Writing Better Assessments

According to Batelle for Kids, teachers spend 25% to 33% of their time on activities related to assessment.

To improve the product of this time, Batelle provided a professional development opportunity in conjunction with ODE for learning how to write better assessments.  Here are some take-away items I learned from the PD:

Better multiple choice questions can be written by avoiding the following:

• “NOT” or “EXCEPT” options
• Incomplete question stems that create repetition in the answer options
• “Cuing stems” (the use of articles or pronouns that give clues to the answer)
• Phrases repeated in each answer option
• Answer options that are not “plausible” (can be avoided through process of elimination)
• Answer options that are of varied lengths (avoid students choosing the “longest answer”)
• Answer options that are not similar to one another
• “NONE OF THE ABOVE” or “ALL OF THE ABOVE” options
• Too many of the same answer options (the use of “B” as the answer for a majority of questions)
• Direct replication of content from instruction (which encourages rote memorization)

Good multiple choice options should:

• Have at least 4 and up to 5 answer options
• Include plausible answers
• Include options based on students misunderstandings or faulty logic about a topic
• Be similar in length and require “discrete discrimination” on the part of the student
• Present opportunities for critical thinking

Good constructed response questions should:

• Not provide multiple answer prompt options to test understanding of the same content

Good performance tasks should provide:

• Multiple and  strategic steps, stages or processes to complete
• Data for multiple learning objectives that make the time investment worthwhile
• The opportunity to approach the task in a variety of means
• Opportunities for revision
• Opportunities for reflection

Good rubrics should:

• NOT include elements unrelated to task mastery (such as elements of effort or aesthetic qualities)