Deepening Assessment Literacy
The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) developed the Deepening Assessment Literacy module to help educators build their knowledge-base by deepening their understanding of the purposes and types of educational assessment and practices for local assessment development. This module provides guidance for teachers who are involved in reviewing or writing assessments for use in their classrooms that can also inform the SLO process and evaluators who are called on to organize teams of teachers to create or refine assessments and approve evidence sources for use in SLOs. The module is broken into seven sections – Introduction, SLOs and Assessing Student Learning, Purpose of Assessment, Types of Assessment, Selecting or Constructing the Right Assessment, Considerations for Quality Assessments, and Additional Resources. The module covers topics such as SLO-guided assessment; identifying the purpose of an assessment; the cycle of assessment and the types of assessment that are used in this cycle; constructing and selecting the right assessment through examining validity and reliability; alignment, format, item type, administration, scoring, and calibration of assessment; and accommodations and modifications. The module is approximately 20 minutes long. The sidebar menu also offers a glossary for key assessment terms and transcribed presentation notes. Finally, the module has interactive features that allow you to choose specific categories and concepts that will lead to a pop-up menu or link to a different landing page that provides more information.
The module provides both broad and detailed guidance for educators, evaluators, and school leaders who are looking to deepen their knowledge of designing, interpreting, and using educational assessments. Its objective is to help participants develop a shared understanding of assessment literacy that builds their understanding of types, use, and evaluation of educational assessment as well as their ability to identify best practices for local assessment development. The module can also be used to help teachers build a framework to guide their use of assessment in the classrooms.