Assessment Glossary
Assessment Processes of appraising
or evaluating student work. Different types of assessment
instruments include: achievement tests, competency tests,
developmental screening tests, aptitude tests, performance
tasks and authentic assessments
Authentic assessments The process of
gathering evidence and documentation of a student's learning
and growth in ways that resemble "real life"
as closely as possible.
Criteria The dimensions or characteristics
of standards used to judge students work
Criterion-referenced assessment Assessment
that compares a student's performance according to a description
of the desired performance. Designed to measure how thoroughly
a student has learned a particular body of knowledge without
regard to how well other students have learned it. (Often
contrasted with norm-referenced assessment.)
Data Records and reports of formal and
informal observations, experiences, and events. Data are
facts or figures from which conclusions may be drawn.
Embedded Assessment Assessment that
occurs during the course of instruction and is indistinguishable
from instruction. A test at the end of a unit is not embedded.
Maintaining a checklist that is recorded by the teacher
at any time when the teacher witnesses the student reaching
an expectation is embedded.
Evaluation The process of testing, appraising,
and judging achievement, growth, product, and process
or changes in these using formal or informal techniques.
Fluency Having efficient, accurate,
and generalizable methods (algorithms) for computing that
are based on well-understood properties and number relationships
Formative Assessment Ongoing assessment
providing data to guide instruction and improve performance
Norm-referenced Assessment Assessments
designed to compare the performance of an individual student
or group to another student or group by distributing performance
across a normal curve and in which not all students assessed
can perform at the highest level.
Performance Assessment An established
level of achievement, quality of performance or degree
of proficiency on a standard.
Portfolio A purposeful, integrated collection
of student work showing effort, progress or achievement
in one or more areas.
Reliability The consistency of assessment
results from an instrument over time or over a number
of trials.
Rubric A scoring guide including a summary
listing of the characteristics that distinguish high quality
from low quality work.
Scoring guides. See Rubric.
Standards Statements that identify the
essential knowledge and skills that should be taught and
learned in school
Summative Assessment A snapshot of student
performance at a given point in time, judged according
to pre-established standards and criteria
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