Assessment
Evaluation and assessment is an integral part of The Materials World Modules Program. MWM takes pride in customizing our products to suit users in terms of diversity, culture, language, and grade levels, by continuously reviewing and enhancing our contents, services, and communication. This unique service is achieved through qualitative and quantitative evaluation and assessment methodologies. The following examples illustrate how evaluation and assessment have been carried out in various parts of the world.
U.S. National Field Test Assessment Protocol
A randomized nation-wide field test was conducted between 2002 and 2006 to evaluate the effectiveness of the MWM modules as supplementary curricular materials. Prior to the actual evaluation activities, a team of highly experienced secondary science educators and MWM content developers wrote and validated student assessment items for an item bank that would accompany the modules being evaluated. The “Validity Team” addressed content validity, construct validity, face validity as well as issues related to gender and cultural bias, syntactical style, hierarchy of questioning asking, etc. Each module consists of a set of 60 to 80 assessment items, which included multiple choice, short answer, and long answer questions.
Field-test teachers used the bank of validated assessment items to compose unique classroom pre and post tests that matched their goals. We also limited the study to one science classroom per school. Eight MWM modules were field-tested in 118 randomly selected schools located in 42 states across six (6) geographical regions of the country. Each of the randomly selected 118 field test sites, in effect, became a separate research entity. The field test sample was found to be statistically representative of the nation as a whole in terms of U.S. geographical distribution, NCES population code, student gender, teacher gender, teacher level of academic preparation, and teacher years of experience. A total of 2297 students participated in the study that spanned 40 titles of science classes, (physical science, AP chemistry, biotechnology, physics, intro to engineering, etc.) From the total sample of students, we received complete data packets from 2026 of them, amounting to a usable classroom return rate of 88.2%. The study used a quasi-experimental pre-post design and then aggregated results using meta analytical techniques.
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