Formulaic Fernando

Red Flag #4

Finally, a fourth possible stumbling block for assessment writers and teachers, is a lack of clarity. This could mean a lack of clarity in format (paragraph vs. bullets), a lack of clarity in length of student responses (saying vague words such as, "A few" instead of clear directions such as, "In 2-3 sentences..."), or even lack of clarity in the # of answers desired or possible.

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Solutions:

A) Take your test and see what you believe constitutes high quality answers. Look at your own sentence length, format, and thought process. Be specific enough to get what you need, but not so specific as to be overly restrictive. Communicate clearly to students how each question is to be answered and what is needed to be thorough and complete.

-Professional Practice, Class Discussion

B) Have a colleague examine your assessment, ask for specific input regarding the clarity of your questions. This is also a great time to figure out if there are multiple correct answers to a question that you hadn't previously thought of before.

-Class + S&C

C) Use brain-friendly formatting for your test questions. If you want student to see part I and PART II, lend them a helping hand by the way you format your questions. There is nothing wrong with being clear about what constitutes success, so long as you are not achieving the success for your students.

- Class Discussion

Talkative Tempest

Red Flag #3:

There are many players on each students' educational team, including: the student, the teacher, and the parent. Another tripping point for teachers is a lack of communication with parents and students about how grades are derived. Sometimes teachers fail to take full advantage of all the communicative devices (such as online grade-books, email etc.) to stay in open, honest communication with parents and students about grades.

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Solution:

A) Create a rubric that is given to students before they take performance-based assessments. Allow students to see what they will be graded on. On paper/pencil assessments let students know how many points each item is worth to help them budget their time. Be absolutely clear with your expectations and desires for your students. Show them what they must do in order to produce high quality work and earn high quality grades.

-Stiggins and Chappuis, pg. 114

B) Be timely with your presentation of student grades. When you assign a test, do your best to get it graded and returned to students while the information is still fresh. Students need quick and specific feedback in order to improve their learning and the skills you are teaching them. Additionally, parents often want to see how their student is doing to insure their student is succeeding.

-Class Discussion

C) Take full advantage of modern grading software systems. As timely as it can be, provide clear expectations, grading information, and assignment details via an online grade system whenever possible. If an online option is not available, send something home with the students so the parents can understand how grades are derived and why their students are doing well or in need of adjustment.

-Professional Practice

Scattered Scarlatti

Red Flag # 2:

A second potential slipping point for a teacher and assessment creator is timing. Whether it is the timing needed for students to execute certain items or the timing of tests relative to outlying cosmic factors (snow, prom, fire-drills etc.), timing is perhaps the greatest bane of assessment creators.

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Solutions:

A) First and foremost: CHECK THE SCHOOL CALENDAR!!! It would be quite a pity to assign a test for a day when students had a day off. Likewise this can help one avoid scheduling tests on days where your class is 15 minutes shorter because of an assembly, or days when 1/3 of your students are missing because there is a softball game. Foresight is the solution to many of life's potential cliffs. 

- Personal Life Mistake

B) There is no sure-fire way to avoid designing assessments that will never run over the time you intended them to run. You can't exactly give a student a test just to time them on how long it will take. One of the best solutions to this particular red flag is to plan accordingly, providing students with ample time to achieve the task they will need to achieve. Set a reasonable expectation for your students and be sure you are capable of doing all you require within the given time frame, if you can't do it, how can you expect your students to do it? 

- Class and Peer Discussions

C) Lastly, demonstrate flexibility. If time has run out, become creative in your solutions: allow students to finish at lunch or another time or have students answer the final questions on another day. HOWEVER, do not let this become a thing of habit. Students will know if they can always 'not finish' your tests to get extra time to study. Be reasonable with them, and take careful note so you will be more accurate in your timing on future assessments.

-Stiggins and Chappuis, pg. 116

Careless Carl

Red Flag # 1: 

One potential pitfall in assessment writing is being unclear, inconsistent, carless, or thoughtless with regards to your measurements (assessment tools).

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Solutions:

A) As you are writing assessments, make sure they match the unit goals you were using to teach your lessons. Be absolutely sure that your assessment measures the goals you have been setting and teaching in your classroom. Otherwise your assessment will be inconsistent. 

-Classroom Commandment

B) Do not give your students a "first draft" test. As a teacher, no doubt you would be displeased reading a first draft essay, composition, math project, etc. Give the same respect to your students. As you design your assessments, review each question you have written. Is it grammatically sound? Do you give away any answers in your test writing? Have you asked meaningful questions with appropriate rigor? Only give 'best practice assessments.' 

-Stiggins and Chappuis, pg. 85

C) Know the grading criteria before you begin to score the tests. Grades for tests should be derived based on a students' ability to meet certain criteria, not based on Eifler's "Angel/Devil Phenomenon." A high quality answer for sweet, polite, brings-you-an-apple Jane is a high quality answer for smart-ass Doug, the criteria is pre-determined, not assigned on the fly. 

-Classroom + S&C

Red Flags, BE GONE!

Herein you will find four blog posts presenting a common teacher error related to creating high quality assessments. Following each potential error (also known as our illustrious 'Red Flags') will be three preventative solutions teachers can employ. Time to start banishing those red flags!