Student Assessments Grade 7 Math

Diagnostic
1. Definition
  1. Preassessments. Testing that occurs before instruction.
2. Purpose
  1. Provides teachers with information about students' prior knowledge and misconceptions before starting a learning activity
  2. provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed.
3. Advantages
  1. Assists in developing lesson plans
  2. helps teachers to be able to provide differentiated instructions to meet students' needs
4. Assessment FOR learning
5. Examples
  1. Quizzes
  2. Formal diagnostics tests
  3. Student survey
  4. Performance task
Formative
1. Definition
  1. Ongoing assessments. The checkpoints that take place during a learning activity and involves descriptive feedback which is pointing out what is the objective, where the student is in relation to the objective, and what can be done to close the gap and provide the instructor with information regarding how well the learning objectives of a given learning activity are being met.
2. Purpose
  1. Used as feedback to the teacher to see if students understand what is being taught and allows the teacher to adjust their teaching to ensure student understanding.
  2. Students use the feedback received to revise their efforts, and be assessed and credited anew, in an ongoing effort.
3. Advantages
  1. greatest impact on student achievement
  2. Students learn the most from the feedback from formative assessments
  3. Students more willing to ask questions and seek to increase their understanding
  4. Useful in all types of learning activities
4. Disadvantages
  1. Can't be used in large lecture classes as not many students can be questioned due to time constraints
5. Assessment FOR learning
6. Examples
  1. Exit Tickets
  2. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down
  3. Various Math questions on the board, students answer on individual whiteboards
  4. Self/Peer Assessments
  5. Think-Pair-Share
Summative
1. Definition
  1. Testing usually done at the end of a unit or topic.
2. Purpose
  1. Used to check students' progress, ie student learning relative to content standards
3. Advantages
  1. Although can be done as a summative, it is a teacher's perogative to then use it as a formative.
  2. Accountability measure used as part of the grading process, to evaluate effectiveness of school programs, curriculum alignment, etc.
4. Disadvantages
  1. Done post learning. Not able to go back and revise your efforts, and be credited anew.
  2. It is felt that teachers will teach to the test
5. Assessment OF learning
6. Examples
  1. Standardized state testing
  2. End of unit/chapter test
  3. End of Term/Semester tests
Performance based
1. Definition
  1. Any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency.
2. Purpose
  1. Students practice applying content knowledge, acquire skills, and develop work habits to “real world” situations and learn while doing it, the tasks yield a tangible product or performance which serve as evidence of learning.
3. Advantages
  1. Assesses students' deep understanding of subject and their ability to apply to a concept
  2. Learning experience for the teacher and student
  3. Productive time spent as it informs the teaching, giving teachers immediate feedback on what they need to do to meet students needs
  4. Students work with multiple perspectives, analyze evidence and critique them
  5. Performance tasks build on earlier content knowledge, process skills, and work habits and are strategically placed in the lesson or unit to enhance learning
4. Disadvantages
  1. requires a significant investment of time and energy
5. Assessment FOR learning
6. Examples
  1. Students calculate and create graphs to see what is the best combination for the highest profit.
  2. Students create instructional videos and are evaluated according to a scoring rubric.
  3. Students create and make a prototype of their design of a house and are graded according to an established rubric.
High stakes
1. Definition
  1. The test outcomes of a single measure are used to make important, often life-altering decisions about student progress or effectiveness of instruction,
2. Purpose
  1. High stakes assessments are designed with the intention of improving education and making comparisons of students across the nation.
3. Advantages
  1. Used to report school performance, change curriculum and assessment practices, evaluate curricular changes, and monitor program effectiveness to try and ensure a certain standard is upheld.
4. Disadvantages
  1. Some high-stakes tests do not have sufficient reliability and validity for the purposes for which they are used.
  2. Opponents believe that it is unethical to make any educational decision on the basis of one test score
5. Assessment OF learning
6. Examples
  1. SATS
  2. ACTS
  3. End of term/semester exams
Portfolio
1. Definition
  1. A math portfolio contains samples of a student's work that is collected over a given length of time.
2. Purpose
  1. Offers insights to a student's thinking, understanding, and mathematical problem-solving skills, and thus offers a picture of the student's progress in math. They will be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses through self-evaluation, set goals for themselves, and show proficient organizational skills.
3. Advantages
  1. While the teacher may guide students in their selection of material for their portfolios, they should be the judges of what actually goes in.
  2. The material that goes into a portfolio should help the teacher and others to understand how students see themselves in the learning of math.
  3. Satisfies educators' belief that assessment is most effective when it becomes an integral part of instruction.
4. Disadvantages
  1. Can be time consuming and burdensome in terms of administering problems
  2. Harder to ensure that portfolios are accurately recorded and scored students' performance
  3. Evaluation is more subjective than traditional testing,
5. Assessment OF learning
6. Examples of material that go into a portfolio
  1. Table of content
  2. Solutions to difficult problems that detail problem-solving abilities
  3. Evidence of a students' group activity
  4. The student's written account of his or her growth in mathematic
  5. Responses to challenging questions and problems
Authentic
1. Definition
  1. Evaluates a student’s ability to apply what they have learnt to a “real world” context, focusing on a student’s analytical skills and the ability to integrate what they have learnt along with creativity with written and oral skills.
2. Purpose
  1. Students have to demonstrate the various skills and concepts they have learned and explain when it would be appropriate to use those facts and problem-solving skills in their own lives, so as to be able to accurately test a students' growth and progress.
3. Advantages
  1. Assesses students' deep understanding of subject and their ability to apply their knowledge to a concept and a different situation,
  2. Students learn persistence, self-regulating behaviors, reflection and participation.
  3. Provides parents with directly observable products and understandable evidence concerning their students' performance;
4. Disadvantages
  1. Scoring of judgment-based tasks more expensive when compared to multiple-choice tests
  2. More time consuming to grade than multiple choice questions
5. Assessment FOR learning
6. Examples
  1. Use of instructional rubrics for authentic assessment
  2. Use of portfolios or projects for learning and assessment
Self-assessment
1. Definition
  1. Self-assessment is a process during which students reflect on the quality of their work, compare it to explicitly stated criteria, judge how well their work reflects the criteria, and make appropriate revisions. Students become metacognitive and are more aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses.
2. Purpose
  1. Students would think about their own knowledge, learning, and thinking so as to gain a better understanding of how well they have attained concepts and are now actively involved in their own learning.
3. Advantages
  1. Students, including those with mild to moderate cognitive impairments can learn to monitor and regulate their own learning more effectively, increasing their autonomy and responsibility
  2. Provides students with feedback they can use to deepen their understandings and improve their performances
  3. Uses a rubric as a means of communicating expectations for an assignment, providing focused feedback on works in progress, and grading final products
  4. There is some evidence that self-assessment is associated with improved performance on summative external examinations
4. Assessment FOR learning
5. Examples
  1. Two stars and a Wish strategy
  2. Students use a rubric to check where they are at
  3. Jigsaw Rubric
Peer-assessment
1. Definition
  1. Students individually assess and grade each other's contribution using a predetermined list of criteria.
2. Purpose
  1. Helps students become more aware of the goals of their learning and of the ways in which they can improve their own work to achieve these goals. As this awareness grows, students become more autonomous learners.
3. Advantages
  1. increase student responsibility and autonomy
  2. Deeper understanding of the subject matter
  3. Student turns from passive learner to active learner and assessor
  4. Students involved in critical reflection and evaluation
4. Disadvantages
  1. Students may be unwilling to judge their peers
  2. Students might award everyone the same marks.
  3. Unreliability of grades due to peer pressure or friendships elevating grades
5. Assessment FOR learning
6. Examples
  1. Evaluation rubrics
  2. Checklists
References
1. Diagnostic and Formative Assessments. (n.d.) Starting Point. [Web page] Retrieved from http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/assessment/formative.html
2. Hibbard, K. Michael. (1996) Teacher's Guide to Performance based Learning and Assessment.[Book] Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/196021/chapters/What_is_Performance-Based_Learning_and_Assessment,_and_Why_is_it_Important%C2%A2.aspx
3. McLaughin, Maureen. (2016, 13 July) "High-Stakes Testing." Current Events in Context. ABC-CLIO, [Web]. Retrieved from http://freecontent.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/contentpage.aspx?entryid=2005078&currentSection=2004847&productid=2005082
4. Math Portfolio. Excerpted from The Math Teacher's Book of Lists. Retrieved from https://www.teachervision.com/math/teaching-methods/6380.html
5. Self and peer assessment – advantages and disadvantages. (n.d.) [pdf].Retrieved from https://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/groupwork/docs/SelfPeerAssessment.pdf