Assessment Issues and Design for Classroom Practice and Education Policy.

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. This course explores all aspects of assessment that a teacher encounters in prek-12 educational settings and in doing so provides a strong foundation for emerging educational researchers and evaluators in the area of assessment. Classroom discussion will focus on current assessment theories, dimensions of assessment literacy and assessment strategies used to monitor and measure student learning in today’s classrooms -- including students with and without disabilities and English language learners, as well as accounting for students’ diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences. Assessments at all stages of instruction (before, during and after), including formal and informal assessments and their applications in, and for, inclusive educational settings will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which teachers can gather and use assessments to make decisions to support effective instruction and intervention to support student growth and learning. Specifically, the course will explore the relationships among content standards, instruction and assessment, as well as ways to use a variety of assessments to monitor student progress. The course emphasizes making valid inferences from assessments in a variety of formats, understanding the legal and policy context of assessment, and the implications for appropriate grading practices and decision-making.