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Pages 37-56

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From page 37...
... The following subsections address issues of purpose and use by examining three broad purposes served by assessments in classroom and large-scale contexts: assisting learning, measuring individual student achievement, and evaluating programs. Assessment to Assist Learning In the classroom context, effective teachers use various forms of assessment to inform day-to-day and month-to-month decisions about next steps for instruction, to give students feedback about their progress, and to motivate students.
From page 38...
... But these practices are rare, and classroom assessment is often weak. The development of good classroom assessments places significant demands on the teacher.
From page 39...
... A trend that merits particular attention is the growing use of state assessments to make high-stakes decisions about individual students, teachers, and schools. In 1998, 18 states required students to pass an exam before receiving a high school diploma, and 8 of these states also used assessment results to make decisions about student promotion or retention in grade (Council of Chief State School Officers, 19991.
From page 40...
... , a national program begun in 1969 to measure broad trends in the achievement of U.S. students, is used for program evaluation in broad terms.
From page 41...
... Also emphasized is the significant potential for advances in the cognitive and measurement sciences to improve classroom assessment. Powerful theories and tools are now available that enable deep and frequent assessment of student understanding during the course of instruction.
From page 42...
... Although assessment can provide valuable information about a student's competence, scores may nevertheless vary for reasons unrelated to achievement, such as the specific content being assessed, the particular format of the assessment items, the timing and conditions for administering the assessment, or the health of the student on that particular day. Educators assess students to learn about what they know and can do but assessments do not offer a direct pipeline into a student's mind.
From page 43...
... The same underlying principles of reasoning from evidence that led to classical test theory can support inference in a broader universe of assessments, including those based on cognitive theory.
From page 44...
... A major tenet of this report is that for an assessment to be effective, the three elements must be in synchrony. The assessment triangle provides a useful framework for analyzing current assessment or designing future ones.
From page 45...
... This model should reflect the most scientifically credible understanding of typical ways in which learners represent knowledge and develop expertise in a domain. These findings should derive from cognitive and educational research about how people learn, as well as the experience of expert teachers (Webb, 19921.
From page 46...
... As described and illustrated more fully in Chapter 5, the point of basing assessment on a cognitive model is to focus the assessment on those competencies that are most important to measure in light of the desired inferences about student learning. Finally, if the goal of basing assessment on an appropriate model of learning is to be realized, cognitive models will need to be developed for a broader range of the curriculum.
From page 47...
... The tasks to which students are asked to respond on an assessment are not arbitrary. They must be carefully designed to provide evidence that is linked to the cognitive model of learning and to support the kinds of inferences and decisions that will be based on the assessment results.
From page 48...
... The assessment designer can use this capability to maximize the value of the data collected, as seen through the lens of the underlying beliefs about how students learn in the domain. For example, on the basis of the cognitive model presented in Box 2-1, Siegler (1976)
From page 49...
... competency. In the context of classroom assessment, the interpretation is often made less formally by the teacher, and is usually based on an intuitive or qualitative model rather than a formal statistical one.
From page 50...
... . Used by permission of Academic Press.
From page 51...
... The cognitive theory suggests aspects of knowledge and skills by which we want to characterize students. Conversely, a familiarity with available measurement models provides a set of experience-tested methods for handling thorny and often subtle issues of evidence.
From page 52...
... As with assessment, most current approaches to curriculum and instruction are based on theories that have not kept pace with modern knowledge of how people learn (NRC, 1999b; Shepard, 20001. The committee believes that align
From page 53...
... This is not necessarily a problem, as long as assessment designers and users recognize the compromises and trade-offs such use entails. Although assessments used in various contexts andfor differing purposes often look quite different, they share certain common principles.
From page 54...
... Likewise, the observation and interpretation elements underlying most current assessments were created to fit prior conceptions of learning and need enhancement to support the kinds of inferences people now want to draw about student achievement. A cognitive model of learning should serve as the cornerstone of the assessment design process.
From page 55...
... 55 P The Scientific Foundations of Assessment
From page 56...
... These assessments rely on detailed models of the goals and processes involved in mental performances like solving problems, reading, and reasoning. The Situative Perspective The situative perspective, also sometimes referred to as the sociocultural perspective, grew out of concerns with the cognitive perspective's near exclusive focus on individual thinking and learning.


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