Assessment Validity and Alignment

Probably the most important reason you are assessing students is to find out how well they have learned. That makes your assessment a measurement, and that means you need to consider whether it is a valid measurement.

A valid measurement measures what it is supposed to measure. A multiple-choice exam that measures whether students have learned the content of your course is valid. A multiple-choice exam that instead accidentally measures how tired or motivated your students happened to be on the day of the test is not as valid.

The most critical thing you can do to ensure the validity of your assessments is to align your assessments with your learning objectives. If your objective is for students to apply course material to new situations and not simply remember the facts and figures, your assessment should have your students apply the material more than having them recite facts. You can use Bloom’s Taxonomy to help identify the level of learning you want your students to achieve, and match your assessment to that level. You should also tell your students which level of learning you expect of them so they can study at that level – another aspect of alignment. Finally, also be sure to be presenting the material to your students and having them practice at the level you want them to be learning.

This short video will go over the basics of aligning your objectives, assessments, and activities.