|
Below
you'll find both a Hotlist Glossary, comprising terms that are essential
for you to know, and below that a Complete Glossary.
There are several sources for definitions for many
of these terms, but those provided below were chosen, and sometimes even
slightly revised, to fit the Massachusetts ABE environment. Any term followed
by "(ACLS)" means that the term comes directly from the Adult
and Community Learning Services unit of Mass DOE.
We'll
be adding new terms in the future, so please visit this page often! |
| Alternative
Assessment (Authentic Assessment, Performance Assessment): |
An
assessment that requires students to generate a response to a question rather
than choose from a set of responses provided to them. Exhibitions, investigations,
demonstrations, written or oral responses, journals, and portfolios are
examples of the assessment alternatives we think of when we use the term
"alternative assessment." Ideally, alternative assessment requires
students to actively accomplish complex and significant tasks, while bringing
to bear prior knowledge, recent learning, and relevant skills to solve realistic
or authentic problems. Alternative assessments are usually one key element
of an assessment system. |
| Anchor
tests |
1.
A common set of items administered with each of two or more different forms
of a test for the purpose of equating the scores obtained on these forms.
2. "Anchor papers provide a connection between a rubric narrative and
student writing, and an example of what writing at a certain score of the
rubric should look like." (From: the REEP Writing Assessment Trainer's
Manual.) (see also Benchmark tasks; Benchmarking.) |
| Benchmark |
A
detailed description of a specific level of student performance expected
of students at particular ages, grades, or development levels. Benchmarks
are often represented by samples of student work. A set of benchmarks can
be used as "checkpoints" to monitor progress toward meeting performance
goals within and across grade levels. In ABE, SPLs (Student Performance
Levels) are examples of benchmarks; targets for instruction. |
| Constructed
response item |
An
exercise for which examinees must create their own responses or products
(performance assessment) rather than choose a response from an enumerated
set (multiple choice). |
| Countable
Outcomes (ACLS) |
Results
that can be quantified; all measures of student outcomes except learning
gains, including executive function skills, and affective-related measures.
Learning gains are gains in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and numeracy.
Executive function skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, and
metacognition. Affective-related measures include self-esteem, self confidence,
and interpersonal communication. Examples of Countable Outcomes include:
number of people who get jobs, number of people who register to vote, number
of people who achieve a GED. |
| Criterion-referenced
assessment (competency-based assessment) |
An
assessment where an individual's performance is compared to a specific learning
objective or performance standard and not to the performance of other students.
Criterion-referenced assessment tells us how well students are performing
on specific goals or standards rather that just telling how their performance
compares to a norm group of students nationally or locally. In criterion-referenced
assessments, it is possible that none, or all, of the examinees will reach
a particular goal or performance standard. |
| Formative
assessment |
Assessment
that provides feedback to the teacher for the purpose of improving instruction. |
| Grade
Level Equivalent (GLE) |
The school
grade level for a given population for which a given score is the median
score in that population. For example, if a test was administered during
the month of October to a norming group of sixth grade students and the
median scale score obtained was 475, then the grade equivalent for a scale
score of 475 on that test would be set at 6.1 - 6 representing Grade 6
and .1 representing the month of October (September is taken as the beginning
of the school year and equals .0). |
| High-stakes
test |
A
test used to provide results that have important, direct consequences for
examinees, programs, or institutions involved in the testing. For example,
MCAS (K-12) is considered a high-stakes test because children who do not
pass the examination do not receive a high school diploma, regardless of
their performance in other areas of their school education. |
| Norm-referenced
test |
An
objective test that is standardized on a group of individuals whose performance
is evaluated in relation to the performance of others; contrasted with criterion-referenced
test. Most standardized achievement tests are referred to as norm-referenced. |
| Performance
standards |
1.
A statement or description of a set of operational tasks exemplifying a
level of performance associated with a more general content standard; the
statement may be used to guide judgements about the location of a cut score
on a score scale; the term often implies a desired level of performance.
2. Explicit definitions of what students must do to demonstrate proficiency
at a specific level on the content standards; for example, in Massachusetts'
Curriculum Frameworks in the area of 'reading', there are six levels for
each of four standards. Under the standard "comprehension", performance
can range from "develop vocabulary" to "interpret charts
& graphs" to "recognize a variety of genres & styles." |
| Reliability |
How
accurately a score will be reproduced if an individual is measured again.
The degree to which the results of an assessment are dependable and consistently
measure particular student knowledge and/or skills. Reliability is an indication
of the consistency of scores across raters, over time, or across different
tasks or items that measure the same thing. Thus, reliability may be expressed
as (a) the relationship between test items intended to measure the same
skill or knowledge (item reliability), (b) the relationship between two
administrations of the same test to the same student or students (test/retest
reliability), or (c) the degree of agreement between two or more raters
(rater reliability). An unreliable assessment cannot be valid. |
| Rubrics |
Specific sets of criteria that clearly define for both student and teacher
what a range of acceptable and unacceptable performance looks like. Criteria
define descriptors of ability at each level of performance and assign values
to each level. Levels referred to are proficiency levels which describe
a continuum from excellent to unacceptable product. |
| Scale
scores |
A
score to which raw scores are converted by numerical transformation (e.g.,
conversion of raw scores to percentile ranks or standard scores); units
of a single, equal-interval scale that are applied across levels of a test;
for example, on TABE 7 & 8, scale scores are expressed as numbers that
may range from 0 through 999. |
| Selected
response item |
An
exercise for which examinees must choose a response from an enumerated set
(multiple choice) rather than create their own responses or products (performance
assessment). |
| Standardized
testing |
A
test designed to be given under specified, standard conditions to obtain
a sample of learner behavior that can be used to make inferences about the
learner's ability. Standardized testing allows results to be compared statistically
to a standard such as a norm or criteria. If the test is not administered
according to the standard conditions, the results are invalid. |
| Student
performance level (SPL) |
A
standard description of a student's (ESOL) language ability at a given level
in terms of speaking, listening, reading, writing, and the ability to communicate
with a native speaker; a profile of skill levels for a student can thus
be assigned and used for placement, instructional, or reporting purposes. |
| Summative
assessment |
A
culminating assessment, which gives information on students' mastery of
content, knowledge, or skills. |
| Validity |
The
extent to which an assessment measures what it is supposed to measure and
the extent to which inferences and actions made on the basis of test scores
are appropriate and accurate. For example, if a student performs well on
a reading test, how confident are we that that student is a good reader?
A valid standards-based assessment is aligned with the standards intended
to be measured, provides an accurate and reliable estimate of students'
performance relative to the standard, and is fair. An assessment cannot
be valid if it is not reliable. |
| Alternative
Assessment (Authentic Assessment, Performance Assessment): |
An
assessment that requires students to generate a response to a question rather
than choose from a set of responses provided to them. Exhibitions, investigations,
demonstrations, written or oral responses, journals, and portfolios are
examples of the assessment alternatives we think of when we use the term
"alternative assessment." Ideally, alternative assessment requires
students to actively accomplish complex and significant tasks, while bringing
to bear prior knowledge, recent learning, and relevant skills to solve realistic
or authentic problems. Alternative assessments are usually one key element
of an assessment system. |
| Analytic
scoring: |
Evaluating
student work across multiple dimensions of performance rather than from
an overall impression (holistic scoring). In analytic scoring, individual
scores for each dimension are scored and reported. For example, analytic
scoring of a history essay might include scores of the following dimensions:
use of prior knowledge, application of principles, use of original source
material to support a point of view, and composition. An overall impression
of quality may be included in analytic scoring. |
| Anchor
tests |
1.
A common set of items administered with each of two or more different forms
of a test for the purpose of equating the scores obtained on these forms.
2. "Anchor papers provide a connection between a rubric narrative and
student writing, and an example of what writing at a certain score of the
rubric should look like." (From: the REEP Writing Assessment Trainer's
Manual.) (see also Benchmark tasks; Benchmarking.) |
| Assessment |
Any
systematic method of obtaining information from tests and other sources,
used to draw inferences about characteristics of people, objects, or programs;
the process of gathering, describing, or quantifying information about performance;
an exercise-such as a written test, portfolio, or experiment-that seeks
to measure a student's skills or knowledge in a subject area. |
| Authentic
assessment (alternative assessment, performance assessment) |
Assessment
is authentic when we directly examine student performance on worthy intellectual
tasks.... Authentic assessments present the student with a full array of
tasks that mirror the priorities and challenges found in the best instructional
activities. |
| Benchmark |
A
detailed description of a specific level of student performance expected
of students at particular ages, grades, or development levels. Benchmarks
are often represented by samples of student work. A set of benchmarks can
be used as "checkpoints" to monitor progress toward meeting performance
goals within and across grade levels. In ABE, SPLs (Student Performance
Levels) are examples of benchmarks; targets for instruction. |
| Benchmark
tasks |
Pieces
of student work selected by a group of lead teachers as exemplifying a certain
score level. (See also Anchor Test.) |
| Benchmarking |
Comparing
performances of people on the same task; raters use "anchors"
to score student work, usually comparing the student performance to the
"anchor"; benchmarking is a common practice in the business world.
(See also Anchor Test.) |
| Bias |
A
situation that occurs in testing when items systematically measure differently
for different ethnic, gender, or age groups. Test developers reduce bias
by analyzing item data separately for each group, then identifying and discarding
items that appear to be biased. |
| Competency: |
A
group of characteristics, native or acquired, which indicate an individual's
ability to acquire skills in a given area |
| Competency-based
assessment (criterion-referenced assessment) |
Measures
an individual's performance against a predetermined standard of acceptable
performance. Progress is based on actual performance rather than on how
well learners perform in comparison to others; usually still given under
classroom conditions. CASAS and BEST are examples of competency-based assessments. |
| Constructed
response item |
An
exercise for which examinees must create their own responses or products
(performance assessment) rather than choose a response from an enumerated
set (multiple choice). |
| Constructivist
theory |
Posits
that people build new information onto pre-existing notions and modify their
understanding in light of new data. In the process, their ideas gain in
complexity and power. Constructivist theorists dismiss the idea that students
learn by absorbing information through lectures or repeated rote practice.
For example, EFF embraces a school of constructivism, which invites learners
to create their own meaning and achieve their own goals by interacting actively
with objects and information and by linking new materials to existing cognitive
structures. |
| Content
standards |
Broadly
stated expectations of what students should know and be able to do in particular
subjects and (grade) levels. Content standards define for teachers, schools,
students, and the community not only the expected student skills and knowledge,
but what programs should teach. For example, in Equipped for the Future
(EFF), there are 16 content standards or skills, each containing key aspects
which are essential for being able to apply the skills to real tasks or
activities. "Read With Understanding," then, entails: determining
the reading purpose, selecting reading strategies appropriate to that purpose,
monitoring comprehension and adjusting reading strategies, analyzing the
information and reflecting on its underlying meaning, and integrating it
with prior knowledge to address reading purpose. In Massachusetts' Curriculum
Frameworks, each of the disciplines contains its own set of broader standards
(The Massachusetts Common Core of Learning), as well as its own set of strands.
The strands in English Language Arts (ELA) then, are reading, writing, oral
communication, and critical thinking. Under reading, there are six levels
of standards around symbol mastery, phonology and decoding, word recognition,
and comprehension. |
| Core
Concepts (ACLS) |
The
core concept of each framework articulates why the subject matter is important
in the lives of the adult learner. The core concepts underlie the goals,
the principles, knowledge, and skills the adult learner needs to have ownership
of the subject matter. |
| Countable
Outcomes (ACLS) |
Results
that can be quantified; all measures of student outcomes except learning
gains, including executive function skills, and affective-related measures.
Learning gains are gains in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and numeracy.
Executive function skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, and
metacognition. Affective-related measures include self-esteem, self confidence,
and interpersonal communication. Examples of Countable Outcomes include:
number of people who get jobs, number of people who register to vote, number
of people who achieve a GED. |
| Creaming |
The
process of focusing on participants who are easy to serve, with the possible
consequence of neglecting those participants who are most in need of services. |
| Criteria |
Guidelines,
rules, characteristics, or dimensions that are used to judge the quality
of student performance. Criteria indicate what we value in student responses,
products or performances. They may be holistic, analytic, general, or specific.
Scoring rubrics are based on criteria and define what the criteria mean
and how they are used. |
| Criterion-referenced
assessment (competency-based assessment) |
An
assessment where an individual's performance is compared to a specific learning
objective or performance standard and not to the performance of other students.
Criterion-referenced assessment tells us how well students are performing
on specific goals or standards rather that just telling how their performance
compares to a norm group of students nationally or locally. In criterion-referenced
assessments, it is possible that none, or all, of the examinees will reach
a particular goal or performance standard. |
| Criterion-referenced
tests |
Tests
that assess a learner's achievement against an absolute standard or criterion
of performance (rather than against a norming group). |
| Curriculum
(ACLS) |
All
of the instruction, services, and activities provided for students through
formal schooling including but not limited to: content, teaching methods
and practices, instructional materials and guides, the physical learning
environment, assessment and evaluation, time organization, leadership, and
controls. Curriculum includes planned, overt topics of instruction as well
as unseen elements such as norms and values taught by the school and through
classroom interactions between the teacher and learner, hidden social messages
imbedded in the curriculum materials themselves, and the material that is
not included in the overt or planned curriculum. |
| Curriculum
Framework (ACLS) |
A
curriculum framework is a document outlining content strands and learning
standards for a given subject area. The Massachusetts CFs are grounded in
an understanding of how adult students learn, and they address the question
"What do adult learners need to know and be able to do to function
successfully in their roles of parent/family member, worker, and citizen?"
Curriculum frameworks provide a structure from which lessons and curricula
can be organized and presented to the student. The specific knowledge and
skills taught in the classroom are based on student needs and objectives
as identified by the teacher and students. By providing examples of learning
activities and successful instructional strategies, the frameworks link
statewide learning standards found within the framework to educational practices
developed at the classroom level. The process of developing standards-based
assessments using the frameworks is intended to produce consistency in learning
standards among ABE programs across the state. |
| Cut
score |
A
specified point on a score scale, such that scores at or above that point
are interpreted or acted upon differently from scores below that point.
(See also Performance Standard.) |
| Equipped
for the Future |
A
customer-driven, standards-based, collaborative initiative of the National
Institute for Literacy. EFF's large goal is to align the components of the
nation's adult learning system to focus on the range of skills and knowledge
that adults need to achieve their primary purposes for learning. EFF has
been instrumental in shifting approaches for adult literacy education from
an emphasis on replicating K-12 education to one that uses research-based
standards to prepare adults to meet their real-world goals. |
| Evaluation |
When
used for most educational settings, evaluation means to measure, compare,
and judge the quality of student work, schools, or a specific educational
program. |
| Formative
assessment |
Assessment
that provides feedback to the teacher for the purpose of improving instruction. |
| Generative
Skills |
The
term EFF gives to the skills or knowledge that their research revealed to
be core to the performance of a wide range of tasks carried out in multiple
roles. The Generative Skills are durable over time in face of changes in
technology, work process, and societal demands. They cross functions and
serve as the foundation for effective adaptation to changes in role requirements. |
| Grade
Level Equivalent (GLE) |
The school
grade level for a given population for which a given score is the median
score in that population. For example, if a test was administered during
the month of October to a norming group of sixth grade students and the
median scale score obtained was 475, then the grade equivalent for a scale
score of 475 on that test would be set at 6.1 - 6 representing Grade 6
and .1 representing the month of October (September is taken as the beginning
of the school year and equals .0). |
| Grade
level norms |
Interpreting scores on a test in reference to the average performance of
children at each grade level. For example, in ABE, standardized tests are
frequently used that have been normed on children in the elementary, middle,
and secondary school grades; thus, an ability of 4.8 would be assigned to
an adult reading at about the same level as a child in her 8th month of
the 4th grade, for example. While the grade level score is based on the
performance of children in the school grades, the interpretation of the
score should be based on the performance of adults on the test. The TABE
and the ABLE provide norms for adults in ABE programs that permit test users
to interpret scores both in grade levels and in relation to adult performance
on the tests. |
| Guiding
Principles (ACLS) |
Underlying
tenets or assumptions that describe effective learning, teaching and assessment
within each subject area. |
| Habits
of Mind (ACLS) |
A
fluid and life-long approach to learning that involves reflection, inquiry,
and action. It is an approach that favors uncovering concepts rather than
covering content. They encourage the learner to think about how they acquire
knowledge. |
| High-stakes
test |
A
test used to provide results that have important, direct consequences for
examinees, programs, or institutions involved in the testing. For example,
MCAS (K-12) is considered a high-stakes test because children who do not
pass the examination do not receive a high school diploma, regardless of
their performance in other areas of their school education. |
| Holistic
scoring |
Evaluating student work in which the score is based on an overall impression
of student performance rather than multiple dimensions of performance (analytic
scoring). |
| Impacts |
Changes
that occur in the family, community, and larger society as a consequence
of participation in adult literacy education. |
| Indicators |
Measures used to track performance over time. Accountability systems commonly
use input indicators (provide information about the capacity of the system
and its programs); process indicators (track participation in programs to
see whether different educational approaches produce different results);
output indicators (short-term measures of results); outcome indicators (long-term
measures of outcomes and impacts). |
| Inter-rater
reliability |
The
consistency with which two or more judges rate the work or performance of
test takers. |
| Item
response theory (IRT) |
A
method for scaling individual items for difficulty in such a way that an
item has a known probability of being correctly completed by an adult of
a given ability level. |
| Iterative |
A term used
in research to refer to the repetition of a cycle of processes with an
eye toward moving ever more closely toward desired results. In EFF for
example, the term is used to describe how EFF has progressively refined
the concepts and components of EFF through research, feedback from customers
(learners, practitioners, stakeholders, and policymakers), incorporation
of research developments in related areas, further feedback from customers,
etc., in an effort to be responsive and credible to their constituents. |
| Learning
Outcomes (ACLS) |
Learning
outcomes describe the learning mastered in behavioral terms at specific
levels. In other words, what the learner will be able to do. |
| Learning
Standards (ACLS) |
Learning
standards define in a general sense the skills and abilities to be mastered
by students in each strand at clearly articulated levels of proficiency. |
| Materials-based
assessment |
Evaluation of learners on the basis of tests following the completion of
a particular set of curriculum materials. A commercial text and its accompanying
workbook is an example of this type of assessment. |
| Measurement |
Process
of quantifying any human attribute pertinent to education without necessarily
making judgements or interpretations. |
| Metacognition |
Refers
to an individual's ability to think about his/her own thinking and to monitor
his/her own learning. Metacognition is integral to a learner's ability to
actively partner in his or her own learning and facilitates transfer of
learning to other contexts. |
| National
Education Goal 6 |
One
of the national education goals created by the 50 governors at an education
summit in 1989. Goal 6 is the only goal directly related to adult learning
and is often referred to as the Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning Goal.
Goal 6 reads, "Every adult American will be literate and will possess
the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise
the rights and responsibilities of citizenship." |
| National
Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) |
A
national survey reported in 1993, which provided a profile of the literacy
skills of the United States' adult population. The results revealed that
more than 40% of all American adults have literacy levels at Levels 1 or
2 (out of five), below the level required to secure jobs at good wages. |
| National
Institute for Literacy (NIFL) |
An
independent federal organization created by the National Literacy Act of
1991 to serve as a focal point for public and private activities that support
the development of high-quality regional, state, and national literacy services.
One of NIFL's primary activities is promoting adult literacy system reform
through Equipped for the Future (EFF). |
| National
Reporting System (NRS) |
An
outcome-based reporting system for the state-administered, federally funded
adult education program required by Title II of the Workforce Investment
Act. The goals of the NRS were to establish a national accountability system
for education programs by identifying measures for national reporting and
their definitions, establishing methods for data collection, developing
software standards for reporting to the U.S. Department of Education, and
developing training materials and activities on NRS requirements and procedures. |
| Norm-referenced
assessment |
An
assessment where student performance or performances are compared to that
or those of a larger group. Usually the larger group or "norm group"
is a national sample representing a wide and diverse cross-section of students.
Students, schools, districts, and even states are compared or rank-ordered
in relation to the norm group. The purpose of a norm-referenced assessment
is usually to sort students and not to measure achievement towards some
criterion of performance. |
| Norm-referenced
test |
An
objective test that is standardized on a group of individuals whose performance
is evaluated in relation to the performance of others; contrasted with criterion-referenced
test. Most standardized achievement tests are referred to as norm-referenced. |
| Norms |
A
performance standard that is established by a reference group and that describes
average or typical performance. Usually norms are determined by testing
a representative group and then calculating the group's test performance. |
| Opportunity
to learn (OTL) |
A
standard that provides students with the teachers, materials, facilities,
and instructional experiences that will enable them to achieve high standards.
Opportunity to learn is what takes place in classrooms that enables students
to acquire the knowledge and skills that are expected. OTL can include what
is taught, how it is taught, by whom, and with what resources. |
| Outcomes |
Changes
in learners, such as learning gains in reading and writing, promotions at
work, or increased self-confidence that occur as a direct result of their
participation in adult literacy education; knowledge, attitudes, skills,
etc., that the student or learner acquires as a result of a learning experience. |
| Participatory
assessment (alternative assessment, authentic assessment, performance-based
assessment) |
A
process for examining performance that views literacy as practices and critical
reflection; requires the use of a broad range of strategies in assessment;
and provides an active role for learners in the assessment process. |
| Performance
accountability |
A
means of judging policies and programs by measuring their outcomes or results
against agreed upon standards. A performance accountability system provides
the framework for measuring outcomes - not merely processes or workloads. |
| Performance
assessment (alternative assessment, authentic assessment, participatory
assessment) |
Performance
assessment is a form of testing that requires students to perform a task
rather than select an answer from a ready-made list. Performance assessment
is an activity that requires students to construct a response, create a
product, or perform a demonstration. Usually there are multiple ways that
an examinee can approach a performance assessment and more than one correct
answer. |
| Performance
standards |
1.
A statement or description of a set of operational tasks exemplifying a
level of performance associated with a more general content standard; the
statement may be used to guide judgements about the location of a cut score
on a score scale; the term often implies a desired level of performance.
2. Explicit definitions of what students must do to demonstrate proficiency
at a specific level on the content standards; for example, in Massachusetts'
Curriculum Frameworks in the area of 'reading', there are six levels for
each of four standards. Under the standard "comprehension", performance
can range from "develop vocabulary" to "interpret charts
& graphs" to "recognize a variety of genres & styles." |
| Performance
task |
A
carefully planned activity that requires learners to address all the components
of performance of a standard in a way that is meaningful and authentic.
Performance tasks can be used for both instructional and assessment purposes. |
| Portfolio
assessment |
A
portfolio is a collection of work, usually drawn from students' classroom
work. A portfolio becomes a portfolio assessment when (1) the assessment
purpose is defined; (2) criteria or methods are made clear for determining
what is put into the portfolio, by whom, and when; and (3) criteria for
assessing either the collection or individual pieces of work are identified
and used to make judgments about performance. Portfolios can be designed
to assess student progress, effort, and/or achievement, and encourage students
to reflect on their learning. |
| Quality
program indicator |
A
variable reflecting effective and efficient program performance; distinguished
from a measure (data used to determine the level of performance) and a performance
standard (the level of acceptable performance in terms of a specific numeric
criterion). |
| Rating
scales |
Values
given to student performance. Subjective assessments are made on predetermined
criteria for documenting where learners fall on a continuum of proficiency.
Rating scales include numerical scales or descriptive scales. |
| Reliability |
How
accurately a score will be reproduced if an individual is measured again.
The degree to which the results of an assessment are dependable and consistently
measure particular student knowledge and/or skills. Reliability is an indication
of the consistency of scores across raters, over time, or across different
tasks or items that measure the same thing. Thus, reliability may be expressed
as (a) the relationship between test items intended to measure the same
skill or knowledge (item reliability), (b) the relationship between two
administrations of the same test to the same student or students (test/retest
reliability), or (c) the degree of agreement between two or more raters
(rater reliability). An unreliable assessment cannot be valid. |
| Rubrics |
Specific sets of criteria that clearly define for both student and teacher
what a range of acceptable and unacceptable performance looks like. Criteria
define descriptors of ability at each level of performance and assign values
to each level. Levels referred to are proficiency levels which describe
a continuum from excellent to unacceptable product. |
| Scale
scores |
A
score to which raw scores are converted by numerical transformation (e.g.,
conversion of raw scores to percentile ranks or standard scores); units
of a single, equal-interval scale that are applied across levels of a test;
for example, on TABE 7 & 8, scale scores are expressed as numbers that
may range from 0 through 999. |
| SCANS
(Secretary's Commission on Necessary Skills) |
An
initiative of the United States Department of Labor that identified the
skills workers need to perform in the world of work and which made recommendations
for changes in secondary education to facilitate the development of these
skills. The SCANS report was published in 1991 and identified five competencies
(allocating resources, working with others, using information, understanding
systems, and using technology) and 3 foundational skill sets (basic skills,
thinking skills, and personal qualities). |
| Selected
response item |
An
exercise for which examinees must choose a response from an enumerated set
(multiple choice) rather than create their own responses or products (performance
assessment). |
| Standard
error of measurement |
The
difference between an observed score and the corresponding true score or
proficiency; the standard deviation of an individual's observed scores from
repeated administrations of a test or parallel forms of a test, under identical
conditions. Because such data cannot generally be collected, the standard
error of measurement is usually estimated from group data. |
| Standardization |
A
consistent set of procedures for designing, administering, and scoring an
assessment. The purpose of standardization is to assure that all students
are assessed under the same conditions so that their scores have the same
meaning and are not influenced by differing conditions. Standardized procedures
are very important when scores will be used to compare individuals or groups. |
| Standardized
testing |
A
test designed to be given under specified, standard conditions to obtain
a sample of learner behavior that can be used to make inferences about the
learner's ability. Standardized testing allows results to be compared statistically
to a standard such as a norm or criteria. If the test is not administered
according to the standard conditions, the results are invalid. |
| Standards |
The
broadest of a family of terms referring to statements of expectations for
student learning, including content standards, performance standards, Opportunity
to Learn (OTL), and benchmarks. |
| Standards-based
reform |
A
program of school improvement involving setting high standards for all students
and a process for adapting instruction and assessment to make sure all students
can achieve the standards. |
| Strands
(ACLS) |
A
way of organizing what adult learners need to know and be able to do within
core curriculum. Strands need not be taught sequentially or separately.
They identify processes, themes, content, and skills. |
| Student
performance level (SPL) |
A
standard description of a student's (ESOL) language ability at a given level
in terms of speaking, listening, reading, writing, and the ability to communicate
with a native speaker; a profile of skill levels for a student can thus
be assigned and used for placement, instructional, or reporting purposes. |
| Summative
assessment |
A
culminating assessment, which gives information on students' mastery of
content, knowledge, or skills. |
| Triangulation |
A
process of combining methodologies to strengthen the reliability of a design
approach; when applied to alternative assessment, triangulation refers to
the collection and comparison of data or information from three difference
sources or perspectives. |
| Validity |
The
extent to which an assessment measures what it is supposed to measure and
the extent to which inferences and actions made on the basis of test scores
are appropriate and accurate. For example, if a student performs well on
a reading test, how confident are we that that student is a good reader?
A valid standards-based assessment is aligned with the standards intended
to be measured, provides an accurate and reliable estimate of students'
performance relative to the standard, and is fair. An assessment cannot
be valid if it is not reliable. |
| Were
you looking for a term that you did not find in this glossary? If so,
send your suggested additions to Carey Reid, SABES Assessment Specialist. |
|
DEFINITION SOURCES
Beder, H.
(1999). The Outcomes and Impacts of Adult Literacy Education in the United States.
Boston, MA: NCSALL Reports #6.
Brizius,
J.A., & Campbell, M.D. (1991). Getting results: A guide for government
accountability. Washington, DC: Council of Governor's Policy Advisors.
CRESST/UCLA, Assessment Glossary.
www.cse.ucla.edu/CRESST/pages/glossary.htm
CTB McGraw-Hill, Glossary of Assessment Terms.
www.ctb.com/articles/
Downing,
Chuck. (1995). "Ruminating on Rubrics." Access Excellence.
www.accessexcellence.com/21st/SER/JA/rubrics.html
Equipped for the Future Glossary
eff.cls.utk.edu/fundamentals/eff_glossary.htm
ERIC Digest, "Adult ESL Learner Assessment: Purposes and Tools."
eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/2a/2c.pdf
ERIC Digest, "A Glossary of Measurement Terms."
eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1f/e0/b3.pdf
ERIC Digest, "Questions to Ask When Evaluating Tests."
eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/1b/61.pdf
Joint Committee
on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. (1999). Standards
for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, DC: AERA/APA/NCME.
Mansoor,
I. et al. (2002). The REEP Writing Assessment: Trainer's Manual. Developed
for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Arlington, VA: Arlington Public
Schools.
Merrifield,
Juliet. (1999). Contested Ground: Performance Accountability in Adult
Basic Education. Boston, MA: NSCALL Report #1.
Office of
Vocational and Adult Education. (1992). Model indicators of program quality
for adult education programs. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.
Stein, S.
(2000). Equipped for the Future Content Standards. Washington, DC: NIFL.
Sticht, Thomas
G. "Definition of Terms" from "Testing and Assessment in
Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language Programs." |
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