Is Your Test Instructionally Useful? How Do You Know?

Session Type: Coordinated Paper Session

Abstract

Many assessments are promoted as instructionally useful. Unfortunately, this term and the companion term, “instructional utility,” are often used without clearly describing the characteristics of the assessment or evidence to support such claims. We define instructional utility “as it pertains to assessment processes and results, as the insights derived from the assessment, broadly speaking, that bear directly on the interactions among the teacher, student, and the content about student learning and instruction relative to specific learning targets that are the focus of current, immediately past, or near future instruction” (Evans and Marion, in press).

In addition to clearly conceptualizing the terminology associated with the ways in which assessments might be used to support instruction and learning for the students taking the assessment, this session offers two presentations highlighting empirical analyses from two different types of testing programs to evaluate the degree to which these assessments are meaningfully serving instructional aims. More pragmatically, we aim to provide a framework for thinking about creating instructionally useful assessments to help educators and test developers better support student learning in their schools and districts.

Sub Unit

• Individual Papers, Innovation Demonstrations, Coordinated Sessions, or Organized Discussions

Session Organizer

• Scott Marion, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

Presenters

• Carla M. Evans, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

• Nathan Dadey, Center for Assessment

• Kyla Mcclure, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

Individual Presentations

• Instructional Utility of Assessments: A Conceptual Framework - Scott Marion, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment; Carla M. Evans, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

• Assessment Features that Impact Instructional Utility - Carla M. Evans, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment; Scott Marion, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

• Investigating Teacher Use of Benchmark Modules to Improve Instruction in Utah - Kyla Mcclure, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

• An Instructional Utility Case Study: Considering the Lousanna Innovative Assessment Pilot - Nathan Dadey, Center for Assessment

Discussant

• Lorrie Shepard, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER