CHAPTER 6 Ethics

This chapter centers on ethical issues and responsibilities of teachers in the

assessment process.

Students' Knowledge of Learning Targets and Assessments

This aspect of fairness speaks of transparency.

Transparency is defined here as disclosure of information to students about

assessments. This includes what learning outcomes are to be assessed and
evaluated, assessment methods and formats, weighting of items, allocated time
in completing the assessment and grading criteria or rubric.

Test-taking skills is another concern. For instance, some students may be good in
answering multiple choice test items than other students.

Opportunity to Learn

There are teachers who are forced to give reading assignments because of the
breadth of content that has to be covered in addition to limited or lost classroom
time. Then, there is little or по instruction that follows.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills

Students may perform poorly in an assessment if they do not possess background

knowledge and skills.

Avoiding Stereotyping

A stereotype is a generalization of a group of people based on inconclusive

observations of a small sample of this group. Common stereotypes are racial,
sexual and gender remarks. Stereotyping is caused by preconceived judgments of
people one comes in contact with which are sometimes unintended.

Avoiding Bias in Assessment Tasks and Procedures

Assessment must be free from bias. Fairness demands that all learners are given
equal chances to do well (from the task) and get a good assessment (from the
rater). Teachers should not be affected by factors that are not part of the
assessment criteria. In correcting an essay for instance, a student's gender,
academic status, socio-economic background or handwriting should not influence
the teacher's judgment or scoring decisions

Offensiveness happens if test-takers get distressed, upset or distracted about how

an individual or a particular group is portrayed in the test.

Unfair penalization harms student performance due to test content, not because
items are offensive but rather, the content caters to some particular groups from
the same economic class, race, gender, etc., leaving other groups at a loss or a
disadvantage.

Accommodating Special Needs

Teachers need to be sensitive to the needs of students. Certain accommodations

must be given especially for those who are physically or mentally challenged.

Accommodations can be placed in one of six categories (Thurlow, McGrew,

Tindal, Thompson & Ysseldyke, 2000).

•Presentation (repeat directions, read aloud, use large print, braille)

• Response (mark answers in test booklet, permit responses via digital recorder
or computer, use

reference materials like dictionary)

•Setting (study carrel, separate room, preferential seating, individualized or small

group, special lighting)

•Timing (extended time, frequent breaks, unlimited time)

• Scheduling (specific time of day, subtests in different order, administer test in

several timed sessions)
•Others (special test preparation techniques and out-of-level tests)

Nature and extent of the learner's disability. Accommodation is dictated by the

type and degree of disability possessed by the learner. A learner with moderate
visual impairment would need a larger print edition of the assessment or special
lighting condition. Of course, a different type of accommodation is needed if the
child has severe visual loss.

Type and format of assessment. Accommodation is matched to the type and

format of assessment given. Accommodations vary depending on the length of
the assessment, the time allotted, mode of response, etc. A partially deaf child
would not require assistance in a written test.

Competency and content being assessed. Accommodation does not alter the level
of performance or content the assessment measures.

Relevance

—Relevance can also be thought of as an aspect of fairness. Irrelevant assessment

would mean short-changing students of worthwhile assessment experiences.

"Assessment should reflect the knowledge and skills that are most important for
students to learn." Assessment should not include irrelevant and trivial content.
Instead, it should measure learner's higher-order abilities such as critical thinking,
problem solving and creativity which are 21st century skills. These skills are
essential if one is to be productive and competitive in today's global society.
Teachers are reminded that when aiming for high levels of performance,
assessment should not curtail students' sense of creativity and personality in their
work. Rather, it should foster initiative and innovation among students.

"Assessment should support every student's opportunity to learn things that are
important."

Assessment must provide genuine opportunities for students to show what they
have learned and encourage reflective thinking. It should prompt them to explore
what they think is important. This can be done for example using Ogle's KWL
(Know-Want-Learn) chart as a learning and assessment tool. It activates students'
prior knowledge and personal curiosity and encourages inquiry and research.

"Assessment should tell teachers and individual students something that they do
not already know." Assessment should stretch students' ability and
understanding. Assessment tasks should allow them to apply their knowledge in
new situations. In a constructivist classroom, assessment can generate new
knowledge by scaffolding prior knowledge.

Ehical Issues

There are times when assessment is not called for. Asking pupils to answer
sensitive questions like their sexuality or problems in the family are unwarranted
especially without the consent of the parents. Grades and reports of teachers
generated from using invalid and unreliable test instruments are unjust. Resulting
interpretations are inaccurate and misleading.

CHAPTER 7

Planning the Test

Overview
Assessment in a classroom environment is accountability focused as it reflects the
success of the teacher and learners in the teaching-learning process. The test
results can be inferred to speak of how well the learners have studied hard to
hurdle the subject or course and the teachers, of how effectively well they have
delivered instruction. Teachers use summative testing as their principal means to
arrive at objective measures of students' performance, a practice also well
accepted by the stakeholders. This chapter intends to assist you and the teachers
in planning for the development of classroom-based tests to ensure their

The process of test construction for classroom testing applies the same initial
steps in the construction of any instrument designed to measure a psychological
construct. Figure 7.1 Illustrates these common steps shared by various authorities
(Crocker and Algina, 1986; Miller, et. al. 2009; Russel and Airasian, 2012):

A. Planning Phase - where purpose of the test is identified, learning outcomes to

be assessed are clearly specified and lastly a table of specifications is prepared to
guide the item construction phase

B. Item Construction Phase where test items are constructed following the
appropriate item format for the specified learning outcomes of instruction.

C. Review Phase where items are examined by the teacher or his/her peers, prior
to administration based on judgement of their alignment to content and behavior
components of the instructional competencies, and after administration, based
on an analysis of students' performance in each item.

Identifying Purpose of Test

Testing as an assessment mechanism aims to gather valid and reliable information

useful to both learners and teachers for formative as well as summative purposes.
Classroom formative assessments seek to uncover what students know and can
do to get feedback on what they need to alter or work on farther to improve their
learning.

Specifying the Learning Outcomes

Assessment has changed considerably as advances occur in the field of
educational and cognitive psychology particularly in defining learning and its
domains.

Preparing a Test Blueprint

Whatever the purpose of the test maybe, a teacher must determine appropriately
the learning outcomes to be assessed and how they will be assessed.

. The curriculum dictates the instructional as well as assessment strategies to be

applied while assessment informs both the curriculum and instruction what
decisions to make to improve learning.

IVY SORONIO JAMITO PART (TOS)

To assure the preparation of a good test, a test blueprint is commonly set up in a

two-way Table of Specifications (TOS) that basically spells out WHAT will be
tested and HOW it will be tested to obtain the information needed. WHAT
covers two aspects: the content area (i.e. subject matter) being covered and the
target learning outcomes (i.e. competencies). These two aspects should sample
the intended curriculum standards for the subject or course. HOW specifies the
test format, i.e. the type of assessment question or task to be used and the item
distribution to attain an effective and balanced sampling of skills to be tested.

TABLE 7.1.

A table of specification takes different forms depending on what a teacher wants

to show. With only one element, e.g. the objectives or skills, in the TOS present as
shown in Table 7.1, it is called a one-way grid showing a plan for testing different
learning outcomes within the same topic area (e.g. verbs). One-way TOS is often
used for skill-oriented subjects like language and reading or for classroom
formative tests focusing on specific skills.

TABLE 7.2
Another TOS is shown in Table 7.2 for the same language test. This time, both
elements are shown, i.e. what (subject matter and skills) and how (type of test
format). This instantiates a two-way grid or three-way grid depending on the
elements displayed. Column 1 shows the topic or content, Column 2, the target
instructional outcomes or the skills and Column 3, the item format recommended
for use.

For the test or item format, two general types can be utilized: objective test items
and non- objective or performance tasks. They are called objective items because
they have a single right or best answer for every item based on a key to correction
prepared in advance

Outcomes 1 and 2 call for the application of rules in the use of verbs. Although
the term identify is used in Outcome 1, it goes beyond just knowing or recalling
the rule. The learners identify the statements with erroneous application of a
rule. Outcome 2 is more direct in applying the rule as the learner has to supply
the correct verb forms in a stimulus material like a paragraph. Outcome 3
demands a higher level of cognition (i.e. creating) as it requires the integration of
different skills (verb usage, vocabulary, organization, mechanics, etc.) to produce
a news article.

TABLE 7.3

Table 7.3 shows an expanded TOS by indicating the specific item format to be
used in framing the test questions. Outcome 1 may call for objective types like
Selection type requiring the response to be selected or recognized from two given
choices. For Outcome 2. Supply type can be used with a paragraph as stimulus
material with gaps or blanks representing the verbs to be supplied. The number of
gaps in the paragraph is the number of items for this portion. Outcome 3 is a
performance task calling for an authentic writing task of producing a real product
or output. It is non-objective since the teacher will have to use a scoring scale to
rate the finished product. The finished product could be rated using Grammatical
Accuracy and Clarity of Message as criteria for the rubric.