ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT STEPS

After the blueprint has been created, it is time to formulate the assessment prompts. Throughout this process the developer must consider several things. These include:

1) in what manner should the assessment questions or instructions be presented to the student,

2) what additional stimulus materials will be needed,

3) how the students will respond and how such responses will be recorded and scored,

4) what criteria will be used to judge student responses,

5) the number of scale points for scoring student responses, and

6) samples of each level of response.

Once the exercises have been written, the next step is to edit them. This is an important step in assuring that the exercise and assessment administration processes are understandable, that the exercise warrants the special time and attention which performance measures require, and that there is consistency among the performance exercises. The editor also can check to ensure that the stimulus materials fit with the exercises.

One of the more difficult aspects of performance exercises is writing the assessment administration directions. Many performance exercises are administered to students individually or in small groups. These exercises require the assessment administrator to set up a standard situation to which each student can respond, as well as, to read a standard set of directions to each student. Developing standard from https://writeanypapers.com/ assessment administration directions that are complete and accurate is usually the result of trying the exercise out one or more times and noting areas of students confusion, responses that students provided which are vague or incomplete, and ways in which some or all of students responded that were not anticipated. If a majority of student responses indicate that the assessment instrument is ineffective, considerable restructuring of the testing tool may be in order before any further testing of the instrument is completed.

Once the sample student responses are gathered, someone needs to review the responses and attempt to score them according to the criteria and preliminary scoring guide developed by the exercise writer. After the initial work on the scoring guide is complete, an expert panel of judges should be convened. This panel should be asked to review each exercise, confirm the preliminary judgments for each score scale point, and discuss those student responses that did not appear to be scorable according the preliminary scoring guide. This panel may note changes that needed to be made in the assessment administration process. Following the institution of these changes, the new test should be retested and reviewed by the panel for final approval.