Describe the components of quality assessment.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Answers to this question will vary but should include elements of the following: Stiggins and Cappuis (2012) indicated that quality assessment can be achieved when a variety of components are in place. These include, first, the identification of a clear purpose for the assessment. Teachers need to decide, for example, if the primary purpose is to give feedback to students or to provide data to administrative decision makers. To address the second component, Stiggins and Cappuis (2012) underlined the importance of providing to students very clear ideas, or targets, of what they need to learn and/or achieve. Quality assessments also call for sound design, which means that teachers understand the variety of assessment methods and choose the assessment method that appropriately matches the intended target. Sound design also means that teachers write assessment questions of all types well and attend to possible bias that can negatively influence assessments. A fourth component of quality assessments, effective communication, means that teachers effectively communicate assessment results to students and a variety of other audiences, select the best reporting option for each learning target and set of users of assessment information, and use standardized test results correctly. Finally, the fifth component of quality assessments is student involvement, which means the teacher makes learning targets clear to students and involves students in tracking and setting their own learning goals. Using all five of these components will serve the learning needs of diverse learners well.