MessageDoes GIGO apply to the data all of us, big and small, are gathering?



The information gleaned from the CASAS Life Skills (or any other) assessment
tool can be useful for spotting problems and successes, but because of the
*multiple layers of skills involved in answering any one question* the
specific question(s) missed must be looked at very carefully. But, getting
the student feedback that makes looking carefully possible gets into
problems of assessment confidentiality.



Example: A excellent student may understand *everything* else about a
certain CASAS map question, but if he or she has heard the expression "X
marks the spot," and assumes X means the goal, not the beginning, this
question will be nonsense. I don't think the check-off sheet of demonstrated
skills specifies, "Knows that on *this* map X means, "Start here."  If the
student's tutor or I can't discuss a missed question with the student, how
will I discover that?



How do we know that the question a student answers or misses actually
assesses the skill the assessment manual tells us it does?



I was scoring an answer sheet and was dismayed at how poorly a student was
doing, when I noticed I was using the math answers, not reading. I switched
to the correct set, and the student made even a worse score! Both scores
were in the "valid" range, too! How much confidence should I place in that
assessment?



Having the questions in a booklet and marking the answers to multiple choice
questions on a separate sheet may be a skill even somewhat advanced adult
students do not have. Because our student workbooks don't use multiple
choice questions, we have actually created lists of number-letter pairs to
see if a student can mark the letter in the appropriate column of each
numbered row on a separate answer sheet. That's all. (Did that after a
strong level 2 student marked the answer sheet by page number, not question
number, with answers to 2 and 3 questions marked in the same row.)



Has anyone made an effort to see if the lower level literacy students want
to learn what the CASAS or other accepted NRS assessments wants us to teach?
Lots of our students are on SSI. They don't see the point in learning about
employment applications. That often means any question about employment
forms isn't important enough to take seriously, even if the ones about other
forms are.



Colleges have sense enough to make all freshman year classes pretty generic,
and leave the "major" study to later years. Is it useful for assessment of
beginning literacy to get so specific so soon? Whatever happened to "Learn
to read; then read to learn"?



We used to use the quick and unintimidating SORT-R for student assessment.
Even on that simple test almost all men missed word "dainty," no matter what
their reading level.  Does anyone know if any specific question(s) on the
assessments used for gathering NRS data is answered incorrectly by most
students at any one level? Or if a significant number of students in the
Laubach series misses different questions than students in Challenger or
Voyager, or another series?

Mary G. Beheler
Tri-State Literacy
455 Ninth Street
Huntington, WV 25701
304 528-5700, ext 156

  -----Original Message-----
  From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov]On
Behalf Of Marie Cora
  Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 1:29 PM
  To: Assessment at nifl.gov
  Subject: [Assessment 714] Just joining us? Here's what you need to know...


  Hi folks,

  A number of subscribers have just joined us and so I would like to give
them the necessary info for joining our discussion.  Please post your
questions and share your experiences now!

  View the archives at:
http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/2007/date.html to get up to date
with the current conversation.

  See suggested resources at:
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/07program_impr.html
(Scroll to the bottom!!)
  See more resources at:
  For the 3 power points from New York State/LAC, click on these links:

  http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/list_docs/ReportCardRubric.ppt

  http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/list_docs/RollingOutReportCard.ppt

  http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/list_docs/DevelopingDisseminatingRep
ortCards.ppt

  Here are your prompts:  add your voice!:

  * Do you use data in your program? What type? How? What have been the
results?


  * What information (data) would you like to track and why?


  * What data would you like to learn how to use?


  Thanks!!

  Marie Cora



  Marie Cora
  marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
  NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator
  http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment
  Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection
  http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/attachments/20070417/6749c937/attachment.html