Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank
Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know 9th Edition
by W. Popham
TE
ST
SO
LU
TI
O
N
, Table of Content
Why Do Teachers Need to Know About Assessment?
Deciding What to Assess
Reliability of Assessment
Validity
Fairness
Selected-Response Tests
TE
Constructed-Response Tests
Performance Assessment
Portfolio Assessment
ST
Affective Assessment
Improving Teacher-Developed Assessments
Formative Assessment
SO
Making Sense Out of Standardized Test Scores
Appropriate and Inappropriate Test-Preparation Practices
The Evaluation of Instruction
Assessment-Based Grading
LU
TI
O
N
, INTRODUCTION
A belief exists among many members of the surfing community that “the ninth wave” in
a sequence of ocean waves is apt to be the largest and most powerful of that set of waves. It is
widely held among surfers that a surfboard ride on a ninth wave yields the ultimate rush.
Although many scientists dismiss this belief as mere superstition, I am going to subscribe to a
corollary belief with respect to the ninth edition of any textbook or, more specifically, the book
about which I now write, namely, the ninth edition of Classroom Assessment: What Teachers
TE
Need to Know. Data be damned, I just know that this is the most powerful edition of all its
predecessors.
This is an Instructor's Resource Manual and Test Bank (IRM) for this allegedly potent
ninth edition. I'll frequently use a space-saving abbreviation by referring to it as the IRM. What I
intend to do in this introduction is briefly describe what you'll find in this manual. Clearly, an
ST
IRM such as this should make an instructor's tasks easier to perform. So, if you know what's
included in the following pages, you'll surely be able to employ the manual more easily.
Publishers assume, and I suspect they're correct, that busy instructors will typically be
more inclined to adopt a textbook if the textbook is accompanied by resources to simplify the
teaching and testing responsibilities of the instructor. That is the mission of this IRM. I hope it
SO
will be successful. I realize, all too well, that many instructors will have scant use for what you’ll
find in this IRM’s pages. However, if a few instructors pick up a serviceable idea or two from
this document, this will partially justify my personal, flaw-prone typing of the dang thing!
I've used these sorts of IRMs myself on numerous occasions, but those manuals were
invariably prepared by someone other than the author of the text itself. I always had the feeling I
LU
was looking at support materials prepared by a graduate student in search of extra income. Some
of these manuals were quite good. After all, what are graduate students but instructors-in-
waiting? Yet, when it was proposed that an IRM be prepared for the third edition of Classroom
Assessment, I decided I wanted to give it a shot myself. A year or two earlier, I had written my
first IRM for another measurement textbook. That endeavor made me a “seasoned” preparer of
IRMs. Now, having been asked to update this IRM for the new, ninth edition of Classroom
TI
Assessment, I ought to be regarded as an old pro at any IRM-writers’ conclave. You can judge,
after you've used this IRM, whether I should have turned the task over to a graduate student.
In this newly revised edition of Classroom Assessment, you’ll discover that I have
O
dutifully carried out an author’s sacred set of must-do tasks, for instance, making sure that no
sections of the textbook are not in accord with any newly enacted federal statutes or, more likely,
not in accord with any regulations installed to implement such statutes. There was, of course, my
N
obligatory review of the references supplied with each chapter to make sure that they represent
current, not yesteryear’s measurement thinking. All those routine tasks I have carried out with,
admittedly, less than off-the-wall excitement. But at the same time, there’s something new about
this ninth-wave edition that has me truly turned on. The book contains features permitting its
readers to become active, nay, ardent promoters of increased assessment literacy for educators
and others. Let me explain why I am so jazzed about this possibility imbedded in the ninth
edition.
kjhgfds
, I’ve been tussling with educational assessment for a long, long time—in fact, for the entire
second half of my career. So, as soon as I shifted my career preoccupation from what it had been
before, namely, instruction, to educational assessment, I soon concluded that educational testing
was important stuff. But, until almost a full decade ago, I had not fully grasped that increased
assessment literacy on the part of educators and other education-related clienteles constitutes
the most cost-effective way to improve our schools.
TE
If this contention is accurate, then I believe it is not enough for instructors of educational
assessment courses to merely do a crackerjack job in getting their students to be assessment
literate. No, those students—or at least many of them—should also take on the challenge of
trying to bump up the assessment literacy for those who need it. I’m assuming that you are an
instructor of an educational assessment course because, after all, the I in IRM stands for
instructor. If you choose to participate in an effort to increase the assessment literacy of others,
ST
then your students can become emissaries whose mission will be to expand peoples’ views of
what educational assessment can and can’t do.
First, though, let’s get a definition of assessment literacy out on the table, then see why I am so
excited about the ninth edition’s potential. In the new edition’s preface, you’ll find a definition of
assessment literacy presented, in italics no less, as seen below:
SO
Assessment literacy consists of an individual’s
understanding of the fundamental assessment concepts
and procedures deemed likely to influence educational
decisions.
LU
In other words, assessment literacy refers to a person’s understanding of the stuff that can
influence the educational decisions we make about students. Without possession of assessment
literacy, people can make truly boneheaded assessment-based mistakes about students—such
mistakes lowering educational quality, often substantially. The possession of assessment literacy
by decision-makers or decision-influencers, however, will lead to fewer educational mistakes
and, as a consequence, to a meaningfully improved education for children. And it can be pulled
TI
off costing, essentially, pennies.
We could, of course, improve our schools dramatically by requiring teachers to teach far fewer
students and by giving those teachers much more instructional planning time. Sadly, such
O
changes would cost more than our society is willing to pay. Similarly, we could see whopper
improvements in schooling if we installed gigantic increases in teachers’ salaries so that our
schools could attract the most able individuals to teach in those schools. More able teachers will
N
become more instructionally skilled, hence the quality of schooling will clearly increase. Yet, as
was true with smaller class sizes, substantially boosting teachers’ salaries costs too much for
society to afford. In contrast, boosting assessment literacy can be accomplished for a pittance!
And that’s why increasing assessment literacy constitutes the most cost-effective way to increase
the effectiveness of our schools. You can decide whether you wish to encourage your own
students to become what would be, in essence, assessment literacy’s ambassadors.
kjhgfds
Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know 9th Edition
by W. Popham
TE
ST
SO
LU
TI
O
N
, Table of Content
Why Do Teachers Need to Know About Assessment?
Deciding What to Assess
Reliability of Assessment
Validity
Fairness
Selected-Response Tests
TE
Constructed-Response Tests
Performance Assessment
Portfolio Assessment
ST
Affective Assessment
Improving Teacher-Developed Assessments
Formative Assessment
SO
Making Sense Out of Standardized Test Scores
Appropriate and Inappropriate Test-Preparation Practices
The Evaluation of Instruction
Assessment-Based Grading
LU
TI
O
N
, INTRODUCTION
A belief exists among many members of the surfing community that “the ninth wave” in
a sequence of ocean waves is apt to be the largest and most powerful of that set of waves. It is
widely held among surfers that a surfboard ride on a ninth wave yields the ultimate rush.
Although many scientists dismiss this belief as mere superstition, I am going to subscribe to a
corollary belief with respect to the ninth edition of any textbook or, more specifically, the book
about which I now write, namely, the ninth edition of Classroom Assessment: What Teachers
TE
Need to Know. Data be damned, I just know that this is the most powerful edition of all its
predecessors.
This is an Instructor's Resource Manual and Test Bank (IRM) for this allegedly potent
ninth edition. I'll frequently use a space-saving abbreviation by referring to it as the IRM. What I
intend to do in this introduction is briefly describe what you'll find in this manual. Clearly, an
ST
IRM such as this should make an instructor's tasks easier to perform. So, if you know what's
included in the following pages, you'll surely be able to employ the manual more easily.
Publishers assume, and I suspect they're correct, that busy instructors will typically be
more inclined to adopt a textbook if the textbook is accompanied by resources to simplify the
teaching and testing responsibilities of the instructor. That is the mission of this IRM. I hope it
SO
will be successful. I realize, all too well, that many instructors will have scant use for what you’ll
find in this IRM’s pages. However, if a few instructors pick up a serviceable idea or two from
this document, this will partially justify my personal, flaw-prone typing of the dang thing!
I've used these sorts of IRMs myself on numerous occasions, but those manuals were
invariably prepared by someone other than the author of the text itself. I always had the feeling I
LU
was looking at support materials prepared by a graduate student in search of extra income. Some
of these manuals were quite good. After all, what are graduate students but instructors-in-
waiting? Yet, when it was proposed that an IRM be prepared for the third edition of Classroom
Assessment, I decided I wanted to give it a shot myself. A year or two earlier, I had written my
first IRM for another measurement textbook. That endeavor made me a “seasoned” preparer of
IRMs. Now, having been asked to update this IRM for the new, ninth edition of Classroom
TI
Assessment, I ought to be regarded as an old pro at any IRM-writers’ conclave. You can judge,
after you've used this IRM, whether I should have turned the task over to a graduate student.
In this newly revised edition of Classroom Assessment, you’ll discover that I have
O
dutifully carried out an author’s sacred set of must-do tasks, for instance, making sure that no
sections of the textbook are not in accord with any newly enacted federal statutes or, more likely,
not in accord with any regulations installed to implement such statutes. There was, of course, my
N
obligatory review of the references supplied with each chapter to make sure that they represent
current, not yesteryear’s measurement thinking. All those routine tasks I have carried out with,
admittedly, less than off-the-wall excitement. But at the same time, there’s something new about
this ninth-wave edition that has me truly turned on. The book contains features permitting its
readers to become active, nay, ardent promoters of increased assessment literacy for educators
and others. Let me explain why I am so jazzed about this possibility imbedded in the ninth
edition.
kjhgfds
, I’ve been tussling with educational assessment for a long, long time—in fact, for the entire
second half of my career. So, as soon as I shifted my career preoccupation from what it had been
before, namely, instruction, to educational assessment, I soon concluded that educational testing
was important stuff. But, until almost a full decade ago, I had not fully grasped that increased
assessment literacy on the part of educators and other education-related clienteles constitutes
the most cost-effective way to improve our schools.
TE
If this contention is accurate, then I believe it is not enough for instructors of educational
assessment courses to merely do a crackerjack job in getting their students to be assessment
literate. No, those students—or at least many of them—should also take on the challenge of
trying to bump up the assessment literacy for those who need it. I’m assuming that you are an
instructor of an educational assessment course because, after all, the I in IRM stands for
instructor. If you choose to participate in an effort to increase the assessment literacy of others,
ST
then your students can become emissaries whose mission will be to expand peoples’ views of
what educational assessment can and can’t do.
First, though, let’s get a definition of assessment literacy out on the table, then see why I am so
excited about the ninth edition’s potential. In the new edition’s preface, you’ll find a definition of
assessment literacy presented, in italics no less, as seen below:
SO
Assessment literacy consists of an individual’s
understanding of the fundamental assessment concepts
and procedures deemed likely to influence educational
decisions.
LU
In other words, assessment literacy refers to a person’s understanding of the stuff that can
influence the educational decisions we make about students. Without possession of assessment
literacy, people can make truly boneheaded assessment-based mistakes about students—such
mistakes lowering educational quality, often substantially. The possession of assessment literacy
by decision-makers or decision-influencers, however, will lead to fewer educational mistakes
and, as a consequence, to a meaningfully improved education for children. And it can be pulled
TI
off costing, essentially, pennies.
We could, of course, improve our schools dramatically by requiring teachers to teach far fewer
students and by giving those teachers much more instructional planning time. Sadly, such
O
changes would cost more than our society is willing to pay. Similarly, we could see whopper
improvements in schooling if we installed gigantic increases in teachers’ salaries so that our
schools could attract the most able individuals to teach in those schools. More able teachers will
N
become more instructionally skilled, hence the quality of schooling will clearly increase. Yet, as
was true with smaller class sizes, substantially boosting teachers’ salaries costs too much for
society to afford. In contrast, boosting assessment literacy can be accomplished for a pittance!
And that’s why increasing assessment literacy constitutes the most cost-effective way to increase
the effectiveness of our schools. You can decide whether you wish to encourage your own
students to become what would be, in essence, assessment literacy’s ambassadors.
kjhgfds
