Glossary Terms

Action research is a process that educators use to systematically evaluate and improve teaching practices.

Alternative assessments are non-traditional assessments. They include performances and portfolios

The body of literature about a research topic is the collection of published peer-reviewed journal articles about the topic.

Causal comparative research studies an intervention using existing groups of students as the intervention and control groups.

Identifies the source of information; includes the authors' names and the publication date.

Assessments designed by teachers.

Constructed-response assessment items require students to provide the answer. These include sentence-completion items, and essays

In correlational research studies, two numeric measures are compared to determine whether they vary in a similar way. That is, when one measure increases or decreases, does the other have a similar pattern of increasing or decreasing.

Assessments that determine whether students have certain knowledge, based on specific criteria or standards.

Descriptive research provides summary information about the characteristics of the sample being studied.

Distractor analysis allows you to evaluate the quality of the distractors in any multiple-choice assessment items by determining the percentage of students who selected each distractor as well as the correct response

Distractors are the answer options in a multiple-choice question that are not the correct answers. They are called distractors because they may distract the student from choosing the correct answer from the list of response options

Essay assessment items ask students to write about specific content from a unit of study

In ethnographic research, a researcher immerses themselves in a situation to explore it from many perspectives, using multiple data collection methods.

In experimental research, researchers look at the effects of a specific change called an intervention. Students in the sample studied must be randomly assigned to a group receiving the intervention or to a control group which does not experience the intervention.

Fair assessments are those administered in a manner that gives all students an equal chance to complete them successfully

Methods teachers use to check student understanding during instruction.

Historical research looks at past events to construct an in-depth understanding of them.

In interviews and focus groups, researchers talk to people who have experienced a situation being researched. The conversations are generally transcribed, and the text is analyzed to find themes or patterns in the data.

Item difficulty is the proportion of students who answered an assessment item correctly. It is calculated as: Item difficulty = number of students with correct response/total number students

Item discrimination provides information about whether assessment items were more likely to be answered correctly by the students with the highest grades or those with the lowest grades overall on the assessment. Items more likely to be answered correctly by the students with the highest grades are said to discriminate well. The formula for item discrimination is:
Item discrimination =
(number of higher scoring students with correct response/total number of higher-scoring students) –
(number of lower scoring students with correct response/total number of lower-scoring students)

Matching assessment items ask students to match two pieces of information that are related. Usually, two columns of words or phrases about information in the unit of study are presented to students and they choose one from each column to make pairs that are associated

Mixed method research studies include elements of both quantitative and qualitative research studies. Both numeric and text data are collected and analyzed.

Multiple-choice assessment items include a question or an incomplete statement followed by a list of options for students to choose to answer the question or complete the sentence

Assessments that rank individuals who take the assessment in comparison to others of the same age/grade who have taken it.

In observation research, the researcher makes notes while observing the situation or setting being researched. The notes are then analyzed to find themes or patterns.

Peer-reviewed research has been reviewed by experts in the relevant field to ensure that the research is of a level of quality worthy of publication in scholarly journals.

Performance assessments give students the opportunity to demonstrate a range of complex skills and knowledge

Portfolio assessments are alternative assessments that ask students to compile a collection of their work across a period of time to illustrate their learning. Students are typically required to reflect on the improvement in their skills across that time and write a description of the specific ways the work included in the portfolio documents their progress in learning

A practical assessment is one that requires a reasonable amount of time to write, for students to complete, and to grade

Psychometric analyses provide a means to interpret the quantitative results of assessments

Qualitative research is used to collect and analyze text data such as interview transcriptions, observation notes, or historical documents. The data analysis in qualitative studies involves a process of coding the text to identify patterns and themes.

In quantitative research, numeric data is collected and then analyzed using statistics.

A list of all the sources of information used to write a document.

A reliable assessment is one that measures student knowledge consistently, across time and groups of students

A rubric is a common tool used for providing students with the criteria for evaluation and grading. Rubrics list the skills and knowledge to be assessed, and the points students can earn based on the level of proficiency they demonstrate during the performance

Selected-response assessment items are those where the answer is provided. The students only need to recognize the answer. These include true-false, matching, and multiple-choice items.

Sentence-completion assessment items ask students to supply missing words or phrases in sentences. Each sentence has underscored spaces to indicate the missing word or phrase

Assessments that must be administered and scored in a standardized manner.

A stem the question or incomplete statement given at the beginning of a multiple-choice assessment item

Methods teachers use to check student understanding at the end of a unit of study.

A table of specifications is used to design an assessment. It includes information about the learning objectives or topics covered in the unit being assessed, the percentage of total instruction time spent on each topic, and the level of cognitive challenge to use to check students’ knowledge of each of the topics

Test anxiety is an uneasiness some students experience around assessments that affects their ability to recall information, preventing the student from demonstrating their true ability

Traditional assessments are conventional paper-pencil tests that include true-false, matching, multiple-choice, sentence-completion, and essay items

True-false assessment items are statements that students identify as either true or false

A valid assessment is one that measures all the concepts it is intended to measure, and only those concepts