Over the course of this semester in CEP 813, I’ve learned a considerable amount about assessments, particularly how to create an effective and inclusive assessment for a wide range of needs. Today’s blog will be a reflective one as I look back on where I started and how I’ve ended, and all of the changes I experienced along the way.
Let’s start with the beginning. One of my first assignments asked me to evaluate three core beliefs I have about assessments. Throughout this process I have maintained this set of beliefs, but I have also evolved to incorporate new beliefs about assessments. This blog will serve as a timeline for how my beliefs were challenged and expanded.
First, let’s review the original beliefs on assessments I brought to CEP813 and the first unit:
Assessments can improve participation and motivation
Assessments can come in many forms
Assessments identify what goals were met and what was missed
Starting with Unit 1, I completed an Annotated Assessment Exemplar which gave me an opportunity to review an assessment I had used in the past. For this assignment, I chose to review a SMART Goals worksheet that I give out each semester to my freshman seminar course. In applying historical contexts and identifying some assumptions I had made, I was able to generate a new addition to my belief system: Assessments must incorporate ongoing, guided feedback. “Discussions in which pupils are led to talk about their understanding in their own ways are important aids to increasing knowledge and improving understanding” (Black & William, 1998). Offering regular feedback to my students helps to track completion of specific learning goals and how the student is progressing towards success markers.
In Unit 2, I began taking steps to create an Assessment Design Checklist and learned how to create effective assessment questions that could be answered with clear evidence. I now understand the importance of having observable evidence to support or answer an assessment question and have added this to my beliefs about assessments. This stemmed primarily from feedback from my instructor, who challenged me to think about how my assessment questions could be measured and observed rather than making blanket statements. Randy Elliott Bennett explained that “assessment entails carefully designing situations (or asking questions) so that the elicited evidence can be connected to critical components of domain understanding” (2011, p. 14). I also adjusted my beliefs to incorporate assessments as regular occurrences in the classroom. Shepard emphasized the importance of normalizing check-ins, explaining “one question we may want to consider is whether assessment should become so much a part of normal classroom discourse patterns that scaffolding and ongoing checks for understanding are embedded” (2000, p. 11). I plan to continue making assessments a regular part of my advising practice and classroom environment.
I learned so much with the Formative Assessment Design activity, primarily in Unit 3 when I began to further develop my formative assessment. I was able to construct an assessment that allowed for extensive feedback from advisors, which will be used to update and enhance a new advisor training series. The questions will be open ended in a group setting and will ask advisors to reflect on their experience with the training program. “As learners monitor their engagement with tasks, internal feedback is generated by the monitoring process” (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 94) Through this reflective process, I hope advisors will feel more engaged in the training program. This generated a new belief about assessments, which is that offering opportunities for self-reflection and self-regulation is a key component to an effective assessment.
In Unit 4, I expanded my Assessment Design Checklist and learned to incorporate technology into my assessment design, offering multiple methods for students to show understanding. As noted by Meyer and associates (2014), assessments “should provide multiple opportunities in varied media for learners to demonstrate skills and express themselves” (p. 141). This idea of having multiple methods for learners to demonstrate understanding has been added to my beliefs. With this idea in hand, I added a polling program, Direct Poll, to my Formative Assessment Design to obtain feedback from advisors. By offering a polling program, advisors that may not feel comfortable speaking in front of a group or fear sharing negative comments may do so anonymously.
Unit 5 challenged some of my beliefs regarding collecting student data. In completing the CMS Reflection, I considered privacy concerns and biases that can result from collecting user or student data. Working in admissions for many years, I was used to collecting a great deal of prospective student and applicant data, using this information for recruiting efforts. However, I was not aware of the potential biases that can result. As Singer stated in the New York Times article, Privacy Concerns for ClassDojo and Other Tracking Apps for Schoolchildren, “behavior databases could potentially harm students’ reputations by unfairly saddling some with 'a problem child' label that could stick with them for years." (2014). Based on high school GPA, SAT scores, or the high school a student comes from, the student’s potential for success may already be assumed before they even walk on campus. I am using the belief that students come to a learning environment with a wide variety of experiences and knowledge when looking at student success data, being aware of the potential for bias.
Unit 6 made me more aware of certain assumptions I had when renovating an assessment I had used in past instruction. I was able to really dissect the assessment, which was a CliftonStrengths questionnaire that tasked students with learning what their strengths are and then answering a list of reflective questions. I found that I assumed that all students have a safe and quiet space to focus on their assignments, reliable internet, and were able to afford the materials. As Kara Newhouse stated in her article, Why Grading Policies For Equity Matter More Than Ever (2020), "while some students are learning in homes with abundant resources and parental support, others are sharing devices or bandwidth, taking care of siblings, or fitting school work around jobs." I had also assumed that no one in my class had accessibility concerns. Since working on this assignment, I have added the belief that assessment designers need to be aware of assumptions they make about their audience. I have also adjusted the CliftonStrengths questionnaire to meet accessibility standards, added a clear purpose statement for the assignment at the top, and provided a statement to address concerns of cost or access when trying to complete the assignment.
In the final unit of CEP 813, Unit 7, I learned more about fairness in assessments, primarily with summative assessments. In reading University Students’ Perceptions of Summative Assessment: The Role of Contact, I found that offering more than one assessment method can improve student’s view of fairness in the learning setting. “Employing a variety of assessment methods away from the traditional closed-book examination was also seen as ‘fair’ because it helps those students who might be anxious about being assessed in exam conditions” (Iannone & Simpson, 2017, p. 793). This helped to establish the belief that fair assessments acknowledge student’s individual abilities, which can be accomplished with using a variety of assessment methods. In my freshman seminar course, I plan to incorporate multiple modes for feedback, further reflection assignments, and group learning to improve fairness in the classroom.
References
Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education: Principles,
Policy & Practice, 18(1), 5-25. doi:10.1080/0969594X.2010.513678
Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom
assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-144.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research,
77(1), 81-112.
Iannone, P. & Simpson, A. (2017). University students' perceptions of summative assessment: The
role of context. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 41(6), 785-801.
Meyer, A. Rose, D.H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning: Theory and practice.
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Newhouse, K. (2020). Why grading policies for equity matter more than ever. Mindshift.
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Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-
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Singer, N. (2014, November 16). Privacy concerns for ClassDojo and other tracking apps for
schoolchildren. The New York Times.
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