Standards-based assessment - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A standards based test is one based on the outcome-based education

Outcome-based education

Outcome-based education is a recurring education reform model. It is a student-centered learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which are called outcomes. OBE contrasts with traditional education, which primarily focuses on the resources that are available...

or performance-based education philosophy. Assessment is a key part of the standards reform movement. The first part is to set new, higher standards to be expected of every student. Then the curriculum must be aligned to the new standards. Finally, the student must be assessed if they meet these standards of what every student "must know and be able to do". In the United States, a high school diploma which is given on passing a high school graduation examination

High school graduation examination

A high school graduation examination is a test that students must pass to receive a diploma and graduate from high school. These are usually criterion-referenced tests which were implemented as part of a comprehensive standards-based education reform program which sets into place new standards...

or Certificate of Initial Mastery

Certificate of Initial Mastery

The Certificate of Mastery was created by report "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages". The CIM has been called an outcome-based education diploma as it would be either be necessary to receive or replace the high school diploma, and was characteristic of education reform legislation in many...

is awarded only when these standards are achieved.

A criterion is set up for standards of what every student or child is expected to know, and a score is set compared to these benchmarks rather than a ranking compared to a norm. It is fully expected that every child will become proficient in all areas of academic skills by the end of a period, typically 10 years in the United States, but sometimes longer, after the passing of education reform bill by a state legislature. The United States federal government, under No Child Left Behind can further require that all schools must demonstrate improvement among all students, even if they are already all over proficient.

Holistic grading

Rather than using computers to log responses to multiple choice tests, rubrics for state assessments such as in North Carolina ask scorers to look at the entire paper and make judgments. Scorers are not allowed to count errors, and rubrics do not contain numeric measurements of how many spelling or grammar error constitute a "1" or "2". The Analytical Writing section of the GRE

Graduate Record Examination

The Graduate Record Examinations is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States, in other English-speaking countries and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide...

test is scored using the a six-point holistic scale in half-point increments. Holistic grading is one of the main reason for disagreement between scorers, but for this reason some tests are scored more than once to check for agreement.

Advantages

Students are compared to a standard that all can reach, rather than artificially ranked into a bell curve
Bell curve
Bell curve can refer to:* A Gaussian function, a specific kind of function whose graph is a bell-shaped curve* Normal distribution, whose density function is a Gaussian function...

where some students must be called failures, and only a few are allowed to succeed
Humans, not computers can evaluate the entire value of a response rather than imposing a strict right or wrong that is not open to interpretation
Free response uses and tests for higher order thinking
Higher order thinking skills
The concept of higher order thinking skills became a major educational agenda item with the 1956 publication of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives....

, which is important in most new education standards.
Computer scored multiple choice
Multiple choice
Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple...

tests have been shown to have deleterious effects for minorities, unfairly denying opportunities.
A criterion-based test is a test worth teaching to, unlike a multiple choice test.
Only a standards based test is aligned with standards based education reform, which is based on a belief that all students can succeed, not only a few.
Passing a 10th grade test and awarding a Certificate of Initial Mastery
Certificate of Initial Mastery
The Certificate of Mastery was created by report "America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages". The CIM has been called an outcome-based education diploma as it would be either be necessary to receive or replace the high school diploma, and was characteristic of education reform legislation in many...

ensures that all students will graduate with the skills they need to succeed in the world-class economy of the twenty-first century.
Students will no longer be cheated by passing them on to the next grade without obtaining what every child at the grade level must be able to know and do.
When all students pass all standards, as is the central belief of standards based education reform, all students from all demographics will achieve the same test score, eliminating the mysterious achievement gap
Achievement gap
Achievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The achievement gap can be observed on a variety of measures, including standardized...

which has previously been shown to occur between all groups on all tests. However, as of 2006, no standards based assessment has yet achieved this optimistic (critics might call it impossible) goal, though many show rising scores.

Comparison

Compared to a multiple-choice, norm-referenced test

Norm-referenced test

A norm-referenced test is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with respect to the trait being measured. This estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and possibly other relevant data...

, a standards based test can be recognized by:

A cut score is determined for different levels of performance. There are no cut scores for norm-referenced tests. There is no failing score on the SAT test
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

. Each college or institution sets their own score standards for admission or awards.
Different levels of performance are set. Typically these are Above Standard, Meets Standard, Below Standard. These levels are typically set in a benchmarking process, even though such a process does not take into an account whether the test items are even appropriate for the grade level.
Tests are holistically graded
Holistic grading
Standards based tests use holistic grading to establish scoring of a paper. It can also be used to assess classroom-based work. Rather than counting errors, a paper is judged holistically if it has too many or too few errors to merit a 1, 2 or 3, compared to an anchor paper, or if it meets a...

against a free-written response, often with pictures, rather than graded correct or incorrect among multiple choices.
Tests are more expensive to grade because of this, typically $25–30 per test compared to $2–$5, not including the cost of developing the test, typically different every year for every state.
Tests are more difficult to grade because they are typically graded against a handful with no more than one or two example papers at each scoring level. They cannot be graded by computer
Tests are less reliable. Agreement may fall between 60 to 80 percent on a 4 point scale and be considered to be accurate.
Graders do not need teaching credentials, only a bachelor's degree in any field, and are typically paid $8 to $11 per hour for part time work.
Failure rates as high as 80 to 95 percent are not only not unusual, they are fully expected and announced as test programs are introduced to the local press. Under traditional graduation criteria, African Americans had achieved national graduation rates within a few points of whites. In 2006, three-quarters of African Americans who failed the WASL
Washington Assessment of Student Learning
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning was a standardized educational assessment system given as the primary assessment in the state of Washington from spring 1997 to summer 2009. The WASL was also used as a high school graduation examination beginning in the spring of 2006 and ending in 2009...

were promised by Superintendent Terry Bergeson
Terry Bergeson
Teresa "Terry" Bergeson is a former three-term Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction.-Biography:Dr. Bergeson graduated from Emmanuel College in 1964 with a B.A. in English. In 1969, she earned a master's degree in counseling and guidance from Western Michigan University...

that they would not get a diploma if they did not pass retakes of the test in two years, even though she had pledged earlier that "all students" would get a world class diploma.
Failure rates for minorities and special education students are typically two to four times higher than for majority groups as extended response questions are more difficult to answer than multiple choice
Content is often difficult even for adults to quickly answer, even at grade levels as low as the fourth grade, especially in mathematics. Professor Don Orlich
Don Orlich
Don Orlich is professor emeritus of the Science Mathematics EngineeringEducation Center at Washington State University. He has published morethan 100 professional papers, co-authored more than 30 monographs and books, and is the senior co-author of “Teaching Strategies: A guide to Effective...

called the WASL
Washington Assessment of Student Learning
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning was a standardized educational assessment system given as the primary assessment in the state of Washington from spring 1997 to summer 2009. The WASL was also used as a high school graduation examination beginning in the spring of 2006 and ending in 2009...

a "disaster", with math and science tests falling well above the normal development level of students at many grade levels.
Mathematics has a high proportion of statistics and geometry, and a low content of simple arithmetic.
Schools are scored as zero for students who do not take the test.
Passing such a test at the 10th grade level is typically planned as being required for graduating high school.
Passing such a test, rather than the 50th percentile, is defined as grade level performance.
A question with a correct answer may be graded as incorrect if it does not show how the answer as arrived at. A question with an incorrect numerical conclusion may not necessarily be graded as wrong.
California's first year of the CLAS test permitted no '4' high math grades, not even in the highest scoring schools, in order to leave room for improvement
The North Carolina Writing project gave out less than 1 percent exemplary '4' scores. Such papers employed vocabulary and knowledge on a level sometimes exceeding that of the college graduate graders, and well above the intended audience of a high school graduation. This level would be even more difficult than achieving an SAT score sufficient for entry into an Ivy League private college.
Scores typically rise much faster than standardized tests such as NAEP or SAT given over the same time period.

Washington Classroom-Based Performance Assessment (WCBPA)

In order to address concerns that only math, science, reading and writing will be assessed,
Washington state has created classroom based assessments in many fields have been created and piloted by actual students

Arts

In music, 5th graders are asked to sight sing from sheet music. They may use solfege

Solfege

In music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...

, scale numbers, or fingering without an instrument. Songs must be sung with a steady beat, correct pitch and correct rhythmic value. A 0 point response will result with six or more rhythmic errors or not maintaining a steady beat. Each student will have one minute to study and practice the sight-singing exercise. Then there will be two opportunities to perform while being videotaped. They are also expected to compose on demand a theme using blank staff paper, and perform it on an instrument.

In dance, the state expects that all 5th graders can interpret a piece of visual art by creating and performing an original dance. A jumping jack "X" must be fully extended, a wilted "X" is not acceptable. Ending in a shape must be held for 3 seconds. Dances must perform in bare feet or appropriate dancing shoes. The student has 20 minutes to create and rehearse their dance, and must describe two ideas, images, or feelings and explain why he or she chose the movement or movement phrase.

External links

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