Common Formative Assessments

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Common Formative Assessments

• Part III
• With the standards foundation in place
• Now its time to design the matching assessment
  items

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Learning Objectives

• Understand how common formative assessments are
  the centerpiece of an integrated standards and
  assessment system.
• Improve our assessment literacy through deeper
  understanding of the assessment-design process.
• Create and/or evaluate a first-draft common
  formative assessment for use in any grade and
  content area.
• Receive tools for evaluating and improving the
  quality of common assessments.

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Assessment of Only Highest Priority Standards

• It is critical that all of the assessed standards
  be truly significant. From an instructional
  perspective, it is better for tests to measure a
  handful of powerful skills accurately than it is
  for tests to do an inaccurate job of measuring
  many skills.
• -- W.J. Popham, Test Better, Teach Better,
  2003, p.143

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Designing Quality Assessments 3 Keys

• Be clear on purpose.
• Determine the appropriate type of assessment to
  gain evidence of learning.
• Design assessment items that help you make
  accurate inferences about student learning.

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General Guidelines for Effective Item Writing

• Quality items should
• Reflect higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
• Students should not be able to answer by recall,
  they should have to apply their knowledge
• Be brief and cleargoal is totest mastery of
  material, not students ability to figure out
  what youre asking.
• Richard Stiggins

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Things to Consider

• Design fair and bias free items (no bias toward
  gender, ethnicity, or language)
• Student ability to respond should not depend on
  reading ability.
• Format items to match district benchmark
  assessments, end-of-course assessments, and state
  tests.
• Include correct standards terminology, not
  simplified terms.

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5 Roadblocks to Effective Item Writing

• Unclear directions
• Ambiguous statements
• Unintentional clues
• Complex phrasing
• Difficult vocabulary
• - W.J. Popham

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Assessment Formats and Writing Guidelines

• Read pages 13-22
• Create visuals for some of the big ideas you
  learn throughout these sections.
• Assessment is inference making
• Two major assessment formats

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Discuss

• What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of
  the two types of assessments?

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Criteria for Writing Selected-Response Items

• Write clearly in a sharply focused manner.
• Ask a question with only one best answer
• Write items consistent with grade-level reading
  expectations
• Eliminate clues leading to correct answer.
• Make response options brief

Pages 23-24
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Lets Practice

• Multiple Choice
• Which item in the following set is not like a
  ball?
• World globe
• Orange
• Marble
• Checker
• Charlie Browns head

• Question stem contains a negative
• Too many item choices
• Inappropriate use of humor with potential bias

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Lets Practice

• Multiple Choice
• The fraction _____ is smaller than the fraction
  1/3.
• a. ½ c. I dont know
• b. 1 whole d. 1/4

Incomplete statement contains answer in blank in
middle of stem Includes I dont know response
choice Responses not listed in numerical
order The fraction is a clue leading to
elimination of distracter 1 whole
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A Bucket of Trouble

• A Reading Passage with Sample Comprehension Item
  Set Questions

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Why is this a well written question?

• Student Directions Choose the best answer from
  the answer choices. (Level 2)
• What is the main idea of this tale? (level 2)
• Two frogs accidentally jumped into a pail of
  milk.
• The little frog lived because he didnt give up
• Milk can be churned into butter with enough
  effort.

Question is directly correlated to unwrapped
concept, skill, and level of Blooms Taxonomy
(Level 2) RECOGNIZE (main idea)
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Why is this a well written question?

• Student Directions Write T or F in the blank
  provided. (Level 4)
• ____The little frog knew the milk would turn
  into butter if kept paddling.
• ____ The little frog hoped that if he kept
  paddling, he would live.

Question is directly correlated to unwrapped
concept, skill, and level of Blooms Taxonomy.
Level 4--DRAW (inferences, conclusions,
generalizations)
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Analyze Selected-Response Items from INSPECT
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• What are some things you want to remember about
  writing Selected-Response Items?

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Criteria for Writing Constructed-Response Items

• Includes short and extended response (i.e. short
  answer prompts, essays, and problem solving
  requiring writing)
• Requires students to organize and use knowledge
  and skills to answer a question or complete a
  task
• More likely to reveal whether or not students
  have gained integrated understanding with regard
  to standards they are learning
• Requires scoring guide (rubric) to evaluate
  degree of student proficiency

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Sample Extended Constructed-Response Item
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Creating Scoring Guides
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Avoid Subjective Language

• Such as
• Complete
• Partial
• Adequate
• General
• Successful
• Good

• Nice
• Some
• Few
• Many
• Most
• Little
• Creative

Rubistar
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Strive for Objective Language

• Language that is
• Specific
• Measurable
• Observable
• Understandable
• Matched to task directions

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Create Scoring Guide

• Proficient
• Sort 4 out of 5 short vowel words.
• Sort 4 out of 5 long vowel words
• Student says Vowels have 2 sounds and say a
  short an long vowel sound.
• Reads 6 out of the 7 long and short vowel words
  in the sentence fluency practice.
• Reads the sentence with natural speech.
• Then Create the Remaining Levels of the Scoring
  Guide Exemplary, Progressing, and Beginning

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• We will resume our work at 1230 p.m.

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Try It!
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Share Out
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Resources for Common Formative Assessments

• Textbook questions (that meet criteria for
  well-written items)
• Assessment or evaluations components of text
  series
• Online Questions Banks
• NAEP http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS
  /
• State website with released assessment items
• District banks - INSPECT

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Common Formative Assessments A Summary

• Interim assessments collaboratively designed
• Similar in design and format to district and
  state assessments
• Items should represent Priority Standards
• A blend of item types, including
  Selected-Response and Constructed Response
• Student results analyzed in Data Team to guide
  instructional planning and delivery

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Write/Reflect

• I had never thought about
• I want to remember
• I think I will