CHAPTER 1

Basic Concepts of Educational Assessment

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the chapter, the learners are expected to:
a. Differentiate measurement, evaluation, and assessment;
b. Discuss the characteristics of the different concepts in assessment of learning;
c. Identify important purposes of both classroom and large-scale assessment;
d. Cite differences between standardized testing and classroom assessments; and
e. Characterize assessments that will influence instructional decisions.

INTRODUCTION:

The educative process happens between the teacher and the students. It is in
this process where teaching and learning transpires to affect student development.
As learning is transferred to the learners, the valuation of the extent of learning is
very important as this is the basis for academic improvement. Research (Davies
2004; Stiggins et al. 2004) has shown that students will be motivated and become
confident learners when they experience progress and achievement through
assessment.
This chapter provides the basic concepts of assessment in the field of
education. It presents the different approaches and the role of assessment in
instructional decisions and how these assessment procedures influence learning
progress.
1.1 BASIC CONCEPTS IN ASSESSING STUDENT
LEARNING

With the change of focus in instruction from content to learning outcomes

came the need to redefine and clarify the terms used to determine the progress of
students towards attainment of the desired learning outcomes. These are
measurement, evaluation, and assessment.

MEASUREMENT
Thorndike and Hagen (1986) define measurement as “the process of
quantifying observations and/or descriptions about a quality or attribute of a thing or
person.”
Measurement is the process of determining or describing the attributes or
characteristics of physical objects generally in terms of quantity.
In our daily lives, we deal with measurement through different devices or
instruments such as ruler, scale, thermometer, or pressure gauge. Measuring is
actually collecting quantitative information relative to some established standards.
Sometimes, physical quantities can be measured by combining directly
measurable quantities to form derived quantities such as finding the area of a
rectangular piece of paper by multiplying the lengths of the sides of the paper.
In the field of education, however, the quantities and qualities of interest are
abstract, unseen and cannot be touched, thus the measurement process becomes
difficult; hence, the need to specify the learning outcomes to be measured.
Say for instance, standardized tests are used to measure the knowledge of a
certain subject matter. In this case, the measurement procedure is testing. In
education, perceptions are also used to measure the students’ knowledge of the
subject matter. Example, we can ask a group of experts to rate the learners in a
scale of 1 to 5.

Classification of Measurement
 Classroom Measurement - refers to the set of measurements made by
classroom teachers. The purpose of this measurement is to assess the
progress of a particular student or of an entire class. It includes teacher-made
tests and other instruments for assessing students learning in a class.

 System Measurement - refers to the set of measurements made by policy-

makers either in the local or national levels. A good example of this is the
decision to administer the yearly round National Achievement Test which was
reached only after a thorough study on our educational system. This is the
system which school administrators and managers also take into
consideration.
Steps in Educational Measurement
1. Identification and definition of the attribute. The identification and definition of
an attribute to measure may be easy or difficult depending on the level of
abstractness of the attribute. Thus, we have no difficulty in defining the length,
width or height of a rectangular block since we all have the same idea of
these attributes. However, we will run into serious trouble when we try to
identify and define love, social intelligence, or hate since these concepts have
different meanings to different people. Often, a measurement expert defines
an attribute to be measured operationally or within the context of the use of
such attribute. In this way, whenever the attribute is qualified, everyone
agrees on its definition.

2. Identifying a set of observable characteristics relevant to the attribute. It is

necessary to identify characteristics relevant to the attribute. For example, we
want to measure a person’s social intelligence, and define social intelligence
as the person’s ability to interact harmoniously with other people. Given this,
some of the observable behaviors may be (a) number of friends; (number of
positive comments of the friends on the person; (c) frequency of interpersonal
conflicts in a given time frame.

3. Quantifying the attribute in units. The third and final step is to quantify the
attribute in common unit. The quantification of an attribute depends on the
quantification of the observable characteristics defined in step 2. For example,
suppose we consider the social intelligence of an 8-year old boy and suppose
that on the average, the general 8-year old boy population has 10 friends, and
of the friends, 6 gives positive comments and admit to an average of 4
quarrels per week. Then, if the 8-year old boy has 12 friends, receives 8
positive comments and quarrels with 2 friends every week his social
intelligence would be 1.1 (derived from Social Intelligence formula).

ASSESSMENT
Assessment is the process of gathering evidence of students’ performance
over a period of time to determine learning and mastery of skills. Such evidences of
learning can take the forms of dialogue record, journals, written works, portfolios,
tests, and other learning tasks.
Assessment involves setting explicit student learning goals, evaluating the
extent to which students are reaching those goals, and using the information for
program development and improvement.
Assessment is likewise made to improve student learning and provide
students, parents, and teachers with reliable information regarding student progress
and extent of attainment of the expected learning outcomes. Assessment results
show the more permanent learning and clearer picture of the students’ ability.
In education, we assess both skills and cognitive ability. However,
assessment of skill attainment is relatively easier than assessment of understanding
and other mental ability. Skills can be assessed by just mere observation while
assessment of knowledge are done through looking into certain indicators of
understanding through written descriptions.

Educational assessment must be:

1. Fair, balanced, and grounded in the art and science of learning and teaching;
2. Reflective of curricular and development goals and representative of the content
that students have had an opportunity to learn;
3. Used to inform and improve instruction;
4. Designed to accommodate students with special needs; and
5. Valid, reliable, and supported by professionals, scientific, and ethical standards
designed to fairly assess the unique and diverse abilities and knowledge base of
all students.

Forms of Assessment
1. Traditional Assessment – it refers to the use of paper-and-pen objective
test.

2. Alternative Assessment – it refers to the use of methods other than paper-

and-pen objective test which includes performance tests, projects, portfolios,
journals, and the likes.

3. Authentic Assessment – it refers to the use of an assessment method that

stimulate true-to-life situations. This could be objective tests that reflect real-
life situations or alternative methods that are parallel to what we experience in
real life.

EVALUATION
Evaluation is a continuous process. It refers to the process of determining the
extent to which instructional objectives are attained. It involves measurement and
assigning qualitative meaning through value judgments. Evaluation represents both
objective and subjective approaches in assessing student’s learning. In a broader
perspective, evaluation is a means of determining the effectiveness of teaching
methodologies, instructional materials and many others.

Functions of Measurement and Evaluation

1. Measures student’s achievement. By the use of measurement and evaluation,
the student’s achievement in the class can be determined. Besides, the idea
on whether the student has attained the objectives for the subject matter or
not can be assessed through measurement and evaluation.

2. Motivates student’s learning. Measurement and evaluation can encourage

students to study more. Students’ interest to study a particular subject matter
is aroused.
 3. Predicts student’s success. The success and failure of students in the class
and in the next higher grades or year levels can be predicted through
measurement and evaluation. One can tell whether a particular student has
the chance to pass the subject and can be promoted to the next grade or year
level.

4. Diagnoses student’s difficulty. Through measurement and evaluation, the

weaknesses of the students in the class can be identified and remedied. The
results of measurement and evaluation can, therefore, be used to improve the
learning and performance of the students in the class.

5. Evaluates instruction. Measurement and evaluation can also be appraised

instruction. Through these inseparable processes, the feedback about the
instruction, which can serve as a vital basis for improvement and
enhancement in the class, will be unearthed.

Evaluation and the Teaching-Learning Process

The integration of evaluation into the teaching – learning process can be seen
in the following stages of the process:

1. Classifying instructional objectives. Classifying instructional objectives will

contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning process. These
objectives should be stated in terms of desirable student’s behavior in the
thee domains of the taxonomy of educational objectives: cognitive, affective,
and psychomotor. To be most useful, the instructional objectives must be
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
 Cognitive domain – involves the development of our mental skills and
the acquisition of knowledge.
 Affective domain – describes learning objectives that emphasize a
feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection.
 Psychomotor domain – it includes physical movement, coordination,
and use of the motor-skill areas.

2. Pre-assessment of students. Pre-assessment of the students’ abilities,

background, interest and needs are deemed necessary in order to improve
teaching-learning process. The result of this evaluation will guide the teachers
in making necessary instructional plans and remedial work that suit the needs
of students.

3. Providing relevant instructional activities. Coming up with an up-to-date

course outline and teaching procedures incorporated into the teaching-
learning process, will help the students obtain expected learning outcomes.

4. Determining the learning outcomes. Measuring instruments to assess the

students learning are used to determine how far the students have been
 achieving. When evaluation is conducted, these will assess the progress of
the students. Likewise, the teacher can evaluate the appropriateness,
suitability and attainability of the instructional objectives developed and the
effectiveness of the teaching methodologies and instructional materials.

Principles of Evaluation
1. Evaluation should be based on clear instructional objectives. The significant
aspects of educative process should be properly outlined and the student
growth and progress should be the foremost priority.

2. Evaluation procedures and techniques should be selected in terms of the

objectives they serve. It is always advisable for one to choose evaluation
procedures and techniques on the basis of the objectives they serve.
Evaluation should always take into consideration the specific aspects of
students’ performance as defined in the objectives and as basis for selection
of evaluation steps should be the relevant and appropriate objectives.

3. Evaluation should be comprehensive. Evaluation should cover wide aspects

of students’ growth. It should appraise the students’ progress in all desirable
instructional outcomes.

4. Evaluation should be continuous. Evaluation should always run parallel to the

process of education, in which individual students are held in continuous
process of growth and change.

5. Evaluation should be diagnostic and functional. Evaluation process should be

able to delve into the nature of teaching-learning situations as well as the
causes of the problems that disrupt effective learning process and the proper
growth of the students in the class. It should unearth some valuable
information that may be useful in the improvement of the teaching-learning
conditions and other aspects of good classroom atmosphere.

6. Evaluation should be a cooperative endeavor. Evaluation should not be the

work of one or few individuals. It should be cooperative effort of all person
who is concerned in the school’s learning-teaching program.

7. Evaluation should be used judiciously. It should be admitted that it is very

hard for any evaluation to give complete and perfect results. Evaluation per se
do not always yield direct precise information because the evaluation
instruments are not absolutely accurate or precise at all times. Hence, in
evaluating, a careful and precise judgment should always be employed.

Areas of Evaluation
 1. Curricular offerings, school programs, and instructional materials/facilities.
Courses offered should be evaluated to determine if they are still relevant,
realistic and responsive to the changing needs and problems of the society;
school programs must be appraised to determine if teachers are not
overloaded; and instructional materials like books, references, visual aids and
devices and many others should be assessed to ascertain if they are
adequate and updated; and instructional facilities like audio-visual equipment
such as projectors, televisions, and speech lab equipment and many others
are adequate and functional.
2. Mentors. The teachers should be appraised to determine if they possess the
qualities of an effective and efficient TEACHER, to determine if they can
deliver the goods and services to the students effectively, efficiently, and
economically, and to evaluate also if teachers are qualified or not qualified.

3. Pupils/Students. The pupils/students should be evaluated to determine

whether they have reached the goals of the learning tasks.

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

The preposition “for” in assessment FOR learning implies that assessment is
done to improve and ensure learning. This is referred to as FORmative assessment,
assessment that is given while the teacher is in the process of student formation
(learning). It ensures that learning is going on while teacher is in the process of
teaching.
Teacher does not lose anything if as he teaches, he checks for understanding
now and then. This is to ensure that before he proceeds further or comes near the
end of the chapter, unit, or course or grading period, the students understood the
lesson.
In assessment for learning, teachers use assessment results to inform or
adjust their teaching.

ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
Assessment “of” learning is usually given at the end of a unit, grading period,
or a term like a semester. It is meant to assess learning for grading purposes. This is
often referred to as the summative assessment.

ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING
Assessment “as” learning is associated with “self-assessment”. As the term
implies, assessment by itself is already a form of learning for the students.
As students assess their own work and/or with their peers with the use of
scoring rubrics, they learn on their own and becomes aware of how they learn. In
short, in assessment as learning, students set their targets, actively monitor and
evaluate their own learning in relation to their set target. As a result, they become
self-directed or independent learners.