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Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of
Students
Developed by the
American Federation of Teachers
National Council on Measurement in Education
National Education Association
This is not copyrighted material. Reproduction and dissemination are
encouraged.
1990
The professional education associations began working in 1987 to develop
standards for teacher competence in student assessment out of concern
that the potential educational benefits of student assessments be fully
realized. The Committee[1] appointed to this project completed its work in 1990 following reviews of earlier drafts by members of the measurement, teaching, and teacher preparation and certification communities. Parallel committees of affected associations are encouraged to develop similar statements of qualifications for school administrators, counselors, testing directors, supervisors, and other educators in the near future. These statements are intended to guide the preservice and inservice preparation of educators, the accreditation of preparation programs, and the future certification of all educators.
A standard is defined here as a principle generally accepted by the
professional associations responsible for this document. Assessment is
defined as the process of obtaining information that is used to make
educational decisions about students, to give feedback to the student
about his or her progress, strengths, and weaknesses, to judge
instructional effectiveness and curricular adequacy, and to inform
policy. The various assessment techniques include, but are not limited
to, formal and informal observation, qualitative analysis of pupil
performance and products, paper-and-pencil tests, oral questioning, and
analysis of student records. The assessment competencies included here
are the knowledge and skills critical to a teacher's role as educator. It
is understood that there are many competencies beyond assessment
competencies which teachers must possess.
By establishing standards for teacher competence in student assessment,
the associations subscribe to the view that student assessment is an
essential part of teaching and that good teaching cannot exist without
good student assessment. Training to develop the competencies covered in
the standards should be an integral part of preservice preparation.
Further, such assessment training should be widely available to
practicing teachers through staff development programs at the district
and building levels.
The standards are intended for use as:
- a guide for teacher educators as they design and approve programs for
teacher preparation
- a self-assessment guide for teachers in identifying their needs for
professional development in student assessment
- a guide for workshop instructors as they design professional
development experiences for in-service teachers
- an impetus for educational measurement specialists and teacher
trainers to conceptualize student assessment and teacher training in
student assessment more broadly than has been the case in the past.
The standards should be incorporated into future teacher training and
certification programs. Teachers who have not had the preparation these
standards imply should have the opportunity and support to develop these
competencies before the standards enter into the evaluation of these
teachers.
The Approach Used To Develop The Standards
The members of the associations that supported this work are professional
educators involved in teaching, teacher education, and student
assessment. Members of these associations are concerned about the
inadequacy with which teachers are prepared for assessing the educational
progress of their students, and thus sought to address this concern
effectively. A committee named by the associations first met in September
1987 and affirmed its commitment to defining standards for teacher
preparation in student assessment. The committee then undertook a review
of the research literature to identify needs in student assessment,
current levels of teacher training in student assessment, areas of
teacher activities requiring competence in using assessments, and current
levels of teacher competence in student assessment.
The members of the committee used their collective experience and
expertise to formulate and then revise statements of important assessment
competencies. Drafts of these competencies went through several revisions
by the Committee before the standards were released for public review.
Comments by reviewers from each of the associations were then used to
prepare a final statement.
The Scope of a Teacher's Professional Role and Responsibilities for
Student Assessment
There are seven standards in this document. In recognizing the critical
need to revitalize classroom assessment, some standards focus on
classroom-based competencies. Because of teachers' growing roles in
education and policy decisions beyond the classroom, other standards
address assessment competencies underlying teacher participation in
decisions related to assessment at the school, district, state, and
national levels.
The scope of a teacher's professional role and responsibilities for
student assessment may be described in terms of the following activities.
These activities imply that teachers need competence in student
assessment and sufficient time and resources to complete them in a
professional manner.
- Activities Occurring Prior to Instruction
- (a) Understanding students' cultural backgrounds, interests, skills,
and abilities as they apply across a range of learning domains and/or
subject areas;
- (b) understanding students' motivations and their
interests in specific class
content;
- (c) clarifying and articulating the performance outcomes
expected of pupils; and
- (d) planning instruction for individuals or
groups of students.
- Activities Occurring During Instruction
- (a) Monitoring pupil progress toward instructional goals;
- (b)
identifying gains and difficulties pupils are experiencing in learning
and performing;
- (c) adjusting instruction;
- (d) giving contingent,
specific, and credible praise and feedback;
- (e) motivating students to
learn; and
- (f) judging the extent of pupil attainment of instructional
outcomes.
- Activities Occurring After The Appropriate Instructional Segment
(e.g. lesson, class, semester, grade)
- (a) Describing the extent to which each pupil has attained both
short- and long-term instructional goals;
- (b) communicating strengths and
weaknesses based on assessment results to students, and parents or
guardians;
- (c) recording and reporting assessment results for
school-level analysis, evaluation, and decision-making;
- (d) analyzing
assessment information gathered before and during instruction to
understand each students' progress to date and to inform future
instructional planning;
- (e) evaluating the effectiveness of instruction;
and
- (f) evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and materials in
use.
- Activities Associated With a Teacher's Involvement in School Building
and School District Decision-Making
- (a) Serving on a school or district committee examining the school's
and district's strengths and weaknesses in the development of its
students;
- (b) working on the development or selection of assessment
methods for school building or school district use;
- (c) evaluating school
district curriculum; and
- (d) other related activities.
- Activities Associated With a Teacher's Involvement in a Wider
Community of Educators
- (a) Serving on a state committee asked to develop learning goals and
associated assessment methods;
- (b) participating in reviews of the
appropriateness of district, state, or national student goals and
associated assessment methods; and
- (c) interpreting the results of state
and national student assessment programs.
Each standard that follows is an expectation for assessment knowledge or
skill that a teacher should possess in order to perform well in the five
areas just described. As a set, the standards call on teachers to
demonstrate skill at selecting, developing, applying, using,
communicating, and evaluating student assessment information and student
assessment practices. A brief rationale and illustrative behaviors follow
each standard.
The standards represent a conceptual framework or scaffolding from which
specific skills can be derived. Work to make these standards operational
will be needed even after they have been published. It is also expected
that experience in the application of these standards should lead to
their improvement and further development.
Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of
Students
1. Teachers should be skilled in choosing
assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions.
Skills in choosing appropriate, useful, administratively convenient,
technically adequate, and fair assessment methods are prerequisite to
good use of information to support instructional decisions. Teachers need
to be well-acquainted with the kinds of information provided by a broad
range of assessment alternatives and their strengths and weaknesses. In
particular, they should be familiar with criteria for evaluating and
selecting assessment methods in light of instructional plans.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. They will be able to use the concepts of assessment
error and validity when developing or selecting their approaches to
classroom assessment of students. They will understand how valid
assessment data can support instructional activities such as providing
appropriate feedback to students, diagnosing group and individual
learning needs, planning for individualized educational programs,
motivating students, and evaluating instructional procedures. They will
understand how invalid information can affect instructional decisions
about students. They will also be able to use and evaluate assessment
options available to them, considering among other things, the cultural,
social, economic, and language backgrounds of students. They will be
aware that different assessment approaches can be incompatible with
certain instructional goals and may impact quite differently on their
teaching.
Teachers will know, for each assessment approach they use, its
appropriateness for making decisions about their pupils. Moreover,
teachers will know of where to find information about and/or reviews of
various assessment methods. Assessment options are diverse and include
text- and curriculum-embedded questions and tests, standardized
criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests, oral questioning,
spontaneous and structured performance assessments, portfolios,
exhibitions, demonstrations, rating scales, writing samples,
paper-and-pencil tests, seatwork and homework, peer- and
self-assessments, student records, observations, questionnaires,
interviews, projects, products, and others' opinions.
2. Teachers should be skilled in developing
assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions.
While teachers often use published or other external assessment tools,
the bulk of the assessment information they use for decision-making comes
from approaches they create and implement. Indeed, the assessment demands
of the classroom go well beyond readily available instruments.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. Teachers will be skilled in planning the collection
of information that facilitates the decisions they will make. They will
know and follow appropriate principles for developing and using
assessment methods in their teaching, avoiding common pitfalls in student
assessment. Such techniques may include several of the options listed at
the end of the first standard. The teacher will select the techniques
which are appropriate to the intent of the teacher's instruction.
Teachers meeting this standard will also be skilled in using student data
to analyze the quality of each assessment technique they use. Since most
teachers do not have access to assessment specialists, they must be
prepared to do these analyses themselves.
3. The teacher should be skilled in
administering, scoring and interpreting the results of both
externally-produced and teacher-produced assessment methods.
It is not enough that teachers are able to select and develop good
assessment methods; they must also be able to apply them properly.
Teachers should be skilled in administering, scoring, and interpreting
results from diverse assessment methods.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. They will be skilled in interpreting informal and
formal teacher-produced assessment results, including pupils'
performances in class and on homework assignments. Teachers will be able
to use guides for scoring essay questions and projects, stencils for
scoring response-choice questions, and scales for rating performance
assessments. They will be able to use these in ways that produce
consistent results.
Teachers will be able to administer standardized achievement tests and be
able to interpret the commonly reported scores: percentile ranks,
percentile band scores, standard scores, and grade equivalents. They will
have a conceptual understanding of the summary indexes commonly reported
with assessment results: measures of central tendency, dispersion,
relationships, reliability, and errors of measurement.
Teachers will be able to apply these concepts of score and summary
indices in ways that enhance their use of the assessments that they
develop. They will be able to analyze assessment results to identify
pupils' strengths and errors. If they get inconsistent results, they will
seek other explanations for the discrepancy or other data to attempt to
resolve the uncertainty before arriving at a decision. They will be able
to use assessment methods in ways that encourage students' educational
development and that do not inappropriately increase students' anxiety
levels.
4. Teachers should be skilled in using
assessment results when making decisions about individual students,
planning teaching, developing curriculum, and school improvement.
Assessment results are used to make educational decisions at several
levels: in the classroom about students, in the community about a school
and a school district, and in society, generally, about the purposes and
outcomes of the educational enterprise. Teachers play a vital role when
participating in decision-making at each of these levels and must be able
to use assessment results effectively.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. They will be able to use accumulated assessment
information to organize a sound instructional plan for facilitating
students' educational development. When using assessment results to plan
and/or evaluate instruction and curriculum, teachers will interpret the
results correctly and avoid common misinterpretations, such as basing
decisions on scores that lack curriculum validity. They will be informed
about the results of local, regional, state, and national assessments and
about their appropriate use for pupil, classroom, school, district,
state, and national educational improvement.
5. Teachers should be skilled in developing
valid pupil grading procedures which use pupil assessments.
Grading students is an important part of professional practice for
teachers. Grading is defined as indicating both a student's level of
performance and a teacher's valuing of that performance. The principles
for using assessments to obtain valid grades are known and teachers
should employ them.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. They will be able to devise, implement, and explain a
procedure for developing grades composed of marks from various
assignments, projects, inclass activities, quizzes, tests, and/or other
assessments that they may use. Teachers will understand and be able to
articulate why the grades they assign are rational, justified, and fair,
acknowledging that such grades reflect their preferences and judgments.
Teachers will be able to recognize and to avoid faulty grading procedures
such as using grades as punishment. They will be able to evaluate and to
modify their grading procedures in order to improve the validity of the
interpretations made from them about students' attainments.
6. Teachers should be skilled in communicating
assessment results to students, parents, other lay audiences, and other
educators.
Teachers must routinely report assessment results to students and to
parents or guardians. In addition, they are frequently asked to report or
to discuss assessment results with other educators and with diverse lay
audiences. If the results are not communicated effectively, they may be
misused or not used. To communicate effectively with others on matters of
student assessment, teachers must be able to use assessment terminology
appropriately and must be able to articulate the meaning, limitations,
and implications of assessment results. Furthermore, teachers will
sometimes be in a position that will require them to defend their own
assessment procedures and their interpretations of them. At other times,
teachers may need to help the public to interpret assessment results
appropriately.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. Teachers will understand and be able to give
appropriate explanations of how the interpretation of student assessments
must be moderated by the student's socio-economic, cultural, language,
and other background factors. Teachers will be able to explain that
assessment results do not imply that such background factors limit a
student's ultimate educational development. They will be able to
communicate to students and to their parents or guardians how they may
assess the student's educational progress. Teachers will understand and
be able to explain the importance of taking measurement errors into
account when using assessments to make decisions about individual
students. Teachers will be able to explain the limitations of different
informal and formal assessment methods. They will be able to explain
printed reports of the results of pupil assessments at the classroom,
school district, state, and national levels.
7. Teachers should be skilled in recognizing
unethical, illegal, and otherwise inappropriate assessment methods and
uses of assessment information.
Fairness, the rights of all concerned, and professional ethical behavior
must undergird all student assessment activities, from the initial
planning for and gathering of information to the interpretation, use, and
communication of the results. Teachers must be well-versed in their own
ethical and legal responsibilities in assessment. In addition, they
should also attempt to have the inappropriate assessment practices of
others discontinued whenever they are encountered. Teachers should also
participate with the wider educational community in defining the limits
of appropriate professional behavior in assessment.
Teachers who meet this standard will have the conceptual and application
skills that follow. They will know those laws and case decisions which
affect their classroom, school district, and state assessment practices.
Teachers will be aware that various assessment procedures can be misused
or overused resulting in harmful consequences such as embarrassing
students, violating a student's right to confidentiality, and
inappropriately using students' standardized achievement test scores to
measure teaching effectiveness.
Invitation to Users
The associations invite comments from users that may be used for
improvement of this document.
Comments may be sent to:
Teacher Standards in Student Assessment
American Federation of Teachers
555 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Teacher Standards in Student Assessment
National Council on Measurement in Education
1230 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Teacher Standards in Student Assessment
Instruction and Professional Development
National Education Association
1201 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
[1] The Committee that developed this statement was appointed by the collaborating professional associations: James R. Sanders (Western Michigan University) chaired the Committee and represented NCME along with John R. Hills (Florida State University) and Anthony J. Nitko (University of Pittsburgh). Jack C. Merwin (University of Minnesota)
represented the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education,
Carolyn Trice represented the American Federation of Teachers, and
Marcella Dianda and Jeffrey Schneider represented the National Education
Association.
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