Assessment of Student Work Methods: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Assessing student work is a critical component of the educational process. It provides valuable insights into student learning, informs instructional practices, and ultimately contributes to student success. This article explores various assessment methods, ranging from traditional approaches to more innovative and student-centered strategies, with a focus on promoting joyful, just, and effective assessment practices.

Learning Outcome Types and Assessment Methods

The selection of an appropriate assessment method should be driven by the specific thinking skills articulated in the learning outcome to be measured. Learning outcomes can be categorized from lower-level thinking skills such as recall and understanding to higher-level thinking skills such as applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

Recall

Definition: Retrieving, recalling, or recognizing knowledge from long-term memory.
Action Words for Outcomes: Define, describe, identify, label, list, locate, match, name, recall, select, state.
Discussion Questions: What do we already know about…? What did you notice about…? What are the principles of…? How does…tie in with what we learned before?
Best Practices: Allow multiple attempts (reiteration), interleaving, weekly & daily practice quizzes.
Assessment Methods: Weekly & daily practice quizzes (multiple choice, multiple answer, fill in blank, matching questions, true/false), in-video quizzes, journals.

Understanding

Definition: Demonstrating comprehension through one or more forms of explanation.
Action Words for Outcomes: Articulate, classify, contrast, clarify, demonstrate, describe, discuss, explain, infer, extend, interpret, paraphrase, summarize.
Discussion Questions: Summarize…or Explain… What will happen if…? What does…mean? How might you demonstrate…?
Best Practices: Explicitly share the organization of activities, structure opportunities to connect new learning to prior knowledge and/or lived experience.
Assessment Methods: Weekly & daily practice quizzes (multiple choice, fill in blank, short answer questions), concept maps, problem sets, video discussions, discussion boards, group (collaborative) annotation of articles/textbooks, in-video quizzes.

Apply

Definition: Using information or skill in a new situation.
Action Words for Outcomes: Apply, calculate, change, choose, construct, discover, experiment, illustrate, manipulate, modify, predict, solve, use.
Discussion Questions: What would happen if…? What is a new example of…? How could…be used to…? What is the counterargument for…? What would you have done in this situation? What do you think they should do? How does ….play out in this context?
Best Practices: Use rubrics to offer incremental feedback on projects, reflection discussion boards (how do concepts relate to the real world, field, etc.).
Assessment Methods: Problem sets, blog posts, journals, papers, case studies.

Analyze

Definition: Breaking material into its constituent parts and determining how the parts relate to one another.
Action Words for Outcomes: Analyze, appraise, categorize, compare, contrast, debate, diagram, differentiate, examine, experiment, organize.
Discussion Questions: Why is … important? What might…have in common? How are they different? What are the implications of…? Explain why / explain how?
Best Practices: Scaffold complex tasks, make evaluative criteria explicit.
Assessment Methods: Case studies, papers, debates, group (collaborative) annotation of articles/textbooks.

Evaluate

Definition: Making judgments based on criteria and standards.
Action Words for Outcomes: Appraise, assess, compare, contrast, critique, defend, determine, discriminate, estimate, explain, interpret, measure, predict, summarize, support.
Discussion Questions: How does …affect …? Why is…happening? What is the best…and why? Do you agree or disagree with the statement…?

Create

(Information on assessment methods for "Create" was not provided in the original text.)

Types of Assessment

Educators utilize various types of assessments to gain a holistic view of student growth and track academic achievement and well-being.

Summative Assessments

Administered at the end of a class or school year, or at the start to identify focus areas.
Measure a detailed set of standards after they have been taught.
Useful summative assessments produce scale scores and norms.
Examples: Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP) for students in grades 1-11.

Interim Assessments

Measure how well students are learning a broad range of material.
Administered throughout the year as checkpoints to ensure student academic performance is growing and remaining on track.
Help reveal knowledge or skill areas where students show gaps.
Examples: ERB Milestones.

Formative Assessments

Supplements to the teaching and learning process.
Elicit data for use by both students and educators.
Measure whether students have learned specific skills or material.
Feedback to the student helps them understand whether they learned the content and, if not, what they need to do differently.
Informal formative assessments include in-class activities, presentations, Q&As, observations, and short quizzes.
Formal options include tools like ERB Writing Practice.

Writing Assessments

Capture both a student’s technical mastery and their ability to present ideas effectively.
Offer valuable information to teachers as they develop lessons and curricula.
Examples: ERB’s Writing Assessment Program (WrAP).

Well-being Surveys

Measure positive and negative trends among student bodies and identify at-risk students.
Examples: ERB’s Check-In Survey.

Self-assessments

Measure five core competencies identified by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to help students manage their emotions, make healthy choices, and build positive relationships.
Examples: ERB’s new SelfWise inventory.

Diagnostic Assessments

Measure students’ mastery of a prescribed set of skills, such as reading or math.

Admission Testing

Used as part of the application processes.
Measure reading, math, and quantitative and verbal reasoning.
Examples: ERB’s Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE).

Joyful Assessment: Informal and Frequent

Joyful assessment begins with understanding students as individuals and recognizing their strengths. Informal assessments should be implemented from the first day and should leverage every opportunity to observe, listen, and learn about students’ talents, strengths, and interests. Informal, qualitative assessments should continue throughout the year.

Examples:

Letter exchange between teacher and students.
Surveys to assess individual strengths and interests.
Circulating around the room with a clipboard to record notes on student progress.

Grading to Promote Joy and Justice

Traditional grading practices often sort students based on speed of learning, organizational skills, or compliance. However, neuroscience shows that all students can learn at high levels. When students have explicit communication, clarity as to what they should know and be able to do, and expectations that they can and must achieve, the number of high-performing students will increase.

Rubrics should be clear and specific for how students can demonstrate proficiency for any given skill. Students can score themselves each time they attempt proficiency. Students should also help design the rubrics used to assess them.

Student Involvement in Assessment

Students should be collaborative partners, not just subjects of study.

Assessment Planning

Talk to students about services, programs, and offices to explore what the intended outcomes or learning areas might look like.
Invite students to collaborate in choosing the language for the outcome statement.
Share the draft outcome statement with students to review for clarity and relevance.
Give them a voice in thinking about your area’s priorities in relation to institutional strategy and culture.
Talk to them to get their actual thoughts on survey activity.
Include students when you pilot or share a draft for review.

Data Collection

Leverage students to enter data.
Use individuals with relevant skillsets for data analysis efforts.

Reporting

Give students a seat at the table to discuss and interpret results.

Taking Action

Students can be the responsible party for carrying out their respective tasks.

Traditional and Alternative Approaches to Grading

Traditional grading (TG) has its benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of Traditional Grading

(Information on the benefits of traditional grading was not provided in the original text.)

Drawbacks of Traditional Grading

(Information on the drawbacks of traditional grading was not provided in the original text.)

Alternative grading approaches prioritize growth and learning in response to clear standards.

Formative Assessment Strategies

Formative assessments are employed while learning is ongoing to collect information on whether course objectives are being advanced and how teaching can be improved.