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.
| Sycamore Middle School Traditional Assessments | |||
| Worksheets (independent work) |
Chapter review exercises (homework) |
A 500-word written report about burial customs | A chapter test |
| Barriers | |||
|
These traditional assessment materials:
x
summative assessment An evaluation administered to measure student learning outcomes, typically at the end of a unit or chapter. Often used to evaluate whether a student has mastered the content or skill. |
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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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
formative assessment
A system of providing continual feedback about preconceptions and performances to both learners and instructors; an ongoing evaluation of student learning.
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.
Grace Meo
Former CAST Director of Professional
Development & Outreach Services
(time: 0:47)
Transcript: David Rose
Accurate assessment is critical to Universal Design for Learning. Often, the ways in which we assess students do not provide accurate information about how they are doing. Often, it asks the question in a way the students doesn’t understand the question or it asks them to answer in a way that they actually have difficulty answering, neither of which get at whether the student really knows the construct we care about. The important thing about getting an accurate assessment is to universally design it and make sure that we’re actually measuring what we’re hoping to measure, so to do that we have to use alternatives, multiple assignments, multiple forms of a test so that every student gets a fair and accurate assessment.
Transcript: Transcript: Grace Meo
In thinking about assessment, we also want to think about the two different types of assessment. Formative assessment, which is ongoing and that actually helps teachers understand if students are in fact achieving the goals in an ongoing basis, that is the time that the teacher can pause and reflect and think a little differently about the methods and materials that they’re using to achieve the goals. There is also summative assessment, which is typically viewed as the end of the unit, end of the lesson assessment. Both formative assessment and summative assessment provide an opportunity for students to show what they know and can do in multiple ways. It, in fact, will lead to high standards and achievement of the goal for all students.
| Sycamore Middle School UDL Assessments | |
| Barriers of Traditional Assessments (worksheets, chapter review exercises, a 500-word written report about burial customs, a chapter test) |
UDL Solutions (paper or digital versions of worksheets, chapter review exercises, and chapter test; a project about burial customs) |
| Confounds the learning goal | Reflect the learning goal |
Requires students to:
Results in a disconnect between the learning context and the testing context |
Provide flexible opportunities to demonstrate knowledge or a skill
|
| Preclude the use of appropriate instructional supports (e.g., spell checker, text-to-speech reader) | Allow scaffolds and supports
|
| Do not yield information that can be used to guide instruction (i.e., summative in nature) | Be conducted in an ongoing manner
|
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.
Research Shows
- Taking tests using technology, as opposed to pen and paper, can be a more motivating and successful experience for students.
(Ozden, Erturk, & Sanli, 2004; Stock, Davies, & Wehmeyer, 2004) - Taking tests administered via computer can serve as practice for students who may encounter online assessments later in life.
(Bouck, 2006)
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.
1. Define the learning objective
Example: The students will learn about and present information about the burial customs of ancient Egypt.
2. Identify the concepts or skills students need to demonstrate
Example: For their presentations on ancient Egypt, the students will need to demonstrate:
- Organization (e.g., logical structure)
- Subject knowledge (e.g., mention of key points)
- Level of detail (e.g., detailed descriptions)
- Use of multiple sources (e.g., four references)
3. Identify the levels of performance and their point values
In general, it is better to use no more than seven levels, and no fewer than three. Teachers can use a zero as the lowest level of performance, if they choose.
Example: For the Egyptian presentation, the levels of performance are: 1=poor, 2=average, 3=excellent
4. Identify the criteria for each level of performance and create table
For the Egyptian presentation, see the table below:
| Presentation on ancient Egyptian burial customs | |||
| 1 = poor | 2 = average | 3 = excellent | |
| Organization | Student presents information in an illogical and uninteresting way | Student presents information in a logical or interesting way | Student presents information in a logical and interesting way |
| Demonstration of subject knowledge |
Student mentions or represents three or fewer of the following:
|
Student mentions or represents at least four of the following:
|
Student must mention or represent all six of the following:
|
| Level of detail | Student presents basic facts of subject knowledge items with little detail | Student presents some detailed descriptions or representations of subject knowledge items | Student presents very detailed descriptions or representations of subject knowledge items |
| Use of multiple sources | Student uses two or fewer references (in addition to the textbook) | Student uses three references (in addition to the textbook) | Student must use four references (in addition to the textbook) |
5. Create a grading system based on possible points earned
For the Egyptian presentation, the grading system is:
| Points | Grade |
| 12 | A+ |
| 11 | A |
| 10 | B+ |
| 9 | B |
| 8 | C+ |
| 7 | C |
| 6 | D+ |
| 5 | D |
| 4 | F |
Listen as David Rose discusses grading universally designed assessments (time: 0:50).
David Rose
CAST founder; Chief Scientist,
Cognition & Learning
Transcript: David Rose
The grading of assignments is something that must be universally designed, as well. It is important to know the goal of the lesson and individual variation in the ways it was done. Has the student reached the goal? It is important to hold students to a high standard. Sometimes people think that UDL is about making the lesson easier, but that’s not a good idea. UDL is about challenging students and giving them scaffolds. So grading is about are they succeeding in the goal of the lesson, but it can be accurate grading because by giving them alternative ways to get there, we’re not grading just the one means. We’re not grading them as if there is only one way they could get there.
Activity
Recall that some of the teachers at Sycamore Middle School wanted their students to learn about the Holocaust. After applying the UDL principles to the traditional goal, they developed the following UDL learning goal:
The students will access a novel about a child’s experience during the Holocaust through their preferred medium and will complete a project to summarize what happens to the main character.
The students in Ms. Alvarez’s class will be allowed to choose one of the following methods to demonstrate their knowledge:
- Create a PowerPoint file
- Create a poster
- Write a paper
- Design a model illustrating a pivotal scene
- Deliver an oral presentation
Help Ms. Alvarez develop a rubric to grade her students’ projects.
Answers may vary but should include the following steps:
- Define the learning objective.
- Identify the concepts or skills students need to demonstrate.
- Identify the levels of performance and their point values.
- Identify the criteria for each level of performance and create table.
- Create a grading system based on possible points earned.
Example:
- The students will access a novel about a child’s experience during the Holocaust through their preferred medium and will complete a project to summarize what happens to the main character.
- For their projects, the students will need to demonstrate:
- Organization (e.g., logical)
- Knowledge of the main point of the novel
- Level of detail (e.g., detailed descriptions)
- For these projects, the levels of performance are:
1 = inadequate 2 = adequate 3 = outstanding - Rubric
Project on Holocaust 1 = inadequate 2 = adequate 3 = outstanding Organization Student presents information in an illogical and uninteresting way. Student presents information in a logical
or interesting way.Student presents information in a logical
and interesting way.Knowledge of the main point of the novel Student does not summarize main point; may summarize a minor point. Student summarizes the main point of the novel. Student summarizes the main point of the novel
and expands by including extra points (e.g., how it relates to own life, what was learned).Level of detail Student presents basic facts of subject knowledge items with little detail. Student presents some detailed descriptions or representations of subject knowledge items. Student presents very detailed descriptions or representations of subject knowledge items. - For this project, the grading system is:
Points Grade 9 A+ 8 A 7 B 6 C 5 D 3–4 F
