Glossary of Assessment Terms (pdf version)

Accountability
Accountability is often viewed as an important factor in education reform. An assessment system connected to accountability can help identify the needs of schools so that resources can be equitably distributed. In this context, accountability assessment can include such indicators as equity, competency of teaching staff, physical infrastructure, curriculum, class size, instructional methods, existence of tracking, number of higher cost students, dropout rates, and parental involvement as well as student test scores. It has been suggested that test scores analyzed in a disaggregated format can help identify instructional problems and point to potential solutions.
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Achievement Test
A standardized test designed to efficiently measure the amount of knowledge and/or skill a person has acquired, usually as a result of classroom instruction. Such testing produces a statistical profile used as a measurement to evaluate student learning in comparison with a standard or norm.
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Action Research
School and classroom-based studies initiated and conducted by teachers and other school staff. Action research involves teachers, aides, principals, and other school staff as researchers who systematically reflect on their teaching or other work and collect data that will answer their questions. It offers staff an opportunity to explore issues of interest to them in an effort to improve classroom instruction and educational effectiveness. (Source: Bennett, C.K. "Promoting teacher reflection through action research: What do teachers think?" Journal of Staff Development, 1994, 15, 34-38.)
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Alternative Assessment
Many educators prefer the description "assessment alternatives" to describe alternatives to traditional, Many educators prefer the description "assessment alternatives" to describe alternatives to traditional, standardized, norm- or criterion-referenced traditional paper and pencil testing. An alternative assessment might require students to answer an open-ended question, work out a solution to a problem, perform a demonstration of a skill, or in some way produce work rather than select an answer from choices on a sheet of paper. Portfolios and instructor observation of students are also alternative forms of assessment.
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Alternative Assessment applies to any and all assessments that require students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in ways other than through the conventional - methods used within a classroom, school, or district. (See also Conventional, or Traditional, Assessment.)
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Analytic Scoring
A type of rubric scoring that separates the whole into categories of criteria that are examined one at a time. Student writing, for example, might be scored on the basis of grammar, organization, and clarity of ideas. Useful as a diagnostic tool. An analytic scale is useful when there are several dimensions on which the piece of work will be evaluated.
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Anchor
An anchor is a descriptive point on a scale/continuum. The highest-level anchor is called the exemplar.
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Anchor Test
1. A common set of items administered with each of two or more different forms of a test for the purpose of equating the scores obtained on these forms. 2. "Anchor papers provide a connection between a rubric narrative and student writing, and an example of what writing at a certain score of the rubric should look like." (From: the REEP Writing Assessment Trainer's Manual.) (see also Benchmark tasks; Benchmarking.)
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Aptitude Test
A test intended to measure the test-taker's innate ability to learn, given before receiving instruction.
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Assessment
The Latin root assidere means to sit beside. In an educational context, the process of observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student's or one's own learning. At its most useful, assessment is an episode in the learning process; part of reflection and autobiographical understanding of progress. Traditionally, student assessments are used to determine placement, promotion, graduation, or retention.

In the context of institutional accountability, assessments are undertaken to determine the principal's performance, effectiveness of schools, etc. In the context of school reform, assessment is an essential tool for evaluating the effectiveness of changes in the teaching-learning process.
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Assessment is a process of gathering information to meet a broad range of evaluation needs.
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Assessment Literacy
The possession of knowledge about the basic principals of sound assessment practice, including terminology, the development and use of assessment methodologies and techniques, familiarity with standards of quality in assessment. Increasingly, familiarity with alternatives to traditional measurements of learning.
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Assessment Task
An illustrative task or performance opportunity that closely targets defined instructional aims, allowing students to demonstrate their progress and capabilities.
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Authentic Assessment
Evaluating by asking for the behavior the learning is intended to produce. The concept of model, practice, feedback in which students know what excellent performance is and are guided to practice an entire concept rather than bits and pieces in preparation for eventual understanding. A variety of techniques can be employed in authentic assessment.

The goal of authentic assessment is to gather evidence that students can use knowledge effectively and be able to critique their own efforts. Authentic tests can be viewed as "assessments of enablement," in Robert Glaser's words, ideally mirroring and measuring student performance in a "real-world" context. Tasks used in authentic assessment are meaningful and valuable, and are part of the learning process.

Authentic assessment can take place at any point in the learning process. Authentic assessment implies that tests are central experiences in the learning process, and that assessment takes place repeatedly. Patterns of success and failure are observed as learners use knowledge and skills in slightly ambiguous situations that allow the assessor to observe the student applying knowledge and skills in new situations over time.
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Authentic assessment engages students in applying knowledge and skills in the same way they are used in the "real world" outside school. It is performance-based assessment that requires a student to go beyond basic recall and demonstrate significant, worthwhile knowledge and understanding through a product, perfor- mance, or exhibition. The assessment comprises an authentic task and a scoring rubric that are tied to an outcome or "big idea" and are made clear to the students up front.
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Benchmark
Student performance standards (the level(s) of student competence in a content area.)

An actual measurement of group performance against an established standard at defined points along the path toward the standard. Subsequent measurements of group performance use the benchmarks to measure progress toward achievement.

Examples of student achievement that illustrate points on a performance scale, used as exemplars. (See Descriptor, Cohort.)
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A detailed description of a specific level of student performance expected of students at particular ages, grades, or development levels. Benchmarks are often represented by samples of student work. A set of benchmarks can be used as "checkpoints" to monitor progress toward meeting performance goals within and across grade levels. In ABE, SPLs (Student Performance Levels) are examples of benchmarks; targets for instruction.
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A benchmark translates the standard into what the student should know and be able to do at developmentally appropriate levels. Benchmarks are models that teachers, parents, and students can refer to when designing, implementing, and assessing student outcomes.
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Cohort
A group whose progress is followed by means of measurements at different points in time.
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Compentency Test
A test intended to establish that a student has met established minimum standards of skills and knowledge and is thus eligible for promotion, graduation, certification, or other official acknowledgment of achievement.
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Concept
An abstract, general notion -- a heading that characterizes a set of behaviors and beliefs.
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Constructed Response Item
An exercise for which examinees must create their own responses or products (performance assessment) rather than choose a response from an enumerated set (multiple choice).
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Conventional or Traditional Assessment
Conventional assessment refers to paper-pencil testing (multiple-choice, true/false, matching, short answer) that typically must be completed within a specific amount of time.
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Countable Outcomes (ACLS)
Results that can be quantified; all measures of student outcomes except learning gains, including executive function skills, and affective-related measures. Learning gains are gains in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and numeracy. Executive function skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, and metacognition. Affective-related measures include self-esteem, self confidence, and interpersonal communication. Examples of Countable Outcomes include: number of people who get jobs, number of people who register to vote, number of people who achieve a GED.
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Criteria
Criteria - sometimes called performance standards - are the qualitative or quantitative statements used to measure whether the program standard (competency achievement) has been met. The nature of the criteria may vaiy depending on the specific assessment tool being used. However, for the process skill (competency), Manage work responsibilities, for example, one criterion for measuring a student's ability in that area would be, Gets work done on time.
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Criterion-Referenced Test
A test in which the results can be used to determine a student's progress toward mastery of a content area. Performance is compared to an expected level of mastery in a content area rather than to other students' scores. Such tests usually include questions based on what the student was taught and are designed to measure the student's mastery of designated objectives of an instructional program. The "criterion" is the standard of performance established as the passing score for the test. Scores have meaning in terms of what the student knows or can do, rather than how the test-taker compares to a reference or norm group. Criterion-referenced tests can have norms, but comparison to a norm is not the purpose of the assessment.

Criterion referenced tests have also been used to provide information for program evaluation, especially to track the success or progress of schools and student populations that have been involved in change or that are at risk of inequity. In this case, the tests are not used to compare teachers, teams or buildings within a district but rather to give feedback on progress of groups and individuals.
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An assessment where an individual's performance is compared to a specific learning objective or performance standard and not to the performance of other students. Criterion-referenced assessment tells us how well students are performing on specific goals or standards rather that just telling how their performance compares to a norm group of students nationally or locally. In criterion-referenced assessments, it is possible that none, or all, of the examinees will reach a particular goal or performance standard.
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Curriculum Alignment
The degree to which a curriculum's scope and sequence matches a testing program's evaluation measures, thus ensuring that teachers will use successful completion of the test as a goal of classroom instruction.
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Curriculum-embedded or Learning-embedded Assessment
Assessment that occurs simultaneously with learning such as projects, portfolios and "exhibitions." Occurs in the classroom setting, and, if properly designed, students should not be able to tell whether they are being taught or assessed. Tasks or tests are developed from the curriculum or instructional materials.
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Cut Score
Score used to determine the minimum performance level needed to pass a competency test. (See Descriptor for another type of determiner.)
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Descriptor
A set of signs used as a scale against which a performance or product is placed in an evaluation. An example from Grant Wiggins' Glossary of Useful Terms Related to Authentic and Performance Assessments is taken from "the CAP writing test where a 5 out of a possible 6 is described: 'The student describes the problem adequately and argues convincingly for at least one solution...without the continual reader awareness of the writer of a 6.'"

Descriptors allow assessment to include clear guidelines for what is and is not valued in student work. Wiggins adds that "[t]he word 'descriptor' reminds us that justifiable value judgments are made by know how to empirically describe the traits of work we do and do not value." (Emphasis this.)
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Dimension
Aspects or categories in which performance in a domain or subject area will be judged. Separate descriptors or scoring methods may apply to each dimension of the student's performance assessment.
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Documentation
Documentation is a naturalistic assessment process, which involves recording classroom observations over time, across learning modalities, and in coordination with colleagues.
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Essay Test
Test that requires students to answer questions in writing. Responses can be brief or extensive. Tests for recall, ability to apply knowledge of a subject to questions about the subject, rather than ability to choose the least incorrect answer from a menu of options.
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Evaluation
Both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of pupil behavior plus value judgments concerning the desirability of that behavior. Using collected information (assessments) to make informed decisions about continued instruction, programs, activities. Exemplar Model of excellence. (See Benchmark, Norm, Rubric, Standard.)
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Formative Assessment
Observations which allow one to determine the degree to which students know or are able to do a given learning task, and which identifies the part of the task that the student does not know or is unable to do. Outcomes suggest future steps for teaching and learning. (See Summative Assessment.)
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Assessment that provides feedback to the teacher for the purpose of improving instruction.
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Grade Equivalent
Both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of pupil behavior plus value judgments concerning the A score that describes student performance in terms of the statistical performance of an average student at a given grade level. A grade equivalent score of 5.5, for example, might indicate that the student's score is what could be expected of a average student doing average work in the fifth month of the fifth grade. This score allows for a theoretical or approximate comparison across grades. It ranges from September of the kindergarten year (K.O.) to June of the senior year in high school (12.9) Useful as a ranking score, grade equivalents are only a theoretical or approximate comparison across grades. In this case, it may not indicate what the student would actually score on a test given to a midyear fifth grade class.
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Grade Level Equivalent
The school grade level for a given population for which a given score is the median score in that population. For example, if a test was administered during the month of October to a norming group of sixth grade students and the median scale score obtained was 475, then the grade equivalent for a scale score of 475 on that test would be set at 6.1 - 6 representing Grade 6 and .1 representing the month of October (September is taken as the beginning of the school year and equals to 0).
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Graphic Organizer
Graphic organizers are mental maps that help students make their thinking visible. They represent the process skills of sequencing, comparing, contrasting, classifying, inferring, drawing conclusions, problem solving, and thinking critically.
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High Stakes Testing
Any testing program whose results have important consequences for students, teachers, schools, and/or districts. Such stakes may include promotion, certification, graduation, or denial/approval of services and opportunity. High stakes testing can corrupt the evaluation process when pressure to produce rising test scores results in "teaching to the test" or making tests less complex.
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Test used to provide results that have important, direct consequences for examinees, programs, or institutions involved in the testing. For example, MCAS (K-12) is considered a high-stakes test because children who do not pass the examination do not receive a high school diploma, regardless of their performance in other areas of their school education.
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Holistic Method
In assessment, assigning a single score based on an overall assessment of performance rather than by scoring or analyzing dimensions individually. The product is considered to be more than the sum of its parts and so the quality of a final product or performance is evaluated rather than the process or dimension of performance. A holistic scoring rubric might combine a number of elements on a single scale. Focused holistic scoring may be used to evaluate a limited portion of a learner's performance.
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Indicators
Indicators provide specific examples and explicit definitions that can be used in rating students' level of achievement relative to specified skills, strategies, and knowledge.
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IQ Test
The first of the standardized norm-referenced tests, developed during the nineteenth century. Traditional psychologists believe that neurological and genetic factors underlie "intelligence" and that scoring the performance of certain intellectual tasks can provide assessors with a measurement of general intelligence. There is a substantial body of research that suggests that I.Q. tests measure only certain analytical skills, missing many areas of human endeavor considered to be intelligent behavior. I. Q is considered by some to be fixed or static; whereas an increasing number of researchers are finding that intelligence is an ongoing process that continues to change throughout life.
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Item Analysis
Analyzing each item on a test to determine the proportions of students selecting each answer. Can be used to evaluate student strengths and weaknesses; may point to problems with the test's validity and to possible bias.
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Journals
Students' personal records and reactions to various aspects of learning and developing ideas. A reflective process often found to consolidate and enhance learning.
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Mean
One of several ways of representing a group with a single, typical score. It is figured by adding up all the individual scores in a group and dividing them by the number of people in the group. Can be affected by extremely low or high scores.
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Measurement
Quantitative description of student learning and qualitative description of student attitude.
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Median
The point on a scale that divides a group into two equal subgroups. Another way to represent a group's scores with a single, typical score. The median is not affected by low or high scores as is the mean. (See Norm.)
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Metacognition
The knowledge of one's own thinking processes and strategies, and the ability to consciously reflect and act on the knowledge of cognition to modify those processes and strategies.
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Multidimensional Assessment
Assessment that gathers information about a broad spectrum of abilities and skills (as in Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences.
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Multiple-Choice Test
A test in which students are presented with a question or an incomplete sentence or idea. The students are expected to choose the correct or best answer/completion from a menu of alternatives.
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Naturalistic Assessment
Naturalistic assessment refers to evaluation rooted in the natural setting of the classroom. It involves observation of student performances and behavior in an informal context. Naturalistic observation is done as students go about their daily work and is sometimes called kidwatching.
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Norm
A distribution of scores obtained from a norm group. The norm is the midpoint (or median) of scores or performance of the students in that group. Fifty percent will score above and fifty percent below the norm.
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Norm Group
A random group of students selected by a test developer to take a test to provide a range of scores and establish the percentiles of performance for use in establishing scoring standards.
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Norm-Referenced Test
A test in which a student or a group's performance is compared to that of a norm group. The student or group scores will not fall evenly on either side of the median established by the original test takers. The results are relative to the performance of an external group and are designed to be compared with the norm group providing a performance standard. Often used to measure and compare students, schools, districts, and states on the basis of norm-established scales of achievement.
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An objective test that is standardized on a group of individuals whose performance is evaluated in relation to the performance of others; contrasted with criterion-referenced test. Most standardized achievement tests are referred to as norm-referenced.
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Norm Curve Equivalent
A score that ranges from 1-99, often used by testers to manipulate data arithmetically. Used to compare different tests for the same student or group of students and between different students on the same test. An NCE is a normalized test score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 21.06. NCEs should be used instead of percentiles for comparative purposes. Required by many categorical funding agencies, e.g., Chapter I or Title I.
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Objective Test
A test for which the scoring procedure is completely specified enabling agreement among different scorers. A correct-answer test.
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On-Demand Assessment
An assessment process that takes place as a scheduled event outside the normal routine. An attempt to summarize what students have learned that is not embedded in classroom activity.
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Outcome
An operationally defined educational goal, usually a culminating activity, product, or performance that can be measured.
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The word outcome is often used interchangeably with goal, purpose, demonstration of learning, culmination, and end. Exit outcomes may be used synonymously with such terms as comperencies. knowledge, and orientations. Outcomes are the "end-products" of the entire instructional process. Outcomes can include internal changes in the learner or observable changes. In the Work and Family Resource Guides, the outcomes are expressed by the intent or goals of the Work and Family Life Program described in the introductions to each guide and by the positive actions students are asked to take regarding the practical problems that frame the guides.
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Percentile
A ranking scale ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 99 with 50 as the median score. A percentile rank indicates the percentage of a reference or norm group obtaining scores equal to or less than the test-taker's score. A percentile score does not refer to the percentage of questions answered correctly, it indicates the test-taker's standing relative to the norm group standard.
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Performance-Based Assessment
Direct, systematic observation and rating of student performance of an educational objective, often an ongoing observation over a period of time, and typically involving the creation of products. The assessment may be a continuing interaction between teacher and student and should ideally be part of the learning process. The assessment should be a real-world performance with relevance to the student and learning community. Assessment of the performance is done using a rubric, or analytic scoring guide to aid in objectivity. Performance-based assessment is a test of the ability to apply knowledge in a real-life setting. Performance of exemplary tasks in the demonstration of intellectual ability.
Evaluation of the product of a learning experience can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching methods.

Stiggins defines performance-based assessment as the use of performance criteria to determine the degree to which a student has met an achievement target. Important elements of performance-based assessment include clear goals or performance criteria clearly articulated and communicated to the learner; the establishment of a sound sampling that clearly envisions the scope of an achievement target and the type of learning that is involved (use of problem-solving skills, knowledge acquisition, etc.) Attention to extraneous interference (cultural biases, language barriers, testing environment, tester biases) and establishment of a clear purpose for the data collected during the assessment before the assessment is undertaken, keeping in mind the needs of the groups involved (teachers, students, parents, etc.) (from an article by Richard J. Stiggins, "The Key to Unlocking High-Quality Performance Assessments." Assessment: How Do We Know What They Know? ASCD, 1992.
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Performance assessment is a broad term, encompassing many of the characteristics of both authentic assessment and alternative assessment. Generally, performance assessments provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and to thoughtfully apply knowledge, skills, and habits of mind in a variety of structured and unstructured situations. These assessments often occur over time and result in a tangible product or observable performance. Terms of Assessment that may or may not be enduring, or endearing
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Performance Criteria
A ranking scale ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 99 with 50 as the median score. A percentile rank iThe standards by which student performance is evaluated. Performance criteria help assessors maintain objectivity and provide students with important information about expectations, giving them a target or goal to strive for.
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1. A statement or description of a set of operational tasks exemplifying a level of performance associated with a more general content standard; the statement may be used to guide judgements about the location of a cut score on a score scale; the term often implies a desired level of performance. 2. Explicit definitions of what students must do to demonstrate proficiency at a specific level on the content standards; for example, in Massachusetts' Curriculum Frameworks in the area of 'reading', there are six levels for each of four standards. Under the standard "comprehension", performance can range from "develop vocabulary" to "interpret charts & graphs" to "recognize a variety of genres & styles."
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Portfolio
A systematic and organized collection of a student's work that exhibits to others the direct evidence of a student's efforts, achievements, and progress over a period of time. The collection should involve the student in selection of its contents, and should include information about the performance criteria, the rubric or criteria for judging merit, and evidence of student self-relection or evaluation. It should include representative work, providing a documentation of the learner's performance and a basis for evaluation of the student's progress. Portfolios may include a variety of demonstrations of learning and have been gathered in the form of a physical collection of materials, videos, CD-ROMs, reflective journals, etc.
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portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress, and achievement in one or more areas.
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Portfolio Assessment
Portfolios may be assessed in a variety of ways. Each piece may be individually scored, or the portfolio might be assessed merely for the presence of required pieces, or a holistic scoring process might be used and an evaluation made on the basis of an overall impression of the student's collected work. It is common that assessors work together to establish consensus of standards or to ensure greater reliability in evaluation of student work. Established criteria are often used by reviewers and students involved in the process of evaluating progress and achievement of objectives.
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Primary Trait Method
A type of rubric scoring constructed to assess a specific trait, skill, behavior, or format, or the evaluation of the primary impact of a learning process on a designated audience.
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Process
A generalizable method of doing something, generally involving steps or operations which are usually ordered and/or interdependent. Process can be evaluated as part of an assessment, as in the example of evaluating a student's performance during prewriting exercises leading up to the final production of an essay or paper.
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Process Assessment
Process assessment refers to assessing a student's skills in progressing through a series of actions or operations. Process skills that teachers seek to assess relate to thinking abilities, applications of procedural knowledge, and interactions with others. Some examples of process skills are critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, decision making, goal setting, cooperation, relating to others, leadership, and management.
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Product
The tangible and stable result of a performance or task. An assessment is made of student performance based on evaluation of the product of a demonstration of learning.
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Product/Project Assessment
Products and projects are typically assigned to individuals or groups of students on a topic related to the curriculum. The project results in a product, which is assessed. The processes used during the assessment could also be assessed.
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Profile
A graphic compilation of the performance of an individual on a series of assessments.
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Project
A complex assignment involving more than one type of activity and production. Projects can take a variety of forms, some examples are a mural construction, a shared service project, or other collaborative or individual effort.
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Quartile
The breakdown of an aggregate of percentile rankings into four categories: the 0-25th percentile, 26-50th percentile, etc.
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Quintile
The breakdown of an aggregate of percentile rankings into five categories: the 0-20th percentile, 21-40th percentile, etc.
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Rating Scale
A scale based on descriptive words or phrases that indicate performance levels. Qualities of a performance are described (e.g., advanced, intermediate, novice) in order to designate a level of achievement. The scale may be used with rubrics or descriptions of each level of performance.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Reliability
The measure of consistency for an assessment instrument. The instrument should yield similar results over time with similar populations in similar circumstances.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

How accurately a score will be reproduced if an individual is measured again. The degree to which the results of an assessment are dependable and consistently measure particular student knowledge and/or skills. Reliability is an indication of the consistency of scores across raters, over time, or across different tasks or items that measure the same thing. Thus, reliability may be expressed as (a) the relationship between test items intended to measure the same skill or knowledge (item reliability), (b) the relationship between two administrations of the same test to the same student or students (test/retest reliability), or (c) the degree of agreement between two or more raters (rater reliability). An unreliable assessment cannot be valid.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

Rubric
Some of the definitions of rubric are contradictory. In general a rubric is a scoring guide used in subjective assessments. A rubric implies that a rule defining the criteria of an assessment system is followed in evaluation. A rubric can be an explicit description of performance characteristics corresponding to a point on a rating scale. A scoring rubric makes explicit expected qualities of performance on a rating scale or the definition of a single scoring point on a scale.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Specific sets of criteria that clearly define for both student and teacher what a range of acceptable and unacceptable performance looks like. Criteria define descriptors of ability at each level of performance and assign values to each level. Levels referred to are proficiency levels which describe a continuum from excellent to unacceptable product.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

A scoring rubric consists of fixed scales related to a list of criteria describing performance. Each scale is composed of anchors that describe the various levels of performance com- plexity. Assigned weights, which give the relative value of each criterion, are used in the process of sumniating scores to ascertain whether the standard has been met. Rubrics promote learning by offering clear performance targets to students for agreed-upon standards. Rubrics are presented to students along with the performance task.
[Source - http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/124]

Sampling
A way to obtain information about a large group by examining a smaller, randomly chosen selection (the sample) of group members. If the sampling is conducted correctly, the results will be representative of the group as a whole. Sampling may also refer to the choice of smaller tasks or processes that will be valid for making inferences about the student's performance in a larger domain. "Matrix sampling" asks different groups to take small segments of a test; the results will reflect the ability of the larger group on a complete range of tasks.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Scale
A classification tool or counting system designed to indicate and measure the degree to which an event or behavior has occurred.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Scale Score
Scores based on a scale ranging from 001 to 999. Scale scores are useful in comparing performance in one subject area across classes, schools, districts, and other large populations, especially in monitoring change over time.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Score
A rating of performance based on a scale or classification.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Scoring
A package of guidelines intended for people scoring performance assessments. May include instructions for raters, notes on training raters, rating scales, samples of student work exemplifying various levels of performance.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Scoring Criteria
Rules for assigning a score or the dimensions of proficiency in performance used to describe a student's response to a task. May include rating scales, checklists, answer keys, and other scoring tools. In a subjective assessment situation, a rubric.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Self-Assessment
A process in which a student engages in a systematic review of a performance, usually for the purpose of improving future performance. May involve comparison with a standard, established criteria. May involve critiquing one's own work or may be a simple description of the performance. Reflection, self-evaluation, metacognition, are related terms.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Senior Project
Extensive projects planned and carried out during the senior year of high school as the culmination of the secondary school experience, senior projects require higher-level thinking skills, problem-solving, and creative thinking. They are often interdisciplinary, and may require extensive research. Projects culminate in a presentation of the project to a panel of people, usually faculty and community mentors, sometimes students, who evaluate the student's work at the end of the year.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Self-Assessment
A process in which a student engages in a systematic review of a performance, usually for the purpose of improving future performance. May involve comparison with a standard, established criteria. May involve critiquing one's own work or may be a simple description of the performance. Reflection, self-evaluation, metacognition, are related terms.

Content Standard
Content standards - also known as discipline standards - comprise the knowledge and skills specific to a given discipline. They describe information and skills essential to the practice or application of a particular discipline or content domain.

Curriculum or Program Standard
Curriculum standards - sometimes referred to as program standards - are best described as the goals of classroom instruction. They imply the curricular or instructional activities that might be used to help students develop skill and ability within a given content domain. To a great extent, curriculum standards describe the instructional means to achieve content standards.

Performance Standard
A lifelong learning standard is not specific to any one discipline and can be used in many situations throughout a person's lifetime. This type of standard is not even specific to academics; it is a skill that can be used in virtually all aspects of life. For example, one lifelong learning standard for students might be, Make and carry out effective plans.

Lifelong Learning Standard
A lifelong learning standard is not specific to any one discipline and can be used in many situations throughout a person's lifetime. This type of standard is not even specific to academics; it is a skill that can be used in virtually all aspects of life. For example, one lifelong learning standard for students might be, Make and carry out effective plans.
[Source - http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/124]

Standardized Test
An objective test that is given and scored in a uniform manner. Standardized tests are carefully constructed and items are selected after trials for appropriateness and difficulty. Tests are issued with a manual giving complete guidelines for administration and scoring. The guidelines attempt to eliminate extraneous interference that might influence test results. Scores are often are often norm-referenced.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

A test designed to be given under specified, standard conditions to obtain a sample of learner behavior that can be used to make inferences about the learner's ability. Standardized testing allows results to be compared statistically to a standard such as a norm or criteria. If the test is not administered according to the standard conditions, the results are invalid.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

Standards
Agreed-upon values used to measure the quality of student performance, instructional methods, curriculum, etc.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Student Performance Level (SPL)
A standard description of a student's (ESOL) language ability at a given level in terms of speaking, listening, reading, writing, and the ability to communicate with a native speaker; a profile of skill levels for a student can thus be assigned and used for placement, instructional, or reporting purposes.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

Subjective Test
A test in which the impression or opinion of the assessor determines the score or evaluation of performance. A test in which the answers cannot be known or prescribed in advance.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

Summative Assessment
Evaluation at the conclusion of a unit or units of instruction or an activity or plan to determine or judge student skills and knowledge or effectiveness of a plan or activity. Outcomes are the culmination of a teaching/learning process for a unit, subject, or year's study. (See Formative Assessment.).
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

A culminating assessment, which gives information on students' mastery of content, knowledge, or skills.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

Task
A task is a complex activity requiring multiple responses to a challenging question or problem.
[Source - http://www.essentialschools.org/cs/resources/view/ces_res/124]

Validity
The test measures the desired performance and appropriate inferences can be drawn from the results. The assessment accurately reflects the learning it was designed to measure.
[Source - http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/assess/terminology.htm]

The extent to which an assessment measures what it is supposed to measure and the extent to which inferences and actions made on the basis of test scores are appropriate and accurate. For example, if a student performs well on a reading test, how confident are we that that student is a good reader?A valid standards-based assessment is aligned with the standards intended to be measured, provides an accurate and reliable estimate of students' performance relative to the standard, and is fair. An assessment cannot be valid if it is not reliable.
[Source - http://www.sabes.org/assessment/glossary.htm]

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