Checklist for Making Good Assessments

1. Is the assessment sufficiently transparent?

a. Does the student know the date of the test?
b. Does the student know the formats used on the test?
c. Does the student know the point value of each question on the test?
d. Does the student understand the instructions of each section?

2. Does an answer key accompany the assessment?

3. Multiple Choice Checklist

a. Is the format of the response options (a, b, c) uniform? For example, all response
options begin with lower case letters?
b. Are the multiple choice response options comprised of the same part of speech?
c. Are the multiple choice questions “pure”—they don’t test two concepts at once (for
example, spelling and verb tense)
d. Are 4 response options given for grammar, vocabulary, and reading questions?
e. Are 3 options given for listening comprehension?
f. Does the assessment provide appropriate formats for assessing productive skills, such as
providing a writing prompt to assess understanding of paragraph structure?
g. Is there only one clearly correct response option?
h. Are items placed in a clear context whenever possible?
i. Are all response options of similar length and level of difficulty?
j. Can any items be answered by background knowledge only? For example: In which state
is the city of Houston? If so, change it. It is not valid.

4. True/False Checklist
a. Do the T/F questions test overall understanding of the text/audio rather than trivial
details?
b. Are the T/F questions written at a slightly lower level than the text/audio?
c. Can any items be answered by background knowledge only? If so, change them.
d. Do the items avoid absolute clues such as only, all, always, never?
e. Are statements written in the affirmative whenever possible?
f. Is there use of a third option (NG) to increase level of difficulty? (*for intermediate and
higher only)

Source: Coombe, C. , Folse, K., Hubley, N. (2010). Assessing English Language Learners. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
 5. Matching Checklist (see below for an example)
a. Are there more options than premises?
b. Are the premises numbered and optioned lettered?
c. Are all the premises and options on the same page? (no “widows”)
d. Is a blank provided next to the premises so students don’t have to draw lines?

Example of a matching section:

Premises Options
1. Huge __b___ a. extremely small
2. Tiny__a___ b. very big in size or amount
3. Lengthy_c____ c. lasting for a long time
d. with special ability and dexterity in
doing something

Source: Coombe, C. , Folse, K., Hubley, N. (2010). Assessing English Language Learners. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
 6. Special considerations for reading comprehension questions
a. Do the questions address all aspects of the texts (Whole passage, section, paragraph,
sentence level)?
b. Do the questions require students to do more than recall information/details?

TYPES OF READING
COMPREHENSION
QUESTIONS

Level Question Types Example Questions

Whole passage Comprehend main idea
Recognize author’s opinion
Summarize key information
Sequence events
Distinguish fact from opinion
Section Understand headings
Categorize Information
Paragraph Distinguish between statements
and examples
“What is the best title for this
passage?”
“What is the reading mainly
about?”
“With which of the following
statements would the author most
closely agree?”
“Select 4 sentences from 7 options
that best summarize the passage.”
“Reorder the sentences in the
correct sequence.”
“Which of the following is not a
fact?”
“Here are 5 new sentences/Under
which headers would you place
them?”
“Put these examples under the
correct category.”
“Which is an example of a creole
language?”

Understand topic sentences “What is the topic of paragraph

4?”

Infer content “What was the true cause of the

argument?”

Sentence Understand the function of “In line 21, what does ‘in addition’
discourse makers mean’?”

Identify pronoun reference “What does ‘its’ refer to in line

14”?

Guess the meaning of unknown “Which word is closest to the

words in context meaning of ‘nomadic’ in line 37?”

Source: Coombe, C. , Folse, K., Hubley, N. (2010). Assessing English Language Learners. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
Source: Coombe, C. , Folse, K., Hubley, N. (2010). Assessing English Language Learners. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.