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1. VALIDATING DECOMPOSITION OF A TEACHING PRACTICE FOR FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK

   Heck, D; Gordon, E M; Shaughnessy, M; Bruce, A; Boerst, T; Garcia, N (November 2024, Kent State University)

   SimulaTE is studying teaching simulations as formative assessments of pre-service teachers’ (PST) practice of eliciting and interpreting students’ mathematical thinking. Preparation and protocols that promote reliability and validity of the simulations as formative assessments will enhance their effectiveness and generalizability. Teacher educators who use the simulations document each PST’s performance to generate feedback for the PST in nine categories, arising from a decomposition of the teaching practice into specific component skills or actions. A series of coordinated validation studies include research to determine if the nine categories are distinguishable through the use of the simulation assessments, and can benefit from attention beyond other experiences PSTs have in their teacher preparation programs 

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2. Exploring the potential of exit tickets as formative assessments of student affect

   https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2025.2510206  

   Shehzad, Umar; Recker, Mimi; Clarke-Midura, Jody (March 2025, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice)

   This study investigates the use of exit tickets as formative assessments in maths-integrated computer science (CS) lessons for grade 5 students. Exit tickets are brief surveys administered immediately after instructional activities. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we analysed data from 1,067 students to examine the reliability and validity of exit tickets in predicting summative pre/post survey results. The study found that the exit ticket responses consistently assessed student affect at two administration points, meeting strict measurement invariance criteria (χ2(21) = 1.34, p = 1.00). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that exit tickets predicted student self-efficacy and interest in CS, which are key educational outcomes. These findings suggest that exit tickets can be valuable tools for enhancing instructional practices and supporting student learning and engagement in CS education. The study concludes with recommendations for effectively implementing exit tickets in educational settings. 

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3. Automated scoring of science explanations for multiple NGSS dimensions and knowledge integration

   Riordan, B.; Wiley, K.; Chen, J. K.; Bradford, A.; Bichler, S.; Mulholland, M.; Gerard, L. F. (April 2020, Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA))

   The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) emphasize integrating three dimensions of science learning: disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. In this study, we develop formative assessments that measure student understanding of the integration of these three dimensions along with automated scoring methods that distinguish among them. The formative assessments allow students to express their emerging ideas while also capturing progress in integrating core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and practices. We describe how item and rubric design can work in concert with an automated scoring system to independently score science explanations from multiple perspectives. We describe item design considerations and provide validity evidence for the automated scores. 

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4. Towards validity for a formative assessment for language-specific program tracing skills

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3364510.3364525  

   Nelson, Greg L.; Hu, Andrew; Xie, Benjamin; Ko, Amy J. (November 2019, ACM Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education)

   Formative assessments can have positive effects on learning, but few exist for computing, even for basic skills such as program tracing. Instead, teachers often rely on overly broad test questions that lack the diagnostic granularity needed to measure early learning. We followed Kane's framework for assessment validity to design a formative assessment of JavaScript program tracing, developing "an argument for effectiveness for a specific use." This included: 1) a fine-grained scoring model to guide practice, 2) item design to test parts of our fine-grained model with low confound-caused variance, 3) a covering test design that samples from a space of items and covers the scoring model, and 4) a feasibility argument for effectiveness for formative use (can target and improve learning). We contribute a distillation of Kane's framework situated for computing education, and a novel application of Kane's framework to formative assessment of program tracing, focusing on scoring, generalization, and use. Our application also contributes a novel way of modeling possible conceptions of a programming language's semantics by modeling prevalent compositions of control flow and data flow graphs and the paths through them, a process for generating test items, and principles for minimizing item confounds. 

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5. The Algebra Concept Inventory for college students

   Wladis, C; Offenholley, K; Sencindiver, B; Myszkowski, N; Aly, G (November 2024, Proceedings of the 46th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Kent State University.)

   Kosko, K; Caniglia, J; Courtney, S; Zolfaghari, M; Morris, G (Ed.)

   There are currently no large-scale assessments to measure algebraic conceptual understanding, particularly among college students with no more than an elementary algebra, or Algebra I, background. Here we describe the creation and validation of the Algebra Concept Inventory (ACI), which was developed for use with college students enrolled in elementary algebra or above. We describe how items on the ACI were administered and tested for validity and reliability. Analysis suggests that the instrument has reasonable validity and reliability. These results could inform researchers and practitioners on what conceptual understanding in algebra might look like and how it might be assessed. 

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