TEACHER DESIGNED ASSESSMENT

Assessments are given to students for many reasons. Sometimes assessments are used to simply check for understanding and other times, assessments are used to measure growth. The data that we get from those assessments is invaluable as long as the assessment was meaningful. According to Chappuis, Stiggins, Chappuis and Arter there are five keys that need to be met in order to ensure that the assessment given is meaningful (2012). Those keys are:

• Key 1- Clear Purpose: The assessment is designed to meet the needs of desired data outcome. In other words, the assessment should be designed to give you the information you want.

• Key 2- Clear Targets: The learning targets that are being measured are appropriate for the group taking the assessment.

• Key 3- Sound Design: Measure learning goals effectively. 

• Key 4- Effective Communication: The data is clearly communicated with stakeholders. 

• Key 5- Student Involvement: Students take pre-assessments and make reflections about assessments (p. 35-36).

Articles and sites that can assist in understanding and learning effective practices for teacher-designed assessment.

Teachers should design students assessments

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TEAM DESIGNS

I have found that designing assessments can be much more successful when it is done with a team. The team can be comprised of either the same grade-level or same course. Other members of the time might include the instructional coach, English Language Acquisition teachers, literacy coach, Special Education teachers, etc. All stakeholders can be a part of the team. When teachers work together and administer the assessment together, their collaboration will help make data stronger because all results are common (Hattie, 2012). 

The team also needs to consider how they will be grading the assessment they design. For example, they might need to develop a rubric to help grade the assessment and come up with sample exemplar responses to the questions. Once the assessment has been completed by the students, the team can also meet to discuss how to grade the test to ensure inter-rater reliability. 

The following video is an example of what meeting with a team and grading with inter-rater reliability would look like. I have found that often times, when there are questions that are multiple choice, there can sometimes seem like there is more than one correct answer. For example, let's say I designed the assessment. If I do not remember to make a key, I can sometimes even fool myself. When I grade with my team, the expectations are clear and we all agree on what meeting the goal of the assessment looks like.