Delaware’s AFL Learning Teams Successes, Challenges and Next Steps

Learning Teams Existed Already The Delaware Mentoring Induction Program implemented Assessment for Learning as part of its program in 2003. With the goal of building “assessment literate new teachers.” After working with Assessment Training Institute (Rick, Jan, Judy, and Steve) we moved to a learning team format in 2004.

How Were Teams Formed for This Project District One- Teachers were volunteered by central office and administrative staff. District Two- Teachers volunteered. New Teachers were part of both teams and involved as part of the program requirements.

Three Lessons Learned About Teams Lesson One- There must be buy in from the top level. Delaware has two very successful districts in which the superintendents joined the learning teams as former teachers. In one district all administrative staff was required to take part in the process. It created the “culture for learning communities.”

Lesson Two- There was an underlying assumption that because teachers communicate all day with students and administrators are building leaders they knew how to work with adult learners. We discovered is that few had ever been trained how to effectively work with adults in a learning setting.

Lesson Three- Trust is a key the implementation of Assessment for Learning in the classroom setting. Trust that the teachers will not meet with evaluation consequences for using the strategies at sites where administrators were not trained. Trusted to set up meeting dates, meet, and have little or no oversight.

Cluster Presented a Challenge Delaware had a professional growth experience (cluster) in which teachers completed 90 hours of approved professional development work and received a 2% salary increase for five years. The mentoring program offered the cluster, but initially the grant groups were not offered the stipend. This was quickly amended. However, this led to the specific requirements the professional portfolio containing student work and reflections on the chapters and overall learning experience being delayed. This led to confusion in regard to expectations.

Three Wishes for New Teachers Students are the most important users of assessment information. Students must be presented with multiple opportunities to be assessed using multiple formats to include both formative and summative experiences. These must be coupled with student friendly language and descriptive feedback. The three questions must serve as a guide for the teacher and the student- Where am I going? Where am I now? How do I close the gap?

Most Meaningful Practices Learned Formative assessments- what they are, when, and how to use them. Methods to design and implement meaningful assessment How to use and communicate assessment results in user friendly terms

Challenges Teachers Face Administrative, parental, and student buy in to new practices. Uncertainty of being placed in an environment in which there is little dictation. CHANGE!

Understanding the Process AFL is not about a product, but about the team’s discussions and reflections. Interpretation and application differs among individuals. There potentially are no right or wrong answers. AFL is about what is useable and meaningful in YOUR classroom.

What the Portfolios Show Teachers are most grateful for their experience within the learning team. Teachers want to improve their assessments and deliver quality data based instruction. They just need the tools to be successful. It truly is all about the “AH HA!!” moment.

High School Implementation The three concepts that learned during my study of AFL that impacted the student learning in my classroom were… The two things that our team felt were the most powerful messages from AFL were..

Challenges The two greatest challenges in implementing what we learned in our study of AFL were… The three greatest challenges in implementing our learning team were… To address these concerns we…

Next Steps with AFL This year our high school will start exploring the concepts of AFL by… We will further develop teacher leadership and enhance the skills and knowledge of these teachers by attending in depth training with Dr. Stiggins in Portland. The second year we hope to …