1. Test
1.1. A test is a form of an assessment that contains questions that are all similar to each other. They are used to look at many different things, including student achievement after teacher-instruction.
1.1.1. Survey Test
1.1.1.1. A survey test is used to "measure a student’s general level of achievement over a broad range of outcomes" (Miller).
1.1.2. Achievement Test
1.1.2.1. An achievement test is used to depict how successful a student was in a past learning activity.
1.1.3. Aptitude Test
1.1.3.1. An aptitude test is used to determine how well students will do in the future.
1.1.4. Mastery Test
1.1.4.1. A mastery test is used to "measure the degree of mastery of a limited set of specific learning outcomes" (Miller).
1.1.5. Group Test
1.1.5.1. A group test is a test given to a group of students of whom may still be working individually.
1.1.6. Individual Test
1.1.6.1. An individual test is a test "administered on a one-to-one basis using careful oral questioning" (Miller).
1.1.7. Standardized Test
1.1.7.1. A standardized test is one that is Tests designed by "test specialists and administered, scored, and interpreted under standard conditions" (Miller).
1.1.8. Informal Test
1.1.8.1. An informal test is one designed by a classroom teacher.
1.1.9. Subjective Test
1.1.9.1. A subjective test is one in which grading is done at the discrepancy of another person. There is not one fixed answer. Many would be acceptable.
1.1.10. Objective Test
1.1.10.1. An objective test is one in which all of the questions have one fixed answer.
1.1.11. Power Test
1.1.11.1. A power test is a test used to assess how well students perform when they have plenty of time. Questions typically become harder toward the end of the test.
1.1.12. Speed Test
1.1.12.1. A speed test is a timed test that is used to look at how much students are able to do in a fixed amount of time.
1.1.13. Fixed-Choice Test
1.1.13.1. A fixed-choice test is a test that has questions followed with an array of answers, and students are required to choose the answer that best fits.
1.1.14. Supply Test
1.1.14.1. A supply test is one in which questions are not followed by any answers and students must formulate their own. These kinds of questions could be short answer or essay.
2. Grading
2.1. Grading is a process of measuring student achievement. There are many different ways of doing so.
2.1.1. Letter-Grade System
2.1.1.1. A letter-grade system is a traditional way of grading. Usually a letter A through F is assigned, sometimes a number 1 through 5, and often there is a number out of 100 that corresponds with the letter grade. For example, an A is usually 92-100. A GPA is formulated through the use of this system.
2.1.2. Pass-Fail System
2.1.2.1. A pass-fail system is one in which students either pass or fail a class or assignment. Unlike in the letter-grade system, there is no way to tell whether students passed by a long shot or just barely.
2.1.3. Checklist of Objectives
2.1.3.1. A checklist of objectives is commonly used at the elementary level, and it shows how well students are doing with achieving objectives.
2.1.4. Letter to Parent-Guardians
2.1.4.1. Sending letters to parent-guardians is a new way of grading. Letters allow teachers to express anything they wish to about student academic progress, behavior, and plans for the future.
2.1.5. Multiple Reporting System
2.1.5.1. A multiple reporting system is when more than one grading system is used at the same time to make student progress clearer.
2.1.6. Relative Grading
2.1.6.1. A relative grading system ranks students in order of achievement and gives them a letter grade correspondingly.
2.1.7. Absolute Grading
2.1.7.1. An absolute grading system includes comparing student performance with the standards or instructional goals set by the teacher.
2.1.8. Stanine
2.1.8.1. "Stanine (STAndard NINE) is a method of scaling test scores on a nine-point standard scale with a mean of five and a standard deviation of two" (Miller).
2.1.9. Grade-Equivalent Scores
2.1.9.1. Grade-equivalent scores are used to compare student progress to what a typical student achieves so many months into a school year. For example, an 8.4 would represent typical student progress in the fourth month of the eighth grade school year.
2.1.10. Percentile Rank
2.1.10.1. A percentile rank is a way of classifying student scores. If one student scored better than 90% of the other students, then that student would be classified into the 90th percentile.
3. Domain
3.1. A domain is a set or group of certain kinds of knowledge or attributes.
3.1.1. Cognitive Domain
3.1.1.1. The cognitive domain refers to "knowledge outcomes and intellectual abilities and skills (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation)" (Miller) of students.
3.1.2. Affective Domain
3.1.2.1. The affective domain includes "Attitudes, interests, appreciation, and modes of adjustment" (Miller) for students.
3.1.3. Psychomotor Domain
3.1.3.1. The psychomotor domain refers to "Perceptual and motor skills" (Miller) of students.
4. Standards
4.1. A standard is used to measure student progress and make evaluations. Standards are aligned with goals for the students.
4.1.1. Professional Association Standards
4.1.1.1. Standards of professional associations which are a good tool to use when designing instructional objectives.
4.1.2. State Content Standards
4.1.2.1. Like the standards of professional associations, state content standards are also a great tool when designing instructional objectives. The state content standards, however, are most relevant for the teacher when doing so.
5. Representative Sample
5.1. A representative sample is a small sample that accurately represents the larger whole.
6. Assessment
6.1. An assessment is any method used to look at student performance, including everything from tests to teacher observation.
6.1.1. Placement Assessment
6.1.1.1. A placement assessment is an assessment given at the beginning of, or prior to any, instruction.
6.1.2. Formative Assessment
6.1.2.1. A formative assessment is used to monitor student performance during instruction. An example is teacher observation.
6.1.3. Diagnostic Assessment
6.1.3.1. Diagnostic assessments also take place during instruction and are used to discover learning difficulties.
6.1.4. Summative Assessment
6.1.4.1. Summative assessments take place at the end of instruction (at the end of a unit) and are used to look at student progress and achievement.
6.1.5. Norm-Referenced Assessment
6.1.5.1. A norm-referenced assessment is used to gain information on how well students perform in relation to their classmates/peers or as part of some group of test-takers.
6.1.6. Criterion-Referenced Assessment
6.1.6.1. A criterion-reference assessment, also known as a standard-based assessment, is used to look at how well students complete specific tasks.
7. Measurement
7.1. Measurement is "the process of obtaining a numerical description" (Miller) of how well students did or how well they are doing.
7.1.1. Maximum Performance
7.1.1.1. Maximum performance describes what students are capable of when they give something their best effort.
7.1.2. Typical Performance
7.1.2.1. Typical performance describes what students will do, not what they are capable of doing, taking into account circumstances.
8. A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessing
8.1. A taxonomy for teaching, learning and assessing is "a useful guide for developing a comprehensive list of instructional objectives that attempts to identify and classify all possible educational outcomes" (Miller).
9. In the Construction or Selection of Assessment
9.1. Validity
9.1.1. Validity is "an evaluation of the adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of assessment results" (Miller).
9.1.1.1. Content Validation
9.1.1.1.1. Content validation refers to how well an assignment aligns with the most important content.
9.1.1.2. Construct Validation
9.1.1.2.1. Construct validation is how meaningful student performance is on an assessment in correspondence with overall instructional objectives.
9.1.1.3. Assessment-Criterion Relationship
9.1.1.3.1. An assessment-criterion relationship is "how well performance on the assessment predicts future performance or estimates current performance on some valued measures other than the test itself (called a criterion)" (Miller).
9.1.1.4. Consequence Consideration
9.1.1.4.1. Consequence consideration refers to "how well use of assessment results accomplishes intended purposes and avoids unintended effects" (Miller).
9.2. Reliability
9.2.1. Reliability refers to the consistency of assessment results.
9.3. Usability
9.3.1. Usability of an assessment refers to "the practicality of the procedure" (Miller).
9.4. Fairness
9.4.1. Fairness of an assessment refers to "whether the uses and interpretations of test scores are reasonable and equitable for all students" (Miller).
9.5. Construct-Irrelevant Variance
9.5.1. Construct-irrelevant variance is when uncontrolled variables are introduced and have effects on the outcomes of an assessment.
9.6. Sensitivity Review
9.6.1. A sensitivity review is when the assessment is checked to make sure that nothing would be offensive to any group of people.
10. Achievement
10.1. Achievement is the act of achieving something by putting forth some amount of effort.
10.1.1. Achievement Domain
10.1.1.1. An achievement domain is "a list of the expected learning outcomes of the targeted curriculum or course of study" (Miller).
10.1.2. Achievement Assessment
10.1.2.1. An achievement assessment is "developed to measure skills and knowledge learned in a given grade level, usually through planned instruction, such as training or classroom instruction (figure out what has been achieved out of the achievement domain)" (Miller).
10.1.3. Correlation Coefficient
10.1.3.1. A correlation coefficient is a numerical value (or a set of) that describes a relationship between two sets of scores.
10.1.4. Regression Equation
10.1.4.1. A regression equation is an equation used to convert scores on the scholastic aptitude test to predicted achievement scores.