Assessment Overview

Assessment Theory of Action

Accurate assessment of a submitted portfolio of evidence to earn a micro-credential is a key component in the micro-credential ecosystem. When participants receive quality assessment and feedback, they are more likely to successfully resubmit, and big picture, have confidence in the validity of micro-credentialing to demonstrate their competency and improve their practice.

BloomBoard Assessment Introduction

Watch the following four brief videos to learn more about BloomBoard assessment.

• Video 1: General Introduction 
  
  
  
  
• Video 2: Submission of Evidence
  
  
  
  
• Video 3: Assessment of Evidence
  
  
  
  
• Video 4: Assessment Team
  
  
  
  

BloomBoard Assessment

The Assessment Team strives to assess submissions within a 5-business-day assessment window and currently achieves that goal with 97% efficiency.  See the Micro-credential Review Time Frame support article to learn more about the assessment window.

The Role of an Assessor

Assessors provide high quality assessment of submitted portfolios of evidence, combining the ability to assess a portfolio of evidence against criteria and the skills to provide quality feedback.

The assessor's role is to:

• Determine and communicate submission proficiency solely based on the evidence submitted and the rubrics/competency indicators in the micro-credential.
  
  
• Provide written feedback by criteria that is objective, targeted, constructive, positive, and user-friendly.
  
  

The Assessment Process

Users working towards earning a micro-credential submit their completed portfolio of evidence through the BloomBoard platform. To help ensure objectivity, each submission is given an ID number, assessors do not have access to the educator and their identity remains anonymous.

The assessment process includes a Pre-Assessment Reviewer, an Assessor, and an Approver.

• Pre-assessment Reviewer: Conducts a review of the evidence against the pre-assessment completion criteria to ensure all artifacts have been completed. If the portfolio is complete the portfolio moves forward to the Assessor. If the portfolio is not yet complete it is returned to the user with constructive feedback.
  
  
• Assessor: Conducts the initial assessment analysis, chooses Met or Not Yet Met by criteria, provides quality feedback, and makes a recommendation to the Approver.
  
  
• Approver: Conducts a second review of the evidence; if aligned with the Assessor’s scoring and feedback, the Approver completes the assessment.
  
  
• As a part of ongoing assessment validation, the Approver may return the submission to the Assessor with questions and comments.
  
  

Who are the Assessors?

The assessors are education professionals with an average of ~15 years of experience teaching, coaching, mentoring, and evaluating fellow educators. They have met BloomBoard’s eligibility and experience requirements to assess, and have successfully earned a micro-credential which certifies that they can consistently achieve at least 80% alignment to a true score and provide quality feedback.

Assessor Spotlights

Assessor L heads up a prestigious universities regional center where researchers and practitioners collaborate to design and conduct programs that prepare and support K-12 teachers and administrators committed to social justice, instructional excellence, the integration of research and practice, and caring in low-income urban schools. In addition, they direct a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing professional learning for all teachers to support high-quality, equitable education for English Learners. They hold a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University and an M.S. in Educational Psychology from Rhode Island College.

Assessor C has 24 years of experience in education, serving as a classroom and intervention teacher and elementary assistant principal and principal. They have served as the Executive Director of Professional Learning & Leadership Development for a large urban school district (~150,000 students) and works for the education college at a well known university. They have led the departments of Personalized Learning, VLMS, National Board Certification, Beginning Teacher Development, and Leadership Development. They are an Apple Distinguished Educator, an Apple Certified Teacher, and served as the President of CEASOM, Common Ground Inc, and MSET. They hold a BA from Gettysburg College, Masters from Mount Saint Mary’s, and Ed Leadership certification from Hood College.

Assessor Certification & Training

A BloomBoard certified assessor has demonstrated they have the knowledge and skills to:

• Achieve substantial assessment accuracy (≥ 80% alignment to a true score) across multiple portfolios of evidence submissions.
  
  
• Provide feedback on portfolios of evidence that is objective, targeted, constructive, positive, and user-friendly.
  
  
• Demonstrate awareness of bias that exists when assessing portfolios of evidence for competency.
  
  
• Communicate in writing in a way that promotes accurate interpretation and understanding on the part of the reader through appropriate language usage, mechanics, and grammar.

Once potential assessors have achieved certification, they are required to participate in on-going training and calibration.