Robert J. Marzano
Art & Science of Teaching
An Easier Way to Score Tests
Proficiency
scoring is
more precise
and less time-
consuming than
the traditional
method of
assigning points
to test items.
Robert J. Marzano
is cofounder and
CEO of Marzano
Research Laboratory
in Denver, Colorado.
He is the author of
The Art and Science
of Teaching (ASCD,
2007) and coauthor,
with Tony Frontier and
David Livingston, of
Effective Supervision:
Supporting the Art and
Science of Teaching
(ASCD, 2011).
When teachers construct tests, they typically assign different points to different items, depending on the
level of difficulty. For example, they might
assign 1 point to easier items that require
students to recall content, 5 points to more
difficult items that require students to explain
principles, and 10 points to complex items that
ask students to apply knowledge.
The items worth 1 point
are easy to score—they’re
either right or wrong—so
they receive either 1 point
or no points. But it gets
more complicated with
items worth 5 or 10 points.
Although it’s still easy to
assign a score of 0 if an item
is completely incorrect or
5 or 10 if an item is completely correct, how does a
teacher differentiate among
all the scores in the middle?
Teachers usually attempt
to construct scoring schemes using an incremental approach. For example, for a 10-point
item, a teacher might reason that a student got
the majority of the content correct and assign
a score of 7. However, after scoring a number
of tests, the teacher might realize that he or
she has begun assigning a score of 9 points for
other students’ responses to that same item
even though the responses have about the same
level of accuracy. The teacher would then deliberate as to whose score to change: Should the
9s be 7s or the 7s be 9s? This back-and-forth
deliberation becomes even more complicated
for items assigned more than 10 points.
Proficiency Scoring
These deliberations make scoring tests with
multipoint items time-consuming, frustrating,
and imprecise. Proficiency scoring is a much
more efficient and accurate approach.
Establish Levels of Proficiency
Proficiency scoring begins by writing items (or
selecting them from an item bank) that reflect
three levels of proficiency: Basic refers to simple
content that is foundational to understanding
more complex elements, proficient refers to
complex content that is the desired outcome
of instruction, and advanced refers to tasks
that require students to go beyond what was
addressed in class.
Basic, proficient, and
advanced content are
usually articulated as
learning goals. For example,
consider the following three
levels of learning goals for
the topic of heredity:
n Basic: Students will be
able to recognize or recall
accurate statements about
and isolated examples of
heritable and nonheritable
traits.
n Proficient: Students
will be able to differentiate heritable traits from
nonheritable traits in real-world scenarios.
n Advanced: Students will be able to explain
how heritable and nonheritable traits affect one
another.
When writing or selecting items, the teacher
might use selected-response items for basic
content, such as, “Circle the traits you can
develop over time: shoe size, gender, knowledge
of history, fear of snakes.” For proficient content,
the teacher might use short constructed-response
items, such as, “Name three traits you like about
yourself and explain whether each is heritable
or nonheritable.” For advanced content, the
teacher might use constructed-response items
that focus on students generating and defending
claims, such as, “Identify one heritable trait you
have and support your contention that it has had
a more positive (or negative) effect on your life
than a nonheritable trait has.”
