Assessment Component in Galileo K-12 Online

Assessment is a central component of the Galileo K-12 Online Instructional Improvement System (IIS). The purpose of the Galileo IIS is to provide management tools that can assist educators to promote student learning. The comprehensive assessment component includes both benchmark and formative assessments along with many other forms of assessment, including placement, computerized adaptive testing, and instructional effectiveness assessments.

Galileo’s assessment component is intended to inform instruction aimed at promoting the mastery of standards reflecting valued educational goals. Currently the standards selected to guide instruction are generally state, local, or in some cases Common Core State Standards. If benchmark and formative assessments are to be effective in informing instruction, it is essential that the relevant standards be reflected in item construction and assessment design. Assessing students using items that do not reflect the standards in use by the district brings to question the validity and accountability of the assessment system and the student achievement data it provides.

As Haladyna notes,

The use of a test that is poorly aligned with the state’s curriculum and content standards, coupled with test-based accountability, results in test scores that may not be validly interpreted or used. (Haladyna, 2004 pp.9-10).

The Galileo assessment component is effective in informing instruction and developing assessments because it:

• adheres to industry standards for item construction and assessment design;
• provides information on student mastery of standards;
• provides recommendations on what to teach next;
• is capable of forecasting standards mastery as reflected in statewide assessment performance;
• is capable of assessing the varying levels of knowledge reflected in the standards guiding instruction;
• is sensitive to diverse background characteristics of students that may affect student performance;
• provides local control of assessment specifications providing efficient measurement of standards targeted for instruction;
• reflects standards that maximize the visual quality of items and ensure that items are appropriate for both online and offline administration; and
• estimates and evaluates item parameters through a continuing research program.

Reference:
Haladyna, T.M. (2004). Developing and validating multiple-choice test items. Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

ATI and the Common Core Standards

With the June 2, 2010 release of the Common Core Standards by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, a new set of opportunities has been presented to educators to establish more rigorous and beneficial academic expectations for students and schools.

The development of these standards has already influenced the standards revision process in many states. Those states currently in the process of revising and updating their local standards will now have an opportunity to consider how the Common Core Standards will inform their new educational objectives, whether through direct adoption or mapping of common goals, as part of a collective effort to raise student achievement across the nation.

Assessment Technology, Inc. is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to assist districts using Galileo K-12 Online in the transition to new state standards and in aligning their standards with the Core Curriculum Standards. ATI’s existing process of specification to develop precise assessment and instructional content is the key factor in the process to manage this transition.

As we develop materials and questions to instruct and measure student success on the state standards we write specifications that not only accurately and effectively measure the standard, but further refine the process by defining the particular skills or knowledge inherent in components of that standard. This fundamental, systemic approach places the full content of the Galileo K-12 Online banks in a format that allows for detailed and precise mapping, or in this case remapping, of assessment items and instructional materials to particular characteristics of state standards.

The diversity of our 74,000+ item bank and 1,500+ Instructional Dialogs draws on our experience writing to measure the standards present in each state and then finding the exact mapping appropriate to those items in other states where that same skill or knowledge is demanded. Rather than applying generic items at the most broad levels, we have defined the specifications to allow lessons, activities, and items to be used exactly where they are needed. This expertise will be a tremendous asset as ATI works with our partner-districts in the transition from the generation of standards we have all been using over the last five to eight years, to the new state or Common Core Standards as they are adopted by the states.