Chapter 8: Criteria and Validity

Criteria and Validity are important concepts to understand when creating an assessment for a unit. Before teachers can give out an assessment to students they need to make sure they have the criteria clear. These criteria will be the guideline for teachers as they correct assessments. It helps to ensure that the teachers are checking work with a clear consistent non-judgmental manner. To help teachers check criteria, rubrics are usually created that list levels of how the criteria should be met.

Besides just created assessments, teachers need to create valid and reliable assessments. Teachers should ask themselves if the assessment aligns to the understandings that they are trying to teach in the unit. If it does not, then there is a significant chance that the task is not valid for the unit. Also reliability comes into play when creating assessments. To make sure that students understand the knowledge form the unit they need to have multiple assessments throughout the unit. This will help give the teacher a bigger picture view of the students’ learning process.

This has made me reflect on my teaching practices and how I create assessments. I need to improve my rubric making skills to make sure they help me properly assess criteria for an assignment. Sometimes I find myself grading the amount of time students speak during an oral presentation just to push them to think deeper. Instead of doing this I should look into the task and make sure this is authentic. Maybe the task is not very engaging to my students.