CFD Assessment & Evaluation Methods 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which assessment approach asks students to collect and curate evidence of their learning growth over time?
- Norm-referenced test
- Portfolio assessment (Correct answer)
- Standardized benchmark exam
- Attitude survey
Correct answer: Portfolio assessment
Portfolio assessment allows students to document and reflect on their learning progression through collected artifacts over time.
Question 2: A program wants to determine whether its graduates are meeting professional competency standards set by an external accrediting body. This is an example of:
- Formative classroom assessment
- Summative program-level assessment (Correct answer)
- Diagnostic pre-testing
- Informal observational assessment
Correct answer: Summative program-level assessment
Summative program-level assessment evaluates whether the overall program achieves its intended outcomes, often against external benchmarks.
Question 3: Which statistical measure indicates the proportion of test-takers who answered an item correctly and is used to gauge item difficulty?
- Point-biserial correlation
- Discrimination index
- Difficulty index (p-value) (Correct answer)
- Cronbach's alpha
Correct answer: Difficulty index (p-value)
The difficulty index (p-value) is the proportion of examinees who answered the item correctly; higher values indicate easier items.
Question 4: When a new assessment tool produces results that closely match an established, validated instrument measuring the same construct, this supports:
- Predictive validity
- Face validity
- Concurrent validity (Correct answer)
- Ecological validity
Correct answer: Concurrent validity
Concurrent validity is established when scores on a new instrument correlate highly with scores on an existing valid measure of the same construct.
Question 5: A faculty developer advises against using a single exam score to make high-stakes decisions about students. The primary concern is:
- Test anxiety is universal
- Single measures lack sufficient reliability and breadth (Correct answer)
- Multiple measures are easier to grade
- Single exams always have ceiling effects
Correct answer: Single measures lack sufficient reliability and breadth
High-stakes decisions require multiple data points because any single measure has inherent measurement error and limited construct coverage.
Question 6: In item analysis, a negative discrimination index for a question means:
- High-performing students answered the item correctly more often than low-performing students
- Low-performing students answered the item correctly more often than high-performing students (Correct answer)
- The item was too difficult for all students
- The item was ambiguous and skipped by most students
Correct answer: Low-performing students answered the item correctly more often than high-performing students
A negative discrimination index indicates the item is working in reverse — lower scorers are getting it right more than higher scorers, signaling a flawed item.
Question 7: A faculty developer promotes 'assessment for learning' rather than 'assessment of learning.' The key distinction is that assessment for learning is primarily:
- Used after instruction to assign final grades
- Used during instruction to guide ongoing teaching and learning (Correct answer)
- Designed to rank students against national norms
- Reserved for accreditation reporting purposes
Correct answer: Used during instruction to guide ongoing teaching and learning
Assessment for learning (formative) occurs during instruction and provides feedback to improve learning, not just to measure its endpoint.
CFD Assessment & Evaluation Methods 3
Which assessment approach asks students to collect and curate evidence of their learning growth over time?