Educational Assessment of Students (5th Edition) - Softcover

Anthony J. Nitko; Susan M. Brookhart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131719254 ISBN 13: 9780131719255

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2006

Synopsis

From two of the best known authors in the field of classroom assessment comes a revision of one of the best assessment books.  Features include hundreds of examples, directions for crafting both traditional and alternative assessments, checklists for evaluating classroom assessments, scores of strategies for assessing problem solving and critical thinking, methods for aligning classroom assessment with state standards and NCLB requirements.  Reviewers have described the book as the best on the market for its completeness and balanced approach to classroom assessment.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Broad in scope and objective in coverage, this progressive text examines the techniques and applications of today's educational tests and measurements--both traditional and non-traditional-- and discusses recent developments in integrating assessment and instruction at the classroom level.

From the Inside Flap:

Preface

The goal of Educational Assessment of Students, Third Edition, is to help teachers and teachers in training to improve instruction through better assessment of students. It focuses directly on the professional practices of elementary and secondary schoolteachers. It is a core text written for a first course in educational testing and constructing classroom assessments. It serves equally as the textbook for an undergraduate course or a first graduate course in educational assessment. No formal course work in statistics or college mathematics is necessary to understand the text.

In preparing this edition, a new effort was made to make it easy for the reader to apply the material to classroom practice through clear explanations, many practical examples and illustrations, checklists, and step-by-step how-to instructions. As with previous editions, I have written the text from the viewpoint that teaching and assessment should blend together. To help students with real-world experiences, Internet website addresses have been added throughout to help students to quickly link to examples and resources outside the text.

The book covers basic concepts as well as a complete treatment of educational assessment—from developing plans that integrate teaching and assessment; to crafting objective, performance, and portfolio assessments; to evaluating students and discussing evaluations with parents; to interpreting state-mandated tests and standardized achievement tests.

It is important in a first course that students receive a balanced treatment of the topics. Thus, both the strengths and limitations of each assessment technique are explained. Research is cited that supports or refutes assessment and teaching practices.

This edition focuses more dearly on classroom assessment than the previous edition. Each chapter was revised with the goal of making the material more relevant to the practical issues teachers face. For example, mandated state programs have placed more emphasis on teachers aligning their classroom practices and assessments with state content and performance standards. In each chapter, I integrate suggestions for how to accomplish this alignment.

The book treats teachers as professionals. It recognizes that teachers' experiences and judgments are necessary for proper and valid use of educational assessment. I do not hesitate to point out teachers' erroneous judgments and assessment abuses, however, where good lessons can be learned from them. To ensure that the text material is in keeping with the competencies and standards held to be important by the profession, each chapter is keyed to the American Federation of Teachers, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the National Education Association Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students (reproduced in Appendix A). Organization of the Text

As in the previous edition, this book is organized into three parts. Part One provides the foundation for classroom assessment. Part Two centers on how to plan and craft classroom assessments. Part Three discusses how to interpret and use standardized tests.

Each chapter begins with a list of learning targets that the reader should attain. Each learning target is keyed to the Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students. Following the body of each chapter is a summary in list form to help the reader recall information. Each chapter concludes with a list of important concepts and terms, a set of exercises and discussion questions, and a brief annotated list of additional readings. Many of the exercises at the end of the chapters are performance tasks. These require applying and extending the principles taught in the chapter. Readers are often encouraged to compare their exercise results with those of others in the course to obtain greater insight into a topic. Instructors can use these exercises as a basis for in-class activities.

Part I, The Bases for Assessment in the Classroom, contains five chapters presenting the foundations for educational assessment. Chapter 1 discusses classroom decision making and how assessments help to improve it. It provides a brief overview of the assessment landscape, so the reader can see the broader picture of educational assessment before delving into specifics. Chapter 2 discusses goals and learning targets of classroom instruction. The chapter is simplified in this edition by presenting fewer cognitive taxonomies than the previous edition. New to this edition is a discussion of how state standards can be used to develop classroom teaming targets for day-to-day teaching. Chapter 3 discusses the validity of assessment results. The chapter has been simplified to focus exclusively on the current conceptions of validity held by the profession. One part of the chapter focuses exclusively on the validity of the results of teacher-crafted assessments, the other on the validity of other assessment results a teacher and a school will use. Chapter 4 describes reliability. The order of presentation of the topics has been improved to make the material flow better for the reader. Chapter 5 discusses teachers', students', and administrators' ethical responsibilities and uses of assessments. It applies the National Council on Measurement in Education's Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement (reproduced in Appendix C) as an organizational framework. Also, this chapter describes legal issues regarding assessment and how assessments can be made to validly accommodate mainstreamed learners.

Part II, Crafting and Using Classroom Assessments, demonstrates how a teacher uses artistry and functionality to produce useful teaching tools. The ten chapters in this part provide complete coverage of how to craft virtually all types of assessments a teacher may need to use. Chapter 6 has been extensively rewritten to show clearly how teaching, assessing, and grading fit together. There are new examples showing how several different methods of assessment can be integrated into lesson plans, be matched with assessment purpose, and provide formative and summative assessment throughout an instructional unit. Chapter 7 discusses completion and true-false items, including multiple true-false items. Chapter 8 discusses how to craft multiple-choice and matching exercises. In this edition, material on alternative formats of objective items, such as masterlist and tabular matching exercises, have been integrated into this chapter. Chapter 9 focuses on crafting and marking essay items. Chapter 10 is devoted to assessing higher-order thinking skills, including problem solving and critical thinking. The presentation is simplified from the previous edition.

Two chapters are devoted to alternative and performance assessments in schools. Chapter 11 describes the basic concepts and major components of authentic and performance assessments. It surveys the many different types of performance assessments and projects that are currently used in schools. New to this edition is classroom assessment using the Multiple Intelligences Theory framework. Chapter 12 focuses exclusively on crafting and evaluating performance assessments and portfolios. The chapter shows how to craft the tasks, scoring rubrics, and rating scales necessary to produce valid results. The chapter applies the Dimensions of Learning Model as a framework for performance assessment design. Different methods of crafting rubrics are discussed. Chapter 13 focuses entirely on format, informal classroom assessment for purposes of diagnosing why a student is having difficulty learning. It shows how six different diagnostic assessment approaches may be integrated into the teaching process. Chapter 14 has been simplified, but is still about administering assessments, helping students do their best on assessments, and improving assessment tasks through item analysis. Item analysis for open-response items is new in this edition.

Chapter 15 has been extensively rewritten. It is organized in five major sections. Section One provides background for grading including grading and continuous assessment, formative and summative student assessment, and how various stakeholders use grades. Section Two presents various options that schools use to report student progress, including report cards, parent-teacher conferences, and—new to this edition—narrative reports. Section Three focuses on sensible grading practices that result in valid summative grades for students. The chapter provides teachers with the tools for creating a grading philosophy that is logically consistent with both their teaching approach and their purposes for assessing students. The tools integrate all the planning considerations discussed in earlier chapters. As a result, teachers can use a coherent and sensible grading model. Linking grades to teaching and assessment plans; and discussions of special problems in grading, such as using zeros and the unclear meaning of failure, are new to this edition. Section Five shows how to set grade boundaries and combine scores

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0131719254
• ISBN 13: 9780131719255
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 576