Assessment Assessment is the collection, recording and analysis of data about students as they work over a period of time. This should include, teacher, self and peer assessment

Assessment Can Be: Diagnostic Formative Summative

Types of Assessments Individual Group Formal Informal Norm- Referenced Criterion-Reference Teacher made Commercial

Other Types of Assessment Dynamic Assisted Trial Authentic

Evaluation Evaluation brings meaning to information by making judgements about achievements and progress in relation to expectations for children of a particular age and grade.

Validity Validity means that the test actually measures the skills and knowledge that it is designed to measure.

Reliability Reliability in terms of standardized tests means that if the same student were to take the same test again within a short space of time, they would get the same results. In other words the timing or place of the test has minimal impact on the results.

Measures of Reliability Measures of reliability are generally reported as a coefficient. 0 means the test has no reliability and 1 means a perfectly reliable test. A coefficient of 0.8 or higher is acceptable for most norm- referenced tests.

Standard error of measurement This is the statistical estimate of how the results would vary if the test were given again.

Normal Distribution Norm referenced tests are created on normal distributions. This means that about 68% of students will achieve a score within one standard deviation of the mean. About 96% will fall within two standard deviations, at either end and almost 100% will fall within three standard deviations.

Criterion Referenced Tests Students are compared to a standard or criterion. E.G. Students will be able to add double digit numbers with regrouping

Norm Referenced Tests In a norm-referenced test students performance is ranked according to other students in the norm-group. Norm groups are usually by grade or age.

Percentile A student scoring at the 50th percentile would mean that the student did better than 50% of students his or her age. It gives no indication of how many test items the student answered correctly or incorrectly.

Grade Equivalents These scores are highly misleading and must be used with extreme caution. A score of 4.5 on a math indicates that the student has done as well as the average student in mid-grade four, this doesn’t mean that the student solved a mid-grade four problem.

Normal Curve Distribution While %ile scores are not evenly distributed, normal curve equivalents are. They are calculated on a 1-99 scale on how well students in a particular category will do. So unlike %iles they can be combined to get a total test score.

Stanines Stanines rank students on a 1-9 scale, with 1,2 and 3 being below average, and 7, 8 and 9 being above average. 4,5 and 6 are average.

Scaled Scores Scaled Scores rank the student from the lowest possible level of achievement on a given test to the highest possible level of achievement. They are calculated on a scale and are used for long term tracking.