Conceptions of assessment: Understanding what assessment means to teachers and students

Brown, G. T. L. (2008). Conceptions of assessment: Understanding what assessment means to teachers and students. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Contemporary educational assessment: Practices, principles, and policies.

now available

Brown, G. T. L., & Ngan, M. Y. (2010). Contemporary educational assessment: Practices, principles, and policies. Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia.

The reliability of essay scores: The necessity of rubrics and moderation

Chapter in L. H. Meyer, S. Davidson, H. Anderson, R. Fletcher, P. M. Johnston & M. Rees (Eds.), Tertiary assessment and higher education student outcomes: Policy, practice and research (pp. 40-48). Wellington, NZ: Ako Aotearoa.

The use of essays is a well-established means of evaluating student learning in higher education. The accuracy of scoring essays is estimated with three means (i.e., consensus, consistency, and measurement estimates). Evidence is consistent that inter-and intra-marker rating of essays is unreliable. The nature of essay tasks and marker behavior has been shown to contribute significantly to the error component in essay scores. Scoring guides or rubrics to guide scoring and multiple marking or moderation of essays are necessary requirements of reliable essay scores. While essays may be valid, their usage depends on accuracy of scoring and if this cannot be established alternative assessment approaches should be considered.

Student perspectives on assessment: What students can tell us about improving school outcomes.

2009

McInerney, D. M., Brown, G. T. L., & Liem, G. A. D. (Eds.). (2009). Student perspectives on assessment: What students can tell us about improving school outcomes. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Press.

Assessment for learning is meant to engage, motivate, and enable students to do better in their learning. However, how students themselves perceive assessments (both high-stakes qualifications and low-stakes monitoring) is not well understood. This volume collects research studies from Europe, North and South America, Asia, and New Zealand that have deliberately focused on how students in primary, secondary, and tertiary education conceive of, experience, understand, and evaluate assessments. Assessment for learning has assumed that formative assessments and classroom practices would be an unqualified success in terms of student learning outcomes. Making use of a variety of qualitatively interpreted focus groups, observations, and interviews and factor-analytic survey methods, the studies collected in this volume raise doubts as to the validity of this formulation. We commend this volume to readers hoping to stimulate their own thinking and research in the area of student assessment. We believe the chapters will challenge researchers, policy makers, teacher educators, and instructors as to how assessment for learning can be implemented.

An Introduction to Educational Assessment, Measurement, and Evaluation: Improving the Quality of Teacher-Based Assessment (2nd ed).

Brown, G. T. L., Irving, S. E., & Keegan, P. J. (2008). An Introduction to Educational Assessment, Measurement, and Evaluation: Improving the Quality of Teacher-Based Assessment (2nd ed). Auckland, NZ: Pearson Education NZ.