Culturally Responsive Assessments of Mathematical Skills and Abilities: Development, Field Testing, and Implementation

2020

Self Cite

A persistent problem in education is underrepresentation of certain cultural and linguistic groups such as American Indian, African American, and Hispanic, in special programs for exceptionally talented students, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The spatial analytical task, a performance-based assessment with demonstrated reliability and validity as an instrument to identify exceptionally talented students, was included with new instruments created in the Cultivating Diverse Talent in STEM (CDTIS) project. A continuum of problems, including closed, semi-open, and open-ended, was an important component of the measures, enabling the assessment of creative problem solving as well as assessment of skills such as seeing how things fit together visually and in space; through mental images, on paper, and in physical objects or forms. The spatial analytical assessment was implemented as part of a battery of instruments to identify students to participate in a special internship program. Ratings of students on the spatial analytical assessment who were identified for the internship program using the new assessments were higher than ratings for students identified using conventional methods, which demonstrates that the assessment will be a useful tool for selecting students from diverse cultural groups. The assessment has multiple purposes in addition to its use as an identification tool: evaluation of special programs, planning differentiated instruction, and as a pre- and post-measure of student gains. The test–retest reliability, and construct, concurrent, and predictive validity for secondary students need continued investigation in future studies.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culturally Responsive Assessments of Spatial Analytical Skills and Abilities: Development, Field Testing, and Implementation

2020

Self Cite

“…The project was a collaboration between (a) faculty members at an R1 University in the Southwestern United States and (b) educators from four schools: two public schools, one charter school, and one Bureau of Indian Affairs grant school. Six assessments were included in the identification of students with exceptional talent in STEM: (a) math problem solving (Bahar & Maker, 2020), (b) spatial analytical performance assessment (Maker, 2020b), (c) physics concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), (d) mechanical–technical performance assessment (Alfaiz et al, 2020), (e) life science concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), and (f) the life science performance assessment. These six assessments were in three domains, math, physical sciences, and life sciences, and were measures of students’ domain-specific skills and abilities, creativity-relevant processes, and task motivation (Amabile, 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culturally Responsive Assessment of Life Science Skills and Abilities: Development, Field Testing, Implementation, and Results

Zimmerman

Alfaiz

2020

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A research team consisting of educators of gifted students, a scientist, and experts in measurement developed a performance-based assessment of life science skills and abilities. Four high schools in the Southwestern United States were the settings for field testing and implementation. Five levels of ratings were given: unknown, maybe, probably, definitely, and wow. The majority of student scores were in the maybe and probably categories. Using six new measures (concept maps in life and physical science, math problem solving, spatial analytical performance assessment, life science performance assessment and physical science performance assessment), 23 students (M2) were selected for participation in science laboratories at an R1 university along with 20 students (M1) selected by conventional means. When the nine attribute scores of the performance-based assessment were compared, no significant difference was found t(41), p > .38, between M1 and M2 students. Performance-based assessments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) will provide an alternative and a complement to standard achievement tests. They have the potential to identify and nurture exceptionally talented high school students across all demographic groups.

“…In this project, the education research team developed four new assessments: life science problem-solving (Zimmerman et al., 2020), life science and physical science concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), and the mechanical–technical performance-based assessment. One assessment (mathematical problem-solving) was modified to include a greater variety of problems (Bahar & Maker, 2020), and one performance-based assessment from the existing DISCOVER high school battery, spatial analytical problem-solving (Maker, 2020a), was included in the set of instruments used to select students for a special internship program on the campus of an R1 university in the southwestern United States.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As noted in an earlier section, all partner schools were located in poverty areas with an unemployment rate that ranged from 7.7% to 45.8% and most of the students (71%, 90%, 92%, 99%) received free or reduced-price lunches. To select M2 students to participate in the summer internship program, their results on the mechanical–technical assessment were combined with the results of the other five assessments: (a) math problem-solving assessment (Bahar & Maker, 2020), (b) spatial analytical performance assessment (Maker, 2020a), (c) physics concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), (d) life science concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), and (e) the life science performance assessment (Zimmerman et al., 2020). Student performance on all assessments was considered for final nomination.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, this new assessment can be combined with other types of measures to form a battery of instruments that is potentially more fair to students from underrepresented groups than conventional assessments. For example, in the CDTIS Project, six assessments were used to select students: mathematical problem-solving (Bahar & Maker, 2020), life science problem-solving (Zimmerman et al., 2020), life science and physical science concept maps (Maker & Zimmerman, 2020), spatial analytical problem-solving (Maker, 2020a), and the mechanical–technical assessment. Using these assessments allows those who implement assessments and program managers to have a complete picture of the abilities of exceptionally talented students in different domains.…”

Section: Suggested Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Culturally Responsive Assessment of Physical Science Skills and Abilities: Development, Field Testing, Implementation, and Results

Alfaiz

Pease

2020

Self Cite

During the Cultivating Diverse Talent in STEM (CDTIS) Project, a team of scientists, teachers, and a researcher developed a performance-based assessment of high school students’ creative problem-solving skills and ability to apply physical science principles in practical ways. It was one of six measures to identify exceptionally talented students. Students identified using conventional methods (M1), with an average grade point average (GPA) of 3.93, had an average rating of 2.95 on a 5-point scale on the mechanical–technical assessment. The M2 students, who were from schools with high percentages of Hispanic, American Indian, and low socioeconomic status (SES) students, had an average GPA of 3.07 and an average rating of 3.27, demonstrating that this assessment can be an important way to change the cultural and economic balance of students identified as exceptionally talented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Other researchers are encouraged to examine the validity of the mechanical–technical assessment to identify exceptionally talented students in different groups.