Choosing The Right Assessments For Your Students

What You Will Learn

Assessment of students is a key component of effective educational programs and a critical component of student learning. Assessment is a critical component of the backward design process, where assessments should be developed first and aligned to the students’ learning objectives, resulting in more targeted lessons. This alignment ensures that students are being taught exactly what they are being assessed. This professional development course teaches you the different types of assessments, how to design effective and targeted assessment items, and how to build a detailed plan for your content area and grade level to measure student progress. This online course is a comprehensive resource on all the assessment planning aspiring or new teachers would need to design effective assessments and a detailed review for experienced teachers who are looking for ways to improve their assessment design process and help impact greater learning gains in their students.

You Will Learn:

• The four types of assessments used to measure and increase student learning
• How to create objective-aligned assessments to enhance student learning
• The three types of assessment items found on most assessments
• How to align the assessment and it’s components with your learning objectives
• How to write a summative assessment that meets the needs of all learners
• When to use a scoring rubric in the classroom and how to develop your own rubrics

Course Guiding Question:

How can I develop effective assessments that produce meaningful data on student understanding and performance?

Professional Development Credits

At the conclusion of the course, you will receive a certificate for 16 Professional Development Hours (Clock Hours, CPEs).

Model Teaching Professional Development Courses are pre-approved in many states and we provide easy approval forms to submit to your license granting authority if required.

If you are a teacher seeking license renewal and wish to verify acceptance of our Professional Development Courses, please view our PD STATE REQUIREMENTS PAGE to learn more about your state’s requirements.

Also, consider taking our UNIVERSITY-PARTNERED, ACADEMIC CREDIT COURSES to earn regionally accredited units or credits, accepted by most states for teacher re-licensing and salary advancement.

Approval Information About This Course for Teaching License Renewal & Continuing Education

Model Teaching has helped thousands of teachers across the country meet their relicensing requirements.

This course is Pre-Approved in the following states for License Renewal and Continuing education:

• Texas – CPE’s, TEA-Approved
• New York CTLE’s – NYSED-Approved
• Pennsylvania DOE – ACT 48-Approved
• Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) – Approved
• Nevada DOE
• Tennessee
• Other States As Well

If you do not see your state listed here, this course may be pre-approved in your state as well. Chat with us or leave a ticket for our recommendations.

For More Information About Your Specific State Requirements, Please View Your State Requirements

Please confirm your specific district or state requirements for license renewal prior to registering and feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have about our courses.

Topics Covered and General Course Outline

Section 1 – The Importance and Purpose of Assessments

• Learn about why assessments are important, the purpose of providing assessments to students, and how it fits into a backward design model for lesson development. Then, reflect upon your own ideas about assessments, what makes a good assessment, and what purpose assessments should serve.

Section 2 – Types of Assessments and Student Feedback

• Learn the four main types of assessments discussed in this course- Diagnostic Assessments, Formative Assessments, Summative Assessments, Interim/Benchmark Assessments, plus methods for providing student feedback based on each assessment type. Then, reflect on how you’d incorporate these assessment types into a lesson of your content area and grade level.

Section 3 – Question Types and Alignment

• Learn the important role that Bloom’s Taxonomy plays in designing assessments and aligning each assessment item to your learning objectives and learn the main types of questions used in assessments. Then, reflect on how you would select appropriate question types and question content in your assessments for an objective of your content area and grade level.

Section 4 – Assessment Writing & Using a Rubric

• Learn how to effectively write summative assessments and design rubrics that measure student learning well. Then, reflect on how you’d design a summative assessment and rubric for an objective of your content area and grade level.

Section 5 – The Role of Assessments in the Learning Process

• Learn why assessments are such a critical piece of the learning process and reflect on past activities you have encountered where assessments were not well aligned to the activity measuring the learning process.

Helpful Resources & Templates Included With the Course

The course comes with 16 templates, tools, and graphic organizers ready to be used in your classroom!

These Include:

• Types of Assessments Quick Reference Guide
• Unit Planner
• Diagnostic Assessment Tool
• Diagnostic Assessment Tool-Example
• Weekly Student Feedback Recording Tools
• Weekly Formative Assessment Template
• Summative Assessment Matrix
• Types of Questions Quick Reference Guide
• Types of Assessments Quick Reference Guide
• Assessment Alignment Chart
• Sample Rubric Template
• Effectiveness Rubric
• Implementation Observation Checklist and Sample
• Unit Assessments Overview Plan and Sample

Register for the course Choosing The Right Assessments For Your Students now.