Educativa 20 (2014) 65-77 69
elements must be in synchrony. The assessment triangle provides a
useful framework for analyzing the underpinnings of current
assessments to determine how well they accomplish the goals we
have in mind, as well as for designing future assessments and
establishing validity (e.g., see Marion & Pellegrino, 2006).
The cognition corner of the triangle refers to theory, data, and a
set of assumptions about how students represent knowledge and
develop competence in a subject matter domain (e.g., fractions,
Newton’s laws, thermodynamics). In any particular assessment
application, a theory of learning in the domain is needed to identify
the set of knowledge and skills that is important to measure for the
intended context of use, whether that be to characterize the
competencies students have acquired at some point in time to make
a summative judgment, or to make formative judgments to guide
subsequent instruction so as to maximize learning. A central premise
is that the cognitive theory should represent the most scientifically
credible understanding of typical ways in which learners represent
knowledge and develop expertise in a domain.
Every assessment is also based on a set of assumptions and
principles about the kinds of tasks or situations that will prompt
students to say, do, or create something that demonstrates important
knowledge and skills. The tasks to which students are asked to
respond on an assessment are not arbitrary. They must be carefully
designed to provide evidence that is linked to the cognitive model of
learning and to support the kinds of inferences and decisions that
will be made on the basis of the assessment results. The observation
vertex of the assessment triangle represents a description or set of
specifications for assessment tasks that will elicit illuminating
responses from students. In assessment, one has the opportunity to
structure some small corner of the world to make observations. The
assessment designer can use this capability to maximize the value of
the data collected, as seen through the lens of the underlying
assumptions about how students learn in the domain.
Every assessment is also based on certain assumptions and
models for interpreting the evidence collected from observations.
The interpretation vertex of the triangle encompasses all the
methods and tools used to reason from fallible observations. It
expresses how the observations derived from a set of assessment
tasks constitute evidence about the knowledge and skills being
assessed. In the context of large-scale assessment, the interpretation
method is usually a statistical model, which is a characterization or
summarization of patterns one would expect to see in the data given
varying levels of student competency. In the context of classroom
assessment, the interpretation is often made less formally by the
teacher, and is often based on an intuitive or qualitative model rather
than a formal statistical one. Even informally teachers make
coordinated judgments about what aspects of students’
understanding and learning are relevant, how a student has
performed one or more tasks, and what the performances mean
about the student’s knowledge and understanding.
A crucial point is that each of the three elements of the assessment
triangle not only must make sense on its own, but also must connect
to each of the other two elements in a meaningful way to lead to an
effective assessment and sound inferences. Thus, to have an effective
assessment, all three vertices of the triangle must work together in
synchrony. Central to this entire process, however, are theories and
data on how students learn and what students know as they develop
competence for important aspects of the curriculum.