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Products & Resources » Glossary: F-Z
Item. An individual question or exercise in an assessment or evaluative instrument. Judge. See rater. Norm-Referenced Assessment. An assessment where student performance or performances are compared to a larger group. Usually the larger group or "norm group" is a national sample representing a wide and diverse cross-section of students. Students, schools, districts, and even states are compared or rank-ordered in relation to the norm group. The purpose of a norm-referenced assessment is usually to sort students and not to measure achievement towards some criterion of performance. On-Demand Assessment. An assessment that takes place at a predetermined time and place, usually under uniform conditions for all students being assessed. The SAT, district and state tests, and most in-class unit tests and final exams are examples of on-demand assessments. Opportunity to Learn. To provide students with the teachers, materials, facilities, and instructional experiences that will enable them to achieve high standards. Opportunity to learn (OTL) is what takes place in classrooms that enables students to acquire the knowledge and skills that are expected. OTL can include what is taught, how it is taught, by whom, and with what resources. Performance Assessment. See alternative assessment. Performance Standards. Explicit definitions of what students must do to demonstrate proficiency at a specific level on the content standards. For example, the performance level "exceptional achievement" on a dimension "communication of ideas" is reached when the student examines the problem from several different positions and provides adequate evidence to support each position. Portfolio Assessment. A portfolio is collection of work, usually drawn from students' classroom work. A portfolio becomes a portfolio assessment when (1) the assessment purpose is defined; (2) criteria or methods are made clear for determining what is put into the portfolio, by whom, and when; and (3) criteria for assessing either the collection or individual pieces of work are identified and used to make judgments about performance. Portfolios can be designed to assess student progress, effort, and/or achievement, and encourage students to reflect on their learning. Rater. A person who evaluates or judges student performance on an assessment against specific criteria. Rater Training. The process of educating raters to evaluate student work and produce dependable scores. Typically, this process uses anchors to acquaint raters with criteria and scoring rubrics. Open discussions between raters and the trainer help to clarify scoring criteria and performance standards, and provide opportunities for raters to practice applying the rubric to student work. Rater training often includes an assessment of rater reliability that raters must pass in order to score actual student work. Reliability. The degree to which the results of an assessment are dependable and consistently measure particular student knowledge and/or skills. Reliability is an indication of the consistency of scores across raters, over time, or across different tasks or items that measure the same thing. Thus, reliability may be expressed as (a) the relationship between test items intended to measure the same skill or knowledge (item reliability), (b) the relationship between two administrations of the same test to the same student or students (test/retest reliability), or (c) the degree of agreement between two or more raters (rater reliability). An unreliable assessment cannot be valid. Scale. Values given to student performance. Scales may be applied to individual items or performances, for example, checklists, i.e., yes or no; numerical, i.e., 1-6; or descriptive, i.e., the student presented multiple points of view to support her essay. Scaled scores occur when participants' responses to any number of items are combined and used to establish and place students on a single scale of performance. Standardization. A consistent set of procedures for designing, administering, and scoring an assessment. The purpose of standardization is to assure that all students are assessed under the same conditions so that their scores have the same meaning and are not influenced by differing conditions. Standardized procedures are very important when scores will be used to compare individuals or groups. Scorer. See Rater. Standards. The broadest of a family of terms referring to statements of expectations for student learning, including content standards, performance standards, and benchmarks. Standards-Based Reform. A program of school improvement involving setting high standards for all students and a process for adapting instruction and assessment to make sure all students can achieve the standards. Students With Disabilities (SWD). A broadly defined group of students with physical and/or mental impairments such as blindness or learning disabilities that might make it more difficult for them to do well on assessments without accommodations or adaptations. Task. An activity, exercise, or question requiring students to solve a specific problem or demonstrate knowledge of specific topics or processes. Validity. The extent to which an assessment measures what it is supposed to measure and the extent to which inferences and actions made on the basis of test scores are appropriate and accurate. For example, if a student performs well on a reading test, how confident are we that that student is a good reader? A valid standards-based assessment is aligned with the standards intended to be measured, provides an accurate and reliable estimate of students' performance relative to the standard, and is fair. An assessment cannot be valid if it is not reliable.
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