cluster eight
Case Studies
Early Childhood:  The Zoo
Elementary School:  Writing Wizards Middle School:  Assessment: Cafeteria
Style
High School:  Innovative Assessment
Strategies
Module 26: Assessing Student Learning
Outline and Learning Goals 466 What Is Assessment? 467 Assessment Planning 469
Communication of Classroom
Assessment Information 473 Summary 479 Key Concepts 479 Case Studies: Reflect and
Evaluate 479
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EARLY CHILDHOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
classroom assessment
Module 27: Test Construction and Use
Outline and Learning Goals 481 Characteristics of High Quality
Classroom Tests 482 Developing a Test Blueprint 485 Developing Test Items 487 Test
Analysis and Revision 493 Summary 495 Key Concepts 495 Case Studies: Reflect and
Evaluate 496
Module 28: Performance Assessment
Outline and Learning Goals 498 A Broader View of Assessment 499 Developing
Performance
Assessments 501 Evaluating Performance Assessments 504 Advantages and
Disadvantages of
Performance Assessments 509 Summary 511 Key Concepts 511 Case Studies: Reflect
and Evaluate 512
8
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Prepare:
1
As you read the case, make notes:
1. WHO are the primary participants in the case?
Describe them.
2. WHAT is taking place?
3. WHERE is the case taking place? Is the environment
a factor?
4. WHEN is the case taking place? Is the timing a factor?
Sanjay Baterdene is a preschool teacher at a lab school in a large midwestern city. The laboratory
preschool is affiliated with a local university and serves as an observation, research, and training facility
for students who are pursuing a degree in early childhood education. Sanjay is currently completing his
master s degree. He works four afternoons each week in the preschool classroom alongside a much
more experienced lead teacher, Vivian Stanich, who has been at the school for almost 25 years. In
addition to working with young children in the classroom, Vivian often teaches a course in the
developmental assessment of young children at the university the lab school is affiliated with. Sanjay is a
little in awe of his more experienced counterpart and wants to make sure he is doing his best at all times.
Vivian has stressed the importance of developmentally appropriate assessment practices, and she has
set up the classroom to facilitate many opportunities for assessing the students through informal
observation.
This afternoon the children (a mix of four- and five-year-olds) are
engaged in activities in various learning centers around the room. In
the tiled area near the sinks, Miriam and Greg are painting on
opposite sides of a large free-standing easel. Sanjay walks over to
watch the children as they paint.
 What are you making, Miriam? he asks. He sees a slightly
disapproving look from Vivian and restates his question as  Tell me
about that painting, Miriam. Miriam is happily painting thick swirls of
color on the paper in front of her. She doesn t answer right away, and
Greg shouts,  Hey, Mr. Sanjay, come look at my picture! Sanjay
crosses over to Greg and admires the scene before him. Greg has
painted what appears to be a family, but Sanjay notices that all the
family members have large heads with arms and legs sticking out (no
actual torsos). Sanjay knows that this is a very typical way for young
children to represent people in their early drawings. He smiles and
tells Greg that he notices the entire page is full all the way to the
edges.
 I have a very big family, says Greg.
 Wow! Tell me about all these people who have shown up in
your painting, Sanjay replies. Greg launches into an animated
discussion of the various family members he has represented.
Sanjay then wanders over to the block area but finds that
wooden blocks are only one of the many items being utilized by the
children. With the blocks, they are building a gigantic zoo housing an
assortment of plastic animal figures. Their play has spread well
outside the block area and is beginning to encroach on the snack
table area. Cindy and Arelio are engaged in a disagreement over
whether the cages at the zoo should be locked up or the animals
should be allowed to roam free. Ellen pipes up to say that maybe the
bad animals can be locked up but the good ones can be let out.
Arelio asks how they will know if the animal is bad or good. Sanjay
listens in as the children discuss badly behaved animals. Marcus,
another zoo builder, suggests that they reorganize the zoo so that the
good animals are in one area and the bad animals are in another.
The other children seem to like this idea, and they begin picking up
the plastic animal figures and putting them in new locations. Arelio
gets a doll figure from the classroom s dollhouse and places it in the
 bad zone. He laughs uproariously as he points at the doll and says
 My sister. As the zoo grows, the group of zoo builders also grows,
and soon more than half the class is engaged
Early Childhood
2
The Zoo
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EARLY CHILDHOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Assess
in adding features to the zoo. Half an hour later, Sanjay realizes he needs to have the children clean up and go to the
tables for snack.
When he announces clean-up time, he hears a loud groan from several of the children. Marcus asks if they can
keep the zoo where it is for the rest of the week. Sanjay checks with Vivian to make sure she has no objections. He is
surprised that she quickly agrees to let the sprawling zoo stay. The children cheer and head over to wash their hands
for snack. Cindy and Arelio approach Sanjay with a piece of paper and a large crayon, asking if he will write  Zany
Zoo on their paper.  How about if I tell you the letters and you write it? he asks. They agree, and they slowly and
carefully make their sign, which they later tape on the floor by the zoo entrance.
As the children are getting settled for snack, Sanjay takes a minute to jot down a few anecdotal notes to refer to
later when he writes up narrative progress reports to share at parent-teacher conferences. He notes some of the
skills he has observed various children using this afternoon as well as personal interests he has seen them display.
Then he joins the group in the snack area.
When Sanjay first started working at the lab school, he volunteered to tell the children stories during snack time.
 We make our own stories, they said. As Sanjay learned what they meant, he began to look forward eagerly to the
snack time story session. Vivian would begin the session with an outlandish statement, such as  I love to wear pink
bubblegum in my hair. The child who happened to be sitting closest to her would respond with a line of his or her
own, such as  That s because my name is Hubba Bubba. Each child then would get a turn to add his or her own
piece to the emerging story. If the story of the day was really a hit with the children, Vivian would have the students
repeat it back to her and she would write it down. On that Friday, the students would stage a production and act out
the story. Sanjay suspected that today s story would somehow involve crazy animals at a zoo.
3 1. The children in this preschool classroom are four and five years old. If you were the teacher, how would you
assess their knowledge and skills?
2. In your opinion, what kinds of skills might be important to assess in working with this age group?
3. Why do you suspect there were no traditional tests given in this classroom?
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460
Prepare:
As you read the case, make notes:
1. WHO are the primary participants in the case?
Describe them.
2. WHAT is taking place?
3. WHERE is the case taking place? Is the environment
a factor?
4. WHEN is the case taking place? Is the timing a factor?
Brigita Blaydes beams with pride as she peeks into the school cafeteria to see the Young Authors Fair
in full swing. Just a few short months ago, Brigita welcomed 27 reluctant writers into her fourth-grade
class, and today those same students are displaying their work for parents, classmates, and members of
the community. The students, arranged in centers around the cafeteria, are taking turns sharing their
writing, illustrating, reading, and storytelling skills with their invited guests.
Brigita is passionate about reading and writing and has worked
hard to share that passion with her students. Her room is filled with
picture books, chapter books, children s magazines, collections of
poems, and posters of famous actors, politicians, and sports figures
reading a favorite book. In the first days of the school year, Brigita
welcomed her new students into the classroom by giving each of
them a letter written by one of her former students. The letters gave
her new crop of students a sense of what they could expect in
the year ahead and imparted words of wisdom from the previous
year s  writing wizards, as the class had come to call themselves.
One letter read:
Welcome young wizard! You are about to begin a great
adventure, but you d better come prepared. Ms. Blaydes will cast her
reading and writing spell on you just like she did with us and there
will be no turning back. Before you know it you will be carrying a little
notebook with you everywhere to jot down  story snippets, searching
for  power words, and getting excited about  onomatopoeia. You
say you don t know what onomatopoeia is? Don t worry. . . . You
soon will. . . .
These letters helped spark a curiosity about writing that Brigita
found many ways to sustain throughout the year. As she watches her
young authors in action presenting their work in the cafeteria, she
reflects on the process that pushed reading and writing into the
spotlight in her classroom. Two years ago, Prairie View Elementary
School implemented a new writing program after several teachers
(including Brigita) enrolled in a course on teaching writing as a
process and integrating writing across content areas. Brigita learned
to use many different strategies to help her students grasp the
concepts and principles of good writing, and she has given students
plenty of time to practice their skills. Every Monday morning, her
students have come to expect a  Grammar Slammers event. This is
a quiz although Brigita never actually calls it that. Students are
given a practice sheet with ten sentences to correct. They must
identify and correct any grammar, punctuation, or spelling mistakes
they can find. When they are finished, Brigita puts up an answer key
on the overhead showing the mistakes and their corrections.
Students use this key to correct their responses, and the class
discusses which errors were the easiest and the most difficult to
catch. Students also take a Friday vocabulary quiz in which they
match vocabulary words with their definitions.
Brigita believes that students learn to write by writing, so she
combines objective tests of basic writing skills with plenty of
opportunities to write for different audiences and purposes. Her
students have written letters to themselves (and mailed them!) as
well as weekly newsletters for parents. To vary the routine a bit, she
has introduced writing events like the month-long  Greatest Fan
project for which students were assigned to be the secret fan of a
football player on the local high school team. Students wrote weekly
AElementary School Writing
Wizards
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C
EARLY CHILDHOOD MIDDLE
SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
letters to their assigned team member, and the football coach taped
the letters to the players lockers. Each week Brigita had the students
incorporate new writing conventions they had learned into their letters.
At the end of the month, the football players were invited to visit her
class to meet and take photos with their fans.
This semester the writing wizards in Brigita s room have been
creating their own memoirs, persuasive pieces, poems, and illustrated
picture books as part of the Young Authors project. Students use
feedback from classmates and teachers to assess and improve their
writing performance. Conferences with peer writing partners and
teachers, before and during writing, help students select topics and
polish skills. Today s Young Authors Fair is an additional way for the
students to get feedback about their writing. The invited guests have
been given evaluation forms for providing written comments on
several aspects of the students work. Each guest has been
encouraged to provide commentary for at least five students.
Brigita s reminiscences about the students writing journey this
year are interrupted as she feels a tug on her arm. Jenny, a quiet
fourth grader who has produced some lovely poems this semester,
has come to tell her that she has seen the guest of honor arrive.
Brigita invited a well-known children s book author to join today s
event to read a selection of his stories and discuss his own writing
process with the group.
1. What message do you think Brigita Blaydes is sending her
students by spending so much class time on writing?
2. Do you think Brigita s approach to writing instruction (and
assessment) is likely to be effective in promoting good writing
skills? Explain.
3. If you were a student in Brigita s class, how would you react to
the range of assignments described in this case?
Assess
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462
Prepare:
As you read the case, make notes:
1. WHO are the primary participants in the case?
Describe them.
2. WHAT is taking place?
3. WHERE is the case taking place? Is the environment
a factor?
4. WHEN is the case taking place? Is the timing a factor?
Ida Reffert, a social studies teacher at Tecumseh Middle School, couldn t wait for her eighth-grade
students to arrive this morning to hear her plans for their final project. With three weeks of the semester to
go, Ida has been brainstorming to come up with a more interesting and creative way to assess students
understanding of the ideas they have been studying. With the students in her first-period class settled into
their seats, Ida points to the board, where she has written  Assessment: Cafeteria Style in big letters.
She tells them,  I have noticed that you each have your own
strengths and talents, and I want to give you a chance to really
showcase this as we wrap up our last unit of the school year. Instead
of taking our traditional end-of-the-unit exam, you will be designing a
project that draws on your strengths and allows you to demonstrate
how well you understand the information we ve been studying since
we returned from spring break.
The students look puzzled.
 Let me give you an example. Karlee, you ve mentioned how
much you love to take pictures, right? You might decide to create a
photo essay that includes photographs of different objects or events
that tie in with our unit and provides a description along with each
photo.
 Awesome! You mean I could really do that instead of taking the
test? replies Karlee.  Sure, answers Ida.  And Jarred, I know you ve
been the announcer this season at the basketball games. Perhaps
you could put those vocal talents to use here by creating some kind
of radio show that takes us back in history.
Big grins start to emerge on the faces of the students as they
realize the wide range of possibilities being made available to them.
 Let s take a few minutes to brainstorm some other ideas just to
get everyone thinking about some options. Does anyone have an
idea of something that might be interesting for a project?
Several hands go up, and Ida spends the next few minutes
jotting down suggestions on the board: building a model, designing a
Web-based history activity, creating a historical cartoon strip,
designing a poster with a detailed illustrated time line, filming a short
talk show episode with historical guests. The class is buzzing with
excitement. As the class files out at the end of the period, three
students stay behind to talk with Ida.
Nettie, the captain of the girls track team, says,  Ms. Reffert, this
is a cool idea and all, and I know you re trying to make this more fun
for us, but I am freaking out here. I have track practice every day
after school, meets every weekend for the next few weeks, and I also
have a regular babysitting job. I m afraid I won t have time to come up
with something great for this project. If it wasn t right during track
season I would probably love the idea, but right now I d much rather
just take the test and get it over with. Carla, another student on the
track team, voices the same concerns.
Ida responds,  Let me think that over girls and consider what
would be a fair option. As the girls head to their next class, Angelo,
another student, approaches Ida and says,  Students are talking
about doing cool stuff with digital cameras, video, art supplies,
costumes. I don t have those kinds of things. My mom works two jobs
and is always reminding me about how hard it is to make ends meet.
I ll be lucky if she has time to take
Middle School
Assessment: Cafeteria Style
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B
+
me out to buy a piece of posterboard right now. I would rather just
take the test. I feel like I will be at a real disadvantage compared to
some of the other kids.
 Don t worry, Angelo. We ll work something out. Let me think
about it and I ll touch base with you in class tomorrow, Ida replies.
She expected all the students to welcome the project idea
because it puts them in control and lets them express themselves.
Most students seem very excited about the project, but similar
concerns were raised by a few students in her other eighth-grade
social studies classes. One of her top students raised a good question
about how Ida was going to be able to grade the projects because
they each might be so different. She realizes that she hasn t given
that enough thought. She decides to look online to see if she can find
some tips to help her create a grading rubric of some kind.
The next day Ida distributes the following handout in class:
To wrap up our last unit of the semester, you have two assessment
options. Each option is worth 100 points.
Option 1: Take an in-class 50-question multiple-choice
exam on the material we ve been covering since your return from
spring break. The exam questions will be drawn from information
covered in our class readings, lectures, handouts, and power point
slides.
Option 2: Complete an applied project that draws on
knowledge you ve gained during this last unit. You need to get your
project idea approved by me before beginning, and you will be
graded using the following rubric.
Project Options Radio show
Photo essay Poster Cartoon
strip Model
%
EARLY CHILDHOOD MIDDLE
SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Project Rubric
Exemplary Proficient Basic
Demonstrates some under standing of course
theories and concepts.
Does not use course theories and concepts in this project.
Content (50 pts) Demonstrates accurate
understanding of course theories and concepts.
Real-World Relevance (10 pts)
Grammar and Syntax (10 pts)
Project includes some examples of how to apply
concepts and principles from Unit 3.
Does not give examples or demonstrate how to implement concepts and
principles from Unit 3.
A few grammar and syntax flaws interfere with
under standing the author s message.
Organization (10 pts) Ideas and information are
well organized.
Some flaws in organiza tion interfere with under
standing of the project.
Project is haphazard. No apparent organization.
Appearance (10 pts) Appearance of project is
neat, with attention paid to every detail.
Appearance of project is good but not excellent.
Project is sloppy, seems hastily thrown together.
Flawless grammar and syntax are used.
A few grammar and syntax flaws interfere with
under standing the author s message.
Several errors. No evidence of proofreading.
Creativity (10 pts) Format and execution of
project are very creative.
Project has some creative elements. Little or no creativity is involved in
this project.
Project includes excellent examples or
demonstrates how to apply Unit 3 content.
Project includes some examples of how to apply
concepts and principles from Unit 3.
Assess
1. What is your initial reaction to Ida Reffert s plan for assessing
her students learning in the final unit of the semester?
2. Is it appropriate to let students choose how they will be assessed? Why or why not?
3. What challenges do you foresee with this assessment approach?
4. How do you think this plan might impact students attitudes toward learning the material?
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Prepare:
MEMO
As you read the case, make notes:
1. WHO are the primary participants in the case? Describe them.
2. WHAT is taking place?
3. WHERE is the case taking place? Is the environment a factor?
4. WHEN is the case taking place? Is the timing a factor?
For the past 12 years, Joe Medino has been the principal at Jefferson High School, a large public high school within
the city limits of a small town in the southeastern United States. He recently attended a conference on Assessment
Issues in Education that presented many alternatives to traditional assessment. Intrigued by many of the suggestions
he heard, Joe has decided to share the information with his teachers on his return to school. The school has a
Professional Development Day scheduled for the following week, so Joe has prepared a brief description of some of
the assessment options he encountered at the conference. He has asked the teachers to review the material before
the workshop and come prepared to discuss it. His memo to the teachers follows.
High School Innovative Assessment
Strategies
From: Principal Medino
RE: Interesting alternatives for classroom assessment
At the conference I attended last week, I learned that many schools are designing and using innovative assessment
strategies, including authentic assessment, portfolios, process assessment, exhibits, and demonstrations. I d like to
share a few examples with you so we can discuss them as a group during our upcoming professional development
workshop. Here are some of the ideas presented by teachers from around the country:
English At a high school in Oregon, seniors complete a three-part Senior Project to graduate.
1. Students first choose a topic of interest to them, conduct research, and write a paper.
2. Next, they use the information in the papers to create real-life projects. While these projects are to satisfy
requirements for senior English, the rich variety of topics chosen makes these efforts interdisciplinary. One
aspiring singer wrote and performed a song she had learned to orchestrate. Another student wrote about Big
Brother and Big Sister programs and recruited students to work with children from broken homes.
3. The third phase of the project is a formal presentation before a panel of teachers and community members, some
of whom are experts in the topic. Following the formal presentation, judges ask each senior several questions to
evaluate impromptu speaking skills, knowledge level, and poise.
Social Studies At a high school in Rhode Island, ninth-grade students are asked to complete an oral history project
based on interviews and written sources and to present their findings in class. Students are expected to identify
central issues they want to explore, identify appropriate sources, develop a set of interview questions, and develop a
presentation of their results. Students are evaluated on criteria such as whether they investigated three central
issues, described at least one change over
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EARLY CHILDHOOD MIDDLE
SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
time, selected four appropriate sources for the interviews, asked
valid questions, noted important differences between  fact and
 opinion in answers, and effectively organized their writing and
their presentation to the class.
In New Hampshire, as a four-part assessment for a twelfth-grade
humanities course, students are asked to:
1. Construct their own final test on the semester content, subject to approval by the teacher.
2. Submit a written report on a central topic studied during the
semester, conforming to stated grammar requirements.
3. Make a multimedia, 30-minute oral presentation on their chosen topic.
4. Serve on four evaluation teams to evaluate other students
presentations, playing a different role on each team either a
journalist who summarizes important details or a coach who
suggests improvements for the presentation.
Math In a California junior high, a math teacher presents a unit or
concept and then assigns projects that demonstrate how well
students understand the concept. For example, to assess area
and perimeter relationships in math, he asked the class to use a
particular constant, say  1250 square feet, and design a scale
model of a dream home, using graph paper for the floors. These
strategies help him judge how much learning the student has
retained. He found that  while I thought my students fully
understood area relationships before we started on the project, in
fact they really learned much more as they went along, when
trying to find answers to specific questions such as how many
square feet a bathroom should be.
Many of you are currently using traditional test formats to assess
your students. When we meet at the workshop next week, I d like
to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of your current
assessment plan, and I d like to discuss ways we might
incorporate a broader variety of options into our assessment
approach as a school.
1. What is your initial reaction to the range of assessment
options discussed in Joe Medino s memo as a student? as a future
teacher?
2. How do these assessment options compare to the way you were assessed in your high school
classes?
3. In your opinion, will teachers at Jefferson High School embrace
the assessment ideas presented by Joe? Why or why not?
Assess
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