Education And Degree. Part 16. Alternative academic assessment.

ALTERNATIVE ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT
Alternative academic assessment (AAA) is a class of procedures that are commonly used to assess student
Types Curriculum-Based Assessment
Most AAAs fall under the umbrella of CBA. The fundamental characteristics of CBA include that it (a) derives from, or is substantially similar to, the curriculum; (b) is linked to instruction; and (c) is used primarily to guide curriculum placement and instructional procedures. CBA procedures and instrumentation can be developed to assess skills within either a broad domain or a narrow domain.
CBA is divided into two subgroups: general outcome measures (GOMs) and subskill mastery measures (SMMs). GOMs are used to assess the level and rate of student achievement within a broad range of skills. GOMs are typically used to assess the achievement within the annual curriculum and instruction. A consistent set of procedures and instrumentation are used throughout the academic year. For example, mathematics computation in second grade might be assessed with tasks that span two-digit addition without carrying through four-digit subtraction with borrowing. The stimulus set and task demands are heterogeneous and representative of the annual curriculum. In contrast, SMMs are used to assess the level and rate of student achievement within a narrow range of skills and, usually, within a narrow range of time, which might be defined by an instructional unit. Procedures and instrumentation might change for each instructional unit so as to assess a specific and distinct set of skills that are aligned with the curriculum and instruction. For example, mathematics computation assessments might be narrowed to include only two-digit by two-digit subtraction without borrowing. The stimulus set and task demands are homogeneous and representative of the short-term instructional goal.
The variety of CBA procedures is broad. The following sections review a subset of available procedures. These include curriculum-based measurement, CBA for instructional design, criterion-referenced CBA, curriculum-based evaluation, and informal reading inventories. There are many other CBA procedures, which include end-of-chapter assessments that come along with curriculum materials. The selected procedures are a representative sample of those with the most prominence.
To read more look for info in Yahoo! using tags special education teacher, degree, driver education, business degree e, arizona department of education, education city, box tops for education, bachelors degree, south carolina education lottery, home education, distance learning degree it, career education, online nursing degree, board of education, education, degree directory, jobs, special education, nyc department of education, education jobs, acs education, four year degree, teaching degree, teacher education, adult education, sc education lottery, master degree online program, louisiana department of education, georgia department of education, education online, bachelor degree, pearson education, online college degree, florida department of education, college degree, writing education on resume, early childhood education, online degree programs, nurses education, masters degree, online education, associate degree.

Curriculum-Based Measurement
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a standardized assessment procedure that is used to index the level and rate of academic growth in four basic skills: reading, mathematics, written expression, and spelling. CBM is generally classified as a GOM because it is used to assess student achievement within the annual curriculum. It is defined as stan-dardized procedure and not as a standardized test. This distinction is necessary because the instrumentation is not standard across applications.
CBM was developed by Stanley Deno and col-leagues in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. More than 200 research studies of CBM are published in peer-refereed journals, and technical development continues through the present day. CBM oral reading fluency (CBM-R) is the most prominent of the available procedures. In CBM-R, the student reads aloud for one minute as the administrator (usually the teacher) follows along on another copy of the passage. The administrator notes errors made and tallies up the number of words read correctly. This yields the student's reading rate, which is reported in units of words read correctly per minute. Error rates and accuracy are also reported sometimes.
CBM was designed to serve as an "academic thermometer" to monitor students' growth in four basic skill domains. The procedures are sometimes described as "dynamic indicators of basic skills." CBM is dynamic in that assessment outcomes are useful to evaluate the effects of instruction over the short term. Outcomes are useful to guide either summative or formative decisions. Summative decisions require one-time evaluations of the level of academic achievement. Formative decisions require ongoing evaluations of the level and rate of academic achievement, which are usually evaluated to estimate the effects of instruction. CBM is an indicator in that it provides a general assessment of academic health within each domain. That is, although CBM-R yields outcomes in words read correctly per minute, that level of oral reading fluency is useful to estimate the general reading achievement and predict performance on large-scale assessments (e.g., statewide tests). CBM targets basic skills in that there are procedures in each of the four fundamental basic skill domains (reading, writing, math, and spelling).
Formative assessment can inform intervention and determine the effectiveness of an intervention. Here is an example: Nick, a second-grade student was referred to the school psychologist for low CBM scores in reading. Nick reads 30 words correctly per minute, compared to the expected 60 words per minute by second grade. The school psychologist or teacher implements an intervention of paired reading for half an hour a day. The following week, Nick completes another CBM at 35 words per minute. Now the discrepancy between Nick's score and the expected score has decreased, signifying that Nick is responding to the intervention. If the discrepancy continues to decrease, Nick will continue with paired reading until he reads at the expected second-grade level. Should the discrepancy remain the same or increase, the intervention will be modified until the desired level of growth is achieved.
For more information use google. Just type in such keywords as accredited online degree program, nc education lottery, nursing degree, first degree burns, importance of education, distance learning college degree, degree programs, online college degree programs, criminal justice degree, indiana department of education, life experience degree, online degree in education, discovery education, university degree, online psychology degree, online bachelor degree, third degree burns, philosophy of education, online education college degree, education administration, foreign exchange education, elementary education, business degree, california department of education, education degree, business communication degree, careers with no degree required, distance education, counseling, and read articles.

CBA for Instructional Design
CBA for instructional design (CBA-ID) was developed to match the student to the appropriate instructional and curriculum level and focuses on individualizing instruction to ensure mastery learning of all students. A good instructional match maximizes student learning and engagement by fitting the student's needs. Research has found that students are most successful when they are able to respond correctly to material 93% to 97% of the time. This is called the instructional level. CBA-ID starts by finding the student's instructional level and then tests for areas of skill deficits.
CBA-ID has four steps. The first is to choose an appropriate passage for the student to read and test for the student's instructional level by asking them to read 20 to 30 randomly chosen words from the passage. If the student gets five or fewer words wrong, then he or she moves on to the next step. If more than five errors are made, then the student is retested in a passage at a lower level. The second step requires the student to read the passage. As the student reads, the examiner records the student's errors. Afterward, the student is asked questions about the passage to assess how well the student comprehends what he or she read. The last two steps of CBA-ID are to use the assessment information to match the student to appropriate reading instruction and curriculum. Progress monitoring continues as the student is instructed and necessary changes are made.
Search in bing for more. Use search terms like online degree, education or counseling, us department of education, kentucky department of education, second degree burns, mississippi department of education, the north american education institute, ohio department of education, secondary education, education for er nurse, education coordinator, education clip art, college of education, texas education agency, north carolina education lottery, department of education, drivers education, colorado department of education, master degree, american education services, head of education cabinet agency, continuing education, how do i know which business degree class to take, health education, education quotes, education specialist, english degree, online law degree, santa clara adult education, chronicle of higher education, virginia department of education, online education college degree, online teaching degree, physical education, head of education agency, education for er doctor, degree online.
Criterion-Referenced CBA
Criterion-referenced CBA (CR-CBA) is similar to CBA-ID in that it was developed to determine appropriate instructional materials and strategies. The methods differ, however, in that CBA-CR determines an acceptable level of performance by comparing student scores to a locally normed sample of average peers. Students are tested on items from the curriculum in order of easy to difficult within a reading series. The teacher or examiner constructs reading tests by using 100-word passages from the beginning, middle, and end of the reading series. Students are tested across 3 days on nine passages; three from the beginning, middle, and end each. As the student reads, the examiner records student errors and then calculates the student's accuracy level (percentage of words read correctly across the entire 100-word passage) and rate of reading (the product of accuracy and 60 divided by total seconds it took the student to read the passage). Next, the student is asked six comprehension questions. Finally, the median scores for the 3 days of assessment are summarized. Assessment decisions are made based on the student's performance compared to the mastery criteria.
Curriculum-Based Evaluation
Curriculum-based evaluation (CBE) is used to determine the student's general whereabouts in the curriculum to identify specific areas of skill deficit. Administration begins with survey level assessment to identify if the student's performance meets expected goals. The initial survey level assessment is developed by sampling a broad domain from the curriculum. In the case of reading, for example, broad skills such as decoding and comprehension are tested. If the results show that the student has a deficit, a skill-specific criterion-referenced test is administered. This second test focuses on specific skills such as segmenting words, rhyming, intonation, and other reading-related sub-skills. Results are used to adapt instruction to the student's needs.
Informal Reading Inventories
Informal reading inventories (IRIs) are similar to CBE in that they identify specific subskill deficits. There is much variance among the increasing number of published IRIs; however, most follow a typical assessment method. First, the student is asked to read from a graded word list. Depending on the student's accuracy, he or she moves up or down a grade level in word lists until the student's instructional level is found. The definition of this level varies among IRIs but usually falls around 90% words read correctly. Second, the student reads a passage from his or her instructional level. As the student reads, the examiner records the student's errors, or miscues. This yields the student's accuracy and reading rate. Next, the miscues are grouped into categories like omissions, substitutions, low fluency words, and repetitions. Attention is also paid to the types of words that are miscued. This allows the examiner to identify specific areas of weakness. For example, a student may struggle with words with a silent e. IRIs determine not only which level of curriculum to place students in but also specific areas of weakness.


EDITOR Neil J. Salkind
Copyright © 2008 by SAGE Publications, Inc.