Showcase an assessment created and include how the method was used to assess the validity, reliability, and security. Post the assessment in your blog.
Validity:
The test was designed to test what students learned during classification lessons as well as some inquiry standards embedded within the lessons. Distractor responses are included in possible answers.
Malamed suggests using these guidelines for validity:
- "Keep the test items aligned with the high priority learning objectives.
- Develop test items that measure the application of knowledge, as in scenario-based items.
- Have test items reviewed by an expert who understands the skills that the workplace requires.
- Ask a few target members of the audience to read through the test questions to ensure they are clearly worded.
- Allow a test to evolve by monitoring learner performance. Revise items that cause difficulty or revise that aspect of the course."
Prior to taking the test, the online instructor should have a very good idea of how each student should score on the summative assessment based on formative assessments. A student's test score should be close to their course average. The test results should be similar to the overall average in the course. The test I have shared below was written by myself and given to my 6th-grade science classes as well as to the students taught by the other 6th-grade science teacher. Our test score averages were very close. Because this test is not a major test such as a benchmark, there are only 20 questions.
Reliability can be assessed by asking the following according to Malamed:
"A test that is reliable will have a degree of consistency evidenced by these characteristics:
- The test items seem similar or highly related. The test comes together as one whole.
- There are no great leaps in difficulty, wording and tone. It might seem like one person wrote the entire test.
- If the test were administered to similar groups, you would see similarities in the scores across the groups.
- The test is long enough to assess the learner’s knowledge. Very short tests are more affected by the 'luck factor.'"
Standards:
6-1.2 Differentiate between observation and inference during the analysis and interpretation of data.
Classification Test
6-1.2 Differentiate between observation and inference during the analysis and interpretation of data.
6-1.3 Classify organisms, objects, and materials according to their physical characteristics by using a dichotomous key.
6-1.5 Use appropriate safety procedures when conducting investigations.
6-2.1 Summarize the characteristics that all organisms share.
6-2.2 Recognize the hierarchical structure of the classification (taxonomy) of organisms (including the seven major levels or categories of living things—namely, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species).
6-2.6 Differentiate between the processes of sexual and asexual reproduction of flowering plants.
6-2.8 Explain how plants respond to external stimuli.
6-3.4 Explain how environmental stimuli cause physical responses in animals
Security:
There is only one question per page. The test-taker may not go back to previous questions when logged in. In order for viewers of this blog to see the test, the one-response setting is turned off. I installed an add-on that will automatically close the test at a specific time.
Resources
Bergan, John Richard, John Robert Bergan, Kathryn Bergan, Christine Burnham, Scott Cunningham, Jason Feld, Karyn White, and Kerridan Kawecki. Building Reliable and Valid Benchmark Assessments. Rep. Tucson, AZ: Assessment Technology, Incorporated, 2013. Assessment Technology Incorporated, 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ati-online.com/pdfs/researchK12/BuildingReliableBenchmarks.pdf>.
, as amended and updated by Creative Commons from time to time (the “CC BY-NC License”), which is incorporated herein by this reference.