Principles of high Quality assessment

Reliability
and
Fairness
Reliability refers to the consistency of resulting scores obtained from administering an
assessment method or a test.
Ways to Establish Reliability
1. Test Retest Method (Measure of stability) this method utilized two sets of test scores
obtained from the same test administered twice to the same group of students after the
specified time interval.
2. EquivalentForms Method ( Measure of Equivalence) this method utilized two sets of
scores obtained from parallel or equivalent forms of a test administered to the same group of
students during the same time period.
3. Internal Consistency Method ( Measure of internal-consistency) this method of
establishing reliability is based on internal-consistency which involves single administration of
the instrument.
Ways to establish internal-consistency
Split-half Method the test is administered once, and two sets of scores from two equivalent
halves of the test (e.g. odd items and even items) are correlated.
Kuder-Richardson Method the test is given once but to get the reliability estimate, the method
does not require splitting the test in half.
Assessment should be portrayed by teachers as an opportunity for the students to learn rather
than to segregate the slow or poor learners from the bright or fast learners.
Assessment should be free from stereotyping.
For example:
Teachers should not judge the manipulative skills of the students based on their sex or
gender.
Guidelines in the formulation of questions for a questionnaire
1. Make all directions clear and unequivocal.
2. Use correct grammars.
3. Make all questions unequivocal.
4. Avoid asking biased questions.
5. Objectify the responses.
6. Relate all questions to the topic under study.
7. Create categories or classes for approximate answers.
8. Group the questions in logical sequence.
9. Create sufficient number of response categories.
10. Word carefully or avoid questions that deal with confidential or embarrassing information.
Fairness Assessment procedure needs to be fair, which means:
Students should share the objectives of the teachers which mean that they should know exactly
what the learning targets are and what method of assessment will be used.
Assessment should be portrayed by teachers as an opportunity for the students to learn rather
than to segregate the slow or poor learners from the bright or fast learners.
Assessment should be free from stereotyping.
For example:
Teachers should not judge the manipulative skills of the students based on their sex or gender.