THE RIGOROUS PROCEDURE OF DESIGNING AND SCORING TESTS

 When reflecting on the ways we as teachers have assessed students, we might remember our first experiences as assessors and the tasks we try to think about to fulfil the institution's policies about evaluation where we worked. It is so probable that we had made a lot of mistakes just because we thought that creating a test was only about thinking of the topics seen in class and asking students about them in order to get grades. Of course, that is one of the aims but then, when  time went by and we were gaining more experience we started to realize it was not that easy. I don't know if it only has happened to me, at least I can reflect on my own practices.

 As we observe guidelines explained by Genesee and Upshur we can confirm that the process of test design could be as rigurous as class preparation. In these few paragraphs, I'm gonna focus on just two aspects in the process of assembling and scoring tests.

 First of all, I want to talk about reliability in scoring. Casting my mind back, I remember that I used to work in place where testing was only required to do at the end of a term. No more tests results were taken into account to mesure students' performance. The course lasted 3 months and 8 units were included in such test. By coining what the authors introduced previously have stated, I can explain my reflection and questioning: Did just one test mesure what the students really knew? The fact of taking one test that mesured almost all what they have "learned", could influence their pshychological state? Could just one test assess 8 units at the same time? Those are the questions I asked myself and these are the answers I have now: It is undoubtedly necassary not to mesure students' performance with the results of a single test. It is likely to show inappropriate grades because aspects such as emotional states can influence their outcomes. Moreover, the amount of topics demands different opportunities of assessment. It is worth mentioning that these assessment practices have a relevant impact on the kind of teaching inside a classroom, an issue that is further this discussion.

The other aspect I want to mention is the importance of having analytical scoring procedures to assess open-ended questions. They are very useful and every place in charge of language teaching should have one to facilitate the scoring process and give it more reliability.

Again, I remember my practices and only in few times I have count on a list with specific criteria to measure Ss production. I have realized of its relevance and I have started to use it. It gives more rigurousity to my assessment.

We can see now how much effort a test could need though here we analized only two aspects. As long as time goes by and we acquire more knowledge on assessment, it is a must to start reflecting and making changes to improve our teaching-learning-assessment practices.