The use of validity and reliability when creating assessments in your school

Post three to five paragraphs that justify the use of validity and reliability when creating assessments in your school or workplace. Include the following headings:

Defining Validity and Reliability

Facilitator Perspective (the facilitator is the person giving the assessment)

Stakeholder Perspective (the person taking the assessment)

INTRODUCTION:

EVALUATION AND RESEARCH PROJECTS: APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES OF VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

Assessment is the process of gathering information to guide instructional decisions (Stiggins, 2017). Learner success depends greatly on the quality of the assessment given. In order to progress to the next level of learning, students need to master lower level academics to reach for higher goals. Although most teachers love to teach, they hate to grade (Klenowski & Wyatt-Smith, 2013). Creating true assessment products requires a strong understanding of both validity and reliability. Refer to figure 1 for an illustration of reliability and validity. Validity is the extent to which a test or other assessments measure what they were intended to measure. Whereas reliability is concerned with the degree to which test scores are free from measurement errors and are consistent from one occasion to another (Federal Emergency Management Administration, n.d.).

http://www.learningspy.co.uk/assessment/when-asses…

Figure 1. Reliability and Validity (Didau, 2016)

Reliability=Consistency (Popham, 2017).

As a general classroom teacher, reliability may not be important in your day-to-day lessons. If this is the case, then why do you really need to know how to determine reliability? There are actually several reasons: First, there may be a parent who needs clarification about the term. Second, as a teacher you should understand the fundamentals of reliability. Third, the higher the stakes, the more attention should be paid to the reliability of the test being used (Popham, 2017). Assessment systems should serve all decision makers, not just once a year but throughout instruction—before, during, and after the learning (Stiggins, 2017).

Validity=Accuracy (Popham, 2017).

In order for an assessment to be valid, it must reach the measurement of reliability; however, a reliable assessment may or may not necessarily be valid (Popham, 2017).

This week you will look at your current tools, techniques, and practices in order to determine if the assessments you use are reliable. You will also reflect on past assessments to determine if they were reliable, or valid, or both reliable and valid.

References

Didau, D. (2016). When assessment fails [Image]. Retrieved from
http://www.learningspy.co.uk/assessment/when-asses…

Federal Emergency Management Administration. (n.d.). Understanding validity and reliability: Key points. Retrieved from http://www.humtech.com/htoffice/website/sites/K606…

Klenowski, V., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2013). Assessment for education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Popham, W.J. (2107). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (8th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Stiggins, R. (2017). The perfect assessment system. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

REQUIRED STUDIES

The following materials are required studies for this week. Complete these studies at the beginning of the week and save these weekly materials for future use.

Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know (Popham, 2017)

Chapter 3: Reliability of Assessment

Chapter 4: Validity

Chapter 5: Fairness

The Perfect Assessment System (Stiggins, 2017)

Chapter 1: Confronting Our Assessment Crisis: It’s Time to Start Over

Chapter 3: Overview of the Perfect Assessment Cure and System

Chapter 4: Assessments That Serve All Users and Uses

Chapter 5: Start With Clear and Appropriate Learning Targets

Chapter 7: Effective Communication of Assessment Results

Chapter 9: The Costs and Benefits of Perfection

NOTE: The ASCD Study Guide for The Perfect Assessment System (ASCD, 2017) is an alternative resource for the Stiggins (2017) text. This option is offered in case the Stiggins (2017) text takes longer than expected to arrive. The full Stiggins (2017) textbook is required for this course, and students will need to reference the Roadmap, Scenarios and Contrasting Dynamics in the last half of this course.

Read

Communicating With Parents: Strategies for Teachers (Graham-Clay, 2005) [Web page]

Improving Teaching Through Improving Evaluation: A Guide to Course Portfolios(Laverie, 2002) [Web page]

Validity and Reliability (Concordia University Portland, 2014) [PDF]

Classroom Assessment Matrix Template (Zientara, 2014) [DOC]

Review

Gamed by the System: Adequate Yearly Progress as an Indicator of Persistently Low-Achieving School Performance (Hochbein, Mitchell, & Pollio, 2013) [Web page]

Budgeters’ Views of State Performance-Budgeting Systems: Distinctions Across Branches(Melkers & Willoughby, 2001) [Web page]

Managing for Results in State Government: Evaluating a Decade of Reform (Moynihan, 2006) [Web page]