Classroom Assessment and Sports Statistics: An Analogy

by Lynette Shaw-Smith

On Friday, March 23, two events occurred: a Languages and Literature Division meeting about assessment and the NCAA basketball game between Illinois and Kansas. During the game, I had a realization about a comment that one of my colleagues had made at the meeting. As we discussed assessment, he asked, "Why aren't grades enough for assessment?" This is a comment I had heard at other assessment meetings, but until I watched the Illinois/Kansas game, I didn't have a

A draft of SCI's report to NCA on assessment will be placed on reserve in Becker Library this week for faculty comment. This is your report -- let us know what you think! Watch your mailbox for details.

convincing answer for people who asked this question. However, as I watched the game that night, I realized classroom assessment is like sports statistics.

Just as the final score is not the only important and telling statistic in basketball, grades do not provide the most useful information for effective assessment. During the game, the commentators discussed why Illinois was winning the game: turnovers, offensive rebounding, and field goal percentages. One player for Kansas uncharacteristically missed five straight free throws, which hurt the team's chances for winning. So every minute of the game, all of the people-the commentators, the fans, the coaches, and the players-assessed every aspect of the game, not just the score. In the newspaper the next day, there was an extensive listing of statistics and analysis of why Illinois won and why Kansas lost.

The score (or final grade) was Illinois 80, Kansas 64. Illinois passed and went to the next level of the tournament, while Kansas failed and was out. But it was the variety of statistics that showed why Illinois won. Kansas made 21 of 46 field goal attempts (42 points) to Illinois' 28 of 65 attempts (56 points). Kansas made 18 of 35 free throw attempts (a very low percentage compared to their usual percentage), while Illinois made 18 of 26 attempts (equal number of points, very different percentage). Kansas had 30 rebounds, 20 turnovers, and 8 steals. Illinois had 45 rebounds, 17 turnovers, and 11 steals. Analysts said that despite Illinois' lower scoring percentage, the team won because of turnovers, rebounds, and Kansas' low free throw percentage. So the game was not assessed solely on the final score, but on the many factors that led up to that score. With each time out and at the half time break, the coaches and players were definitely reassessing and deciding how to change the approach in order to win the current game and future games.

Classroom assessment should be like basketball statistics. Professors (the classroom coaches) and students (the winning team) should not be concerned only with the final grade. They should look at every assignment and each class meeting as a part of that final grade, assessing what works and what doesn't and making changes in order to help the student gain the skills and knowledge that he/she should gain from that course. Assessment reveals all that happens in the classroom and helps the professor determine new techniques to help students achieve their goals and win their games.

Plan-Do-Study-Pesto

At the same March 23 meeting of English faculty, at a pizza parlor on North Grand Avenue, we began a review of our freshman English comp courses using a modified version of the PDSA (or Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle of planning for continuous improvement that Judi Anderson discussed at SCI's assessment workshop in December. (Click here for an introduction to PDSA-driven planning by a Total Quality Management group in Michigan.) As we ended, Scott Smith, adjunct computer science instructor and faculty spouse, came in and ordered a bowl of pesto. Scott offered one of the English teachers a taste; he loved it, and now he sends out for pesto instead of pizza to eat in the Quiet Lounge before his night-school English 111-51 class. The whole procedure, he decided, corresponds to the PDSA cycle. He tried the pizza, and he liked it. Based on his analysis of that outcome, he decided the pesto was also worth a try. So he ran a preliminary test (tasting it) and concluded that ordering pesto next time would fit into a continuous cycle of improvement.

-- Pete Ellertsen, editor

April 2, 2001
Vol. 1 No. 3

• To see the context for SCI's upcoming report to NCA on progress in implementing the 1996 assessment plan, read NCA's Five Criteria for Accreditation.
• Are you looking for an excellent nuts-and-bolts guide to practical assessment! It's the SIU-Edwardsville site on CATs (classroom assessment techniques).
• Parkland College. See what another two-year college in downstate Illinois has been doing about learning outcomes assessment.
• American Association for Higher Education. This Washington-based advocacy group's Web site includes a FAQ page and a near-canonical set of Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning.
• Raymond Walters College, University of Cincinnati. A very helpful site, with information on Primary Trait Analysis, which can turn grading into an assessment tool.

Committee
Eldon Brown, chair
Bob Blankenberger
Peter Ellertsen
Susan Full
Alice Gutierrez
Dave Holland
Dave Saner
Robert Buccino (ex officio)
Jeff Mueller (ex officio)