5 Key Strategies for Assessment for Learning & PGES

Target: I can determine how the 5 strategies for formative assessment may improve my practice as well as student performance.

Assessment for learning/formative assessment “Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence. An assessment activity can help learning if it provides information that teachers and their students can use as feedback in assessing themselves and one another and in modifying the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes “formative assessment” when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs.” (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall & Wiliam, 2004 p. 10)

Handout that was given earlier today Teacher Professional Development: One Big Idea and Five Core Strategies Handout that was given earlier today

Formative assessment: a new definition “An [assessment] of teacher performance functions formatively to the extent that evidence of teacher performance that is elicited by the assessment is interpreted by leaders, teachers, or their peers to make decisions about the professional development of the teacher that are likely to be better, or better founded, than those that would have been taken in the absence of that evidence.”

Unpacking formative assessment of teaching Where the teacher is now Where the teacher is going How to get there Leader Peer Teacher Clarifying, sharing and understanding learning intentions Engineering effective situations, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of development Providing feed-back that moves learners forward Activating teachers as learning resources for one another Activating teachers as owners of their own learning

Principal Observation Self-Reflection Student Growth Goals TPGES Peer Observation Principal Observation Self-Reflection Student Growth Goals Professional Growth Goals Student Voice

Observer Checklist: 5 Key Strategies for Effective Formative Assessment (Hand out)

A strengths-based approach to change Talent development requires attending to both strengths and weaknesses The question is how to distribute attention between the two: For novices, attention to weaknesses is likely to have the greatest payoff For more experienced teachers, attention to strengths is likely to be more advantageous

Tight, but loose Two opposing factors in any school reform Need for flexibility to adapt to local circumstances Need to maintain fidelity to the theory of action of the reform, to minimize “lethal mutations” The “tight but loose” formulation: … combines an obsessive adherence to central design principles (the “tight” part) with accommodations to the needs, resources, constraints, and affordances that occur in any school or district (the “loose” part), but only where these do not conflict with the theory of action of the intervention.

Looking at the wrong knowledge The most powerful teacher knowledge is not explicit: That’s why telling teachers what to do doesn’t work. What we know is more than we can say. And that is why most professional development has been relatively ineffective. Improving practice involves changing habits, not adding knowledge: That’s why it’s hard: And the hardest bit is not getting new ideas into people’s heads. It’s getting the old ones out. That’s why it takes time. But it doesn’t happen naturally: If it did, the most experienced teachers would be the most productive, and that’s not true (Hanushek & Rivkin, 2006).

Question Formulation Technique

The Question Focus (QFocus) Statement: If we believe that effective teaching yields student success, then applying the 5 strategies for formative assessment of learning (and teaching) will move all learners forward. Chris Crouch will facilitate this activity.

CATEGORIZING QUESTIONS CLOSED-ENDED OPEN-ENDED www.rightquestion.org

PRIORITIZING QUESTIONS Choose three questions that… most interest you. you consider to be the most important. will best help you solve a problem you want/need to answer first. www.rightquestion.org

COMPONENTS OF THE QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE™ 1. The Question Focus (QFocus) 2. The Rules for Producing Questions 3. Producing Questions 4. Categorizing Questions 5. Prioritizing Questions 6. Next Steps 7. Reflection www.rightquestion.org

“It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.” Millard Fuller, Habitat for Humanity founder (from Content Then Process: Teacher Learning Communities in the Service of Formative Assessment p. 195)

Hand hygiene in hospitals Study Focus Compliance rate Preston, Larson, & Stamm (1981) Open ward 16% ICU 30% Albert & Condie (1981) 28% to 41% Larson (1983) All wards 45% Donowitz (1987) Pediatric ICU Graham (1990) 32% Dubbert (1990) 81% Pettinger & Nettleman (1991) Surgical ICU 51% Larson, et al. (1992) Neonatal ICU 29% Doebbeling, et al. (1992) 40% Zimakoff, et al. (1992) Meengs, et al. (1994) ER (Casualty) Pittet, Mourouga, & Perneger (1999) 48% 36% Pittet (2001)

Making a commitment Action planning: A good action plan: Forces teachers to make their ideas concrete and creates a record Makes the teachers accountable for doing what they promised Requires each teacher to focus on a small number of changes Requires the teachers to identify what they will give up or reduce A good action plan: Does not try to change everything at once Spells out specific changes in teaching practice Relates to the five “key strategies” of AFL Is achievable within a reasonable period of time Identifies something that the teacher will no longer do or will do less of

Supportive accountability for next steps What is needed from teachers: A commitment to: The continual improvement of practice Focus on those things that make a difference to students What is needed from leaders: A commitment to engineer effective learning environments for teachers by: Creating expectations for continually improving practice Keeping the focus on the things that make a difference to students Providing the time, space, dispensation, and support for innovation Supporting risk-taking