Development of skills to interpret test score, analyse tests and to provide constructive feedback to learners and parents
The purpose of this course is to help Participants to improve their assessment teaching practice both mediation of the curriculum as well as assessment in the classroom, by being able to:
- Evaluate Assessment Results.
- Interpret Test scores.
- Analyse Tests.
- Use Descriptive statistics to analyse and understand test scores in order to set good and reliable assessments e.g., analysing SBA component marks.
- Use technology, in this case Excel, to do the necessary calculations and analysis.
- Provide constructive feedback to teachers, learners and parents based on their analysis and evaluations.
What inspired the development of the course?
Having done Statistical Analysis of NSC examination results at Umalusi and then again as a consultant to the DBE and DHET, I found that the School Based Assessment (SBA) marks of learners were not a good indicator of learner performance in the end of the year examinations. I also presented a paper entitled “Classroom Assessment in South Africa: Where to from here” at the 36th IAEA Conference in 2010 held in Bangkok. The paper shows the stark difference between the SBA marks conducted by schools and the final examination marks. SBA marks were generally inflated.
Umalusi’s Report on the Quality Assurance of the Department of Basic Education November 2019 National Senior Certificate Examinations and Assessment states:
The following areas of non-compliance observed in different subjects selected for moderation:
- The verbatim use of questions from past question papers without modification subdued innovation and impacted on the quality of the assessment tasks.
The Directives for Compliance and Improvement said that the DBE must:
- Capacitate teachers on item development to improve the quality of assessment tasks.
What problem will the course solve in the education community?
- Participants will be able to analyse tests but most importantly will be able to make comparisons between the various SBA component marks to determine whether they correlate with each other or when the assessment produced results which will lead to SBA marks being rejected by Umalusi in the NSC, Nated and NCV examinations.
- The analysis will be done on a continual basis after each assessment has been conducted and interventions can be done from school, district, or provincial level.
- Factual and constructive feedback will be provided to the learners, parents, and the school on the performance of the learners.
Which career opportunities does this course provide access to?
Successful participants would be able to become effective HODs, Subject Advisors Examiners or Moderators.
What is unique about the course?
This course is unique as there are only advanced courses in Psychometrics available and not at the level of teachers or HODs, Subject Advisors and Principals. This course is not a course on Psychometrics but covers certain aspects of it and is simplified for the teacher.
What course content will be covered in the course
Objective
- Test Analysis
- Item Analysis
- Item difficulty
- Item Discrimination
- Distractor Analysis
- Using Descriptive Statistics in the Classroom
What will be the learning outcomes after delegates have completed the course?
- Interpret Test scores.
- Use the correct frame of reference for interpreting test scores.
- Conduct Test analysis
- Conduct item analysis
- Use Excel to calculate descriptive tests for the purpose of test or item analysis
- Provide constructive feedback to learners, teachers, the school, and districts.
COURSE FEES:
TEST ANALYSIS: R1 000.00 PER PARTICIPANT
DURATION: 5-6 HOURS BUT THIS CAN BE SPLIT UP INTO 3 SESSIONS