Deck 16: Classroom Assessment and Grading

Question 1

A very small part of preinstruction assessment is informal observation.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

When asking questions during class, it is best to ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

When you are thinking about the link between assessment and motivation, it is useful to consider whether your assessments will encourage your students to become more meaningfully involved with the subject matter.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A learning target consists of what the students know and should be able to do.

Question 5

Reliable measures are stable, dependable, and relatively free of errors of measurement.

Question 6

Schools are spending more time on performance-based assessment because of the increase in high- stakes tests that use these testing methods.

Question 7

When you give a multiple-choice test to students in the first through fourth grades, it is best to ask , students to write their answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Question 8

Checking student work before giving it back to students will mostly lead to unnecessary changes to your comments.

Question 9

True/ False items are useful for outcomes where there are only two possible alternatives.

Question 10

Multiple-choice items cannot be used to engage students in higher-level, critical thinking.

Question 11

Authentic assessment means evaluating students as precisely as possible.

Question 12

When you are administering performance assessments, it is important to be as specific as possible in describing what students are expected to do.

Question 13

Grades help to establish how students measure up and determine whether they meet graduation criteria. This refers to the "informational" aspect of grading.

Question 14

Norm-referenced grading refers to the policy of comparing students' performance to that of their peers.

Question 15

The report card is the common method of communicating students' grades to their parents.

Question 16

During parent-teacher conferences, the teacher's primary responsibility is to share the student's grades.

Question 17

Assessment experts agree that teachers should "go strictly by the numbers" when grading students to ensure that grades are objective reflections of student performance.

Question 18

Research suggests that teachers spend approximately what percentage of their time doing assessment- related activities?

A) 5-10%
B) 20-30%
C) 45-60%
D) 70-80%

Question 19

Which of the following statements best describes a purpose for preinstruction assessment?

A) To monitor students' progress toward meeting instructional objectives
B) To evaluate students' performance and to assign grades
C) To determine the level of complexity at which to begin a new topic
D) To communicate students' strengths and weaknesses to parents

Question 20

Formative assessment refers to which of the following?

A) High-stakes standardized testing
B) Informal preinstruction assessment
C) Formal post-assessment instruction
D) Assessment during the process of instruction

Question 21

Which of the following is the least appropriate purpose of formative assessment?

A) To recognize when students are challenged
B) To identify students who need extra help
C) To assess student achievement
D) To observe and monitor students while teaching

Question 22

Which of the following illustrates the type of question that a teacher would ask during formative assessment?

A) When should I stop lecturing?
B) How should I grade students?
C) How should I change my instruction next time?
D) What type of group learning should I use?

Question 23

When teachers give assessments that are too difficult, students will likely react in which of the following ways?

A) Their self-esteem will decline.
B) Their level of interest in the topic will increase.
C) They will feel motivated to study.
D) They will become bored.

Question 24

Reliability refers to the extent to which a test does which of the following?

A) Provides all students an equal opportunity to succeed
B) Provides equivalent scores for a diverse group of individuals
C) Measures what it is intended to measure
D) Produces a consistent, reproducible measure of performance

Question 25

Validity refers to the extent to which a test does which of the following?

A) Provides all students an equal opportunity to succeed
B) Provides equivalent scores for a diverse group of individuals
C) Produces a consistent, reproducible measure of performance
D) Measures what it is intended to measure

Question 26

The extent to which an assessment is a reasonable sample of what actually occurs in the classroom is referred to as which of the following?

A) Content-related evidence
B) Pluralistic assessment
C) Instructional validity
D) Culturally-responsive assessment

Question 27

Instructional validity refers to the extent to which the assessment does which of the following?

A) Provides all students an equal opportunity to succeed
B) Provides a reasonable measure of what actually occurs in the classroom
C) Produces equivalent scores for a diverse group of individuals
D) Produces a consistent, reproducible measure of performance over time

Question 28

Of the following skills, which is least appropriately considered a higher-level cognitive skill?

A) Problem solving
B) Decision making
C) Knowing facts
D) Drawing inferences

Question 29

Which of the following activities is an example of preinstruction assessment?

A) Looking at students' prior grades
B) Observing student behavior during the first few weeks of school
C) Asking students to discuss what they know about a particular topic
D) All of these

Question 30

Which of the following is the best example of formative assessment?

A) Ms. Rowland looks at students' prior grades.
B) Mr. Kinicki observes student behavior during the first few weeks of school.
C) Mr. Livingston monitors students' progress toward reading goals.
D) Mrs. Applegate communicates Jamie's strengths and weaknesses to her parents.

Question 31

Which of the following activities is the best example of preinstruction assessment?

A) Observing students to gain information about their interests and abilities
B) Reviewing textbooks in an attempt to learn more about a topic
C) Describing the extent to which students have met educational objectives
D) Monitoring students' progress toward goals

Question 32

Which of the following activities is the best example of summative assessment?

A) Observing students to gain information about their interests and abilities
B) Reviewing textbooks in an attempt to learn more about a topic
C) Describing the extent to which students have met educational objectives
D) Monitoring students' progress toward goals

Question 33

A teacher's initial impressions of students should be treated like which of the following?

A) Accurate observations
B) Hypotheses
C) Labels to be shared with other colleagues
D) Enduring judgments

Question 34

The principal is in a quandary about the scores for the second batch of tests. Student scores on this last test are not at all similar to their scores on the test two weeks ago. What problem with testing is the principal confronted with?

A) Instructional validity
B) Fairness
C) Reliability
D) Objectivity

Question 35

Students are complaining to the teacher about their final exams. They spent all night studying, but the test posed questions that were not brought up in class or in the assigned reading. They wonder how they were supposed to study for the test. What problem with testing is this class confronted with?

A) Instructional validity
B) Fairness
C) Reliability
D) Objectivity

Question 36

During the past couple of years, Mr. Tarnahan has increasingly replaced performance assessments with multiple-choice tests. Although Mr. Tarnahan believes that performance assessments more accurately assess student progress and achievement, he most likely uses multiple-choice items for which of the following reasons?

A) Performance assessments are too time-consuming to plan and grade.
B) He feels increased pressure to prepare students for taking high-stakes standardized tests.
C) Performance assessments are typically invalid and unreliable.
D) He feels that multiple-choice items are less biased against disadvantaged students.

Question 37

A growing trend in formative assessment is to foster students' self-assessment on a day-to-day basis. In this way, students can evaluate their own progress and take greater responsibility for their own learning. Which of the following is a good strategy for successful student self-assessment in the classroom?

A) Create self-assessment worksheets and checklists
B) Have students present an oral critique of their peers first
C) Replace summative assessment with formative student self-assessment
D) Avoid giving feedback to students so that self-assessments are valid and reliable

Question 38

Which of the following is a weakness of True/ False items?

A) Diagnostic information is provided when students answer incorrectly.
B) Less demand is placed on reading ability than for some other item types.
C) Scores are more influenced by guessing than with any other item type.
D) Students have the opportunity to construct their own answers.

Question 39

Which of the following is a strength of true/false items?

A) Diagnostic information is provided when students answer incorrectly.
B) Less demand is placed on reading ability than for some other item types.
C) Scores are more influenced by guessing than with any other item type.
D) Students have the opportunity to construct their own answers.

Question 40

Which of the following is a weakness of multiple-choice items?

A) It is frequently difficult to find plausible distracters.
B) Incorrect alternatives do not provide diagnostic information.
C) Scores are more strongly influenced by guessing than for any other type of question.
D) Items can only assess factual information such as content knowledge.

Question 41

Which of the following is a strength of multiple-choice items?

A) Good items can be constructed quickly and easily.
B) Incorrect alternatives provide diagnostic information.
C) Scores are more strongly influenced by guessing than for any other type of question.
D) Items can only assess factual information such as content knowledge.

Question 42

Essay items are especially good for assessing which of the following?

A) Students' understanding of content
B) Students' ability to recognize correct answers
C) Students' higher-level thinking skills
D) Students' speed of solving problems

Question 43

Which of the following statements best describes a rubric?

A) A scoring system for scoring open-ended responses
B) A type of constructed response answer
C) A list of learning objectives
D) A series of questions intended to assess higher-level thinking

Question 44

Is this item (item 49) an example of a selected-response item?

A) Yes, because the student must choose the best answer from a list of answers provided.
B) Yes, because the student must construct an answer.
C) No, because the student must choose the best answer from a list of answers provided.
D) No, because the student must construct an answer.

Question 45

Julie Carson's mentoring teacher offers advice about scoring essays. Which strategy below should Julie avoid?

A) Score essays anonymously so that students' names are unknown to the scorer.
B) Evaluate all answers to a given question at the same time so that comparisons can be made.
C) Avoid writing comments on student papers so that students cannot complain about scores.
D) Review papers before handing them back to ensure that scoring is accurate.

Question 46

Imagine that the following question appears on a multiple choice science exam: "The Nile River is the longest river in the world. What is the length of this river? a) 4,130 miles b) 4,135 miles c) 4,150 miles d) 4,175 miles" The author of this question violated which of the following general rules for constructing multiple-choice questions?

A) Beware of clues in the length of the options.
B) Answer choices should all grammatically match the stem.
C) Include as much of the item as possible in the stem.
D) Don't expect students to make narrow distinctions among answer choices.

Question 47

A best-work portfolio accomplishes which of the following goals?

A) Shows the student's growth during a given school year
B) Shows the student's growth over a period of several years
C) Shows a collection of the student's most outstanding work
D) Shows the development of the student's most outstanding piece of work

Question 48

Which of the following describes a major benefit of using portfolios as tools for assessment?

A) Opportunity to link assessment and teaching to learning
B) Simplicity of establishing criteria and assigning grades
C) Ease of comparing one student's work with another student's work
D) Ability to treat skills in isolated contexts

Question 49

Unlike other formats of assessment, growth portfolios are specially designed to show which of the following?

A) How much a student has learned in a particular content area
B) How much the student's work has improved over time
C) How well the student can express ideas in writing
D) How well the student can organize ideas

Question 50

Whereas productions are documents the student prepares especially for a portfolio, ____________ represent the teacher's documentation of the student's progress, such as through notes or progress reports.

A) attestations
B) artifacts
C) contracts
D) rubrics

Question 51

Which subject has been known for using performance-based assessment for some time?

A) Math
B) English
C) History
D) Music

Question 52

Evaluating performance-based assessment involves all of the following, except which one?

A) An emphasis on "doing"
B) Indirect evaluation methods
C) Open-ended activities
D) Higher-level thinking

Question 53

Some performance assessments also require someone other than the teacher to evaluate the assessment. Who might this be?

A) Parents
B) Administration
C) Self-evaluation by student
D) Peers

Question 54

Of the following formats of test items, which is the best example of a performance assessment?

A) Multiple choice
B) Matching
C) True/ False
D) Essay

Question 55

A portfolio will most likely include all of the following items, except which one?

A) A student's favorite essay or poem
B) A cassette tape recording of a student's oral presentation
C) A student's report card for the academic year
D) A videotape recording of a student's performance in a play

Question 56

Of the following activities or assignments completed by students, which is least appropriate to consider a performance assessment?

A) Writing a poem about spring
B) Filling in a worksheet on multiplication
C) Conducting an experiment about temperature changes
D) Figuring out how to implement a recycling program at school

Question 57

Which of the following is the best example of an activity that can be used as a direct assessment?

A) Susana participates in a debate in which she presents the risks associated with acid rain.
B) Antonia takes a test about acid rain.
C) Harold answers multiple-choice questions about acid rain.
D) Fernando watches a movie about acid rain.

Question 58

Instead of using portfolios to show only the good work, Mrs. Wright wants to use portfolios to present the growth of her students. She wants to include initial and final student products allowing parents to see how much their children have learned. What kind of portfolio is Mrs. Wright utilizing?

A) A best-work portfolio
B) An authentic portfolio
C) A growth portfolio
D) An improvement portfolio

Question 59

Mr. Win does not want to bother with portfolios for assessment. He is aware of their possibilities and likes the idea. However, he has one valid problem with them. What might this problem be?

A) They are time-consuming.
B) They are difficult to evaluate.
C) They have questionable reliability.
D) All of these

Question 60

Which of the following is the best example of performance assessment?

A) A group of students must create a PowerPoint presentation.
B) A group of students write a paper on the class lesson.
C) A student completes a test.
D) A student does a research project on the class lesson.

Question 61

Grades that are used to inform students, teachers, and parents refer to which purpose of grading?

A) Administrative
B) Informational
C) Motivational
D) Guidance

Question 62

The use of grades to help students, counselors, and parents to select future courses refers to which grading purpose?

A) Administrative
B) Informational
C) Motivational
D) Guidance

Question 63

_______ is a system whereby teachers compare a student's performance to that of his or her peers.

A) Norm-referenced grading
B) Criterion-referenced grading
C) Standards of comparison
D) Standards-based grading

Question 64

_______ is a system whereby teachers compare a student's performance against preset standards.

A) Norm-referenced grading
B) Criterion-referenced grading
C) Standards of comparison
D) Grading on the curve

Question 65

Which of the following is not the best approach to sharing students' grades with parents?

A) Report cards
B) Written progress reports
C) Parent-teacher conferences
D) Posting on teacher's website

Question 66

Mrs. O'Connell tries emphasizing the "carrot and the stick" approach to grading. She creates a competitive, yet friendly, atmosphere in her classroom, where all students are excited to challenge their peers to get good grades. What is the teacher's main purpose for grading?

A) Administrative
B) Informational
C) Motivational
D) Guidance

Question 67

Mr. Ridgely is calculating the students' final exam scores. He looks at the final scores and marks the cutoff for an "A" at the top 10 students, and continues to create cutoffs for each letter grade. What grading system does Mr. Ridgely employ?

A) Norm-referenced grading
B) Criterion-referenced grading
C) Standards of comparison
D) Standards-based grading

Question 68

Miss Hsu sits down to grade her tests. She has her breakdown of grades and the corresponding number correct needed for each. What grading system is Miss Hsu using?

A) Norm-referenced grading
B) Criterion-referenced grading
C) Standards of comparison
D) Grading on the curve

Question 69

Identify three selected response item formats.

Question 70

Write an example of specific performance criteria.

Question 71

Write three essay questions for a high school literature course.

Question 72

Why is assessment during instruction important, and what role does teacher questioning play?

Question 73

Choose one of the current trends in education and relate a personal experience either supporting or opposing that trend.

Question 74

Differentiate the purposes of preinstruction, formative, and summative assessment.

Question 75

Which do you feel is the most important strategy for scoring responses to essay questions? Defend your answer.

Question 76

Discuss general guidelines for effectively using performance assessment in the classroom.

Question 77

Differentiate between the terms holistic scoring and analytic scoring as they are used in the context of essay scoring.

Question 78

Define the term "authentic assessment," and identify at least two assessment formats that are designed to be authentic.

Question 79

What is an "exemplar"?

Question 80

What is the best way to utilize portfolios as an assessment method?