Checklists

Checklists provide a method for recording whether certain facts, behaviors, or attitudes are demonstrated by the student. This type of scoring does not generally attempt to address the overall impression of the paper, quality of writing, or behavior. Analytic checklists can be used to score science content knowledge. Analytic checklists provide a master list of information that must be present. The paper is read and missing information is deducted from the student's score. This type of scoring does not generally attempt to address the overall impression of the paper or the quality of the writing, just the presence of certain facts. Following an example of an analytic checklist for a knowledge-based essay that requires a student to: Discuss Newton's three laws and give an example of each.

Example of an Analytic Scoring Guide for a Content Essay

Checklist scoring can be used for reports with specific component requirements. Lab reports are often graded this way with points deducted for missing components such as a data table, a graph, or anything else deemed to be a necessary component. Care should be taken, so that attention is paid to quality rather than the quantity of the student response.

Behaviors, such as those involved in scientific habits of mind, can be scored by using observation checklists. The check list should include only behaviors that are observable and are an indication of the type of skill or attitude to be developed. Careful analysis of the attributes of the skill or attitude is required. Checklists require considerable teacher effort to complete, but provide information that cannot be attained in any other way.

Example of an Observation Checklist for Behaviors

Attitude surveys ask for general feelings toward something. They generally provide a scale, so that the results can be easily tallied. Care should be taken in using these surveys as some students do not report honestly and some parents find them very offensive. An attitude survey can be used to evaluate individual lessons.

Example of an Attitude Survey for Older Students

Example of an Attitude Survey for Younger Students

There are some problems with objective scoring. It is possible that answers keyed as wrong are indeed correct. It is possible for students to guess the right answer. Students may answer correctly for the wrong reason. Ambiguities in the question may cause students to answer incorrectly. Even with these problems, objective scoring tends to favor students, often indicating a higher level of understanding than is actually present. That is students generally do better on objectively scored tests than they do on the more subjective, open-ended or performance type tests.