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A diagnostic assessment is used by the teacher before instructions to see how much students already know and what they need to learn.

DIagnostics help teachers plan lessons that better meet the needs of their students. They also let students see how much they already know about the lesson topic.

The same assessment can be given after instructions to see how much students have learned. Students can compare their original results with their new ones. Seeing progress helps students build confidence.

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An example of a diagnostic is a diagnostic test (or a pre-test). This is commonly given to students before the unit begins. They are not usually graded.

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Tookoian, J. (2021, March 5). What is a Diagnostic Assessment? Edulastic Blog. https://edulastic.com/blog/diagnostic-assessment/

Top Hat. (2019, September 16). Diagnostic Assessment Definition and Meaning. https://tophat.com/glossary/d/diagnostic-assessment/

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A criterion-referenced assessment measures what students have learned using a set of standards.

The standards are identified before the assessment is given. They are usually provided to students beforehand.

In a criterion-referenced assessment, a student's score is not impacted by other students' scores. The scores are given as a percentage out of 100%.

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Criterion vs Norm Referenced Assessment: Examples & Evaluation

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An example of a criterion-referenced assessment is a state's standardized test. Students take this test for the state to measure how much they have learned. Teachers are encouraged to teach to the standards developed by the state.

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Criterion Referenced Assessment. (n.d.). Teaching & Learning - University of Tasmania, Australia. Retrieved July 23, 2021, from https://www.teaching-learning.utas.edu.au/assessment/criterion-referenced-assessment#:%7E:text=Criterion%20referenced%20assessment%20(CRA)%20is,1998%3B%20Harvey%2C%202004).&text=Thus%2C%20CRA%20is%20assessment%20that,are%20’referenced’%20to%20criteria.

Criterion-Referenced Test Definition. (2014, April 30). The Glossary of Education Reform. https://www.edglossary.org/criterion-referenced-test/

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Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support.

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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

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https://www.edglossary.org/formative-assessment/

The Concept of Formative Assessment. ERIC Digest.
https://www.ericdigests.org/2003-3/concept.htm

Assessment
https://web.archive.org/web/20080618073456/http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_13581.aspx

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Summative assessment is an assessment administered at the end of an instructional unit in a course. These assessments are intended to evaluate student learning by comparing performance to a standard or benchmark. They are often high-stakes, meaning they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include midterm exams, a final exam or a final project.

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a midterm exam

a final project

a paper

a senior recital

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Summative Evaluation

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/summative-evaluation

Summative Evaluation

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/for-schools/free-resources-advice/assessment-hub/introduction-to-assessment/an-introduction-to-formative-and-summative-assessment/

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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.

HOW DOES IT WORK? Following are some methods that have been used successfully to assess performance:

Open-ended or extended response exercises are questions or other prompts that require students to explore a topic orally or in writing. Students might be asked to describe their observations from a science experiment, or present arguments an historic character would make concerning a particular proposition. For example, what would Abraham Lincoln argue about the causes of the Civil War?

Extended tasks are assignments that require sustained attention in a single work area and are carried out over several hours or longer. Such tasks could include drafting, reviewing, and revising a poem; conducting and explaining the results of a science experiment on photosynthesis; or even painting a car in auto shop.

Portfolios are selected collections of a variety of performance-based work. A portfolio might include a student's "best pieces" and the student's evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of several pieces. The portfolio may also contain some "works in progress" that illustrate the improvements the student has made over time.

These methods, like all types of performance assessments, require that students actively develop their approaches to the task under defined conditions, knowing that their work will be evaluated according to agreed-upon standards. This requirement distinguishes performance assessment from other forms of testing.

WHY TRY IT? Because they require students to actively demonstrate what they know, performance assessments may be a more valid indicator of students' knowledge and abilities. There is a big difference between answering multiple choice questions on how to make an oral presentation and actually making an oral presentation.

More important, performance assessment can provide impetus for improving instruction, and increase students' understanding of what they need to know and be able to do. In preparing their students to work on a performance task, teachers describe what the task entails and the standards that will be used to evaluate performance. This requires a careful description of the elements of good performance, and allows students to judge their own work as they proceed.

WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?

Active learning. Research suggests that learning how and where information can be applied should be a central part of all curricular areas. Also, students exhibit greater interest and levels of learning when they are required to organize facts around major concepts and actively construct their own understanding of the concepts in a rich variety of contexts. Performance assessment requires students to structure and apply information, and thereby helps to engage students in this type of learning.

Curriculum-based testing. Performance assessments should be based on the curriculum rather than constructed by someone unfamiliar with the particular state, district or school curriculum. This allows the curriculum to "drive" the test, rather than be encumbered by testing requirements that disrupt instruction, as is often the case. Research shows that most teachers shape their teaching in a variety of ways to meet the requirements of tests. Primarily because of this impact of testing on instruction, many practitioners favor test reform and the new performance assessments.

Worthwhile tasks. Performance tasks should be "worth teaching to"; that is, the tasks need to present interesting possibilities for applying an array of curriculum-related knowledge and skills. The best performance tasks are inherently instructional, actively engaging students in worthwhile learning activities. Students may be encouraged by them to search out additional information or try different approaches, and in some situations, to work in teams.

WHAT DOES IT COST? These positive features of performance assessment come at a price. Performance assessment requires a greater expense of time, planning and thought from students and teachers. One teacher reports, "We can't just march through the curriculum anymore. It's hard. I spend more time planning and more time coaching. At first, my students just wanted to be told what to do. I had to help them to start thinking."

Users also need to pay close attention to technical and equity issues to ensure that the assessments are fair to all students. This is all the more important as there has been very little research and development on performance assessment in the environment of a high stakes accountability system, where administrative and resource decisions are affected by measures of student performance.

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Presentations:
One easy way to have students complete a performance-based activity is to have them do a presentation or report of some kind. This activity could be done by students, which takes time, or in collaborative groups.

The basis for the presentation may be one of the following:

Providing information

Teaching a skill

Reporting progress

Persuading others

Students may choose to add in visual aids or a PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides to help illustrate elements in their speech. Presentations work well across the curriculum as long as there is a clear set of expectations for students to work with from the beginning.

Portfolios

Student portfolios can include items that students have created and collected over a period. Art portfolios are for students who want to apply to art programs in college.

Another example is when students create a portfolio of their written work that shows how they have progressed from the beginning to the end of class. The writing in a portfolio can be from any discipline or a combination of disciplines.

Some teachers have students select those items they feel represents their best work to be included in a portfolio. The benefit of an activity like this is that it is something that grows over time and is therefore not just completed and forgotten. A portfolio can provide students with a lasting selection of artifacts that they can use later in their academic career.

Reflections may be included in student portfolios in which students may make a note of their growth based on the materials in the portfolio.

Debates
A debate in the classroom is one form of performance-based learning that teaches students about varied viewpoints and opinions. Skills associated with debate include research, media and argument literacy, reading comprehension, evidence evaluation, public speaking, and civic skills.

There are many different formats for debate. One is the fishbowl debate in which a handful of students form a half circle facing the other students and debate a topic. The rest of the classmates may pose questions to the panel.

Another form is a mock trial where teams representing the prosecution and defense take on the roles of attorneys and witnesses. A judge, or judging panel, oversees the courtroom presentation.

Middle school and high schools can use debates in the classroom, with increased levels of sophistication by grade level.

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The Editors. (2020, December 9). What Is Performance Assessment? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-performance-assessment/2019/02

Archived: PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT. (1993, September). A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n. https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/perfasse.html

Kelly, Melissa. (2020, August 27). Authentic Ways to Develop Performance-Based Activities. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/ideas-for-performance-based-activities-7686

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Norm-referenced assessment is a type of standardized test that compares students’ performances to one another. Norm-referenced assessments compare a student’s performance to the course median. The “norming process” refers to calculating norm-referenced scores and the “norming group” refers to the group that a student is compared against while a professor assigns grades.

Norm-referenced assessment refers to an assessment that ranks students on a “bell curve” to determine the highest and lowest performing students. This method is used to understand how students’ scores compare to a predefined population with similar experience. For instance, a student’s assessment score could be compared to scores of students who took the same course in previous years.

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Criterion vs Norm Referenced Assessment: Examples & Evaluation

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Top Hat. (2020, May 20). Norm-Referenced Assessment Definition and Meaning. https://tophat.com/glossary/n/norm-referenced-assessment/

Criterion vs Norm Referenced Assessment: Examples & Evaluation. (2017, January 17). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hJNpO0JPE