Assessing Students' Affect Related to Assessment for Learning

THE COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERSThe Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officialswho head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department ofDefense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra‐state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technicalassistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses theirviews to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public.Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers State Collaborative on Assessment and Student StandardsThe Council’s State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS) strives to provide leadership, advocacy andservice in creating and supporting effective collaborative partnerships through the collective experience and knowledge ofstate education personnel to develop and implement high standards and valid assessment systems that maximize educationalachievement for all children.COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERSRick Melmer (South Dakota), PresidentElizabeth Burmaster (Wisconsin), Past PresidentT. Kenneth James (Arkansas), President‐ElectGene Wilhoit, Executive DirectorJohn Tanner, Director Center for Innovative MeasuresDuncan MacQuarrie and Douglas Rindone, Co‐Coordinators, FAST SCASSCouncil of Chief State School OfficersOne Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 700Washington, DC 20001‐1431Phone (202) 336‐7000Fax (202) 408‐8072www.ccsso.org

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsASSESSING STUDENTS’ AFFECTRELATED TO ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNINGAN INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS*Rick Stiggins, ETS Assessment Training InstituteW. James Popham, UCLAAssessment for learning (AFL) represents a way forteachers and their students to employ the assessmentprocess and its results instructionally in their classrooms.Ample research evidence indicates that AFL, if properlyimplemented, will improve students’ mastery of what’sbeing taught in class and, thus, is apt to enhanceperformance on external achievement tests dealing with thatcontent (Black and Wiliam, 1998a, 1998b). However,because AFL is, in many ways, a particularly strongstudent-focused approach to instruction, an approach inwhich students become personally involved in monitoringand adjusting how they are attempting to learn, thisachievement-enhancing assessment strategy is almostcertain to also have an impact on students’ affect, that is,their personal perceptions and predispositions about theirlearning. Indeed, when employed properly, AFL uses thoseperceptions and predispositions to drive learningproductively forward.One of the cornerstones of AFL is that both teachersand students must maintain an ongoing picture of students’achievement progress based on a variety of formal andinformal assessment tactics. Frequent assessments providethe kind of continuous feedback that teachers need todetermine what comes next in the student’s learning, andthat students need to learn how to do better the next time.Frequent feedback, therefore, contributes to the student’ssuccess which feeds a growing sense of confidence. Yet,teachers who currently implement AFL have no systematicway of discerning the affective impact of this approach ontheir students. In an effort to provide teachers with tools fortracking students’ affect related to AFL, we have developedthree age-appropriate affective inventories for use byteachers who wish to discern the impact of their instructionon those affective dispositions most likely to be influencedby an AFL approach. All three inventories (grades 3-6, 7-9,and 10-12) are appended to this introduction.We understand that concern for student affect certainlyis relevant in the primary grades too. However, inquiriesinto the matters addressed herein are best handled throughdirect personal interaction between teachers and theirstudents. Inventories such as those presented in theAppendix are used most productively beginning in earlyelementary grades.Two Affective FociTwo affective variables are especially likely to beinfluenced by teachers who employ AFL in their classes:academic efficacy and eagerness to learn.Academic efficacy. Academic efficacy refers to astudent’s perceived ability to succeed and the student’ssense of control over her or his academic well being. If anAFL class is working the way it should, most students willreceive instructional tasks that coincide well with theircurrent achievement levels. As a consequence, thosestudents are apt to be successful in learning what they aresupposed to learn so that ongoing assessments will providethem with evidence of their success. Even moreimportantly, through the use of formatively-orientedassessments, initially unsuccessful students will bereceiving guidance regarding how to adjust their learningtactics so that they will ultimately become successful.Accordingly, if an AFL classroom is functioningappropriately, students’ perceptions of their personalacademic prowess should (1) remain high or (2) improvesubstantially if such perceptions begin at a low level. Inother words, students’ sense of academic efficacy should,therefore, remain strong or become stronger as time goesby. If this is not occurring, then a teacher might wish toconsider implementing efficacy-enhancing instructionalsuggestions such as those offered on pages 4 and 5.Eagerness to learn. A second affective variableassociated with an AFL instructional approach is students’eagerness to learn. Clearly, teachers would like students notonly to believe they are capable of learning (as representedby students’ academic efficacy) but teachers would also likestudents to want to learn. Ideally, if AFL is working the wayit is supposed to work, students’ eagerness to learn willThis version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers1The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick Stigginsremain high or will increase over time. That’s because AFLtaughtstudents will be experiencing a series of successfullearning experiences. Most human beings enjoy doing whatthey are good at doing. This is also true with students inschool. When students are good at learning things, most ofthem will be inclined to want to learn more things.As was the case with academic efficacy, if students arenot becoming more eager to learn, then the teacher needs toconsider suggestions aimed at increasing students’eagerness to learn such as those presented on pages 4 and 5.Although there are surely other affective consequencesthat might emerge from the effective implementation of anAFL class, we believe the most significant are the twoaffective dimensions just described, namely, students’academic efficacy and their eagerness to learn. There shouldbe a definite strengthening of both of these affectivevariables during an extended period of AFL instruction.Affective AssessmentAssessment of students’ affective variables such asthese two presents unique challenges. For example, toassess affect productively, teachers must elicit honestresponses from students. Teachers want to know howstudents really feel. But in an environment in whichstudents have learned to give teachers the “right” answers(that is, the answers students believe the teacher wants tohear) there is a danger that students will tend to supplysocially desirable responses. Obviously, such responses canbe misleading. To prevent this, affective inventories such asthose offered in the appendix must be administered underconditions of absolute anonymity. Not only do studentsmake all responses to an affective inventory anonymously,but those students must really believe their anonymousresponses are untraceable. Only then can teachers hope forhonest expressions of students’ sentiments.This requirement for anonymity carries with itimportant implications for how the inventories can be used.Unlike the assessment of students’ cognitive achievement,in which teachers arrive at an assessment-based inferenceabout each student’s level of achievement, affectiveassessment permits teachers to make only group-basedinferences about students’ affect. Yet, by calculating anaverage per-student response from an entire class ofstudents, a sufficiently accurate group-focused inference canbe made to guide the teacher of that class. Some students, ofcourse, even though providing only anonymous responses,will still supply excessively positive responses because theybelieve their teacher will want them to answer in that way.Yet, there are also some students who will supplyexcessively negative responses because—shrouded by acloak of anonymity—they believe this is an opportunity to“get even” with the teacher. Thus, the average of allstudents’ responses to an anonymous self-report inventorytypically supplies a sufficiently accurate estimate (for ateacher’s decision-making) regarding the affective status ofan entire class.The InventoriesEach of the grade-range inventories contains eightstatements with which students are asked to agree ordisagree. Two of the statements in each inventory focus on astudent’s academic efficacy. The two statements below(taken from the grade 7-9 inventory) are intended to elicitstudents’ perceptions of their own academic efficacy:o When I’m asked to learn something new in thisclass, even if it’s difficult, I know I can learn it.(Item 2)o Even with help and plenty of time, I’m going tohave difficulty learning new things in this class.(Item 7)Two more statements from the grade 7-9 inventory dealwith a student’s eagerness to learn:o I’m really excited about learning new things in thisclass. (Item 4)o Most of the time I don’t look forward to learningnew things in this class. (Item 6)In each of these two pairs of statements, one statementis phrased positively and one statement is phrasednegatively. Thus, for example, students who are eager tolearn would tend to agree with the positively phrasedstatement, but disagree with the negatively phrasedstatement. (Considerable experience in the construction ofthese sorts of self-report inventories suggests that this sortof positive-and-negative phrasing yields the most accurateindication of students’ true sentiments.)In addition, each of the inventories includes two itemsdealing with a key feature of an AFL classroom: clarity oflearning targets:o I usually have a pretty good idea about what I amexpected to learn in this class. (Item 1)o In this class I often don’t have a clear idea aboutwhat I am supposed to be learning. (Item 5)Another pair if items focus on a second importantattribute of an AFL classroom, namely, the degree to whichteachers provide their students with progress-monitoringinformation:o Typically, I don’t have a very good idea if I ammaking enough progress in this class. (Item 3)o In this class, I get enough information to keepaccurate track of my own achievement. (Item 8)These four statements do not focus directly on students’affect per se. Rather, they center on the students’perceptions about practices carried out by their teacher.These two pairs of statements are included because mostteachers who are attempting to implement an AFL class willwish to know the degree to which their students believethese two focal aspects of AFL are, from the students’perspective, taking place.This version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers2The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsSuggested Uses of the InventoriesThese affective inventories are intended exclusively forteachers to use as instructionally relevant evidence-elicitingtools in their classrooms, and only if a teacher individuallydecides to do so. The inventories are not designed forevaluative purposes at either the teacher-level or schoollevel.Indeed, as will be suggested later, the inventories arespecifically constructed so they can be modified to meshbetter with a particular instructional context and a giventeacher’s interests in students’ affect.If a teacher wishes to collect information regardingshifts in students’ affect during the course of a school year,and want to submit such affective data for personnelevaluationpurposes, this would clearly be the teacher’schoice. The purpose of the three affective inventoriesprovided in the Appendix is to assist teachers in determiningwhether classroom implementation of AFL is having thedesired impact on students’ affect.One relatively simple and straightforward use of anaffective inventory in an AFL class is for the teacher toadminister it on a pre-instruction and post-instruction basis,for instance, at the beginning and end of an instructionalunit, a grading period, semester, or school year, dependingon the context. A contrast between such pre-instruction andpost-instruction results will allow a teacher to determine ifany meaningful improvements have taken place in, forexample, students’ academic efficacy.However, because AFL teachers are typically attentiveto the ongoing nature of instruction in their classes, thissuggests that a more fruitful use of these affectiveinventories would involve their administration several timesduring instruction. By so doing, of course, teachers wouldthen have time to make adjustments in what they weredoing based on class-focused inferences about students’affect and students’ reactions to what is taking place in class(with respect to the two statements about clarity ofexpectations and the two statements about progressmonitoringinformation). Care should be taken not toadminister these inventories so frequently over a shortperiod of time that students become jaded about excessiveuse of the inventories.Still another approach might be to use the inventoriesstrategically. That is, if a teacher senses that things aren’tgoing well and students’ reactions to instructional activitiesare not sufficiently positive, responses to an inventory mightprovide some insight into why this is the case. Results mightpoint to AFL actions teachers might take to get studentsback on track.Modifying the InventoriesThese public-domain inventories are provided forteachers to use without restriction. There is nothingsacrosanct about the nature of the items in the inventories inthe Appendix, so teachers should feel free not only tomodify the current items, but also to add or delete items. Forexample, if an elementary teacher happened to beparticularly interested in students’ interests in reading or,perhaps, in social studies, then statements such as thefollowing might be added to the items: “Lots of the time Iwould rather read than watch TV.” or “I really like it whenour class deals with social studies.” (Ideally, items shouldbe added in pairs so that one statement is phrased positivelyand another statement is phrased negatively.) Because theseinventories are intended to help an individual teacher do agood instructional job, teachers should modify theinstruments as they wish.Directions for AdministrationDuring our pilot-testing of early versions of theseinventories during their development, both teachers andstudents suggested that the Directions (to students) on theinventories themselves should be extremely brief, and thatthe teacher should give the bulk of the directions orally.Therefore, as you will note on the inventories, the directionsto the student are quite abbreviated. It is suggested that ateacher read (aloud) something along these lines to studentsprior to each administration of one of these affectiveinventories:Today I want you to complete a brief inventorydealing with this class—and only this class. Youwill complete the inventory’s items anonymously,so just enter your responses—don’t put your nameon the inventory or write anything else. There willbe no way to tell how you responded, so pleaseanswer as honestly as you can. I will be using theaverage responses of the entire class to help me doa good job of teaching. That is the only reason Iam asking you to fill out this inventory.There is a sample of how you are to respond givenat the top of the inventory. As you can see, you areto circle the response-letters for the itemsdepending on how you personally feel about eachstatement.When you are finished, please place yourcompleted inventory in the collection envelopethat has been provided. Thank you for helping mewith this.If the teacher is administering an inventory on morethan one occasion, there would be slight variations in thisset of oral directions such as, “Today I need you to oncemore complete the brief, anonymous inventory that youtook several months ago, etc.”If there is a more appropriate way for students to returntheir inventories, such as by depositing the completedinventories in a collection box provided for that purpose,this too would need to be noted. The idea of having theteacher supply oral directions for these inventories is thatthose directions can be suitably tailored to the teacher’sinstructional situation.This version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers3The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsScoring the InventoriesRemember, results should be compiled for the class as awhole so as to identify patterns or, over time, trends inresponses. One easy procedure is to determine the numberof students who select each response to each item. Thisprocedure may work best when the teacher is just doing aquick check to determine the current state of affairs in theclass. Then make a simple bar graph for each item. How dothe students’ responses distribute themselves along the“agreement-disagreement” response scale? The patterns willusually reveal students’ sentiments. .But if the teacher seeks to track changes in students’affect over time, frequency counts and bar graphs can beclumsy. It is typically better in that case to calculate averageratings so the teacher can detect changes in students’ scoresover time. To convert the frequency counts to averagescores, simply multiply the score (1 to 5) by its frequency,add the resulting calculations across scores and divide bythe total number of students responding. This should bedone for each individual item separately.To compute an academic efficacy score based on thecombined positively and negatively stated items, rememberthat scores on a positively stated item go from 1 for astrongly-disagree response to a 5 for a strongly agreeresponse. But on a negatively phrased item, the scale isreversed. The higher the score, the more “appropriate” is theresponse. Because there are two items per variable, a pervariablescore can range from a low of two points to a highof ten points. Here is a graphic illustration of the scoregeneratingprocess:Item Rating scale Combined for each score1 5 4 3 2 1 Clarity of Learning Targets2 5 4 3 2 13 1 2 3 4 5 Eagerness to Learn4 5 4 3 2 15 1 2 3 4 5 Academic Efficacy6 1 2 3 4 57 1 2 3 4 5 Progress Monitoring8 5 4 3 2 1 InformationAdjusting Instruction Based on ResultsWe begin this section with two cautions. First, thestrategies suggested form the foundation of an AFLclassroom. The vast majority of teachers have not been giventhe opportunity to learn how to create such environments.The creation of an AFL requires a fundamentalunderstanding of several principles that we can merelyhighlight herein. Those interested in further study of theprinciples, strategies, and tactics outlined below shouldconsult one or more of the numerous articles and books nowbeing published regarding AFL.Second, we assume that the teacher’s (inventory-user’s)goal is to help the largest possible proportion of theirstudents meet pre-specified academic achievementstandards. That is, the mission is to maximize studentsuccess. The AFL suggestions offered below can have thatimpact. If the teacher’s mission is something other, such asto produce a dependable rank order of students at the end ofinstruction, the suggestions offered may becounterproductive.If an inventory’s results suggest that students’ sense ofacademic efficacy is lower than desired on the basis of asingle administration of a grade-appropriate inventory, or isnot tending upward on repeated measures over time, theninstructional actions need to help students gain a sense ofcontrol over their learning success. This requires thatclassroom practices get students on academic “winningstreaks” and keep them there. Six specific strategies appliedin this order can help with this:1. Provide learners with student-friendly versions ofthe achievement targets from the very beginning ofinstruction.Learning accelerates when teachers describe what goodwork looks like using vocabulary that learners canunderstand. Students can hit any target that they can see andthat holds still for them. With clear signposts before them,students can watch themselves progressing ever closer tosuccess. This builds confidence. When this frame ofreference is missing for them, students can lose their wayand their ability to find the path to success. Obviously, thissuggestion places a premium on teachers’ having clear andappropriate achievement expectations, that is, the suggestiondepends on teachers’ knowing where they’re going.2. Accompany those expectations with samples ofstudent work that reveal to students, from thebeginning of the learning, what their work will looklike as it improves.Those samples should cover the full range, includingweak, mid-range, and high-quality work. Again, this allowslearners to evaluate where they are at any time on thecontinuum of achievement in relation to where teachers wantThis version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers4The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for Learningthem to be. As students see the fruits of their efforts inlearning results, academic efficacy grows.3. Provide students with continuous access todescriptive feedback, that is, with feedback showingthem now to do better the next time.In effect, this suggestion gives students control in theform of the information needed to keep them moving alongthe learning progression relevant to the achievement targetbeing pursued. Teachers should want their students to winearly, win small, and win often. Winning streaks becometrajectories that take on a life of their own. Confidence andoptimism grow. And, of course, teachers must be sure thatclassroom assessments are of sufficient quality to provideteachers and their students with accurate information.4. Teach students to self assess so they can begin togenerate their own descriptive feedback.This suggestion requires that students learn to apply thevery same performance criteria their teachers apply whenevaluating students’ work. By getting students to play a rolein this process, teachers set students up to become partners indetermining what comes next in their learning, that is, insetting goals and in defining success. This contributes tostudents’ sense of control over their success.5. Help students learn to improve their work one keyattribute of success at a time.By not overwhelming students with too many neededimprovements, teachers can help their students succeed bytaking baby steps and, continuously, building an internalsense of control over their success. Winning streaks feelgood, and this builds confidence.6. Teach students to reflect on changes(improvements) in the quality of their work and whythose improvements have happened.This suggestion represents the culmination of what isaccomplished by applying Suggestions 1 to 5 above. Bydeveloping an understanding of the key attributes of goodwork as reflected in actual samples of that work, teachersgive students the tools needed to see key changes inW. James Popham and Rick Stigginsstudents’ own work. By giving descriptive feedback, one keyattribute at a time, and helping students learn to generatetheir own feedback, teachers give students a mirror in whichto see themselves climbing toward success. All of this putsstudents in touch with their own evolving academiccapabilities. In effect, success becomes its own reward.With the resulting sense that success is, in fact, withinreach, students’ academic efficacy and eagerness to learnwill increase. But the foundational conditions are thatstudents be in touch with the targets from the beginning ofthe learning, and that students have access to their owncontinuous record of assessment results so they navigate thepath to success and watch themselves arriving there. It issurprising how effectively success builds eagerness for moresuccess.Concluding RequestThe current version of these introductory remarks andthe three affective inventories are being distributed on alimited basis with the hope that some educators may chooseto employ them and, based on those experiences, relaysuggestions to us regarding how to improve either theinventories themselves or the introduction to their use. If youhave suggestions, please relay them to : rstiggins@ets.org orwpopham@ucla.edu.ReferencesBlack, P. and D. Wiliam (1998a). “Assessment andClassroom Learning,” Assessment in Education:Principles, Policy and Practice 5(1): 7-73; alsosummarized in “Inside the Black Box: RaisingStandards through Classroom Assessment,” PhilDelta Kappan. 80(2), 139-148.This version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers5The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsTHE WAY I SEE SCHOOLInventory for Grades 7-9Directions: Please indicate how you feel about each statement below as follows:SA = Strongly Agree A = Agree U = Uncertain D = Disagree SD = Strongly DisagreeFor example, here is how you would respond if you agree with the statement at the left:I like to watch TV. SA A U D SDWhen you complete the form, please place it in the large collection-envelope that’s provided.1. I usually have a pretty good idea about what I amexpected to learn in this class.2. When I’m asked to learn something new in thisclass, even if it’s difficult, I know I can learn it.3. Typically, I don’t have a very good idea if I ammaking enough progress in this class.4. I’m really excited about learning new things in thisclass.5. I often don’t have a clear idea in this class aboutwhat I am supposed to be learning.6. Most of the time, I don’t look forward to learningnew things in this class.7. Even with help and plenty of time, I’m going to havedifficulty learning new things in this class.8. In this class, I get enough information to keep trackof my own learning achievement.SA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDThank you for completing this formThis version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers7The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers

Assessing Student’s Affect Related to Assessment for LearningW. James Popham and Rick StigginsTHE WAY I SEE SCHOOLInventory for Grades 10-12Directions: Please indicate how you feel about each statement below as follows:SA=Strongly Agree A=Agree U=Uncertain D=Disagree SD=Strongly DisagreeFor example, here is how you would respond if you agree with the statement at the left:I like to watch TV. SA A U D SDWhen you complete the form, please place it in the large collection-envelope that’sprovided.1. On most days, I have a pretty good idea about what Iam expected to learn in this class.2. If I’m asked to learn something brand new in thisclass, even if it’s difficult, I know I can do so.3. I often don’t have a good idea if I am achievingacademically as fast as I should in this class.4. I’m almost always excited about learning genuinelynew things in this class.5. More often than not, I don’t have a good idea if I amprogressing properly in this class.6. Most of the time, I actually don’t look forward tolearning new things in this class.7. Even with much help and plenty of time, I think I’llhave trouble learning new things in this class.8. In this class, I get plenty of information so I can keeptrack of my own academic progress.SA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDSA A U D SDThank you for completing this formThis version released through The Council of Chief State School Officers8The FAST SCASS • Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers