The following resources may be helpful for designing, aligning and complementing formative assessments and increasing assessment literacy:

Assessment design

CAST (2020) has a book on assessment that provides a comprehensive overview of design in accordance with Universal Design for Learning.

Elias (2019) wrote a helpful on Edutopia, the popular nonprofit organization that provides news and ideas about K-12 education, about how to assess social and emotional learning (SEL).

Assessment alignment

The Ontario Ministry of Education (2013) created an in-depth report about how to effectively assess and instruct all learners so that they can access all learning content, meet their learning needs and achieve learning goals. The Ontario Ministry of Education (2010) also created a report that contains assessment, evaluation and reporting information specific to the Ontario province.

Martone & Sireci (2009) produced an in-depth research article about assessment alignment, focused on alignment between instruction, assessment and activities, how to evaluate alignment between curriculum standards and assessments and how to apply those methods. This research paper has been cited over 450 times.

Frameworks for assessment design

Gulikers et al. (2004) produced a research article that provides a helpful five-dimensional framework for designing authentic assessments, specifically in professional environments. This research article has been cited over 1000 times.

Education technology expert and professor Dr. Serhat Kurt has written about an incredible number of instructional design theories, frameworks about education, education models and theories on their education technology website. In particular, there are three frameworks that would be helpful to learn about with regard to assessment design:

1. Backward design, an approach that requires starting with prioritizing learning outcomes before content and activities/events.
2. Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction, an adaptive model wherein nine events must occur in order to enhance student learning.
3. Bloom’s Taxonomy, a framework that helps teachers and other education professionals categorizing learning goals and match appropriate activities, outcomes and instructions to.

Digital tool comparison

Çekiç & Bakla (2021) conducted a literature review that reviews formative assessment tools in terms of their features and components. The review covers what the tools can do, how they support the creation and design of assessments and what future features digital tools should use for the purposes of creating more effective formative assessments. Digital tools including Nearpod and Kahoot are featured.

References

CAST (2020). Universal design for learning: Theory and practice. CAST.

Çekiç, A. & Bakla, A.(2021). A review of digital formative assessment tools: Features and future directions. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, 8 (3), 1459-1485.

Elias, J.M. (2019, October 31). Assessing social and emotional learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/assessing-social-and-emotional-learning/

Gulikers, J. T. M., Bastiaens, T. J., & Kirschner, P. A. (2004). A Five-Dimensional Framework for Authentic Assessment. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(3), 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504676

Kurt, S. (2016, January 27). Backward design. Education Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/backward-design-understanding-by-design/

Kurt, S. (2020, December 15). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Education Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/blooms-taxonomy/

Kurt, S. (2021, January 1). Gagne’s nine events of instruction. Education Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/gagnes-nine-events-of-instruction/

Martone, A., & Sireci, S. G. (2009). Evaluating alignment between curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Review of Educational Research, 79(4), 1332-1361. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309341375

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2010). Growing success: Assessment, evaluation and reporting in Ontario schools. (1st edition). http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growSuccess.pdf

Ontario Ministry of Education (2013). Learning for all: A guide to effective assessment and instruction for all students, kindergarten to grade 12. https://files.ontario.ca/edu-learning-for-all-2013-en-2022-01-28.pdf