Gathering Information About Teachers’ Formative Assessment Practices: On Sampling Strategies and the Accuracy of Inferences

• In Event: Examining the Implementation and Impact of Formative Assessment Practices

Abstract

Videotaping and/or direct classroom observation have been considered the most direct way to evaluate teachers; due to cost and time constraints, these approaches typically involve a sampling strategy of a portion of days or class periods are selected for data collection and analysis. This study provides empirical evidence about the accuracy of the inferences made with different sampling strategies. This study is guided by the following questions: Can similar inferences be made about teachers’ formative assessment practices when different sampling strategies are used? Do the sampling strategies that better reflect the formative assessment practices vary from teacher to teacher? When randomization is employed as sampling strategy, how stable is the picture of teachers’ formative assessment practices across different random samples?

Authors

• Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo, University of Colorado - Denver

• Heidi Kroog, University of Colorado - Denver

• Jennifer A. Silverstein, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Deanna J. Sands, Seattle University