Matthew Daniel's List: Testing and Assessment

• • does it makes sense to test with such multimedia since this will likely be the media student will have to communicate with in the real world?
• Innovative applications of technology also provide rich, authentic tasks that challenge the sorts of integrated knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving seldom well addressed in paper-based tests
• Online administration eliminates costs for shipping, tracking, and collecting print booklets while simultaneously introducing other logistical complexities related to equipment and security. Computer scoring provides rapid return of results and generation of reports tailored to multiple audiences. Flexible administration times and locales shift annual, on-demand testing to interim and just-in-time challenges
• Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) procedures, in which items are selected based on the examinee's prior response history and an underlying measurement model of proficiency, have been developed to reduce testing time and examinee burden. However, their use in high-stakes testing contexts has been confined largely to admission, professional certification, and credentialing exams. Despite requests to use CAT in state testing programs, regulations of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation have prohibited their implementation for assessment of student academic achievement in reading, mathematics, and science.
• Klein (8) recently reviewed the literature on automated scoring methods and presented results from a study comparing hand and machine scoring of college-level, open-ended items of the type found on the Collegiate Learning Assessment. Findings across studies using a variety of machine scoring methods consistently show comparability of human and machine scoring (0.85 score correspondence) at levels approximating the agreement between two human scorers (0.86) and sufficient to warrant using computerized scoring alone, or as an augmentation to human scoring.

  • this is encouraging, however this assessment may not produce formative information required for growth and further learning that currently only a teacher can provide with open ended response questions and essays
• Classroom instructional uses of assessments.

  • continuous formative assessment throughout the year provides feedback to teachers and students, alignment of assessment with state standards and opportunity to make adjustments to instruction base on assessment results.
• DIAGNOSER is an Internet-based tool that delivers continuous formative assessment and feedback to students and teachers (15, 16). The online assessment identifies problematic "facets" of students' thinking, then provides counterexamples and additional lessons.
• Moreover, because simulations use multiple modalities and representations, students with diverse learning styles and language backgrounds may have better opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge than are possible in text-laden print tests.
• A third important feature is going beyond annual, ondemand tests to multiple assessments distributed over time combined with timely reporting that offers teachers the opportunity to tailor instruction.

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