Testing vs. Alternative Forms of Assessment

Assessment vs. Alternative Forms of Testing

What are the consequences of tests to schools?

Balanced Assessments

• Teachers will tailor their teaching to what is on the test; therefore, classroom time is then devoted to what is going to be on the test.
• The curriculum will narrow as a result and creativity, richness, experimentation, and risk-taking disappear.
• Schools and districts will find a way to make their scores look good.
• ESL/bilingual students are place in special ed programs
• The "dumb" kids are put in the same classroom so they won't hold back the "smart" kids.
• Lower the cut-score so it looks like students have improved
• Encourage students to stay at home, suspend them, or even suggest they drop out just so their test scores will not be figured in.

Balanced assessment focuses on the strategies a student employs and helps the teacher to create an inventory form which new strategies and new leaning can develop. Intervention strategies can be developed for students who are being left behind.

When we use balanced assessment, educators, administrators, parents, students, and the general public have concrete data by which to judge a student's success.

• Clearer pictures of the student's proficiency levels and capabilities and they are available to the students, parents, administrators, and the teacher as well.
• Clear expectations of what the child is learning and how they will be evaluated are set and known.

"Important instructional and policy decisions are based on information about students' achievement. If those decisions are made well, students benefit. If they are made poorly, students suffer. But those decisions can only be as sound as the data on which they are based."

-Stiggins (1991)-

Ask yourself...

What gets in the way of a student performing well? Is the data collected representative of what the student can do?

Alternative Assessments

What are they?

"... shifting from a testing to an assessment culture involves changing assumptions about the nature of intelligence and about how people learn. Because testing and assessment cultures have radically different belief systems and goals, helping educators and the public understand the implications of this change in point of view is an important part of education reform."

-Lachat (1999)-

• Standardized tests, as well as standardized proficiency tests, are not normed for English language learners.
• They are culturally biased. The norms for theses tests are set for students from the mainstream culture, and do not address the cultures and experiences of poor and minority students.
• They are also linguistically biased. The way many questions are worded slows readers down, adds to their cognitive load, and makes it more likely the reader will misinterpret the reading.

• Alternative assessment uses activities that reveal what students can do with language, emphasizing their strengths instead of their weaknesses. Alternative assessment instruments are not only designed and structured differently from traditional tests, but are also graded or scored differently.
• They are designed to reveal a broader range of information that will give not just a snapshot, but a dynamic picture of students' development, both academic and linguistic.
• These assessments can provide data that truly represent what students are capable of- we can differentiate between competence and performance. They also allow for teachers to continue to look for answers if one method does not give enough information

• Students can misread test questions and there is no chance to correct their errors or redirect them if they do.
• Standardized tests lack predictive value, they cannot tell you how well your students can perform in real-life situations.

Alternative Assessments Cont..

What are the known sources of inference?

Standardized Tests Cont...

Can you obtain an appropriate sample from these tests? No. Here's why...

The criticisms by those who us other forms of assessment are as follows:

• Manageability--these assessments are cumbersome and require lots of thought, space, logistics, and training. Assessments must be doable, manageable, readable, and valuable to the teacher and to the parent.
• Reliability--this refers to the dependability and consistency of scores or information. A test is considered reliable if a student takes the same test at different times and achieves scores that are roughly the same.
• Bias--assessments done in the classroom are subject to the biases, beliefs, likes, and dislikes of that teacher toward the students, as well as her knowledge about language learners and their error patterns.

• Norm-referenced tests rank students from high to low. Half the students will fall below 50%.
• Multiple -choice tests can't allow for the teacher to determine if the student really knows the information.
• From these tests, you cannot tell where the student failed- you have no concrete starting point to begin teaching.
• They can have cut-scores- scores on a point scale, a boundary.Scores that determine a passing grade and failing grade. How is the passing criteria created?
• Tests are a one shot deal; there are no second chances.

Sources of inference cont...

• These assessments can be culturally biased. Misunderstanding ways of speaking, turn-taking rules, norms for politeness, or simply a bias against an ethnic group can lead to avoidance, lowered expectations, or rejections of the student.
• Alternative assessments can also be linguistically biased. A student's English proficiency and a teacher's ability to understand his attempts can have profound effect on what she sees and interprets.
• Validity--this refers to the trustworthiness of the inferences a teacher draws from the assessment. The method itself can be valid, but the inferences drawn can be invalid.
• Standardization--teachers are, and should be, unique individuals, each with their own ways of doing things. It is almost impossible to get consensus and have teachers adhere to uniform methods of anything, much less testing and grading.

Standardized Tests

What are they?

• Tests that are administered and scored in a consistent or "standard" manner.
• Designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.
• Used to compare a student's knowledge against a set of core knowledge and sills deemed essential to know.