Purpose

This course will introduce participating students to a wide range of assessment practices and justifications for those practices that are used in elementary classrooms. Participants will learn the importance of considering local, national, and global standards when designing assessment activities and of aligning their dominant theories of learning with the assessment practices they plan to use when teaching. They will also learn about the difference between formative and summative assessment, criterion-referenced and norm-referenced testing, test bias, and how to fairly integrate multiple indicators of achievement when assigning grades. Finally, participants will learn about some of the national and international debates on fair ways of evaluating student achievement.

Specifically, course participants will acquire:

An understanding of how different learning theories (behaviorism, information-processing models, and constructivism) are utilized in the design of curriculum and assessment activities.
An understanding of how instruction and assessment affects students’ learning, motivation, metacognitive development, and identities.
An understanding of the role of measurement and assessment in the instructional process.
An understanding of the process of aligning objectives, instruction, and assessment so that the relationship of assessments to teaching and learning outcomes will be clear.
An understanding of validity and reliability and the roles they play in the construction, selection, interpretation, and use of assessment tools.
The ability to select assessment methods that are age appropriate.
Skills in crafting tests and assessments to measure a variety of different learning outcomes while minimizing bias.
Knowledge of the characteristics, strengths/limitations, and advantages/disadvantages of various types of assessments.
Knowledge of ways that assessments can be modified to accommodate students with various disabilities, and students from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
The ability to administer and score assessments in a way that is fair to all students.
The ability to obtain information from a variety of assessment tools and to interpret assessment results appropriately.
Knowledge of different approaches that schools use to grade and report on student progress.
Knowledge of laws and legislation that affect assessment programs and how they influence teachers and schools.

Readings

We will be working with one required textbook and materials from the Council on Teacher Education, The State of Illinois, and curriculum courses in the Elementary Education Program. The following textbook can be purchased at Chicago Textbooks on Taylor St. or online. Please be sure to obtain the second edition.

Taylor, C. S., & Nolen, S. B. (2008). Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in real classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Format

Students are expected to complete assigned readings BEFORE coming to class. We will be spending class time examining and designing assessment activities. It will be important for students to be able to identify key concepts that will be applied in classroom activities. The chapters listed on the syllabus are selected to comply with program standards, but the order in which the course material is covered should be seen as tentative.

The syllabus and most assignments can be found online at: http://www.uic.edu/~thork/fair if you scroll to the bottom of the page. Everyone will be included on a listserv designed for professionals who plan to teach. Members of this listserv have been from this course, ED 210, or previous classes. Please watch the Subject line of e-mail for messages that are directly relevant to our class activities. News that we are unable to share in class can be posted as well as more detailed discussion about the course.

Each week, we will try to complete three kinds of activities: a review of essential information in the readings, small group discussions, and an assessment activity. The structure of these activities will differ across classes and will depend on the imaginations of students as much as the instructor. In other words, students are expected to learn by doing as often as learn by listening.

Assignments

Assignments measure the degree to which students are able to formulate general relationships between theories of learning, assessment practices, and the intellectual development of children. Grades will be determined using information from three sources; a group log, a conceptual mid-term, and a final assessment portfolio. For each assignment, students will be expected to fully justify their decisions using evidence from the course readings. We will discuss academic dishonesty as part of the course, but for more information on the UIC’s guidelines, please go to the following:

http://www.vcsa.uic.edu/MainSite/departments/dean_of_students/Links/UIC+Discipline+Code.htm

Group discussions. Students will be assigned to small groups for the duration of the semester. If, for some reason, the initial group assignment does not feel comfortable, students are requested to discuss this with the instructor and an alternative assignment will be made. Each week, groups will meet during class time to discuss the readings and generate assessments for inclusion in their final portfolio. On selected weeks, groups will have assignment to bring to class that are to be incorporated into the final assessment portfolio. To facilitate communication, group members should exchange e-mail, text message, or phone numbers so that they might contact one another outside of class.

Group members will take turns recording the details of their conversations, including the names of which members offered each contribution. This content log allows me to evaluate the accuracy with which the material is understood and offers a clear way to protect the group as a whole from individuals who are not fulfilling their responsibilities. The assigned group activities are consistent with those found in elementary schools and the ability of future teachers to collaborate with potential peers in a professional manner is part of our overall program assessment.

In the past, some groups have preferred to record their conversations and transcribe that recording, but it is also appropriate to record the gist of what each member contributes to a conversation. Notes should be brought to class the following week and reviewed by all group members to verify their accuracy. Changing the content of the notes is appropriate and recommended at this point. Ideally, each group member will have his or her own record of the group activities, but someone should keep a master copy that will be turned in for evaluation. On the rare occasion when someone should have to miss a class, that person is obligated to make an independent contribution to the log.

Log books will be collected for evaluation about three times during the course of the semester. Grades will be assigned to reflect each individual's participation rather than the functioning of the group as a whole. I will also look for signs of growth over the course of the semester as students improve their ability to recall the details of the course material and justify their ideas with evidence from this course and from their curriculum courses.

Midterm. A take-home exam will be given to students in the middle of the semester to determine how well they understand the basic aspects of the assessment process and are able to integrate assessment practices with theories of learning.

Starting an assessment portfolio. By the end of the semester, each student will be required to turn in two assessment plans that they might use in an elementary classroom. This plan is something that we will spend class time on each week, but additions included earlier in the semester should be edited for the final.

Final grades. The three course assignments will be weighted equally to ensure that final grades reflect a balanced evaluation of students’ understanding of the assessment process in elementary classrooms. That is, participants’ group discussion contributions, midterm score, and submitted assessment plans will be weighted equally. More details on each of these indicators of achievement will be distributed as the course proceeds.

Accessibility

UIC strives to ensure the accessibility of programs, classes, and services to students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations can be arranged for students with various types of disabilities, such as documented learning disabilities, vision or hearing impairments, and emotional or physical disabilities. If you need accommodations for this class, be sure to register with the Office of Disability Services, 1190 SSB, 413-2183, and let your instructor know your needs.

Tentative Schedule

Date	Topic	Readings
Jan. 12^th	Conceptual frameworks, standards, and assessment *Council on Teacher Education Framework* *Illinois Certification Standards for EPSY 360*	Chapter 1 *Survey*
Jan. 19^th	No class, Martin Luther King Holiday	Chapter 2
Jan. 26^th	Learning, motivation, and assessment *First portfolio activity due*	Chapter 3 *Group activity*
Feb. 2^nd	Deciding what to assess	Chapter 4 *Group activity*
Feb. 9^th	Formative assessment	Chapter 5 *Group activity*
Feb. 16^th	Classroom testing *Group discussion logs due*	Chapter 6 *Group activity*
Feb. 23^rd	Item formats	Chapter 7 *Group activity*
Mar. 2^nd	Daily assessments	Chapter 8 *Group activity*
Mar. 9^th	Summative assessment	Chapter 9 *Group activity*
Mar. 16^th	Assessment portfolios *How much testing is fair?*	Portfolios *Group activity*
Mar. 23^rd	Spring break *Midterm assignment due* *(ideally by the 16^th)*
Mar. 30^th	Assigning grades *Group discussion logs due* *The normal curve*	Chapter 10 *Evaluating a test*
Apr. 6^th	Evaluating classroom tests *Selective enrollment schools* *Item analysis guide*	Evaluating a test cont. *Item analysis worksheet*
Apr. 13^th	Standardized testing *Testing our schools*	Chapter 12
Apr. 20^th	Standardized testing II	*Reliability guide & worksheet*
Apr. 27^th	Bias in testing *Validity of achievement tests*	Chapter 11 *Bias in testing guide*
May 4^th	*Final projects due* no later than May 6^th.

Additional Activities

The details of additional activities will be added as the semester progresses and will be designed to accommodate the activities students are assigned in other curriculum courses.