assessment-guidelines.md

Steps to Writing an Assessment

1. Discern what the standard is asking for, and not asking for
   • Assessments are aligned to standards, which have specific verbs
2. Research any existing materials for the assessment you might be able to use or repurpose
3. Come up with a concept for the assessment
   • Don't worry about how it will be administered
   • Try to keep the assessments as small and focused as possible
   • Themes ("Galvanize Sports", "Galvanize Brews") are good
   • Make sure that you can do multiple versions of the assessment
4. Come up with multiple versions of the assessment
   • Each version of the assessment doesn't need to cover everything a student should be able to do- each student should take multiple versions, so it's OK to cover the entire standard over multiple assessments, as long as they all feel like the same assessment presented multiple ways
   • Use the multiple versions to try to manage the size of the individual assessments
5. Create a repo for the assessment, following the folder format below
6. For each version of the assessment:
   1. Write a rubric for how it will be scored
      • This should be a checklist
      • Identify all of the things someone would have to do demonstrate mastery of the standard
      • Be specific; the more room for interpretation an item has, the more likely a student or grader will misunderstand it
      • Both functional and non-functional things should be listed
      • Identify how many items on the checklist need to be checked for the assessment to be considered "passed"
   2. Make an exemplar version that checks all of the rubric criteria- use tests if applicable, and modify the rubric as needed
   3. Save the complete solution to the solutions branch
   4. Remove anything that you want to hold students accountable for writing from the master branch, leaving any tests
   5. Write a README.md with the instructions a student should follow to complete the assessment
   6. If feasible, you can copy your solutions and starting code to start off your other versions
7. As your rubrics, assessments, and READMEs evolve, keep them in sync. It should feel like multiple versions of the same assessment
8. Come up with a strategy for the practice version of the assessment
   • The purpose of this is to let students isolate and practice individual aspects of the assessment
   • This is ideally harder than any individual version of the assessment
   • The practice should cover every skill they need in all of the assessments
   • If it's themed, try to come up with a different theme
9. Write a complete example of the practice
10. Make a list of all of the individual skills a student needs to demonstrate to pass the assessment
11. For each skill:
    1. Copy the complete example to a new folder
    2. Remove any of the relevant code for the skill you're trying to practice
    3. Write a README.md describing how to do the exercise
12. Update the list of assessments with:
    • A link to the assessment
    • A link to the practice folder
    • A list of required skills

Folder Stucture

README.md - A general description of the assessment, what skills it covers, and the relevant standard
drills
    |-version-1
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |-rubric.md - The rubric for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version
        |- In the `solutions` branch, this should contain a complete, working version
    |-version-2
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |-rubric.md - The rubric for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version
        |- In the `solutions` branch, this should contain a complete, working version
    |-version-3
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |-rubric.md - The rubric for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version
        |- In the `solutions` branch, this should contain a complete, working version
practice
    |- README.md - A general description of the practice and what a student needs to do to complete it
    |- complete-example - A complete version of the app
    |-name-of-practice
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version
    |-name-of-practice
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version
    |-name-of-practice
        |-README.md - Specific instructions for this version
        |- Any setup or testing files necessary for this version