The Quality of Classroom Assessments
A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2019) | Viewed by 8197
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The quality of assessments has traditionally been evaluated in terms of reliability and validity. However, these concepts have mainly evolved within the psychometric tradition and their relevance for classroom assessments may be questioned. The problematic relationship between psychometric conceptualizations of reliability and validity, on the one hand, and classroom assessments on the other, is particularly pronounced for validity, since “construct validity” is based on the notion of indirect measurement of latent—i.e., non-visible—constructs. While test developers need to ascertain that scores are interpreted and used in an acceptable way, this does not necessarily apply to the assessment of tangible products, such as lab-reports, essays, or oral presentations. In classroom assessments, the quality of student performance may therefore be assessed directly, without making reference to students’ ability, aptitude, or any other general skills/latent features. Furthermore, in relation to formative assessment, teachers need to identify strengths and weaknesses in student performance in order to provide feedback to the student. Such feedback needs to be task-related, context-sensitive, and focus on the quality of performance in order to support student learning, which—again—means that it is not necessary to make reference to any latent features of the student.
The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together research that may forward the discussion about how to judge the quality of classroom assessments, particularly in relation to reliability and validity, but also in relation to other concepts, such as fairness, alignment, or usability. Examples of questions are: How can the reliability of assessments be established within a classroom? How can teachers ascertain fairness and/or validity of their assessment decisions (such as grades)? How can the concepts of reliability and validity be used when assessing the quality of products, without the use of scores? What kind of assessment information is valued and used by teachers? Which quality criteria for assessments are relevant for classroom assessments, either in addition to, or in place of, reliability and validity?
The Special Issue is intended to contribute to the line of research that has questioned the relevance and adequacy of psychometric conceptualizations of reliability and validity for classroom assessments and student learning, perhaps most notably A systems approach to educational testing by Frederiksen and Collins (1989) and Validity in educational assessment by Moss, Girard, and Haniford (2006). There are also a number of researchers who have proposed adjustments of traditional quality criteria for assessments, as well as those who have proposed to replace them. This line of research has been meritoriously summarized by Baartman and her colleagues (2006).
Prof. Dr. Anders Jönsson
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- assessment decisions
- classroom assessment
- feedback
- grading
- reliability
- validity
