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Diagnostic Assessment for Kindergarten Admissions 

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Diagnostic Assessment for Kindergarten Admissions 

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Diagnostic Assessment: Examples & Overview

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https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/performance-assessment-what-is-it-and-why-use-it-1394712c5d3

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Pretend you are an elementary student, and your class is learning to interpret direction and distance on a map. Which would you rather do, take a test on map skills or plan and describe a safari across a map full of interesting places with exotic sights to see? Pretend you are a middle school language arts student, and your class is learning about imagery in poetry. Which assessment would show you understand imagery deeply, a test with questions like circle the similes or an opportunity to write a brief poem centered on a meaningful (to you) image? Pretend you are an anatomy student who wants to be a doctor some day. Which would feel closer to your dream, a paper-and-pencil anatomy test or a series of exercises using a human body simulator?

While a test is an efficient way to gather evidence about students' conceptual knowledge, a performance assessment is a better tool for gathering evidence about what students can do with their knowledge. Effective performance assessments allow students to apply knowledge to solve a problem or demonstrate a skill. In performance assessments, students demonstrate or construct something, and that work is assessed using observation and judgment, often using a tool like a rubric.

Performance assessment is especially useful for assessing students' achievement of complex learning standard (e.g., analyzing author's purpose), assessing their ability to apply concepts they learned to solve problems (e.g., using understanding of past presidential elections to predict what will happen in this presidential election), and assessing skills (e.g., using an electronic library card catalog). As a colleague once said, "The only way to know if they can swim is to put them in the pool." Some simple skills, though (e.g., kindergarten students making equal sets with colored counters) are also best assessed by observing student performance.

Performance tasks must be carefully designed so that the student responses really do give evidence of the knowledge and skills we are trying to assess. Performance criteria must be clear and help students focus on those things, particularly, so they can "show what they know." Performance tasks help show students what real work in a discipline looks like - what it means to be a writer, mathematician, historian, or scientist, for example. And when students understand the criteria for success with a learning task and apply those criteria as they work, research shows that their performance - and their achievement - increases.

Next time you are planning a unit, take a look at the learning goals you intend your students to achieve. Find one or more that lend themselves to performance assessment, and try it out!

For deeper insight into performance assessment, check out Dr. Brookhart's comprehensive webinar below:

SUSAN M. BROOKHART, Ph.D., is an independent educational consultant and author based in Helena, Montana. She also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Education at Duquesne University. Dr. Brookhart was the 2007-2009 Editor of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, and is currently an Associate Editor of Applied Measurement in Education. She is author or co-author of seventeen books and over 70 articles and book chapters on classroom assessment, teacher professional development, and evaluation. Dr. Brookhart's research interests include the role of both formative and summative classroom assessment in student motivation and achievement, the connection between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment, and grading. Dr. Brookhart also works with schools, districts, regional educational service units, universities, and states doing professional development. Dr. Brookhart received her Ph.D. in Educational Research and Evaluation from The Ohio State University, after teaching in both elementary and middle schools.
You can view the McGraw-Hill Education Privacy Policy here: http://www.mheducation.com/privacy.html

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Performance Assessment: What Is It and Why Use It?

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Pretend you are an elementary student, and your class is learning to interpret direction and distance on a map. Which would you rather do, take a test on map skills or plan and describe a safari across a map full of interesting places with exotic sights to see?

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Reference
The Editors. (2019.02.05). What is [Performance Assessments? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-performance-assessment/2019/02

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Project-based learning is nothing new. More than 100 years ago, progressive educator William Heard Kilpatrick published "The Project Method," a monograph that took the first stab at defining alternatives to direct instruction. Predictably, the document sparked a squabble over definitions and methods-between Kilpatrick and his friend and colleague John Dewey.

Not much has changed. Today, despite major advances in ways to measure learning, we still don't have common definitions for project-based learning or performance assessment.

Sometimes, for example, performance assessment is framed as the opposite of the dreaded year-end, state-required multiple-choice tests used to report on schools' progress. But in fact, many performance assessments are standardized and can-and do-produce valid and reliable results.

Experts also emphasize the "authentic" nature of performance assessment and project-based learning, although "authentic" doesn't always mean lifelike: A good performance assessment can use simulations, as long as they are faithful to real-world situations. (An example: In science class, technology can simulate plant growth or land erosion, processes that take too long for a hands-on experiment.)

In the absence of agreed-upon definitions for this evolving field, Education Week reporters developed a glossary based on interviews with teachers, assessment experts, and policy analysts. They've organized the terms here generally from less specific to more specific. These terms aren't mutually exclusive. (A performance assessment, for instance, may be one element of a competency-based education program.)

Proficiency-based or competency-based learning: These terms are interchangeable. They refer to the practice of allowing students to progress in their learning as they master a set of standards or competencies. Students can advance at different rates. Typically, there is an attempt to build students' ownership and understanding of their learning goals and often a focus on "personalizing" students' learning based on their needs and interests.

Project-based learning: Students learn through an extended project, which may have a number of checkpoints or assessments along the way. Key features are inquiry, exploration, the extended duration of the project, and iteration (requiring students to revise and reflect, for example). A subset of project-based learning is problem-based learning, which focuses on a specific challenge for which students must find a solution.

Standards-based grading: This refers to the practice of giving students nuanced and detailed descriptions of their performance against specific criteria or standards, not on a bell curve. It can stand alone or exist alongside traditional letter grading.

Performance assessment: This assessment measures how well students apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities to authentic problems. The key feature is that it requires the student to produce something, such as a report, experiment, or performance, which is scored against specific criteria.

Portfolio: This assessment consists of a body of student work collected over an extended period, from a few weeks to a year or more. This work can be produced in response to a test prompt or assignment but is often simply drawn from everyday classroom tasks. Frequently, portfolios also contain an element of student reflection.

Exhibition: A type of performance assessment that requires a public presentation, as in the sciences or performing arts. Other fields can also require an exhibition component. Students might be required, for instance, to justify their position in an oral presentation or debate.

Performance task: A piece of work students are asked to do to show how well they apply their knowledge, skills, or abilities-from writing an essay to diagnosing and fixing a broken circuit. A performance assessment typically consists of several performance tasks. Performance tasks also may be included in traditional multiple-choice tests.
With thanks to: Paul Leather, director for state and local partnerships at the Center for Innovation in Education; Mark Barnes, founder of Times 10 Publications; Peter Ross, principal at Education First; Scott Marion, executive director at the Center for Assessment; Sean P. "Jack" Buckley, president, Imbellus; Starr Sackstein, an educator and opinion blogger at edweek.org; and Steve Ferrara, senior adviser at Measured Progress.
Have we missed any terms that confuse you? Why not write and tell us?

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Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.

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Reference

Center for Collaborative Education. 2017. “Quality Performance Assessment,” Center for Collaborative Education website, https://goo.gl/CPt2f9.

Conley, D. 2012. A Complete Definition of College and Career Readiness. Eugene, OR: Educational Policy Improvement Center, http://www.epiconline.org/ccr-definition/.

Crocco, M. S., and A. T. Costigan. 2007.
“The Narrowing of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Age of Accountability: Urban Educators Speak Out,” Urban Education 42, no. 6:512–35.

Darling-Hammond, L. 2007. “Race, Inequality and Educational Accountability: The Irony of ‘No Child Left Behind,’” Race Ethnicity and Education 10, no. 3:245–60.

Darling-Hammond, L., and R. L. Pecheone. 2009. “Reframing Accountability: Using Performance Assessments to Focus Learning on Higher-Order Skills,” in Meaningful Measurement: The Role of Assessments in Improving High School Education in the Twenty-First Century, edited by L. M. Pinkus. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

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The role of an Assessment should be to test what is most important. David Conly(2012) Expectations of Universities are young adults who have owed their learning, adoptable to unexpected situations and have novel ways of continous thinking patterns.
The Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) defines high-quality performance assessments as “multi-step assignments with clear criteria, expectations, and processes that measure how well a student transfers knowledge and applies complex skills to create or refine an original product” (CCE 2017)

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A list of tech tools for summative assessment

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A list of tech tools for summative assessment

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1. https://www.quickrubric.com/ - creating rubrics
2. https://quizizz.com/ - quiz making (different types of quizzes and homework)
3. https://kahoot.com/ - quizzes and games
4. nearpod.com - quizzes, presentations, activities

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Welcome to Quick Rubric – Free, Fast, and Easy to Use! :)

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Quick Rubric – FREE, fast and simple rubric creator

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HS grade 10 summative assessment example

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HS grade 10 summative assessment example

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A quiz for grade 10 science

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Quizizz — The world’s most engaging learning platform

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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A quiz to assess the grade 8 art (unit)

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Quizizz - The world's most engaging learning platform

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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Elementary school summative assessment example 

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Elementary school summative assessment example 

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A test worksheet to assess math grade 5

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Math 5 4th Qtr Summative Test A worksheet

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Area and Volume online worksheet for Grade 5. You can do the exercises online or download the worksheet as pdf.

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K-level summative assessment example English

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K-level summative assessment example English

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Summative Assessment purpose (Assessment of learning) 

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Summative Assessment purpose (Assessment of learning) 

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Assessment of learning:

is used to plan future learning goals and pathways for students

provides evidence of achievement to the wider community, including parents, educators, the students themselves and outside groups

provides a transparent interpretation across all audiences.

The approach or approaches used will be informed by:

the evidence of student learning to be gathered

the processes for gathering the evidence

the feedback to be provided to students.

For example, formal assessment provides an opportunity to collect evidence of student learning and may be used for grading and ranking purposes (assessment of learning) as well as informing feedback for students to improve their learning (assessment for learning).

NSW Government. (n.d.). Approaches | NSW Education Standards. https://www.educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/assessment/approaches

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What the Assessment is and why it's used:

Diagnostic assessment is a tool used to evaluate a student's current level / knowledge. It is often conducted at the beginning of a course in order to better inform the teacher of how they can approach a unit, lesson, or curriculum material that best reflects their students' abilities. Diagnostic assessment is largely used to understand prior knowledge, skills, and provide insight into the general background knowledge of a student.

Example of Diagnostic Assessment:

1. One example of a diagnostic assessment is an ungraded quiz that takes place at the beginning of a unit, lesson, or curriculum.
2. Another example is a diagnostic interview with the teacher in which they ask questions about their prior knowledge
3. Most forms of admissions tests can be considered diagnostic assessments because the gauge the level of competency and prior knowledge of the student.

Links and Additional Information:
https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/diagnostic-assessment/

https://www.queensu.ca/teachingandlearning/modules/assessments/10_s2_03_diagnostic_example.html

https://www.eriesd.org/cms/lib/PA01001942/Centricity/Domain/1917/Types%20of%20Assessments%20information%20sheets.pdf

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Quality control is of utmost importance in every industry and sphere of life. Assessments are a useful way of maintaining quality. In the education field, the assessment process utilizes empirical data on student learning to make the learning process more effective and enhance student development. Assessment is the process of collecting useful and relevant data and information from various sources to develop insights into students' understanding, knowledge, and takeaways from the educational experience.

Here's a look at the stages in an assessment cycle:

Recognizing goals or results at the department, division, or program level.

Executing strategies to achieve the goals or results.

Using appropriate methods and evaluating the extent of their success in achieving the goals or results.

Leveraging results to enhance strategies.

The different types of assessment play a vital role in helping a teacher assess a student's performance and shape their teaching strategies accordingly.

In general, the purpose of classroom assessments is one of these three:

Assessment 'as' Learning: Assessment as learning is centered more toward actively involving students in the process of learning. These assignments teach students crucial problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Assessment 'of' Learning: This is a way to evaluate students' learning and whether they align with the grade standards or the curriculum. These assessments are generally grade-based and include portfolios, exams, final projects, and standardized tests.

Assessment 'for' Learning: Assessment for learning helps teachers map students' learning by providing them a clear snapshot of their students' understanding and learning as they teach. Consequently, these improve their teaching tactics and classroom management strategies.

There are various types of assessments available to assess progress and skill levels for this purpose. These are:

Diagnostic Assessment: The purpose of diagnostic assessment is to gauge students' knowledge, skills, strength, and weaknesses beforehand.

Formative Assessment: This is used to collect information on students' understanding throughout the learning process to help teachers adjust their strategies accordingly.

Summative Assessment: This is used to measure students' knowledge after a subject has been taught.

Ipsative Assessment: It is used to track students' performance by comparing their current scores with their past scores.

Norm-referenced Assessment: It is used to compare and rank a group of students.

Criterion-referenced Assessment: It is used to compare a student's score to a set learning standard or performance level.

This blog will first explain the diagnostic assessment's meaning , list the types of diagnostic assessment , along with relevant diagnostic assessment examples . Then it will illustrate the importance of diagnostic assessment in education . We will also cover the advantages and disadvantages of diagnostic assessment in education .

Diagnostic Assessment in Education

The purpose of diagnostic assessments is to help identify problems with a certain instruction style and provide insights into improvement that can be done in the quality of delivery. Diagnostic assessments in education help educators understand their students' strengths, weaknesses, knowledge level, and skillset prior to beginning instruction. Diagnostic assessment examples include pre-assessment tests that give you a snapshot of or diagnose knowledge to screen students.

For instance, if a teacher wants to start a lesson on two-digit multiplication with young pupils, they can use diagnostic assessment to make sure the lesson is delivered well. They will want to understand if the students have grasped fact families, number place values, and one-digit multiplication before moving on to more complicated questions.

Diagnostic assessments collect data on what the students already know about a specific subject or topic.

Quick Examples of Diagnostic Assessment in Different Fields

These diagnostic assessment examples will make the diagnostic assessment meaning clearer. The following are ways in which instructors from different fields use various types of diagnostic assessment tools:

Introductory physics: A set of conceptual questions is used to assess understanding of physics fundamentals at the start of the course.

Psychology: The instructor conducts a survey to understand students' assumptions about concepts such as the nature of mind versus the nature of behavior.

Course with group work: The instructor rolls out a self-assessment, where group members rate themselves on certain parameters. Specific examples of their previous group work are collected to understand each individual's mindset.

Creative or fine arts: The instructor collects portfolios to judge the artistic abilities of fine arts students.

Here are some more types of diagnostic assessments that can be used for assessing students:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Diagnostic Assessment in Education

There are various advantages of different types of diagnostic assessment in education that help achieve the purpose of diagnostic assessment , which is to improve quality. These are:

They provide insights to educators to create customized instructions.

They are usually informal and easy to use.

They don't require high-level training and don't have standardized protocols to follow.

Teachers can further refine or change their methods at any time. For instance, a teacher can start with easier diagnostic assessment examples like MCQs and then move on to journals or audits.

Such assessments show quick results once you're used to them.

Instructors can easily share their learnings with their peers.

The drawbacks of diagnostic assessment could be:

They don't take into consideration anything that needs to be done post the delivery of a lesson.

The importance of diagnostic assessment s also diminishes in large groups.

A teacher may develop inaccurate assumptions about the student's knowledge of a subject and overlook that particular topic during the unit.

Students new to this kit can become anxious.

Generally, for this assessment to be administered correctly and executed reliably, special training may be required. Plus, this whole process is quite time-consuming.

Upgrade Your Teaching Quality

The purpose of diagnostic assessment , as elaborated above, is to aid teachers improve their instruction methods and help students learn better. Gain skills that enhance your worth as an instructor with Harappa's Inspiring Faculty Program. Our online courses are tailored to give you the best takeaways for your personal and professional development.

Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as Meaning of Project-Based Learning, Different Types Of Assessment in Education, Formative Assessment Vs Summative Assessment and Tips for Employee Coaching that will help organizations tap into employee potential.

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Diagnostic Assessment: Meaning, Examples, and Types

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Diagnostic assessment is the process of collecting useful and relevant data and information from various sources about students' learning experiences. Know about diagnostic assessment from Harappa to improve your instruction methods and help students learn better.

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What is a summative assessment?
Summative assessment occurs at the end of the learning process and is typically
graded. Some examples of summative assessments include tests, projects, demonstrations, presentations, and performance tasks. The purpose of summative
assessment is to provide evidence of the degree to which a student has mastered the unit's knowledge, understandings, and skills.

ASCD. (2012). Types of assessment. ASCD. https://pdo.ascd.org/lmscourses/PD11OC117/media/DI-Assessment_M1_Reading_Assessment.pdf

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1. What the formative assessment is, and why is it used?

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to enhance their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point—no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it—isn’t enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way—all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That’s why it’s important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals or the class as a whole.

2. An example of the type of assessment:

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

3. Add other information that you may find useful, such as links, images, or resources.

7 APPROACHES TO FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

1) Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day’s work while students are getting settled—you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

Exit slips can take lots of forms beyond the old-school pencil and scrap paper. Whether you’re assessing at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy or the top, you can use tools like Padlet or Poll Everywhere or measure progress toward attainment or retention of essential content or standards with tools like Google Classroom’s Question tool, Google Forms with Flubaroo, and Edulastic, all of which make seeing what students know a snap.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it, and they didn’t get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you’re still curious about, and one thing you don’t understand?

How would you have done things differently today if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now, I’m feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2) Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can’t kill a student’s grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid’s response and determine how students are doing individually and in aggregate.

3) Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they’re sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share, or exercise with a partner.

Your observations of students at work in class can also provide valuable data, but they can be tricky to keep track of. One approach is taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone or using a copy of your roster. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4) Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students’ understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don’t have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, and Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students’ learning.

For more introverted students—or for more private assessments—use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5) Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art, photography, or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” to explore the subtext.

6) Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes, it’s helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the “muddiest point” in the lesson—the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

7) Self-assessment: Don’t forget to consult the experts—the kids. Often you can give your rubric to your students and have them spot their strengths and weaknesses.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have your students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column—you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they’re all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards—“I agree,” “I disagree,” and “I don’t know how to respond”) and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they’re ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you’re only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it’s OK to put it aside and try something different.

- Sources:

* Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Formative vs Summative Assessment - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html#:%7E:text=The%20goal%20of%20formative%20assessment,target%20areas%20that%20need%20work

* https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-smart-fast-ways-do-formative-assessment