4700 Lone Tree Way
Deer Valley High School
Antioch, California
Assessment Page for Deer Valley High School
We're dedicated to providing our students with the experience and knowledge necessary to make science useful in their lives and to enable our students to improve the lives of others by learning how to discover new things.
Assessment Committee at DVHS: Mission
The DVHS Assessment Committee seeks to develop curriculum-based methods of helping our students improve scores on all types of assessments. This page updated on 14 March 2006.
Inservice Training
We are looking for workshops which would benefit teachers beyond the usual how-to-write-a-rubric workshops we all are subjected to. If you have any ideas, let us know!
Testing Tips
The Assessment Committee and Mr. Bart Cox's video production class has collaborated on a series of short films illustrating test taking tips for standardized or other multiple-choice assessments. A list of these tips appears below. Italicized tips have been made into videos. Each test taking tip is presented as a trick used by writers to lure students into selecting the wrong answer. Therefore, each "trick" must be defeated by a test taking strategy which defends against that trick. Not all tricks are employed on any particular assessment. In this way we avoid specifically preparing for state mandated tests, which is required by law. Preparing for tests in general is allowed. Also, none of the tips dealt specifically with test content, which is also prohibited.
Tip
Writing Technique
Test Taking Strategy
Example Item
Best Use
Best Wrong Answer First
Write a m/c question which presents reasonable distractors, and place the one most likely to be selected ahead of the right answer in the list. Since students often stop when they find the right answer, they will not read past this "best" wrong answer.
Read all the choices before making a decision.
Who was the second President of the United States?
a. George Washington
b. Thomas Jefferson
c. John Quincy Adams
d. Abraham LincolnThis tip is best used against teacher-written exams. Standardized exams are often computer-scrambled.
True Statements that Don't Address the Question
Write questions which ask for one thing, but provide answers which answer another question entirely. These answers should be true and based solidly in the question or reading passage.
Make sure your choice answers the question asked by reading the question again after making your selection.
Why did Huckleberry Finn run away from home?
a. He liked to swim..
b. His father was abusive.
c. He watched the riverboat fire a cannon to try to raise his body from the bottom of the river.
d. He was friends with Tom Sawyer.Any well-written multiple choice exam
Math Problem answers will always appear on your calculator
For any math problem involving two numbers, provide choices which add, subtract, divide, and multiply the two numbers.
Don't rely on your calculator and don't always multiply the numbers or always divide the big number by the small number. Work it out before selecting a choice, and eliminate the wrong answers afterward.
If you make $10.00 for 2 hours of work, what is your hourly rate?
a. $10 per hour
b. $20 per hour
c. $5 per hour
d. $8 per hour
e. $0.20 per hourAny mathematical question
Do the easy questions first
Put some hard questions at the beginning of the test.
Do the easy questions first, because all items are worth the same amount. If you run out of time, you could lose points.
This tip is not about an individual question, but rather a collection of questions.
This works well on tests where each item is worth the same, such as most teacher written tests and some standardized tests like the SAT - 9. This doesn't apply to exams where the harder questions are weighted more, such as the CAT-6 and SATs.
Guessing
Tell students whether or not guessing is to their advantage in the test instructions.
If a test does not penalize for wrong answers, you should guess on items you would otherwise leave blank. If there is a penalty (typically -1/4 point for each wrong answer) then you should guess if you can eliminate one or two choices, but not if you cannot eliminate any choices.
This tip is not about an individual question, but rather a collection of questions.
Guessing is almost always effective on questions where two or more choices can be eliminated. If you cannot eliminate any wrong choices, then guessing may penalize you on questions like the AP exams.
No stupid choices
Well written items will always have at least two reasonable choices.
Eliminate stupid choices if you can to increase the likelihood you will select the right answer.
What are Deer Valley's school colors?
a. Mauve and Chartreuse
b. Orange and Green
c. Teale and Black
d. Red and PinkYou'll find questions like these on any well written tests. Tests written by non-educators such as certification tests, licensure tests, and so on, are more likely to have questions with stupid choices.
More than one right answer
Use Roman numerals and an extra layer of selection to allow choices involving more than one right answer.
Carefully ignore the letter choices and ask which of the Roman numeral choices are correct. Then match up according to the letters corresponding to your choices.
Which of the following states border California?
a. I only
b. II and I only
c. I , II, and III only
d. all of these
e. II and III and IV onlyI. Oregon
II.Nevada
III. Arizona
IV. UtahVery common on standardized tests.
The longest choice
Try to avoid making the longest choice consistently the correct choice.
Poor question writers often make the right answer, with all its conditions and high accuracy, the longest answer. Pay special attention to answers which are longer than all the others. It may be right---or it may be a trap.
What is Newton's third law?
a. Objects in motion will stay in motion.
b. F= ma.
c. For every action force, there is an equal, opposite, and simultaneous reaction force. The forces do not cancel because they do not act on the same thing.On poorly written tests, long answers tend to be right answers. On well-written tests, long answers are seldome the right answers (but sometimes they are.)
Exploitation of weakness
Analyze student homework or writing to determine common errors and construct questions based on that.
Pay attention to feedback on homework and test review.
Spell the name of the continent where the south pole is located.
a. Arctica
b. Antiarcitca
c. Antiarctica
d. Antarctica
e. AuroraThis strategy appears in both teacher written and standardized tests.
This is why it is important to pay attention when the teacher goes over the results of an exam before a final exam.
Graph trends
Write a question which involves interpreting graphical data. More sophisticated questions involve the trends on the graph rather than simply reading values. However, many standardized tests involve simply reading values.
Be familiar with all the major types of graphs and how to interpret them: pie charts, line graphs, bar charts, scatterplots, and so on. Make sure you know the question is regarding the value on the graph or the trend of the data.
Pending
Analogies
Write items that draw analogies between two ideas by using the format: A is to B as C is do D. You can leave one of these items out and ask it, and
Ask yourself, what is the relationship of A to B? Then ask, what has a relationship with C like that? The only correct choice has an identical relationship.
Pending
Links about Assessment
The STAR results are in and parent reports have been sent out. You will be receiving more information from your principal or administrator in the coming weeks about how your school did and how you can use this information to guide instruction.
Included here are some links that you will want to bookmark for future reference:
This link provides the blueprints for the Content Standards Tests (CST) for the STAR. This is helpful to see which standards are assessed and the number of questions for each standard.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/blueprints.asp <http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/blueprints.asp>
This link provides released questions for the CSTs. By analyzing these questions teachers will be able to see how standards are assessed, the format of questions, and the rigor of the question. Teacher-developed assessments can begin to align with the structure and rigor of the CSTs.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp <http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp>
This link provides the 2006 STAR results from the state website. You can look at groups through this link. Remember to click ‘view reports’ each time you change the group.
http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2006/viewreport.asp <http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2006/viewreport.asp>From Mary McCarthy's presentation at staff development, Fall 2004:
These are some websites that will be a good follow-up to my presentation on Wednesday, August 25. You’ll want to check out some of these, especially the released CAHSEE and STAR Questions. They will help you determine if your assessment questions are rigorous enough, and comparable to the STAR and CAHSEE questions. Other websites, like the SAT information, will be a resource to help you guide students who want to know about the new SAT.
This website contains the CAHSEE released questions, and the Study Guide Information
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/resources.asp
This website contains information on the California Reading List Number
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/readinglist.asp
This website contains the STAR CST Released Questionshttp://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp
This website contains information on the new Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)
time.com/time/magazine/printout/0%2C8816%2C524393%2C00.html
2004 STAR and CAHSEE results can be viewed at
http://www.cde.ca.gov/
Earlier year of STAR, CAHSEE, and API and AYP can be viewed at
http://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/
Additional Links
http://www.ncee.org/
National Center on Education and the Economyhttp://www.cde.ca.gov/
California Department of Education Main Pagehttp://star.cde.ca.gov/
California's STAR testing page at CDE.Papers and Presentations
Using Performance Assessments in the Physics Classroom
This paper uses physics examples but contains many general tutorial tips about performance assessment.Writing and Taking Multiple Choice Exams
A guide for teachers. Includes all the standard tricks.Standards and Assessments
Presentation to AUSD teachers about connecting SAT 9 to standards.Student Generated Assessments
Hypothesis: students who write test questions will take questions more seriously.Assessment Samplers
The New Standards Reference Exams offered by Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement provide information about how well students perform against the New Standards Performance Standards, developed by the National Center on Education and the Economy. Jeff was the director of assessment for NCEE and coordinated the development of these exams.
Sample Assessment items from Science
Sample Assessment items from Social Science (courtesy Alison Weihe)
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the study of psychological measurement, in particular of repeatable and operationally defined quantities such as achievement, intelligence, and personality. Within this field there are some specific concepts which are of concern to educators involved in standardized testing. In particular you should be familiar with validity and reliability, as these are the gauges used to select multiple-choice and open-response items for standardized tests. What follows in an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on Psychometrics.
The key traditional concepts in classical test theory are reliability and validity. A reliable measure is measuring something consistently, while a valid measure is measuring what it is supposed to measure. A reliable measure may be consistent without necessarily being valid, .e.g., a measurement instrument like a broken ruler may always under-measure a quantity by the same amount each time (consistently), but the resulting quantity is still wrong, that is, invalid. For another example, a reliable rifle will have a tight cluster of bullets in the target, while a valid one will center its cluster around the center of the target, whether or not the cluster is a tight one.
Both reliability and validity may be assessed mathematically. Internal consistency may be assessed by correlating performance on two halves of a test (split-half reliability); the value of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient is adjusted with the Spearman-Brown prediction formula to correspond to the correlation between two full-length tests. Other approaches include the intra-class correlation (the ratio of variance of measurements of a given target to the variance of all targets). A commonly used measure is Cronbach's alpha, which is equivalent to the mean of all possible split-half coefficients. Stability over repeated measures is assessed with the Pearson coefficient, as is the equivalence of different versions of the same measure (different forms of an intelligence test, for example). Other measures are also used.[In practice the Pearson coefficient is used as a criteria for rejecting items. A p-value is computed for each item in comparison to the rest of the test. If an item has a low p-value, it does not correlate well with the remainder of the items on the test, and thus will be a poor predictor of how well a student will do on the test as a whole. On a standardized test you'd throw this one out; on a criterion referenced test you'd throw it out too, but after a vigorous debate about how important it is to the integrity of the test. If the test has any slack (extra items not needed to maintain reliability) you can keep it.
The other tests distinguish the performance of the item in relationship to the items known to be good predictors. If an item for some reason is only answered correctly by students who would otherwise fail most other items, and especially if this same item is missed by students who are successful on the rest of the test, the vendor will argue the item should be thrown out. Using such an item reduces the profit margin for the testing company as it makes the test longer, uses more paper, and does not contribute to the reliability of the results. - JA}
Validity may be assessed by correlating measures with a criterion measure known to be valid. When the criterion measure is collected at the same time as the measure being validated the goal is to establish concurrent validity; when the criterion is collected later the goal is to establish predictive validity. A measure has construct validity if it is related to other variables as required by theory. Content validity is simply a demonstration that the items of a test are drawn from the domain being measured. In a personnel selection example, test content is based on a defined statement or set of statements of knowledge, skill, ability, or other characteristics obtained from a job analysis.[Most testing vendors keep a bookcase of binders on a shelf showing how each of their products correllates to each state's standards. If a client from California called about test X, there's a binder on the shelf that has Test X's content mapped to the standards for California. This is probably just a content correllation rather than an evaluation that determines whether or not items get at the meaning of a standard, although I've been out of the business for a few years and practices might have changed. In California, in particular, items are supposed to be criterion referenced and designed more directly at the standards--that's why we moved away from assessments such as the SAT 9. Typically items are approved through a committee consisting of state dept. personnel, vendor content specialists and teachers. - JA]
Predictive or concurrent validity cannot exceed the square of the correlation between two versions of the same measure.
Item response theory models the relationship between latent traits and responses to test items. Among other advantages, IRT provides a basis for obtaining an estimate of the location of a test-taker on a given latent trait as well as the standard error of measurement of that location. For example, a university student's knowledge of history can be deduced from his or her score on a university test and then be compared reliably with a high school student's knowledge deduced from a less difficult test. Scores derived by classical test theory do not have this characteristic, and assessment of actual ability (rather than ability relative to other test-takers) must be assessed by comparing scores to those of a norm group randomly selected from the population. In fact, all measures derived from classical test theory are dependent on the sample tested, while, in principle, those derived from item response theory are not.
[The sample size is driven by the confidence interval needed by the state to politically justify the scores. A politician might need to claim that the test is 90% reliable, thus if given again to another random group in the population, 9/10 times you'd get the same score. Fewer items generally reduces the confidence interval. Fewer than 10 items makes the subtopic essentially unreportable, although as one psychometrician told me, "If the client insists, we could report scores on individual items. We advise the client on the confidence intervals, and recommend what to report and what not to report within the subgroups. What the client does with the information is beyond our control." In other words, the state might overinterpret results or claim detailed knowledge of miniscule points when in fact the number of items used to make the judgement is psychometrically inadequate. What this means for the practicing teacher is, don't get too bent out of shape on subscores--treat it as interesting advice-- but put some stock in the content score for a content area as a whole. -- JA]
Good Arguments for Taking Standardized Tests Seriously
10. You should take pride in everything you do and perform to the best of your ability.
9. There are going to be two kinds of people in your future: people who brag about purposefully doing poorly on standardized tests, and people who don't need to brag because they did well. Which do you want to be?
8. Any test is good practice for other tests of the same nature.
7. School spirit and a sense of community are enhanced when we all work together toward a common goal.
6. It is possible to learn new things you didn't know in the process of answering questions. In fact, some theories of learning say that the only time you learn new things is when you figure them out for yourself rather than being told them in a lecture; some people learn more during homework and tests than they ever do when sitting passively in a classroom.
5. Employers regularly use standardized tests as a method of screening applicants for high paying jobs. Not only do they look at scores from school tests, they administer their own tests. You are more likely to do well if you have taken such tests seriously. This ranges from driver's licensing exams to industrial certifications to teaching. Tests are just a fact of life.
4. Real estate prices have been shown to be influenced by local standardized test scores. Agents want to know how well the schools prepare students, and the only public measurement they have is standardized test scores. (Made into a video by Mr. Cox's class.)
3. You never know when someone is going to check on your score on any standardized test. The career center reports that colleges and employers ask about SAT-9 scores.
2. The state of California will pay the top 10% of scorers in a school and the top 5% in the state a $1000 scholarship which can be redeemed by the college of your choice upon graduation.
1. Why not?
Science
Department
Links
Annual Department Awards (New)
UC vs. CSU-What's the difference?
Real People in math and science and what they took in High School
Antioch Unified School District
Our Mission:
We're dedicated to providing our students with the experience and knowledge necessary to make science useful in their lives and to enable our students to improve the lives of others by learning how to discover new things.
Department Goals:
1. Increase science enrollment in elective classes.
2. Prepare students to make career choices in science.
3. Get students excited about science by having them participate in relevant, realistic, hands-on science activities.
4. Improve scores on state-mandated standardized assessments.
5. Support each other in our efforts to become better professional science educators.
6. Connect all major activities and course descriptions to the California Science Standards, and analyze course descriptions and test results for standards we may not be meeting.
