Chapter+6


 * Date: || 6/21/12 || Title of Selection: || Evaluation of written response assessment for quality ||

Develop short answer items and scoring guides. Develop extended written response items and scoring guides. Use written response assessments formatively, as teaching tools. Structure written response assessments so that students can use the results to self-assess and set goals for further learning. ||
 * Learning target(s) this selection addresses:


 * What this selection illustrates about my learning/why I chose this selection: One way for me to check the quality of my test items is to try to write or outline a high-quality response myself. This insures that items on a test have the proper focus. It also helps insure that assessments are of high-quality and that they avoid bias and distortion. This activity helped me determine whether the students’ scores would actually reflect the content they had learned. I then could go back and clarify directions or items for the next time I use the test.**

1. After writing out the answers to each short answer and extended written response item and scoring them, what difficulties, if any, did you encounter? List them here.
 * **Problem #** || **Type of Difficulty** ||
 * 1

13

15 || This written response item would have been better stated as a selected response question. It is too “wordy” and might throw off ELL students.

Students who struggle with English proficiency will not be able to show me what they know and can do.

The item is not written at the lowest possible reading level. My ELL students might not understand what they are to do (too many steps). || 2. Using the Checklist of Quality Guidelines for Written Response Assessments, evaluate each item and scoring guide for quality. 3. If this activity has revealed flaws in one or more items, revise them and rewrite them here. Though the context might be clear to middle- and higher-level learners, it might seem confusing to lower- level students or ELL students. I would rephrase the question and change it to a selected response question. Ex.: “The following model shows a rectangle that has been painted half red. If the rectangle’s height is 30 cm and the area of the rectangle is 750 cm squared, how long is the rectangle?” I would then provide multiple choices. 13. This question says: “Part of a new, painted mural at Early Middle School will Include a large letter E in the center to represent the name of the school. The letter with its measurements is shown below (there is a model here). How much area will the block letter E take up?______________________Show all your calculations for full credit. Record your answer and fill in the bubbles on your answer document. Be sure to use the correct place value.” Students struggling with English proficiency will struggle with the wordiness of this problem. I would probably re-phrase it to read: “ What is the area of the following irregular figure?” I would then allow space for the students to show their work and have them grid their answer with the prompt: “Record your answer by writing and bubbling in your answer.” 15. The question reads: “Consider a company that has 9 employees with salaries Of $35,000 a year and their supervisor makes $150,000 a year. If you wanted to describe the typical salary in the company, which measure of central tendency or variability range would most likely be used?” There are 4 long, blank lines to fill in the answer. Again, the question is not written at the lowest possible reading level. In addition, there are four long lines for the students’ response which is very misleading. I would re-state the question and would put one bland for the students’ response. The question might read: “If 9 employees earned $35,000 per year and their supervisor earned $150,000 per year, what would be the best central tendency to use to describe a “typical” salary? _____________ This question could also be set up as a selected response question. || 4. If this activity has revealed problems with one or more scoring guides, revise them and rewrite them here. Question # 1 was worth two points (out of 30). If it were changed to a multiple choice, I would weight it with only one point. Question #13 has a rubric where students could earn up to 5 points by setting up and solving the problem correctly. I would weight this question the same way and use the same rubric, just change the way the question was phrased. Question #15 also has a rubric. Here, students can earn up to 7 points for answering correctly. I’m not sure why, but I am guessing that, because of the number of lines provided, the test maker may have originally asked that the student explain why they answered as they did. I would definitely change the weight of the question to 1-2 points (no rubric). If it were given as a multiple choice question, I would only give one point for the question. ||
 * Revised item(s):
 * 1) The question was: “Carl was working on an art project. One portion of the design will call for a rectangle that is painted half white and half red along a diagonal as shown below (there is a model here). If the height of the rectangle will be 30 cm and the area of red paint will be 750 cm squared, how long is the rectangle in centimeters? Record you answer and fill in the bubbles on your answer document. Be sure to use the correct place value.
 * Revised scoring guide(s):