When defined within an educational setting, assessment, evaluation, and testing are all used to measure how much of the assigned materials students are mastering, how well students are learning the materials, and how well students are meeting the stated goals and objectives. Education professionals make distinctions between assessment, evaluation, and testing. According to Bachman (1990), the terms ‘measurement’, ‘test’, and ‘evaluation’ are often used synonymously and interchangeably. He also emphasizes that Measurement in the social sciences is the process of quantifying the characteristics of persons according to explicit procedures and rules. Meanwhile, Brown (2004) states that test is “a method of measuring a person's ability, knowledge, …show more content…
Assessment also gives teachers useful information about how to improve their teaching methods. In classroom assessment, since teachers themselves develop, administer and analyze the questions, they are more likely to apply the results of the assessment to their own teaching. Therefore, it provides feedback on the effectiveness of instruction and gives students a measure of their progress. The purpose of classroom assessment is to give students the opportunity to show what they have learned rather than catching them out or to show what they have not learned. Through using appropriate classroom assessment strategies and techniques, teachers can increase their students' motivation and show them how well they have learned the …show more content…
It gives us an opportunity to look back what we should enhance for teaching method as well as find out our students’ weakness for further improvement. So, what is a good test? Test reliability and validity are two technical properties of a test that indicate the quality and usefulness of the test. These are the two most important features of a test. We should examine these features when evaluating the suitability of the test for our use.
Reliability
Brown (2004) claims reliability refers to how dependably or consistently a test measures a characteristic. If a person takes the test again, will he or she get a similar test score. A test that yields similar scores for a person who repeats the test is said to measure a characteristic reliably. There are four general classes of reliability estimates, each of which estimates reliability in a different way:
1. Test-retest reliability indicates the repeatability of test scores with the passage of time. This estimate also reflects the stability of the characteristic or construct being measured by the