Quality of Assessment Tool

Ensuring The Quality of Assessment Tools 

There are 5 basic quality checks that you may find helpful when selecting or designing assessment tools for different situations:

(1) Does the assessment tool match the assessment purpose?

• Is the assessment tool criteria match the purpose of the assignment?
• The worst thing a teacher can do is give an assessment tool that does not benefit the child
• Ex. Giving students in Grade 1 a self-assessment on their writing skills
• This would not be a rich assessment tool because students at this age are not ready to self-assess on writing because they are just becoming exposed to writing.

(2) Does the assessment tool match the assessment strategy?

• If students will be able to:
• interpret
• classify
• summarize
• compare
• explain

• Then the best form of assessment would have to be rubrics or checklists  

(3) Does the assessment tool provide valid and reliable information about student performance?

• It is very important for teachers assessment tools to be RICH. 
• Teachers cannot have rubrics that just have one word answers such as:
• Good
• Bad
• Excellent
• Needs improvement
• Students need more description so that they can actually learn from their mistakes and know what they have grasped and what they need to work on.

(4) Does the assessment tool provide students with feedback?

• Feedback is probably one of the most important components students must have when they are being assessed.
• When students are doing Rich Tasks they want to know exactly where they are excelling and where they need more improvement.
• Sometimes they maybe excelling in one subject but not another -- students need to know!

(5) Have I kept the number of assessment tools manageable? 

• If teachers have TOO much assessment or NOT ENOUGH assessment this can negatively impact their student.

• Too Much: students will become stressed out and feel that everything they do in the classroom is a test or an assignment.
• Teacher may also get lost within all the different assessments

• Too Little: teacher will not be able to effectively assess and grade student.
• Student will not be able to improve because there is not enough assessment in the classroom and they are not getting any feedback
• Parents may also feel as if their students are neglected because teacher is not keeping track on students success and or needs. 

Resources

 Aligning Assessments with Objectives - Enhancing Education ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2016, from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/howto/basics/objectives.html