Assessment+of+Case+Study


 * Assessment of the Case Study: **

1. **Identify the characteristics of quality goal and objective statements, rubrics and standards.** 2. **Identify the differences between evaluation and assessment.** 3. **Analyze, evaluate and create a variety of assessment methods.** 4. **Evaluate and select appropriate assessment methods in context.** 5. **Apply research-based assessment methods to current professional situations.** 6. **Evaluate the role of technology as a function of assessment, not as an ‘add on.’** 7. **Validate and defend assessment decisions.** ** 8. Use assessment to measure transfer of learning and for validating instructional initiatives. ** 9. **Evaluate group assessment results to make changes in the instructional material and/or assessment.**
 * ** Recall Course Objectives: **
 * Although it may sound too obvious the most critical characteristic of goals and objectives is that they are exactly aligned with the essential learning that is being sought.
 * The conditions of the goals, objectives, rubrics, and standards reflect conditions, such as situations and environments, similar to the performance situations and environments.
 * The goal and objective statements, rubrics and standards must be observable and in most case measureable.
 * Assessment is the process of gathering data about the effects of the training. This data includes tests, observations, surveys, etc. Evaluation is the process of analyzing the collected data in order to determine the value the training had in regards to intended objectives.
 * One assessment method we used is the level I survey which seeks the learners’ perceptions of the training.
 * The scoring matrix portion is assessing the teachers’ performance in near real workplace conditions. This is definitely a level III in Kirkpatrick’s model.
 * We developed the transition rubric to create a developmentally appropriate way to explain the expectations of the domains to students.
 * Alan: An area that I vastly undervalued in the past is the idea of conducting an assessment of the instruction’s affect on teachers after an extended of period of time has elapsed between the instruction and the assessment. In my past way of thinking I would not have done this because of concerns over the annoyance factor. Now however, understanding the value of the time interval, I am sure that I would include interval in the assessment design.
 * Megan: One aspect of the case study that I found valuable as a learning experience for me to apply in my professional situation was the needs assessment and a concise way of wording the form. Originally, our form provided teachers the opportunity to reply to the questions in paragraph form. This data collection method would prove very cumbersome to wade through as a needs assessment tool. We altered the form to include questions that would allow teachers to either answer in the form of a list, scale, yes/no, or one word answer. This method will allow those who are collecting the information to more easily form a clearer picture of the feelings of the first grade teachers towards the current writing curriculum.
 * After the training, the teachers will electronically receive sample sets of first grade writing and also the google form, Teacher Rating Scale for Samples, once a two week interval has passed. Feedback from the results of the teacher rating scale will be disseminated electronically as well. There are two advantages to this methodology. First, we are delaying the teacher assessment for two weeks after the training in order to ensure that the teachers have encoded the procedures and knowledge into their long-term memory and are able to recall and use the information. Second, we are eliminating the need for an additional physical meeting, which will save time and money. Technology is a beneficial tool to use for assessing in this case study. This use of technology also affords teachers the opportunity to complete the Google form at their own pace.
 * One of the assessments will be an evaluation of student writing using the rubric. This most likely would involve a pretest before the students are introduced to the rubric. It would also include a posttest given six weeks after the students have had the training with sufficient opportunities to practice and get feedback on how well they have applied the principles expressed in the rubric.
 * The in class introduction of Gallup's concept of using only a small number of very discerning questions in the their response surveys interested us a lot. However as we considered adopting that approach by using similar questions, we did not feel that we would be getting responses with specific enough information about our unique assessment.
 * In addition to using a wiki as the mode of presentation for this course's purposes, we believe that a wiki is the appropriate tool for the team who is responsible for updating the materials and procedures in response to needs that arise from the results of the assessments and surveys.
 * Through meeting the objectives of the case study, a review and comparison of how consistently the teachers are applying the rubric to assess student work will demonstrate a validation of the instructional initiatives, or training methods. If teachers continue to assess the student writing samples inconsistently, then there is a faulty training program. Additionally, because consistent vocabulary is being used when teaching the rubric to the students, a consistently higher level of writing quality will hopefully be achieved from teacher to teacher.
 * One way of assessing if the teachers are consistently applying the rubric to student work would be a switch of the students writing samples. Teacher A will grade his students' work using the rubric. Teacher B will grade his students' work using the rubric. These two teachers will then switch their writing samples and grade the assessments using the rubric without knowledge of the other teacher's score. Scores will then be compared to ensure that the teachers are consistently applying the rubric. If the scores are similar, then the training for the use of the rubric was successful in creating consistency.