Development and Analysis of a Measurement Scale for Teacher Assessment Literacy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and analyze an updated scale of teacher assessment literacy that measures teachers' self-ratings of skills in areas mentioned in the current literature on assessment. Items were included in the scale based on expert judgment. The participants were 193 Kindergarten through fifth grade teachers in a rural school district in the southeastern United States. All demographic surveys and scales were distributed in classrooms or at an after school staff meeting and all were collected within a three week time frame. Following collection, data were entered and analyzed. Independent t-tests and analysis of variance indicated that statistically significant differences existed in overall scale scores as a function of education level, grade level taught, and measurement courses taken. Teachers with a higher level of education had higher overall scores than teachers with less education and teachers who have taken a course in measurement had higher overall scores than teachers who have not taken a course in measurement. Principal components analysis indicated that all items had moderate to high loadings on to a single component, which may be called "assessment literacy."