1. BEATRICE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOCUS ON STUDENTS AND RESULTS Building Common, Informative Assessments

2. Context for Common Assessments What is it we expect them to learn?  Essential Learnings How will we know when they have learned it?  Common assessments (Formative & Summative) How will we respond when they don’t?  Pyramid of Interventions How will we respond when they do?  Enrichment and Differentiation

3. Essential Question How can we create common assessments to monitor and promote student learning? Standard:  High quality assessments are collaboratively developed and collectively used to monitor, measure, and promote high levels of student achievement.

4. The Mission Understand the rationale for and process of using common assessments, including assessment for and assessment of learning Identify strategies for aligning standards and assessments Identifying the key factors to consider when developing common assessments

5. What is a common assessment? Any assessment created by and given by two or more educators with the intention of collaboratively examining the results for:  Shared learning  Instructional planning for individual students and/or  Curriculum, instruction, and/or assessment modifications (DuFour)

6. Assessment for learning, when done well, is one of the most powerful, high-leverage strategies for improving student learning that we know of. Educators collectively become more skilled and focused at assessing, disaggregating, and using student achievement as a tool for ongoing improvement. – Michael Fullan Why common assessments?

7. High Quality Classroom Assessment Educators need to ask themselves:  Why am I assessing?  What am I assessing?  What is the best assessment method?  How do I communicate the results?

8. Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment Research consistently shows that regular, high quality FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT increases student achievement. RESEARCH ON EFFECTS Black & Wiliam (1998) International Research Review --.5 to 1.0 Standard Deviation Score Gain --Largest Gain for Low Achievers

9. Formative Assessment “When implemented well, formative assessment can double the speed of students’ learning”  Dylan William (December/January 2007 Educational Leadership, pg. 36)

10. 1.0 Standard Deviation Equals: 35 Percentile Points on a Norm-Referenced Assessment (TerraNova, Gates MacGinitie) 2-4 Grade Equivalents 5 ACT Composite Score Points

11. Assessment FOR Learning vs. Assessment OF Learning FOR—How can we use assessment to help students learn more? OF—How much have students learned as of a particular point in time? Adapted from Stiggins

13. Assessment of Learning The purpose is to measure student achievement for reporting and accountability--document mastery of standards. Uses include certifying student competence, sorting students, promotion and graduation decisions, grading

14. Assessment for Learning The purpose is to promote further improvement of student learning during the learning process and involve students in the ongoing assessment of their learning. Uses include providing students with insight to improve, help teachers diagnose and respond to student needs, help parents see progress over time

15. Essential Questions: How can we create common assessments to monitor and promote student learning? Consider the Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

16. The Right Stuff: Effective Formative Assessment Clarify and share learning intentions and criteria for success with students (exemplars and clear targets) Engineer effective classroom discussions, questions, and learning tasks (Think of Questioning Makes the Difference Activity) Provide feedback that moves learners foreward Activate students as the owners of their own learning (student self-assessment) Encourage students to be instructional resources for one another  William (Educational Leadership, 65 (4), 36).

17. Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

18. Key #1—Clear Purpose Planning Phase Assessment for Learning  Diagnose needs and strengths Collaborative Teams will use the information from the assessment to make instructional decisions for the students in the class

19. Key #2—Clear Targets Stage #1 Planning Phase What Are the Learning Targets? A learning target is any achievement expectation we have for students on the path toward mastery of a standard. It clearly states what we want the students to learn and should be understood by teachers and students. Learning targets should be formatively assessed to monitor progress toward a standard. Collaborative Teams must discuss and resolve a description of a proficient student on the standard-

20. Creating Targets For “Driving a Car with Skill” What knowledge will students need to demonstrate the intended learning? What patterns of reasoning will they need to master? What skills are required (if any)? What product development capabilities must they acquire (if any)?

21. Driving a Car with Skill Knowledge Reasoning Skills Product(s)

22. Driving a Car with Skill Knowledge  Know the law  Read signs and understand what they mean Reasoning  Evaluate ‘am I safe’ and synthesize information to take action if needed Skills  Steering, shifting, parallel parking…

23. Achievement Targets Knowledge  Mastery of substantive subject content where mastery includes both knowing and understanding it Reasoning  The ability to use knowledge and understanding to figure things out and to solve problems Performance Skills  The development of proficiency in doing something--where it is the process that is important such as playing a musical instrument, reading aloud, speaking in a second language

24. Achievement Targets Products  The ability to create tangible products, suchas term papers, science fair models, and art products, that meet certain standards of quality and that present concrete evidence of academic proficiency

25. Key #3--Good Design Stage #2 Development Phase Focused on Learning Targets  Focus on the targets that are part of the larger essential learning. Do Not create an assessment for the entire concept—select specific skills or content that contribute to students’ learning toward the standard (essential learning) Appropriate Assessment Method  Well-written items, tasks, and rubrics  Samples student achievement in such a way to make appropriate inferences about student learning

26. Guiding Principles Choosing the Best Assessment Method--chart Educators need to deliberately choose an assessment method that fits the standards being assessed Test Specification Chart (Blueprint)  List Learning Targets  Identify if the targets are knowledge, reasoning, performance skills, products, and/or beliefs/behaviors  Ask the Question “How Important” to guide development

27. Guiding Principles Items are the appropriate level of difficulty—goal is to reveal areas of strength and areas for growth, not 100% proficiency by ALL (i.e. current BPS Math & LA ES tests) Assessment items are tightly aligned to what is actually taught in the classroom The common assessments we will create are to be used in conjunction with all other classroom assessment activities (variety of methods)

28. Assessment Method Selected Response  MC, T/F, Matching, Enhanced MC Constructed/Written Response  Fill-in-the-blank, short answer, label a diagram, “show your work”, nonlinguistic representation Performance-Based  Product (essay, project)  Performance Based (presentation  Process (oral questioning, observation)

29. Psychometric Properties of Good Tests Valid  Does the test measure what you think it measures?  Are scores appropriate and accurate? Reliable  Does the test measure student achievement consistently?  Are scores trustworthy and dependable?

30. MC Item Writing Guide MC  Most efficient  Different levels of cognitive processing can be assessed (Quick Flip Chart)  Easy to score  Difficult to construct high quality questions  2 or more response options

31. MC, continued MC Item Parts  Stem (poses the question or states the problem)  Options (all choices given for the item)  Keyed Answer (Correct Answer)  Distractors (all of the incorrect responses) Formats  Closed stem (asks the complete ? and ends with ? Mark  Sentence completion format  Best/Most format  Roman Numeral format

32. MC Item Writing Checklist Measures a single significant point Not misleading/deceiving  Emphasize special words (BEST, ONLY, etc.) Independent (no cueing) Randomize the position of correct choices Arrange in a logical order Avoids the following:  Always, never, none, all Distractors represent plausible answers or common errors  Avoid humorous option

33. Constructed Response Item Writing Guide Can assess different levels of thinking Can obtain more in-depth information about knowledge of a topic Quick to create Difficult to score consistently Potential confounds (reading level, writing skills, time management

34. Constructed Response Parts of Constructed Response Items  Prompt (question, problem, topic)  Response requirements (tells how to respond)  Answer elements (the components of an acceptable response)  Rubric (assigning value to overall quality of the answer)

35. CR Item Writing Checklist Guidelines that are appropriate from MC apply Verify approach is best way to assess objectives/targets Insure expected behavior is specified in test specifications Insure examinee knows response requirements

36. Developing the Common Assessment Using the guidelines, create a formative assessment in which the team believes Plan to administer the assessment at point of instruction!  Similar pacing will be required to accomplish this goal Observe the administration of the assessment (student reactions, behaviors, questions) and take notes to share with your team

37. Creating the Assessment Use the handout as an example for setting up a common assessment

38. Next Steps & Further Training Clearly articulate purpose and targets √ Develop a common assessment  Plans for quality assurance  Develop scoring criteria Administer the common assessment Engage in collaborative scoring & data analysis  The Now What of the process!  “Done properly, formative assessment can generate dramatic improvements in teaching and learning…” but how teachers use the information about the teaching and learning is the rest of the story!

39. Next Steps “The power of formative classroom assessment depends on how you use the results.” (Guskey)

40. Next Steps Collect the data in a way that is manageable and meaningful. Do SOMETHING with the data—set a goal, have a conversation, draw conclusion, CHANGE INSTRUCTION TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE LEARNERS Re-examine the results of another assessment to mark progress on a given skills