Step 7

Key Thoughts

• By creating the end-of-unit assessment before planning learning experiences and related instruction, instructors utilize the unwrapped content to develop the assessment.
• The end-of-unit assessment contains the goals for students to attain based on the Priority Standards.
• With a clear end in mind, educators then can design the means to prepare students for that culminating assessment.
• Through the alignment, educators are better able to make instructional decisions in relation to helping students arrive successfully at the standards-based destination.

Six Fundamental Steps to Using Assessment Results to Inform Instructional Decision Making

• Know your purpose
  • Determine exactly what it is you want to find out, what it is you want the assessment to do, and why you are administering the assessment in the first place.
  • Remember, all three of these questions should revolve around the Priority Standards
• Determine the appropriate assessment that will accomplish your identified purpose
  • The specific format most likely to tell you what you need to know.
  • Three Types of Assessment
    • Selected-Response (Multiple-choice, true-false, matching, fill-in with a word bank)
    • Constructed-Response (Short or extended writing)
    • Performance-Based (Physical demonstration)
• Select or create a quality assessment
  • Determine quality questions which will enable you to make an accurate inferences as to what students know and can do.
  • Ensure the questions are fair, valid and reliable providing you with specific data about the performance of each student.
• Administer and score the assessment: analyze the assessment results
  • Look for evidence of student learning, specific to your purpose, in the student responses.
  • Conduct an item analysis, determining which questions individual students answered correctly and which ones they did not.
• Make an accurate inference
  • This step is possible only if the questions are fair, valid, and reliable.
• Adjust instructional decisions in a timely manner
  • Determine instructional next steps for students based on the inferences you have made.

What Does It Look Like?