To meet the needs of the widest range of students, what should teachers consider when planning their instruction?

Page 7: Assessment

The final curricular component that the Sycamore Middle team needs to address using the UDL approach is assessment. They learn that, just as with the other curricular components, they need to use multiple means to assess student learning (e.g., oral presentations, visual display, skit). To evaluate whether the students have mastered the content and to assign grades, teachers at Sycamore Middle School typically rely on the chapter test provided by the book publisher, a few homework assignments, and an occasional project. For the chapter on ancient Egypt, the sixth-grade teachers at Sycamore traditionally use the assessments listed in the table below.

UDL Assessment

The Sycamore team learns that by applying UDL principles to assessments, teachers can reduce the barriers posed by a test format or medium that may have little to do with the skill or knowledge being evaluated. When teachers apply the UDL approach, assessments should:

Reflect the learning goal

To effectively assess students’ learning, teachers must identify the knowledge or skill they want the students to learn (i.e., the learning goal). For example, Mrs. Chin, a fifth-grade social studies teacher at Sycamore Middle School, wants to measure her students’ knowledge of pilgrims. She is considering assigning an oral presentation about the subject; however, in order to effectively assess her students’ learning, she must first decide whether she is assessing oral presentation skills, knowledge of the early settlers, or both.

Allowing students to create a diorama about pilgrims is aligned with the learning goal.

Provide flexible opportunities to demonstrate knowledge or a skill

Because students have different learning needs or preferences and varied interests, their knowledge should be assessed using their preferred medium or method. This gets at their knowledge of the content instead of their knowledge of how to use a particular medium. For example, Mrs. Chin decides that the learning goal is to gain knowledge about pilgrims. Therefore, in order to assess her students’ learning, she allows them to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways (e.g., oral presentation, diorama, video).

For some projects, students could be allowed to create a video to demonstrate their knowledge.

Allow for scaffolds and supports

Once they know the goal, teachers can provide scaffolds to eliminate or reduce barriers that are related to the assessment materials or media. For example, in Mrs. Chin’s class, one student who struggles with spelling would like to demonstrate her knowledge of pilgrims by writing a report. Mrs. Chin allows the student to use a word processor with a spellchecker to correctly spell the words in her paper.

Teachers may support students by allowing them to use assistive technology.

Be conducted in an ongoing manner

By using formative assessment, teachers can evaluate student understanding and progress on an ongoing basis. Doing so allows teachers to identify content that their students are having difficulty with as well as the factors that contribute to their struggle, allowing them to adjust their instruction as needed. One way to conduct formative assessments is to use embedded text, evaluations embedded in the materials with which students are working and that provide ongoing monitoring and feedback or allow self-reflection. For example, in some of the reading materials that Mrs. Chin uses with her students, questions such as “Why did the Pilgrims create the Mayflower Compact?” are embedded in the text. Keep in mind that even though teachers might engage in formative assessment, they still often give an assessment at the end of a chapter or unit (i.e., a summative assessment) to assess mastery of the content or skill.

Teachers can monitor student understanding by asking questions during instruction.

Many teachers might consider some of the UDL assessment characteristics to be unfair. Their perception is that, by providing students with flexible opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and by allowing scaffolds and supports, they are giving some students an advantage over others. In fact, this is not the case. Rather, UDL assessments allow all students to show what they really know about the content or skill. For example, Ms. Newhouse gives her students a short-answer test on ancient Egypt. She allows all of her students the option of taking the test on the computer and using the text-to-speech converter. This support allows Neeraja, who reads significantly below grade level, to access the test questions and to demonstrate her knowledge about ancient Egypt. Without this support, the test format would create an insurmountable barrier (i.e., requirement to decode text) to the assessment of Neeraja’s knowledge. This option also eliminates barriers for students with other learning needs or preferences, such as those common among auditory learners.

David Rose discusses why it is important to use universally designed assessments, and Grace Meo describes the importance of using summative and formative assessments.

Administering UDL Assessments

Initially, the Sycamore team was concerned about its ability to effectively create assessments that are accessible by all students. They quickly learn that digital versions of textbook assessments are often available for many new or recent curricula. To inquire about the availability of these materials, teachers or designated school representatives should contact the textbook publisher. If a digital version of a test is not available from the publisher, teachers can create tests that can be accessed on the computer. The CAST Website (www.cast.org) provides information, techniques, and software tools related to UDL assessment.

Grading UDL Assessments

Although the Sycamore team liked the idea of allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge in a format and medium that best met their learning preferences, they had questions about how to grade the variety of assessments equitably and fairly. They learn that rubrics are one way to address this concern. A rubric is an objective set of guidelines that defines the criteria used to score or grade an assignment. It describes the requirements of the assignment and outlines the points the student will receive based on the quality of his or her work. The teacher can give students the rubric in advance to help them to understand the requirements and expectations for the assignment. Click here for general procedures for developing a rubric.