Math Assessments: Creating Technology Enhanced Items and Adding Rigor Henrico County Public Schools August 2012

Key Questions What do we want students to be able to do? How do we want them to demonstrate it? How can our assessments help determine the level of understanding? Why does Virginia/Henrico assess students? Why do teachers assess students?

We MUST change instruction! ▫Teachers must instruct in the manner that we are going to assess. ▫Students must have experiences with these assessments regularly in their classroom. ▫Teachers must learn how to ask good questions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Traditional Assessment Standards/ Objectives Instructional Activities Assessment Standards/ Objectives Real-World “Ends” Assessments Instructional Activities 21 st Century Assessment

SOL Assessment Changes – All Levels Increased focus on multistep and applied (“practical” or “real world”) problems Increased emphasis on models and multiple representations 11

Are you smarter than a Geometry student? 12 NEW OLD

Increased Rigor Understanding the “increased rigor” of the new SOL comes through analysis of the SOL and the Curriculum Framework

Exercise #1

Instruction, Assessment, and Backwards Design STEPS 1.Analyze an SOL and Curriculum Framework - what students should be able to do 2.Brainstorm ways to assess the SOL 3.Develop an assessment 4.Brainstorm instructional strategies 5.Develop instructional resources/lesson plans 16

Analyze the SOL and list at least 5 different things that students should know and be able to do. SOL 6.13 The student will describe and identify properties of quadrilaterals Sort and classify polygons as quadrilaterals, parallelograms, rectangles, trapezoids, kites, rhombi, and squares based on their properties. Properties include number of parallel sides, angle measures, and number of congruent sides. Identify the sum of the measures of the angles of a quadrilateral as 360°. 17 Analysis - What should students be able to do?

Developing Assessments and Appropriate Instruction – Backwards Design 1.Analyze an SOL and Curriculum Framework - what students should be able to do 2.Brainstorm ways to assess the SOL 3.Develop assessment items 4.Brainstorm instructional strategies 5.Develop instructional resources 18

1.Analyze an SOL and Curriculum Framework - what students should be able to do 2.Brainstorm ways to assess the SOL 3.Develop assessment items 4.Brainstorm instructional strategies 5.Develop instructional resources 19 Developing Assessments and Appropriate Instruction – Backwards Design

Exercise #2 Compare the 2001 SOL to the 2009 SOL group discussion

How has the rigor increased? 2001 SOL 7.22 The student will a) solve one-step linear equations and inequalities in one variable with strategies involving inverse operations and integers, using concrete materials, pictorial representations, and paper and pencil; and b) solve practical problems requiring the solution of a one-step linear equation SOL 7.14 The student will a) solve one- and two-step linear equations in one variable; and b) solve practical problems requiring the solution of one- and two-step linear equations. 21

Technology Enhanced Items (TEI) Format of Questions: Fill in the blank Drag and drop Hot-spot: Select one or more “spots” to respond to a test item, i.e. select answer option(s), shade region(s), place a point on a grid Creation of graphs

Technology Enhanced Items (TEI) Spring 2012 Test Administration For online tests that assess 2009 Mathematics SOL: Grade 6 through End-of-Course (EOC): TEI will be operational (approximately 15% of the test form)

24 Sample TEI – Fill in the Blank

25 Sample TEI – Drag and Drop

26 Sample TEI – Hot Spot

Sample TEI – Create Graphs 27

It is essential that students have experiences with the Practice SOL Items prior to testing. Use of the Practice Item Guides is STRONGLY recommended. Practice Item Guides provide: ▫Guided practice with tools ▫Information specific to TEI functionality ▫Information on item format 28 Practice SOL Items

Modifying Assessment Items Use these guiding questions to “upgrade” the following SOL questions How could a test item writer ask this in a TEI format? What types of classroom activities or assessments could I use to prepare students? 29

31 Modifying Assessments

32 Modifying Assessments

33 Modifying Assessments

Where can I get ideas for quality assessment items? NAEP released items (searchable database) PISA released items APEC Mathematics Assessment Database Heinemann Mathematics (not free, but cheap) JMU Center for STEM Education Outreach (by SOL in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II)

Key Messages We must not solely focus on multiple-choice assessments We must provide students with rich, relevant, and rigorous tasks that focus on more than one specific skill and require application and synthesis of mathematical knowledge We must connect mathematics content within and among grade levels and subject areas to facilitate long term retention and application We must reflect on our own teaching and resist the urge to blame students