1. High-stakes
1.1. An assessment used for decisions and decision-making processes around students, teachers, schools and school districts. It may influence funding or penalties on a school or even salaries for teachers. Relies on a reward/punishment model to push students and teachers to perform at higher levels in these test.
1.1.1. The purpose of high-stakes tests is to assess learning and determine a path for the next step of teaching and learning be that: progressing a student to another grade or holding them back, determining teacher salary based on student performance, or determining school funding or penalties based on test results.
1.1.1.1. Advantages
1.1.1.1.1. Puts numbers and data into an easy-to-fund model for district business managers
1.1.1.1.2. Averages student performance and holds schools and teachers accountable for appropriate instruction according to the assessment model.
1.1.1.2. Disadvantages
1.1.1.2.1. Offers a very small and specific snapshot of student learning.
1.1.1.2.2. Public reporting of results can lead to inaccurate basis for school-choice by parents.
1.2. High-stakes assessments are generally assessments OF learning - summing up the knowledge bases and averages of all students in certain subject areas.
1.3. My school doesn't really offer any high-stakes assessment, but a comparable assessment may be school-wide testing (we do MAP) that relies on results to boost funding.
2. Formative
2.1. Assessment/s given throughout lessons and units including many learning objectives that looks at evaluating both student understanding of a subject THUS FAR as well as the effectiveness of teacher lessons.
2.1.1. See where students are and plan for their future learning to make sure learning objectives, standards and techniques are being appropriately targeted and change lessons if necessary.
2.1.1.1. Advantages
2.1.1.1.1. Teachers can target students areas of need
2.1.1.1.2. Lessons that haven't met the target can be changed to improve student learning.
2.1.1.2. Disadvantages
2.1.1.2.1. May not give the whole picture of a student.
2.1.1.2.2. Can feel ongoing and time consuming.
2.2. Formative assessments are FOR learning since they are used during the learning process to keep students and teachers on the right track towards objectives.
2.3. Giving students exit tickets asking them to define key words about empires in World History Grade 7.
3. Portfolio
3.1. Assessment of students based on a type of archive of student work and learning. Portfolio assessments include a range of work on a subject or subjects, compiled and assessed together to measure against student learning standards. Involves an ongoing evaluation process as the portfolio grows.
3.1.1. Create a long-term vision of what a student have learned and how they've learned it. Portfolio assessments are meant to capture a bigger picture of what students have learned and what skills they've developed.
3.1.1.1. Advantages
3.1.1.1.1. Creates a vision of student learning over time instead of a snapshot.
3.1.1.1.2. Reflective work within a portfolio gets students to think about how they can improve and develops a growth mindset.
3.1.1.2. Disadvantages
3.1.1.2.1. Can be considered 'too big' to take on and often used as an add-on which feel s redundant and very difficult to enforce.
3.1.1.2.2. Compilation of work can be disjointed and unhelpful if not closely monitored over time and carefully reflected/assessed.
3.2. Portfolio assessments are FOR learning since they involve student reflection and frequent teacher evaluation to keep the portfolio growing in the right direction to target standards.
3.3. Students write and create Mindmaps, Venn Diagrams about our classes essential questions. This is kept online (Google Drive or LiveBinder) in our class to be turned in at the end of every trimester.
4. Summative
4.1. Summative assessments are (often) designed by the classroom teacher for the end of a lesson or unit to evaluate whether students have learned the learning objectives.
4.1.1. To assess a students knowledge on a certain subject.
4.1.1.1. Advantages
4.1.1.1.1. Shows what a student has gotten out of a lesson.
4.1.1.1.2. The ultimate assessment of "Student Will Be Able To'
4.1.1.2. Disadvantages
4.1.1.2.1. Students don't have the option to re-take or improve upon a summative assessment. It is a final mark.
4.2. Summative assessments are OF learning as their nature is to 'sum up" all that a student has learned about a certain topic.
4.3. In Wold History 7, giving students an essay comparing ancient empires and explaining why they were successful (first unit is on empire building, next unit is on empire dismantling.
5. Authentic
5.1. Authentic assessment involves developing a "real life" application and connection for the subject being taught. This assessment/teaching model focusses on developing techniques to assess student practical and useful skills that will be invaluable in a post-school environment.
5.1.1. Target student skills that will help them better succeed in other areas, while connecting back to content knowledge.
5.1.1.1. Advantages
5.1.1.1.1. Students are better prepared to take on other situations for learning above and beyond the content knowledge they have studied
5.1.1.1.2. Connecting content knowledge to real-life application can help students understand the value of what their learning and improve engagement.
5.1.1.2. Disadvantages
5.1.1.2.1. Authentic teaching and assessment may have too little focus on content area.
5.1.1.2.2. Involves a lot more planning and preparation, as well as ongoing professional development that many schools and districts are unable to provide or fund.
5.2. Authentic learning and assessment is FOR learning since, like performance-based assessment, it focuses on giving students the tools to learn and re-apply learning in the school environment as well as in their post-schooling world.
5.3. Connecting an ancient Roman farmer's life to the farming practices that are used in a student's home country or in India. Connecting where and how we get our food to where and how food was grown and distributed in Ancient Rome.
6. Performance-based
6.1. Performance-based assessment is based around getting students to perform tasks that require them to show a variety of skills learned and to come to their own conclusions around a subject.
6.1.1. Performance-based assessment is designed to model post-school scenarios for which students need to develop problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills. This type of assessment aims to give students the tools to learn rather than content-based memorization.
6.1.1.1. Advantages
6.1.1.1.1. Research-based information that targets how individuals learn.
6.1.1.1.2. Requires students to demonstrate skills learned as well as knowledge.
6.1.1.2. Disadvantages
6.1.1.2.1. Many schools may feel that arranging and training for performance-based assessment is costly and time consuming.
6.1.1.2.2. Long-term assessment: not to be used for any short-term information.
6.2. Performance-based assessments are designed to be FOR learning as they develop a students skills and habits of learning to be applied in more learning situations.
6.3. Using a Performance Assessment of Social Studies Thinking (PASST) for World History in 7th Grade. Getting students to work on a project about daily life in Ancient Empires.
7. Self-assessment
7.1. Students are provided with learning objectives and student benchmarks and asked to evaluate themselves based on that information provided. Self-assessment relies on students keeping track of and being responsible for their own assessment and reflection.
7.1.1. Gets students to analyze their learning and strive to improve their classwork in a positive way that encourages a growth mindset.
7.1.1.1. Advantages
7.1.1.1.1. Students know learning objectives and are given skills to target those objectives.
7.1.1.1.2. Students are held accountable for their own learning and develop the skill of recognizing the next steps as they learn.
7.1.1.1.3. Better engages students in their learning.
7.1.1.2. Disadvantages
7.1.1.2.1. May not appropriately target objectives
7.1.1.2.2. Takes out much-relied-upon aspects of more widely used assessment tools (teacher input, norm-referenced assessments).
7.2. Self-Assessment is FOR learning since the aim is to get students involved and engaged in their own learning process including strengths, weaknesses and areas to grow into.
7.3. Give students a rubric at the BEGINNING of the unit for the final project for the first unit: An argumentative essay and collage about what made Rome or West Africa a successful empire (students choose one). Have each student look at their own essay and evaluate honestly according to the rubric, students must defend their answers.
8. Peer Assessment
8.1. Like self-assessment, peer assessment works on the premise that all students are led to understand the learning objectives and target goals. Students and teachers then share in the evaluation between peers and engage in understanding and learning development.
8.1.1. Students have a good understanding of their goals and by involving themselves and their peers in the evaluation process are held more accountable for their own learning.
8.1.1.1. Advantages
8.1.1.1.1. Students value peer opinions (perhaps even above teacher opinions at times)
8.1.1.1.2. Gives teachers the opportunity to teach positive and constructive feedback and better involve students in a supportive learning environment.
8.1.1.2. Disadvantages
8.1.1.2.1. Some may critique the higher student role in assessment since this is traditionally the teacher's job.
8.1.1.2.2. Can be messy and create contention if not implemented appropriately and monitored by the teacher.
8.2. Peer assessment is FOR learning as students take part in their own ongoing evaluation and are working towards learning objectives they've been aware of since the beginning.
8.3. Give students a rubric used for evaluation made by the teacher for evaluating other student projects and their own projects about ancient civilizations. Give students guidelines for peer assessment and require small groups to provide feedback WITH justifications.
9. References
10. Diagnostic
10.1. As the name suggests, a diagnostic assessment "diagnoses" a student - but not in the traditional sense. These assessments diagnose a students strengths and areas of need based on detailed data that has been gathered. Some diagnostic assessments are considered formative as well.
10.1.1. The assessment is designed to find out a relevant understanding of a student's situation, point a teacher in the direction of improvement and give them the required action to improve learning for individual students.
10.1.1.1. Advantages
10.1.1.1.1. Informs Instruction for students
10.1.1.1.2. Gives valuable direction for teacher scaffolding
10.1.1.1.3. Individualized - students are getting appropriate scaffolding per their needs.
10.1.1.2. Disadvantages
10.1.1.2.1. Individualized - can be limiting
10.1.1.2.2. Snapshot of a very specific time or skill