Educational Assessment:

Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom

Instructor Name:	Dr. Karen Lea
Phone:	509-891-7219
Office Hours:	8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST Monday - Friday
Email:	karen_lea@virtualeduc.com
Address:	Virtual Education Software
	23403 E Mission Avenue, Suite 220F
	Liberty Lake, WA 99019
Technical Support:	support@virtualeduc.com

Introduction

Welcome to Educational Assessment: Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom! Curriculum, instruction, and assessment work together to support student learning. Students are provided with opportunities to learn the skills, concepts, and work-study practices necessary to be successful in classrooms. Assessments measure student progress toward the standards, help teachers identify each student's instructional needs, and inform parents about what and how their child is learning. The assessments also help to gauge how well schools are supporting the achievement of all students.

However, no matter how many assessments there are, without educators able to use assessments, those assessments are worthless. As educators, we must know how to conduct the assessment, interpret the data, and develop priorities for action. We also must take into account data from other sources, notably the parents and psychologists. We then have to put all this information into some organized format and make the information clear to colleagues and parents.

To do this, we have to bring our skills and knowledge about the subject matter into play while answering these questions:

· What is the prerequisite knowledge for this area of the curriculum?

· How important is the particular area?

· Would having a “less than very high” level of competence in one area predispose the child to failure in other areas?

· How much time should be spent on a particular topic?

· Should we consider an alternative area?

This computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school computer. Technical support information can be found in the Help section of your course.

Course Materials (Online)

Title:	Educational Assessment: Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom
Publisher:	Virtual Education Software, inc. 2005, Revised 2010, Revised 2013, Revised 2016, Revised 2019, Revised 2022
Instructor:	Dr. Karen Lea

Academic Integrity Statement

The structure and format of most distance-learning courses presume a high level of personal and academic integrity in completion and submission of coursework. Individuals enrolled in a distance-learning course are expected to adhere to the following standards of academic conduct.

Academic Work

Academic work submitted by the individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests) shall be the student’s own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in whole, to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.

Aiding Honesty in Others

The individual will encourage honesty in others by refraining from providing materials or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly.

Violations of these academic standards will result in the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit for the course.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Assessment of learning is a complex process and it is important to be clear about the purpose of the assessment. At the conclusion of this course students will be able to:

· Articulate the purpose and types of educational assessments

· Create high quality assessments for the classroom

Course Description

This course will cover many areas and topics on educational assessment. The following is an outline of the topics that will be discussed in each chapter of the course.

Chapter 1: Overview

Course Overview

History of education assessment

What is educational assessment

Discrepancy gap

Effective assessments

Validity/Reliability/Accuracy

Common Core and assessments

ELL and Special Needs Students

Chapter 2: Formative vs. Summative

Summative assessments

Formative assessments

Chapter 3: Types of Formative Assessments

Performance-based

Portfolios

Rubrics

Checklists

Learning centers

Other types

Chapter 4: Feedback & Writing Questions

Multiple Choice

True/False

Essay

Short Answer

Feedback

Student Expectations

As a student you will be expected to:

· Complete all four information sections showing a competent understanding of the material presented in each section.

· Complete all four section examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material presented. You must obtain an overall score of 70% or higher, with no individual exam score below 50%, and successfully complete ALL writing assignments to pass this course. *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.

· Complete a review of any section on which your examination score was below 50%.

· Retake any examination, after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.

· Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course.

Examinations

At the end of each section, you will be expected to complete an examination designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a total of three times. Your last score will save, not the highest score. After your third attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further access. The average from your exam scores will be printed on your certificate. However, this is not your final grade since your required writing assignments have not been reviewed. Exceptionally written or poorly written required writing assignments, or violation of the academic integrity policy in the course syllabus, will affect your grade. As this is a self-paced computerized instruction program, you may review course information as often as necessary. You will not be able to exit any examinations until you have answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam section before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You are expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting.

Instructor Description

Karen Lea holds a Ph.D. in education. Dr. Lea has fifteen years of experience teaching at the K–12 level and another fourteen years’ experience teaching education courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Those fourteen years in higher education included six years as a dean at a university and seven additional years in charge of assessment and accreditation at a university. Currently, she is a lead program development owner at Western Governors University. Dr. Lea has been professionally published more than fifteen times and has served on over a dozen panels and boards, including serving on the NCATE (CAEP) Board of Examiners.

Contacting the Instructor

You may contact the instructor by emailing karen_lea@virtualeduc.com or by calling 509-891-7219, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. PST. Phone messages will be answered within 24 hours. Phone conferences will be limited to ten minutes per student, per day, given that this is a self-paced instructional program. Please do not contact the instructor about technical problems, course glitches, or other issues that involve the operation of the course.

Technical Questions

If you have questions or problems related to the operation of this course, please try everything twice. If the problem persists please check our support pages for FAQs and known issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section of your course.

If you need personal assistance then email support@virtualeduc.com or call 509-891-7219. When contacting technical support, please know your course version number (it is located at the bottom left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating system, and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.

Minimum Computer Requirements

Please refer to VESi’s website: www.virtualeduc.com or contact VESi if you have further questions about the compatibility of your operating system.

Refer to the addendum regarding Grading Criteria, Course Completion Information, Items to be Submitted, and how to submit your completed information. The addendum will also note any additional course assignments that you may be required to complete that are not listed in this syllabus.

Bibliography (Suggested Reading)

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Sparks, S. D. (2018). Getting feedback right: A Q&A with John Hattie. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/06/20/getting-feedback-right-a-qa-with-john.html

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Tool for creating rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Course content is updated every three years. Due to this update timeline, some URL links may no longer be active or may have changed. Please type the title of the organization into the command line of any Internet browser search window and you will be able to find whether the URL link is still active or any new link to the corresponding organization’s web home page.

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