Glossary
Every year in the education world, new “buzzwords” emerge.
Keeping up with the ever-changing vocabulary of education reform can
be challenging. In addition, educators use words like “accountability”
and “alternative assessment” in different ways in different
contexts, and common meanings for words can seem elusive.
ASAP has chosen to respond to this challenge in two ways. First, we
have posted below an assessment glossary developed by Jay McTighe and
Stephen Ferrara (1995). The definitions in this glossary are consistent
with the way that we use assessment terms and phrases on this web site.
Secondly, we have provided links to several additional glossaries to
enable quick comparisons of terms as defined by different educational
organizations. These are listed here.
CRESST Assessment Glossary
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/pages/glossary.htm
Defining Assessment: Coalition of Essential Schools
http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/124
Education Week Glossary
http://www.edweek.org/context/glossary
Assessing Learning in the Classroom Glossary
McTighe, J., & Ferrara, S. (1995). Assessing Learning in the Classroom.
Journal of Quality Learning, Vol #, 95-112.).
Analytic Scoring
A scoring procedure in which products or performances are evaluated
for selected dimensions, with each dimension receiving a separate score.
For example, a piece of writing may be evaluated on several categories,
such as organization, use of details, attention to audience, and language
usage/mechanics. Analytic scores may be weighed and totaled. (McTighe
& Ferrara)
Anchor(s)
Representative products or performances used to illustrate each point
on a scoring scale. Anchors for the highest score point are sometimes
referred to as exemplars. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Assessment
Any systematic basis for making inferences about characteristics of
people, usually based on various sources of evidence; the global process
of synthesizing information about individuals in order to understand
and describe them better (Brown, 1983). (McTighe & Ferrara)
Authentic
Refers to assessment tasks that evoke demonstrations of knowledge and
skills in ways that they are applied in the “real world.”
Ideally, authentic assessment tasks also engage students and reflect
the best instructional activities. Thus, teaching to the task is desirable.
(McTighe & Ferrara)
Criteria
Guidelines, rules, or principles by which student responses, products,
or performances are evaluated. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Criterion Referenced
An approach for describing a student’s performance on an assessment
according to established criteria. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Evaluation
Judgment regarding the quality, value, or worth of a response, product,
or performance based on established criteria. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Formative Assessment
Ongoing, diagnostic assessment providing information (feedback) to guide
instruction and improve student performance. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Generalizability
The extent to which the performances sampled by a set of assessment
activities are representative of the broader domain being assessed.
(McTighe & Ferrara)
Holistic Scoring
A scoring procedure yielding a single score based upon an overall impression
of a product or performance. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Indicator
A specific description of an outcome in terms of observable and assessable
behaviors. An indicator specifies what a person who possesses the qualities
articulated in an outcome knows or can do. Several indicators are generally
needed to adequately describe each outcome. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Interdisciplinary or Integrated Assessment
Refers to the tasks that assess students’ abilities to apply concepts,
principles, skills, and processes from two or more subject disciplines
to a central question, theme, issue, or problem. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Norm Referenced
An approach for describing a students’ performance on an assessment
by comparison to a normed group. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Outcome
A goal statement specifying desired knowledge, skills/processes, and
attitudes to be developed as a result of educational experiences. (McTighe
& Ferrara)
Performance-based Assessment
An assessment activity that requires students to construct a response,
create a product, or perform a demonstration. Since performance-based
assessments generally do not yield a single correct answer or require
a particular solution method, evaluations of student performances are
based on judgments guided by criteria. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Performance Standard
An established level of achievement, quality, or proficiency. Performance
standards set expectations about how well students should perform. (McTighe
& Ferrara)
Performance Task
An assessment activity, or set of activities, related to one or more
learning outcomes, that elicits one or more response to a question or
problem. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Portfolio
A purposeful, integrated collection of student work showing effort,
progress, or achievement in one or more areas (adapted from Paulson,
Paulson, and Meyer, 1991). Since they feature works selected over time,
portfolios are well suited to assess student growth and development.
(McTighe & Ferrara)
Primary Trait(s) Scoring
A scoring procedure in which products or performances are evaluated
by limiting attention to a single criterion. These criteria are based
upon the trait determined to be essential for a successful performance
on a given task. For example, a note to a principal urging a change
in a school rule might have persuasiveness as the primary trait. Scorers
would attend only to that trait. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Proficiency
Having or demonstrating a high degree of knowledge or skill in a particular
area. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Reliability
The degree to which an assessment yields dependable and consistent results.
(McTighe & Ferrara)
Rubric
A generic scoring tool used to evaluate a student’s performance
in a given outcome area. Rubrics consist of a fixed measurement scale
(e.g. 4-point) and a list of criteria that describe the characteristics
of products or performances for each score point. Rubrics are frequently
accompanied by examples (anchors) of student products or performances
to illustrate each of the points on the scale. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Standardized
A set of consistent procedures for constructing, administering, and
scoring an assessment. The goal of standardization is to ensure that
all students are assessed under uniform conditions so that interpretation
of their performance is comparable and not just influenced by differing
conditions (Brown, 1983). (McTighe & Ferrara)
Summative Assessment
Culminating assessment for a unit, grade level, or course of study providing
a status report on mastery or degree of proficiency according to identified
learning outcomes. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Test
A set of questions or situations designed to elicit responses that permit
an inference about what a student knows or can do. Tests generally utilize
a paper and pencil format, occur within established time limits, restricts
access to resources (e.g. reference materials), and yield a limited
range of acceptable responses. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Validity
Refers to whether or not an assessment measures what it is intended
to measure. (McTighe & Ferrara)
Top
|
