Fairness

5.
Fairness
An assessment procedure needs to be fair.
A fair assessment is one that provides all students an equal opportunity to demonstrate
achievement and yields scores that are comparably valid from one person or group to
another. (Heubert & Hauser, 1999)
If some students have an advantage over others because of factors unrelated to
what is being taught, then the assessment is not fair.
Fair assessments are unbiased and nondiscriminatory, uninfluenced by irrelevant or
subjective factors.
That is, neither the assessment task nor scoring is differentially affected by:
Race
Gender
Ethnic background
Handicapping condition
Other factors unrelated to what is being assessed
a. Student knowledge of learning targets and assessments
A fair assessment is one in which it is clear what will and will not be tested.
The content of the assessment and the scoring criteria should be public.
Students need to know exactly what the learning targets are supposed to be
achieving
They have to be informed how their progress will be assessed
Assessment has to be viewed as an opportunity to learn rather than to weed out poor
and slow learners.
b. Opportunity to learn
It is concerned with sufficiency or quality of time, resources and conditions needed by
students to demonstrate their achievement.
Fair assessment are aligned with instruction that provides adequate time and
opportunities for all students to learn.
c. Prerequisite knowledge and skills
It is unfair to assess students on things that require prerequisite knowledge or skills that
they do not possess
Example: Suppose you want to test math reasoning skills.
This can be demonstrated only if students can read and understand the
paragraphs, thus reading skills are prerequisites
Another prerequisite: test taking skills
reading the directions carefully,
pacing,
bypassing difficult items,
checking answers and
eliminating wrong answers in a multiple items test rather than looking for
the correct answer
d. Avoiding Student Stereotyping
Stereotypes are judgements about how groups of people will behave based on
characteristics such as
Gender
Race
Socioeconomic status
Physical appearance
Other characteristics
It is impossible to avoid stereotypes completely because of our values, beliefs,
preferences and experiences of different kinds of people
However, we can control the influence of these prejudices
Stereotypes can be based on groups of people such as:
boys do better in math
students from a particular neighborhood are more likely to be discipline problems
children with a single parent need extra help with homework
Or you can label students with words such as:
Shy
Gifted
Smart
Poor
Leader
These can affect your interaction and evaluations by establishing inappropriate expectations
e. Avoiding Bias in Assessment Tasks and Procedures
Bias is present if assessment distorts performance because of the students ethnicity,
gender, race, religious background
2 Major Forms of Assessment Bias:
Offensiveness
Unfair penalization
Offensiveness occurs if the content of the assessment offends, upsets, distresses, angers, or
creates negative effect for particular students or a subgroup of students.
Unfair penalization is bias that disadvantages a student because of content that makes it
more difficult for students from some groups to perform as compared to students from other
groups.
Example:
Students whose primary language is Spanish and students whose primary language is
English in a reading comprehension test in English
f. Accommodating special needs
To accommodate the special abilities of exceptional children.
When assessing exceptional students, you need to modify the assessment task
so the disabling trait is not a factor in the performance.
Example:
Children with hearing loss may need a written directions to complete an
assessment that you give orally to other students.
6. Positive Consequences
Positive consequences for students
There is an appropriate match between learning target and the assessment task
It has a clear consequences on student motivation whereby goal-directed
activity is instigated and sustained
If students know what will be assessed and how it will be scored, and if
they believe that the assessment will be fair, they are likely to be more
motivated.
Motivation Increased by Assessment that:
Are relevant to students lives
Are designed around students interests
Are open-ended
Use immediate and specific feedback
Are aligned with learning goals set by students
Show how mistakes are essential to learning
Use learning goals that incorporate specific performance standards
Etc
Positive consequence for teachers

A goal of high-quality assessment is that they will lead to better information and
decision making about students.
Will the assessment help you make more valid judgements or it will tend to make
judgements about students more difficult?
7. Alignment
Alignment is the degree of agreement among standards, tests, curriculum, and instruction.
Steps in Achieving Alignment
1. Understand state standards and assessments
2. Combine state standards and assessments with local learning targets
3. Specify cognitive depth, range and balance
4. Align with curriculum and pacing guides
5. Develop classroom assessments
6. Identify appropriate theories of learning and motivation
7. Determine instructional strategies
8. Practicality and Efficiency
An assessment procedure should be practical the teacher should be familiar with it,
does not require too much time and is implementable
a. Teacher familiarity with the method
this includes knowledge:
of the strengths and limitations of the method,
how to administer the assessment,
how to score and properly interpret student responses, and
the appropriateness of the method for the given learning targets
b. Time required
it is desirable to use the shortest assessment possible that provides credible results
gather only as much information as you need for the decision or other use of the
results.
Time required should include:
how long it takes to construct the assessment
how much time is needed for student to provide the answers
how long it takes to score the results
c. Complexity of administration
Practical and efficient assessment is easy to administer.
It means that directions and procedures for administration are clear.
d. Ease of scoring
Scoring must match your methods and purpose.
Use the easiest method of scoring appropriate to the method and purpose of
assessment.
Objective tests easy to score
Performance tests, essays, projects, and the like use rating scales, rubrics,
checklists, etc.
e. Ease of interpretation
Interpretation is easier if you were able to plan, before the assessment how to use the
result.
Objective tests are easier to interpret.
Subjective tests are given a score or a grade to enhance ease of interpretation
d. Cost
Cost of materials for the test
It is best to use the most economical assessment
ETHICS IN ASSESSMENT
Ethics refers to questions of right and wrong.
Will any physical or psychological harm come to any one as a result of the assessment or
testing?
The most important ethical consideration of all is the fundamental responsibility of a
teacher to do all in his or her power to ensure that participants in an assessment program are
protected from physical or psychological harm, discomfort or danger that may arise due to the
testing procedure.
Test results and assessment results are confidential.
Issues:
Deception
Temptation to assist certain individuals in class during assessment.

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5.

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