute, number of math items answered correctly), and pre-post comparisons of how much information as student has learned or retained over time.

Published examples of criterion-based measures include DIBELS, the Concepts About Print Test, and the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills as well as many formal state assessments that have cut-off scores students must score above to be considered to be at grade level.

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Data from Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs)

Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs) are formal interventions used with students that often include computerized assessments and measures of student’s progress and performance.

These assessments may include normative data, which will compare students to other students within the general population and/or criterion-based information about student progress with the intervention.

Such computer programs often yield impressive charts, graphs, and reports that help to explain student performance, progress, and instructional recommendations. It is essential that teachers know the programs that they use and learn how to extract data, reports, and customizable reporting options.

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Data from Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs)

It is always important to realize that such reports are computer-generated and may include some errors or recommendations that may not fit the case of the intended student. As such, professional judgment should be used to determine the appropriateness of the data and conclusions made.

If possible, such reports should be edited and/or incorporated within reports that are created by the teacher.

Valid charts, graphs, frequency tables, or other graphic depictions of data from EBIs can be a very positive addition within Data Notebooks to illustrate student progress and attainment of standards.

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Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

Formal assessment is a term used to describe official (state, common core) or published tests that have been created by test developers to measure skills such as academic achievement, intelligence, or personality.

As part of the test development process, these measures are constructed by engaging in the following steps:

Standardization
Development of Norms
Tests of Reliability and Validity
Removal of Sources of Bias or Test Error
Development of Scores (i.e. standard scores, percentiles, cutoff scores, growth estimates, rate of improvement scores, grade level equivalents)

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Understanding Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

When you attempt to interpret formal assessments it is important to remember that:

There are no completely “fair” tests
All measures have inherent error in them.
As humans, individual students may vary on any given day.
The manner in which tests are given by trained professionals can vary
The conditions under which the test is given may differ greatly
Tests may not always adequately sample or assess the knowledge or characteristics exhibited by students.
Although formal tests are well developed and generally yield predictable results, they are not beyond criticism or questioning.
Teachers should study the characteristics of formal measures that are used to assess students and ask good technical questions about such tests especially if the results attained from are significantly different from results attained from observations, records, or assessments used in the classroom.

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Understanding Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

Commercially produced, standardized assessments are either administered to whole groups of students or are given to individual students by teachers, school psychologists, or other trained school personnel.

Two of the most common group-administered versions include the Stanford Achievement Series (Harcourt Educational Measurement, 1996) and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Hoover, Dunbar, & Frisbie, 2001).

Widely used individually administered achievement tests include the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test—Third Edition (WIAT-III; Wechsler, 1992) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001).

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Collecting Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

Several states (e.g., Ohio, Iowa, Arizona) produce and implement their own achievement tests as part of statewide testing and assessment programs.

Most often, standardized achievement tests are either norm- referenced (individual student results are compared to a larger reference group, typically based on age and/or grade) or criterion referenced (individual student results are compared to a set of listed skills and academic competencies within specific academic content areas).

Norm- or criterion -referenced results can be produced and displayed relative to grade and/or age-level comparisons, based on national, state, or local norms if desired.

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Understanding Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

Each standardized achievement test may have its own score presentation format and layout of information that is referenced in the manual accompanying the test.

The manual also serves as a key reference about:

The history of the test and its development,
The test’s validity, reliability, standardization, and norming procedures
The steps required to administer the test and who is qualified to do so
Information about scoring and interpreting the test results.

School specialists (e.g., school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, administrators, intervention specialists, special educators) who are familiar with tests may also prove to be a good source of expanded and practical information about such measures.

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Understanding Data from Formal Standardized Assessments

Student profile forms are included on the face page from standardized achievement tests or generated by either scoring software that accompanies the test or the results provided by the test publisher via an online or mail-in service.

The student profile provides space to include basic student identifying information. It may or may not include essential results data.

The report generated from scoring software or the test publisher will typically profile the student’s basic and essential results data (e.g., student’s age; academic subtests completed; student performance represented by standard scores, percentiles, or grade equivalents).

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Understanding Scores from Formal Standardized Assessments

Individual student scores are reported in various formats

A raw score is the actual number of items that a student got right when taking the test. The raw score is then converted to a score that allows students to be compared to the national norm sample. If a student has a raw score of zero, that means the student did not get any items correct.

Converted scores include

Percentile ranks
Grade-level and Age-level equivalents,
Stanines
Standard Scores
Scaled scores
T-scores

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Understanding Value-Added and Growth Scores from Formal Standardized Assessments

Standardized tests can only measure a student’s performance at specific times during the year and are not generally designed to provide a robust and continuous picture of a student’s achievement and progress.

In order to help address this issue many states have turned to growth and value-added models (VAMs), which are applied to tests specifically designed to measure student growth over multiple learning points

These models have grown in popularity due to their ability to meet the No Child Left Behind Act mandate of collecting data on the progress of school-age students, and to focus on specific groups, including at-risk or low achieving students.

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Understanding Value-Added and Growth Scores from Formal Standardized Assessments

Growth or VAMs measure the quality or value of the student’s learning experience throughout the school year and generate growth percentiles or learning gain scores.

Such scores allow for comparisons between individual classrooms, grade levels, or schools. In particular, the instructional effect of having a particular teacher (referred to as the teacher effect) can be determined based on the growth gains of that teacher’s students relative to the collective gains of comparable grade-level students within the school district or based on national estimates.

Many schools now include growth and VAMs as part of a teacher’s own formal evaluation, so it is critical to understand what they mean and how they work.

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Understanding Value-Added and Growth Scores from Formal Standardized Assessments

Growth and VAM models focus on collecting and verifying not only the achievement level of students but also the growth of individual students and those within classrooms across a school district.

As such, the relative impact of the instruction those students receive from the teacher can be examined.

Administrators may look for trends and patterns amongst teachers that indicate the need for any additional resources and support (e.g., professional development, tutors, classroom technology such as computer tablets) to help teachers increase their effectiveness based on the districtwide learning gains that are demonstrated for each grade level.

In the past, administrators did not have such a tool. Now, they should be able to more readily meet teachers’ needs, identify areas of strength, help set goals for areas of teaching effectiveness, and provide adequate support for teachers so that students can learn and grow appropriately within the general curriculum and so that teachers retain and grow in their positions.

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Understanding Value-Added and Growth Scores from Formal Standardized Assessments

Though there have been successful models and uses of growth measures and VAMs, issues and concerns surrounding their use have been identified (Braun, 2005; Doran & Fleischman, 2005; McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003).

Such studies and teacher evaluation approaches should be carefully examined by school personnel and teachers. Individual teachers definitely have to understand the implications of such models as many will be assessed against the results their students attain on state and common core exams.

In general, it appears that growth and VAMs hold considerable promise and potential utility in accurately monitoring learning progress, relative to state and/or national content standards, throughout a student’s academic career.

Continued research is needed, however, as well as reliance on a multitude of measures to demonstrate student progress and instructional effectiveness.

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Understanding the GET GO Model for Integrating, Organizing, and Utilizing School Data

There is a great deal of data available to you as a teacher, and you will need to be able to integrate multiple sources of information together in order to make the most effective educational decisions possible.

After culling available data systems and research regarding data notebooks and methods of integrating and organizing assessment data, we synthesized and developed the GET GO Model depicted on the following slide.

Please review and discuss its steps. We suggest its consistent use in special education and general education classrooms.

When gathering data, our suggestion is to place it in a portfolio or student data notebook. Students can help to compile them as data is produced and feedback is shared.

When examining data independently, if questions arise, you can gain further information through the test company representative, a school psychologist, counselor, and/or administrator. After you have some initial questions answered, teachers should always attend data team meetings for support and mutual feedback.

After organizing and documenting data, it is important to act in the best interest of your students, making changes when necessary and celebrating triumphs.

Follow the Get Go Model!