February 24, 2009 Joint Session of Congress “I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.” President Obama

What does this mean for Educators? High School curriculum must be: Rigorous Rich Well-rounded All Graduates must posses: Knowledge – English and mathematics Habits – soft skills Skills – teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving College- and Career- Ready

2010 Reauthorization of ESEA - NCLB Common Core State Standards Initiative: National Governors Association http://www.corestandards.org/ September 2009: Graduating Every Student College and Career Ready (CCR) CCR Standards: Aligned with college and work expectations Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards Internationally benchmarked, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society Evidence and/or research based

Attaining CCR Level of Performance Improving Summative Test Good multiple choice test questions measure: Rigorous content Analytical skills – reasoning and problem solving Not limited to ability to recall discrete bits of info Measure applied skills – increase quantity and quality: Constructed Response Open-ended questions The payoff for schools is the increased quality of curriculum and teaching encouraged by these formats

Problem of On-Demand Tests Only one dimension of student ability is measured Difficult to demonstrate skills required for success: Ability to engage in teamwork Ability to perform contextualized tasks: Analysis Research Communication

Solution Combine summative tests with performance assessments: Lab experiments Research papers Team projects Essays Portfolios Demonstrations Presentations Exhibitions Using performance-based measures will increase the range of skills and abilities on which teachers will focus their instruction—and decrease the temptation to teach only the subset of skills and knowledge that is included in the summative tests.

What kind of work is “good enough”? Address concerns about consistency and quality: Establish clear criteria Develop scoring rubrics Anchor assignments Use assessment outcomes to drive instruction

What kind of work is “good enough”? Determine skills and instruction gaps Students and parents should know where they are – in real time Information helps diagnose student needs Opportunity to provide supports and challenges to accelerate learning Evaluate program effectiveness and identify needs

What kind of work is “good enough”? Use performance-based assessment Lab experiment protocols Oral argument Teamwork Portfolio Project

What kind of work is “good enough”? Make use of constructed-response questions assessment items that ask students to apply knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities to real-world, standards-driven performance tasks Develop Scoring Rubrics for questions “Demystify” essential components The goal is for students to be able to apply knowledge and use thinking strategies to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information – to think deeply, thoroughly, and critically.

Classroom Instruction: Building Thinking Proficiency in four essential skills across curriculum Read and comprehend a variety of texts; Write clearly and accurately; Speak clearly and coherently; Apply mathematics in a variety of settings Demonstrate through a variety of assessment options: Work sample scored using rubrics and guidelines Continued practice and coaching eventually help students.

Your Student’s Success is Your Success With changes to how we approach daily instruction, we can help our students develop the skills they need not only to do well on these assessment items but also to internalize what we are trying to teach them.

It is the process that is important To maximize student learning potential, Encourage students to : Explain conclusions Outline thought processes Justify decision making It is what the student has learn that counts rather than what the teacher has taught.

The “Bell Curve”? A Pygmalion Effect If grades where dollars and students employees, would an “A” be equal across all levels? Does an “F” reflect failure in learning or teaching? Is the class clown really a poor student? A Pygmalion Effect

Assessment for Learning is an essential and integrated part of teaching and learning reflects a belief that all students can improve reflects a view of learning in which assessment helps students learn better, rather than just achieve a better mark involves setting learning goals with students helps students know and clearly recognize the standards for which they are aiming involves students in self-assessment and peer assessment provides feedback to help students understand the next steps in learning and plan how to achieve them involves teachers, students and parents in reflecting on assessment data helps students take responsibility for their own learning

Assessment for Learning Learning Portfolios artifacts with student reflections Throughlines Inquiry to guide instruction based on continual reflection and ongoing assessment Rubrics Constructive guides for self-evaluation

Learning Portfolios A collection of selected student work representing an array of performance: Share products with others Learn to maintain best work See progress over time Uses: Accountability reporting Program evaluation Student progress

Portfolio Rules Like Grades – standardized criteria Training, planning time, collaboration Collect a variety of artifacts Include on-demand tests Peer-review Use more than portfolio as evidence of accomplishments

Throughlines? "When my students leave my class at the end of the course, what are the most important things I want them to take away with them?" How can we use what we know to figure out what we don’t know?

Rubrics Rubric-Referenced Self-Assessment Are written in language that students can understand; Refer to common weaknesses in students' work and indicate how such weaknesses can be avoided; and Can be used by students to evaluate their works-in-progress and thereby guide revision and improvement. Rubric Generator

Getting Started Meet with your Departments to discuss standards for Assessments and Grading Develop a Throughline as a Department and for your classes Conduct Professional Development to learn more about development and use of “on-demand” testing Always use Assessment for learning

Contact: PJ Dempsey pjdempsey@virginia. edu (434) 982-5698 Curriki Contact: PJ Dempsey pjdempsey@virginia.edu (434) 982-5698 Curriki.org Search: pj dempsey Teaching for Understanding Course