Two-Tiered Assessment

1/25/2006 - Victor Sampson
Developing good instruments that can be used to assess what students really know about scientific content is one of
the most difficult tasks facing teachers in middle school classrooms today. Traditionally, the evaluation of students
has relied on paper-and-pencil formats that are given to students at the conclusion of the instructional sequence.
Frequently, these summative assessments rely on simple multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions to
provide a teacher with information about how well students are able to recall the content that was covered during the
unit or lesson. These tests are then used to generate a statistic to describe each individual student’s performance, for
example, “Vivian scored a 9 out of 10, and so she gets an A. Jim scored a 7 out of 10, so he gets a C.” Although this
type of sequence (where assessment follows instruction) is probably the most common routine used by middle
school teachers who teach science, there are some serious limitations and drawbacks associated with this method for
assessing student learning.

One difficulty is that this type of assessment format tends to focus on a student’s ability to recall facts and
vocabulary that were introduced and emphasized during instruction. These assessments usually neglect to evaluate
the student’s understanding of the reasons why phenomena occur or how a student is able to use scientific
knowledge in novel situations (NSTA 2000). For example, even though a student correctly identifies the definition
of a parallel circuit, that student doesn’t necessarily know how to connect two light bulbs, a battery, and several
wires together so that if one bulb burns out, the other one remains lit. To measure this type of knowledge, a student
must be provided with more than a list of terms to match to a specific definition. Students need an opportunity to
show how they can use their knowledge to solve a problem. If an in-depth understanding of science and an ability to
use this knowledge is the goal of the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996), assessments must actually
measure that understanding and ability rather than a student’s ability to memorize scientific facts and terminology.

A second difficultly with this type of assessment is that the information gained cannot be used to determine what
should be taught and how to go about teaching it. Because the assessment is given after instruction is complete, it
can only really be used to award grades. This is not using assessment very efficiently. When teachers are planning
instruction they should take the prior knowledge of their students into consideration. Sometimes students already
know most of what the teacher intends to teach. At other times, students have well-formed ideas that they have
constructed based on their past experiences. If teachers are to use data gathered from assessment to guide
instruction, it must happen before and during instruction, not just after. When assessments are used this way they are
often described as formative assessments. This is because such an assessment enables a teacher to diagnose what
students know before instruction begins; it then guides instructional decisions, and can provide valuable information
about the effectiveness of instruction. When used in this way, assessment can actually promote student learning.

One of the most important things to take into consideration when designing a meaningful lesson is the prior
knowledge your students bring to class. Your ability and willingness to conduct a preassessment and to then modify
your teaching to accommodate the results will be a significant factor in determining how much your students learn.
One way to do this is to give them a two-tiered test about a week before you are planning on teaching a specific
concept. Two-tiered tests are written assessments that not only ask students for an answer to a problem, but also
require students to explain the reasoning behind their answer.

Why use two-tiered tests?

Students do not enter classrooms as blank slates; they bring with them well-formed ideas about the way the world
works. Research in science education clearly shows that learning does not happen simply as a result of an
accumulation of information; rather students must actually change the way they think about a concept (Berliner
1987; Watson 1994). Because of this, the focal point of instruction should not center on the teacher explaining the
right answer to students. Instead, students must be given opportunities to test out their ideas and prove to themselves
whether or not those ideas are feasible before they are able (or even willing) to change them. There are several
instructional strategies for accomplishing this task, but what most of them have in common is that they include using
a preassessment instrument that is specifically designed to reveal students’ misconceptions about a specific topic
(Liggitt-Fox 1997). Once the misconceptions are identified, an instructional sequence can be designed that respects
students’ prior knowledge and the misconceptions that are inherent to that knowledge. A two-tiered test can be used
to determine what students know about a concept before it is taught and to evaluate how their ideas have changed as
a result of instruction.

Constructing a two-tiered test

There are five steps you can follow to design a two-tiered test either for a concept that you have never taught before
or to help you refine a current lesson or unit.

1. Know the goals for instruction. Prior to any instruction in

science, a teacher should ask, What do I want my students to
know and be able to do? All too often, teachers design Figure 1
classroom activities for their students before they decide on the 1. If you had only one light bulb, one wire,
learning targets of instruction. This makes aligning assessment and one battery, could you connect them
and instruction nearly impossible. In addition, it is easy to have so that the bulb will light up?
an overwhelming number of goals or to be too general, so it is 1 bulb + 1 wire + 1 battery =
best to focus on important content that will help students reach
the goals established by the science standards.
2.
3. Decide on one or more real-world events that can only be
explained if students have an in-depth understanding of the
scientific content. Students frequently have difficulty applying
their new classroom knowledge in a real-world situation. If
students face a question that is identical to the situation in which
they learned the new information they can use it; but, if they Please draw how you would do it.
encounter a related but different situation, they approach it 2. Why did you connect the bulb, wire, and
using their own rules for how the world works. Therefore, to battery this way?
determine how students really think about a concept it is
important to ask them to explain a real-world event. Pictorial
questions work well in this situation. For example, to assess
students’ understanding of electrical circuits, you could ask them about a situation similar to the one shown in
Figure 1. To assess students’ understanding of why certain materials sink or float when placed in water, you
could use a situation such as the one shown in Figure 2.
4.
Figure 2.
Henry and Sarah are in the kitchen. They are playing with two balls
(  ) made of the same material. Sara puts the smallest ball in the water
and watches it float.

1. After removing the small ball, Henry puts the large ball into the water.
What do you think happens when Henry puts the large ball into the water?
Draw what you think will happen to the large ball.
2. Why did you draw your picture this way?

5. Design the questions so that they will be two-tiered and open-ended. Asking students about the event or
situation constitutes the first tier, or “answer” part of a two-tiered question. The second tier asks the
students to explain the reason behind their answer (Figures 1 and 2). Be sure to leave these questions open-
ended, so students will not be forced to choose a “best answer.” Questions designed in this way allow the
teacher to assess what students know (their prior knowledge) rather than what they do not know (what they
are able to recall or recognize).
6. Give the open-ended two-tiered test to your students as a preassessment and then use the data to guide
instruction. Very few lessons in middle schools are designed to deal with what students already know or
with their misconceptions. Teachers usually begin a unit despite the protest, “We already learned that last
year.” Or even worse, teachers will move on to the next lesson despite evidence that students are not
grasping crucial ideas. Gathering data about your students before you design lessons can help you make
decisions about what to teach and how to teach it. To do this, you will have to analyze students’ answers in
order to determine the best way to challenge their ideas. For example, Figure 3 shows some of the answers
given by a group of sixth-grade students to these types of questions. By looking at students’ answers and
more importantly, the reasons for their answers, the teacher can design activities that will give students an
opportunity to test these ideas. Once students see that these ideas are wrong, they are more likely to be
willing to replace them with scientific ideas.
Figure 3. Sample answers given by sixth-grade students to the first and second
two-tiered test questions.
First-tier If you had only one light bulb, one wire, and one battery, could you connect
question them so the bulb will light up? Please draw how you would do it.
Student    
answers

b.
a. c.

Second- Why did you connect the bulb, wire, and battery this way?
tier
question
Student “because the battery is “you can’t do it “because if the wire is
answers giving power to the wire with only one connected to the battery then
and the wire is touching wire“ the lightbulb it would light
the bulb” up (I think)”
First-tier After removing the small ball, Henry puts the large ball into the water.
question What do you think happens when Henry puts the large ball into the water?
Draw what you think will happen.
Student
answers

a. b. c.
Second- Why did you draw your picture this way?
tier
question
Student “because the ball is “because the big “It would stay below the
answers hollow and the air inside ball  surface because it is heavy
makes it float” weighs more” but not heavy enough to
reach to the bottom”
7. Use students’ answers from the preassessment as part of the postassessment. The final step is to modify the
two-tiered test you used as a preassessment to incorporate students’ preinstructional ideas about the concept
into your postassessment test. One way to do this is to change the format of the test slightly. Instead of the
questions being open-ended, make the questions multiple-choice, but use students’ misconceptions as
distracters. Figure 4 shows an example of how students’ answers from the open-ended preassessment can
be used for the postassessment. By incorporating the misconceptions students had before instruction began
into the two-tiered test, a teacher can determine if students have truly modified their beliefs.
Figure 4
Henry and Sarah are in the kitchen. They are playing with two balls (  ) made of
 the same material. Sara puts the smallest ball in the water and watches it float:

After removing the small ball, Henry puts the large ball into the water. What do you
think happens when Henry puts the large ball into the water? Circle the picture that you
think best represents what will happen to the large ball.

   

This happens because the large ball…

A. is hollow, so it will float.

B. has the same density as the small ball.
C. weighs more than the small ball.
D. is heavy, but not heavy enough to reach the bottom.

Benefits of using a two-tiered test in the classroom

Two-tiered tests can be used to help identify what students know instead of what they do not know. For
the teacher, a two-tiered test provides insight into how to modify and design instruction to challenge the
misconceptions of their students. It also provides a way to assess students’ understanding of science,
rather than their attentiveness to classroom instruction. For the students, the two-tiered test can be used
to provide information about how they understand a concept and how much they actually learned about
science in school. Answers from the pretest can also be incorporated into instruction to engage students
and help promote discussion as they try to figure out the correct answer.

When two-tiered tests are used to measure how students’ ideas have changed by comparing pre- and
postinstructional answers, these data become a powerful message about the gains students are making
within the classroom. This information can be shared with colleagues, administrators, and parents, and
can be used to fuel decisions about students, programs, and instruction. After all, our goal as educators is
to provide the best education possible for our students.

Victor Sampson (victor.sampson@asu.edu) is a graduate teaching assistant in the College of Education at Arizona

State University in Tempe.
References

Berliner, D. 1987. How do we tackle kids’ science misconceptions? Instructor 97 (9): 14–15

Liggitt-Fox, D. 1997. Fighting student misconceptions: Three effective strategies. Science Scope 20 (5): 28–30.
National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National science education standards. Washington, DC: National
Academy Press.
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). 2000. NSTA pathways to the science standards: Guidelines
for moving the vision into practice, elementary school edition. Arlington, VA: NSTA.
Watson, B. 1994. Switch off kids’ science misconceptions. Learning 5 (22): 74–76.

http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=51548