Maine Mentor Trainers

Here is some basic assessment information that can be used as a conversation starter when mentoring around standard 8. It also can be used as a handout when you are mentor training. It provides a specific example of a mentoring conversation aligned to one of the Maine’s Initial Teacher Certification Standards. Please place this in your mentor trainer “toolbox”.

Why do we assess?

• Monitor educational systems for public accountability

• Help provide information to better identify instructional practices

• Evaluate the effectiveness of instructional practices

• Measure student achievement

• Evaluate students’ mastery of skills

Valid and Reliable: An assessment is reliable if it yields results that are accurate and stable.  In order for a performance assessment to be reliable, it should be administered and scored in a consistent way for all the students who take the assessment.An assessment is valid for a particular purpose if it in fact measures what it was intended to measure.  An assessment of a learning outcome is valid to the extent that scores truly measure that outcome and are not affected by anything irrelevant to the outcome. Some important aspects of validity are content coverage, generalizability and fairness.  The assessments for a given outcome should be aligned with the both the outcome and instruction and, when taken together, should cover all important aspects of the outcome.  The assessments should address the higher-order thinking skills specified in the outcome.  The tasks used should have answers or solutions that can’t be memorized, but which, instead, call on the student to apply knowledge and skills to a new situation.  Assessment results are generalizable [to the extent that] if there is evidence that scores on one assessment can predict how well students perform on another assessment of the same outcome. Adapted from Chicago Public Schools Handbook 

Please share any other ideas as to how to work on standard 8 here by posting a comment.