Student Success Story: Jeannine Was Excited To Be Back In Sc
Student Success Storyjeannine Was Excited To Be Back In School It Had
Jeannine was excited to be back in school. It had been over 20 years since she dropped out of college to start her family. She was also excited to graduate as soon as she could so she could get the promotion her manager promised her once she graduates. The pay increase would help a lot…and she was ready for a new challenge at work. Half way through her first class, her excitement started to wane a bit.
She started to realize working full time, taking care of her family, and going to school was no easy task. The online learning environment was also new to her and presented some unexpected challenges. As the weeks went on, she started to get more and more behind and her work was not to the level she expected of herself. Jeannine started to wonder if online education was really for her. The more she thought about the challenges she was experiencing and the possibility of dropping out the more she remembered her goal to graduate and receive her bachelor’s degree.
She had waited for over two decades to accomplish this goal…she wasn’t going to let it slip away now. Jeannine sat down and wrote out all the problems she was facing. She made a list of problems along with possible solutions to each problem. She thought about how she had power to make changes and take control of her situation. She had started to feel helpless when the problems piled up, but after she made the list, she realized she had the ability to control the situation.
The first thing Jeannine did was call her academic counselor. She told her counselor all the things she was struggling with. Jeannine got some great advice on how to manage her time better and how to navigate the online learning environment. Her counselor also made her feel like she wasn’t alone and wasn’t the only person who was struggling. This really boosted her confidence.
With this advice Jeannine wrote out a schedule which indicated all the times she would sit down and focus on school. She made specific times to check and post in the discussion forum. She also made sure to review and start all the assignments early in the week so they wouldn’t creep up on her and have to be completed in a rush. Doing these things took a lot of pressure off of Jeannine and she started doing better on her assignments because she was no longer procrastinating. Next Jeannine asked her teenage daughter to teach her how to use the online learning tools better.
Jeannine was not “tech savvy†and she felt kind of intimidated by the online learning environment…she was just afraid she would break it if she did something “wrong.†Her daughter sat down with her for an hour on a few different occasions just to play around with the online tools so Jeannine could feel more comfortable. She soon found that she understood how to find things and navigate efficiently. Jeannine’s fears for using the tools quickly went away and she was figuring things out for herself in no time. She just needed a little more time and practice. Initially Jeannine also struggled with her writing skills.
She hadn’t written an academic paper in years and had forgotten a lot of the intricacies. She started to take some extra time and review some of the tutorials and resources in the online student resources section of her online classroom. There she practiced her writing skills and made sure to implement the things she learned into her actual assignments. She noticed that her writing started to improve. She was articulating her ideas much more clearly and writing became less of a chore.
She was really starting to get control of this “being a student†thing. By the end of her first class, Jeannine was more excited than ever to be a college student. She still had some struggles, but she was overcoming them…she knew she would just keep on improving over time and would eventually reach her goal of being a college graduate. Jeannine learned that despite the obstacles she faced, she could still take control and do specific things to overcome them Reading/book- Brookhart, S., & Nitko, A. (2019). Educational assessment of students (8th ed.). Chapter 3: Validity of Assessment Results Chapter 4: Reliability of Assessment Results Chapter 5: Professional Responsibilities, Ethical Behavior, and Legal Requirements in Educational Assessments Part A- After reading this week’s readings & resources, respond to the following prompt. Why should teachers consider the validity and reliability of assessments? 400 words. Part B- Reliability and Validity Create a recipe for a teacher who wants to increase the reliability and validity of an assessment. Provide a brief explanation of results from an assessment that a teacher created for a class of thirty students. Create a recipe for the teacher to increase both the reliability and validity of the assessment. Explain how the teacher will know if the recipe was successful. 500 words. Part C- Assessment Bias Using information from chapter 5, create a flyer (front and back, 2 pages in total length) for teachers to avoid assessment bias. Be sure to include at least two tips for teachers regarding ethical, professional, and legal responsibilities. The flyer should be balanced between text and graphics. Information should be accurate, relevant to your context, and grammatically free from error.
Paper For Above instruction
Assessing student learning accurately and fairly is fundamental to effective education. To do so, teachers must consider the validity and reliability of assessments because these qualities directly influence the accuracy, consistency, and fairness of the results. Validity refers to the extent to which an assessment measures what it is intended to measure, while reliability indicates the consistency of assessment results over time or across different evaluators. When assessments lack validity, they might not accurately reflect students’ understanding or skills, leading to misinformed instructional decisions. Similarly, unreliable assessments can produce inconsistent results, undermining the trustworthiness of the evaluation process and potentially unfairly affecting students’ grades.
Firstly, validity is crucial because educators aim to evaluate specific learning objectives. For example, a math test should accurately assess mathematical reasoning rather than reading ability. If an assessment does not align with the instructional goals, it may yield invalid results, which can hinder teachers’ ability to identify students' actual strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, validity impacts the fairness of assessments. Students should be judged based on their knowledge of the subject matter, not extraneous factors such as language barriers or test anxiety, which can distort assessment outcomes if not properly accounted for.
Reliability complements validity by ensuring the consistency of assessment results. Teachers rely on reliable assessments to make fair and accurate judgments about student progress. For instance, a standardized test should produce similar results if administered multiple times under comparable conditions. If an assessment is unreliable, educators may mistake natural variations for actual learning gains or losses, leading to inappropriate instructional adjustments or grade assignments. Higher reliability is achieved through clear, unambiguous questions, standardized administration procedures, and consistent scoring practices.
Considering both validity and reliability is essential for ethical responsibility. Teachers have a legal and professional duty to provide assessments that do not unfairly advantage or disadvantage any student. They must avoid biases that could compromise fairness, such as culturally insensitive questions or assessments that favor certain linguistic backgrounds. Ensuring assessment validity and reliability supports equitable treatment and valid representations of student achievement, fostering a fair learning environment.
To enhance the reliability and validity of assessments, teachers can follow specific strategies. For increasing validity, they should align assessments closely with learning objectives, ensuring that questions directly measure the targeted skills or knowledge. Incorporating multiple assessment formats—such as projects, presentations, and traditional tests—can also capture different aspects of student learning and improve overall validity.
To strengthen reliability, teachers should develop clear and consistent scoring rubrics, train all evaluators to apply criteria uniformly, and pilot test assessments to identify ambiguous items. Additionally, administering assessments in a controlled environment and providing detailed instructions help reduce variability due to extraneous factors.
Teachers will know their strategies are successful when they observe consistent results over multiple administrations and when assessments accurately reflect students’ abilities in relation to learning goals. Feedback from students about clarity and fairness, along with analysis of statistical data—such as high reliability coefficients—can serve as indicators of improved reliability and validity.
References
- Brookhart, S., & Nitko, A. (2019). Educational assessment of students (8th ed.). Pearson.
Assessment practices in modern classrooms. Educational Insights Journal, 15(2), 45-58. Standards for educational and psychological testing. American Psychological Association. Understanding by design. ASCD. Assessment in education: Principles and practice (pp. 78-94). Routledge.