Chapter 2 Objectives

After studying this chapter and completing the structured exercises in the module, you should be able to:

• Describe the major purposes for which assessment is used in education.
• Identify the major assessment user groups, contexts of assessment use, and recognize situations where their roles overlap.
  
• Distinguish among different types of decisions which can be informed with data from assessments, for example, instructional decisions, formative and summative decisions; program and policy-oriented decisions; high and low stakes decisions; guidance and counseling decisions; and screening and diagnostic decisions.
  
• Analyze case studies involving assessment applications by different user groups (identify purposes, decisions made, issues related to appropriate assessment practice).
  
• Identify the relationship between assessment purposes, on one hand, and assessment design, selection, validation and use, on the other.
  
• Identify the responsibilities borne by users to ensure appropriate assessment use in different contexts.

The purpose of the Chapter Highlights is to help you remember key concepts. As you review the summary, click on underlined terms (terms with activated links) to retrieve glossary definitions. If too many terms seem unfamiliar or you miss too many items on the structured comprehension exercises and tests provided for each chapter in this computer module, you may want to re-read the chapter or see your instructor.