Importance of Educational Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation

Published On: November 06, 2018

As teachers become more familiar with data-driven instruction, they are making decisions about what
and how they teach based on the information gathered from their students. In other words, teachers
first find out what their students know and what they do not know, and then determine how best to
bridge that gap.

How Are Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation Different?

During the process of gathering information for effective planning and instruction, the words
measurement, assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably. These words, however, have
significantly different meanings.

Measurement

The word measurement, as it applies to education, is not substantially different from when it is used in
any other field. It simply means determining the attributes or dimensions of an object, skill or
knowledge. We use common objects in the physical world to measure, such as tape measures, scales
and meters. These measurement tools are held to standards and can be used to obtain reliable results.
When used properly, they accurately gather data for educators and administrators.

Some standard measurements in education are raw scores, percentile ranks and standard scores.

Assessment

One of the primary measurement tools in education is the assessment. Teachers gather information by
giving tests, conducting interviews and monitoring behavior. The assessment should be carefully
prepared and administered to ensure its reliability and validity. In other words, an assessment must
provide consistent results and it must measure what it claims to measure.
Evaluation

Creating valid and reliable assessments is critical to accurately measuring educational data. Evaluating
the information gathered, however, is equally important to the effective use of the information for
instruction.

In education, evaluation is the process of using the measurements gathered in the assessments.
Teachers use this information to judge the relationship between what was intended by the instruction
and what was learned. They evaluate the information gathered to determine what students know and
understand, how far they have progressed and how fast, and how their scores and progress compare to
those of other students.

Why Are Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation Important in Education?

According to educator and author, Graham Nuthall, in his book The Hidden Lives of Learners, "In most of
the classrooms we have studied, each student already knows about 40-50% of what the teacher is
teaching." The goal of data-driven instruction is to avoid teaching students what they already know and
teach what they do not know in a way the students will best respond to.

For the same reason, educators and administrators understand that assessing students and evaluating
the results must be ongoing and frequent. Scheduled assessments are important to the process, but
teachers must also be prepared to re-assess students, even if informally, when they sense students are
either bored with the daily lesson or frustrated by material they are not prepared for. Using the
measurements of these intermittent formative assessments, teachers can fine-tune instruction to meet
the needs of their students on a daily and weekly basis.

Why Is Data-Driven Instruction So Effective?

Accurately measuring student progress with reliable assessments and then evaluating the information to
make instruction more efficient, effective and interesting is what data-driven instruction is all about.
Educators who are willing to make thoughtful and intentional changes in instruction based on more than
the next chapter in the textbook find higher student engagement and more highly motivated students.

In fact, when students are included in the evaluation process, they are more likely to be self-motivated.
Students who see the results of their work only on the quarterly or semester report card or the high-
stakes testing report are often discouraged or deflated, knowing that the score is a permanent record of
their past achievement.

When students are informed about the results of more frequent formative assessments and can see
how they have improved or where they need to improve, they more easily see the value of investing
time and energy in their daily lessons and projects.

In the Master of Science in Educational Leadership online program offered by St. Thomas University,
Professor Scott E. Gillig teaches a class called Educational Measurement. In this class, students are
introduced "to elements of assessment that are essential to good teaching. It provides students with an
understanding of the role of assessment in the instructional process," including the proper evaluation of
assessments and standardized tests, and how to make better use of the data in their daily classroom
instruction.

Data-driven instruction, using accurate measurements, appropriate assessments and in-depth

evaluation, is changing the way we view tests and instruction, as well as the way we communicate
information to both students and families. Teachers who have a clear understanding of how and why
these issues are important will find these changes give them a better understanding of their students
and better opportunities to help

In educational measurement and evaluation we have different definition terms which

have to be understood in order for a learner to have a know how or rather a prior
knowledge when studying the course for effective understanding as well as mastery of
relevant concepts. The following are the terms:
Measurement: Process of quantifying individual’s achievement, personality, attitudes,
habits and skills or Process by which information about the attributes or characteristics
of things are determined and differentiated.
Evaluation: Qualitative aspect of determining the outcomes of learning. Process of
ranking with respect to attributes or trait.
Assessment: is a process by which information is gained relative to some known
objective or goal.

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE TESTS

Objective test: this is a test consisting of factual questions requiring extremely short
answers that can be quickly and unambiguously scored by anyone with an answer key.
They are tests that call for short answer which may consist of one word, a phrase or a
sentence.
Subjective test: this is a type of test that is evaluated by giving opinion. They are more
challenging and expensive to prepare, administer and evaluate correctly, though they
can be more valid.

TYPES OF OBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS

They include the following:
I. True- false items
II. Matching items
III. Multiple choice items
IV. Completion items

1) True –false test items

Here, a factual statement is made and the learner is required to respond with either true
or false depending on the correctness of the statement. They are easy to prepare, can
be marked objectively and cover a wide range of topics

ADVANTAGES

 can test a large body of material

 they are easy to score
DISADVANTAGES

 Difficult to construct questions that are definitely or unequivocally true or false.

 They are prone to guessing
2) MATCHING ITEMS
Involves connecting contents of one list to contents in another list. The learners are
presented with two columns of items, for instance column A and column B to match
content in both columns correctly.

Advantages:
a. Measures primarily associations and relationships as well as sequence of events.
b. Can be used to measure questions beginning with who, when, where and what
c. Relatively easy to construct
d. They are easy to score

Disadvantages:
 Difficult to construct effective questions that measure higher order thinking and
contain a number of plausible distracters.

3) MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEMS

In a multiple choice item, a statement of fact is made. It is followed by four or five
alternative responses from which only the best or correct one must be selected. The
statement or question is termed as ‘stem’. The alternatives or choices are termed as
‘options’ and the ‘key is the correct alternative. The other options are called ‘distracters’.
Advantages:
 Measures a variety of levels of learning.
 They are easy to score.
 Can be analyzed to yield a variety of statistics.
 When well constructed, has proven to be an effective assessment tool.
Disadvantages:
Difficult to construct effective questions that measure higher order of thinking and
contain a number of plausible distracters.

4) COMPLETION ITEMS OR SHORT ANSWER TEST ITEMS

In this, learners are required to supply the words or figures which have been left out.
They may be presented in the form of questions or phrases in which a learner is
required to respond with a word or several statements.

Advantages:
• Relatively easy to construct.
• Can cover a wide range of content.
• Reduces guessing.
Disadvantages:
 Primarily used for lower levels of thinking.
 Prone to ambiguity.
 Must be constructed carefully so as not to provide too many clues to the correct
answer.
 Scoring is dependent on the judgment of the evaluator.
TYPES OF SUBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS
In subject test we have two types of test which are:
Restricted response items &
Extended response items.

Restricted response items. On restricted response items examinees provide brief

answers, usually no more than a few words or sentences, to fairly structured questions.
Extended response items .here items require lengthy responses that count heavily in
scoring. These items focus on major concepts of the content unit and demand higher
level thinking. Examinees must organize multiple ideas and provide supporting
information for major points in crafting responses.
Advantages of restricted response items
a. Measures specific learning outcome.
b. Restricted response items provide for more ease of assessment
c. Restricted response item is more structured
d. Any outcomes measured by an objective interpretive exercise can be measured by a
restricted subjective item.
Limitations of restricted response items
a. Restricts the scope of the topic to be discussed and indicating the nature of the
desired response which limits students opportunity to demonstrate this behavior.

Advantages of Extended response items

I. Measures knowledge at higher cognitive levels of education objective such as
analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
II. They expose the individual difference in terms of attitudes, values and creative
thinking.

Limitations
i. They are insufficient for measuring knowledge of factual materials because they call
for extensive details in selected content area at a time.
ii. Scoring is difficult and unreliable.
EXAMPLES OF SUBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS
Extended response item
Imagine that you and a friend found a magic wand. Write a story about an adventure
that you and your friend had with the magic wand.

Restricted response item

Why is the barometer one of the most useful instruments for forecasting weather?
Explain in a brief summary.
EXAMPLES OF OBJECTIVE TEST ITEMS
 Completion item example:
The capital city of Tanzania is___________

 Matching item example:

Match the people in table A with the country they ruled
A
KENYATTA
OBOTE
NYERERE
B
UGANDA
TANZANIA
ZAIRE
KENYA
 True-false item
John ate his supper yesterday. (true/false)

 Multiple choice item

Which of the following towns is the capital of Kenya?
A. NAKURU C. MOMBASA
B. KISUMU D. NAIROBI
TEST CONSTRUCTION
Tests should be constructed and administered in such a way that the scores (marks)
yield reflect the ability they are supposed to measure.
The type of test to be constructed depends on the nature of the ability its meant to
measure and purpose of the test.
Certain types of educational tests can only be constructed by teams of suitably qualified
and equipped researchers.
The process of test construction s long and painstaking for it involves creating large
batteries of test questions in the particular area to be examined followed by extensive
trials in order to assess their effectiveness.
In this way, questions are eliminated which:
 Do not discriminate or distinguish between children whose abilities are different.
 Are frequently misunderstood by children.
 Have more than one correct answer.
 Give an advantage to certain children on the basis of factors other than those being
tested.
An ordinary teacher can help his pupils by using the different types of tests we have for
the particular purpose for which they are designed. The teacher therefore needs to
construct test that tell him:
What the pupils have learned from his or her teaching.
How well they can perform the practical skills he has taught them.
Whether they understand the underlying principles of what they are learning.
How quickly and accurately they can work.
How well they can apply what they know to problems they meet.
If they have yet developed the intellectual skills that older children can perform such as
the ability to analyze, deduce, compare, and evaluate.

CONSTRUCTION OF OBJECTIVE TESTS

They are tests that call for short answers which may consist of one word ,a phrase or
sentence. In these tests all possibility of human error or prejudice by the marker is
removed by constructing items that demand answers that are either right or wrong and
each of which there is only one possible answer.
Guideline to constructing true or false items
 Do not provide clues by using determinants such as ‘all’, ‘never’, ‘absolutely’ or ‘none’
because they signal that the statement is false. Words such as ‘may’, perhaps’,
sometimes and ‘could’ signal that the statement is true. If such words are to be used,
they must be balanced and used in both true and false statements.
 Statements must be irrevocably true or false, so they must be unambiguous (clear).
 Use of negative statements should be avoided.
 Limit true or false statement to a single concept. True or false tests items may require
the learner to underline a word or clause in a statement, correct a false statement or
trace a path in a maze.

2. CONSTRUCTION OF MATCTHING TEST ITEMS

These items involve connecting contents of one list to contents in another list. The
learners are presented with two columns of items, for instance, column A and column B.
they are asked to match each item that appears in column A with an appropriate item
from column B. in such questions, an equal number of premises (what is in the left hand
column) may be provided for balance or perfect matching when an unequal number of
premises and responses are provided, this is called an unbalanced or imperfect keep
matching.
To control guess work, it is better to have more responses and fewer premises.
When writing the items in the columns, it is important to:
 Keep the expressions homogeneous.
 Make the items relatively short.
 Use heading for each column that accurately describes its content
 Specify the basis for matching.

3. COMPLETION OR SHORT ANSWER TEST ITEMS

In this, learners are required to supply the words or figures which have been left out.
They may be presented in the form of questions or phrases in which a learner is
required to respond with a word or several statements.
Questions must be specific and unambiguous. For instance: JOMO KENYATTA WAS
BORN IN_____________
This is ambiguous since it’s not clear whether it is his date of birth or the country or
place where he was born that is required.
Besides this, statements that leave too many key words may not carry the intended
meaning. If the answer is numerical or a quantity the unit must be indicated. The answer
required should be related to the main point or statement.
In constructing completion items, the blank should come last to ensure that the learners
read the whole question before supplying the answer. Unintentional help should not be
given in the question, for example, JUDAS ISCARIOT, WHO BETRAYED JESUS WAS
BORN AN_____________
In the above question ‘an’ provides unintentional help to the learners as it means that
the answer must begin with a vowel.

4 MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEMS CONSTRUCTION

In a multiple choice question, a statement of fact is made. It is followed by four or five

alternative responses from which only the best or correct one must be selected.
The following are the guidelines that a teacher should use when constructing multiple
choice items:
Draw a table of specification showing topics or subtopics and the skills to be tested. The
table of specification come from the subject syllabus. The test items should be based on
the three domains of learning( cognitive, affective, psychomotor)
The area emphasized during teaching should have more items.
Questions should be based on bloom’s taxonomy- of the six levels of cognitive
objectives multiple choice questions should reflect comprehension, application and
analysis. There should be minor doses of knowledge, synthesis and evaluation.
Knowledge is too basic while synthesis is too complete. Allocation of marks for these
skills can be as follows:
 Knowledge- 12%
 Comprehension-16%
 Application -32%
 Analysis-20%
 Synthesis-12%
 Evaluation -8%
Total= 100%
The stem of the question should state the problem clearly. It should not contain
unnecessary information
Options should be carefully selected and must include the best answer or key.
Each question should be relevant and not far- fetched.
All options should be almost equal in length.
The distractors should be relevant and not far-fetched.
Placement of the key should be unpredictable and should not follow a pattern.
No test or option test should provide clues or be answers to another question in the
same test.
The reading difficult and vocabulary level of items should correspond to the level of the
learners.
All items should be independent.
Avoid tricky questions
Ensure instructions to learners are clear.
Edit the paper carefully.

CONSTRUCTION OF SUBJECTIVE TESTS

In this kind of test the objective is to measure qualities such as pupil’s ability to perform
certain practical or intellectual skills which might include describing something
accurately either in oral or written or written form using materials imaginatively, working
creatively, handling information logically building convincing arguments or exposing
flaws in the arguments of others.
The common types of subjective test items that we have are:
Restricted response items
Extended response items
Construction of the above types test items has a detailed process which includes the
following stages:

 Developing the prompt

 Creating the scoring rubric
 Scoring response
Developing the prompt

 The prompt for a subjective item poses a question, presents a problem, or prescribes
a task. It sets forth a set of circumstances to provide a common context for framing the
response.
Action verbs direct the examinee to focus on the desired behavior, for instance, solve,
interpret, compare and contrast, discuss or explain. Appropriate directions indicate
expected length format of the response, allowable resources or equipment’s, time limits
and features of the response that count in scoring.

Creating the scoring rubric

These are analytic or holistic in nature.
For holistic rubric the item writer/ constructor lists desired features of the response with
a number of points awarded for each specific feature.
An analytic rubric provides a scale for assigning points to the response based on overall
impression.
A range of possible points is specified and verbal descriptors are developed to
characterize a response located at each possible point on the scale.
Illustrative responses that correspond to each scale point are often developed or
selected from actual examinee responses.

Scoring response

During subjective scoring at least four types of rater errors may occur as the rater;
becomes more lenient or severe over time or scores erratically due to fatigue or
distractions; has knowledge or belief about an examinee that influences perception of
response; is influenced by examinees good or poor performance on items previously or
influenced by the strength or weakness of a preceding examinees response.
Under extended response items we can take an example of the essay test items look on
how it is constructed:
 Essay items require learners to write or type the answer in a number of paragraphs.
The learners use their own words and organize the information or material as they see it
fit.
 In writing essay test, clear and unambiguous language should be used. Words such
as ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘contrast’, ‘describe’ and discuss are useful. The questions should
clearly define the scope of the answer required.
 The time provided for the learner to respond to the questions should be sufficient for
the amount of writing required for a satisfactory response. The validity of questions can
be enhanced by ensuring that the questions correspond closely to the goals or objective
being tested.
 An indication of the length of the answer required should be given.

Uses of tests
1. To Identify What Students Have Learned
The obvious point of classroom tests is to see what the students have learned after the
completion of a lesson or unit. When the classroom tests are tied to effectively written
lesson objectives, the teacher can analyze the results to see where the majority of the
students are having problems with in their class. These tests are also important when
discussing student progress at parent-teacher conferences.
2. To Identify Student Strengths and Weaknesses
Another use of tests is to determine student strengths and weaknesses. One effective
example of this is when teachers use pretests at the beginning of units in order to find
out what students already know and where the teacher’s focus needs to be. Further,
learning style and multiple intelligences tests help teachers learn how to best meet the
needs of their students through instructional techniques.

3. To Provide a Method for Awards and Recognition

Tests can be used as a way to determine who will receive awards and recognition.

4. To Provide a Way to Measure a Teacher and/or School’s Effectiveness

More and more states are tying funding to schools to the way that students perform on
standardized tests. Further some states are attempting to use these results when they
evaluation and give merit raises to the teachers themselves. This use of high stakes
testing is often contentious with educators since many factors can influence a student’s
grade on an exam. Additionally, controversy can sometimes erupt over the number of
hours schools use to specifically ‘teach to the test’ as they prepare students to take
these exams.

5. To Provide a Basis for Entry into an Internship, Program, or College

Tests have traditionally been used as a way to judge a student based on merit.

6. To Gain College Credit

Advanced Placement exams provide students with the opportunity to earn college credit
after successfully completing a course and passing the exam with high marks. While
every university has its own rules on what scores to accept, most do give credit for
these exams. In many cases, students are able to begin college with a semester or
even a year’s worth of credits under their belts.

REFERENCES
1. Coffman, W. E. (1971). Essay examination. In R. L. Thorndike (Ed.), Educational
measurement (2nd ed., pp. 271–302). Washington DC: American Council on Education.

2. Welch C. J. (2006). Item and prompt development in performance testing. In S. M.

Downing & T. M. Haladyna (Eds.). Handbook of test development (pp. 303–327).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

3. Gronlund, N. E., & Linn, R. L. (1995). Measurement and evaluation in teaching.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.

What is an assessment?
What's the definition of assessment in education? Assessment is the systematic
process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skills, attitudes and
beliefs. By taking the assessment, teachers try to improve student learning. This is a
short definition of assessment. If you want to read more about assessment, click on this
link.

What is evaluation?
What's the definition of evaluation in education? Evaluation focuses on grades and may
reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. Evaluation
is a final review on your instruction to gauge the quality. It’s product-oriented. This
means that the main question is: “What’s been learned?”. Finally, evaluation is
judgmental.

Example:

You’re gifted a flower.

Evaluation: “The flower is purple and is too short with not enough leaves.”

Evaluation is judgmental

Assessment: “I’ll give the flower some water to improve its growth.”

Assessment increases the quality

Relationship between Assessment and Evaluation

Besides the differences, there are also some similarities between assessment and
evaluation. The both require criteria, use measures and are evidence-driven.

So, what’s the difference?

Assessment Evaluation

Is ongoing Provides closure

Improves quality Judges quality

Individualized Applied against standards

Not graded Graded

Provides feedback Shows shortfalls

Process-oriented Product-oriented

Read more about assessment vs testing.