Simplifying Common Assessment by Bailey Kim;Jakacic Chris; & Chris Jakicic

Author:Bailey, Kim;Jakacic, Chris; & Chris Jakicic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Solution Tree
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ensuring Quality of Questions

In our work with teams as they begin writing assessments, we’ve found that often they believe that they don’t have the knowledge they need to develop good questions and quality assessment items. However, we know the opposite is true. Collaborative teams who have been determining essential standards, unwrapping them, and developing pacing guides and associated instructional practices are far more informed about how best to assess than anyone else. However, we also know that there will be times after teachers give an assessment when a question that seemed clear to the team might not be as clear to the students. When this happens, remember that the team owns this assessment. That means the team decides whether to simply eliminate the results from this question when developing corrective instruction or give a rewritten question before starting it. Either way, it’s important to keep good records to avoid using the same unclear question again next year.

Figure 5.7 provides a quick tool that teams can reference when asking the question “Are our assessments designed well?” We call it the ACID (aligned, clearly written, informative, designed) test—a set of questions that prompt teams to consider and quickly review their products. The tool also offers team strategies that will assist in the design of quality common assessments. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/assessment for an additional “Writing Quality Questions” reproducible containing reminders that teams can refer to for developing quality questions during their meetings while they are writing assessment items.

A

Is the assessment aligned to the context, content, and rigor or complexity of the standards?

•Look at the language of the standard and the learning targets (from the unwrapped standard) in comparison to the task. Are the thinking types on the assessment aligned to those targets?

•Do the various items target the various levels of rigor or application (for example, DOK) represented in the learning targets? For example, is the difficulty of the task or questions at the same level as the target?

•Examine any exemplars related to your targeted level of complexity. Is the level of scaffolding or cueing appropriate?

•Is the designated level of mastery or proficiency appropriate and aligned?

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