EVIDENCE-BASED ASSESSMENT … COMOX VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT #71

IN SUPPORT OF ALL OUR LEARNERS … An Assessment focus for approximately 8 years.

IN SUPPORT OF OUR ALL OF OUR LEARNERS … We began with conversations about our assessment tools …

WHAT’S IMPORTANT WHEN WE ASSESS? Triangulation of assessment listen to our students, observe them, and … review their products

ASSESSMENTS THAT MERGE WITH OUR DAILY WORK… Understanding the district picture:

IN SUPPORT OF ALL OUR LEARNERS … Create a common language Establish essentials ~ a group of educators surround themselves with lots of reading, connecting, and talking

We also wanted our assessments to have an element of time efficiency as well.

COMMON LANGUAGE What we’ve found … When we choose a few really good assessment tools, we can establish a common language across a district. Get more detailed information ONLY from those students who appear outside of widely-held expectations.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT WHEN WE ASSESS READING? Big picture ~ Are our students making sense of text? Do our youngest students have the language they need to talk about the pictures they see? What strategies are our students using? Which ones are missing?

COMMON LANGUAGE Our Assessments: establishing common assessments and getting to know them really well. DART (District Assessment Reading Team) EPRA (Early Primary Reading Assessment) IRA ~ Island Reading Assessment First Steps in Math DMA Side by side/one on one

COMMON LANGUAGE Do our students understand the main ideas and some details when they read? No? What do we do next?

STORIES RATHER THAN NUMBERS We have learned to value the narrative element of our assessments over the numbers. Qualitative rather than quantitative

GATHERING ASSESSMENT TEAMS… At the school level ~ classroom teachers, learning support teacher(s), administrators We gathered a district team too District curriculum support teachers ( We have 3), District Aboriginal support teachers (We have 2). A district team of 5 simply asked, “Who wants help with formative classroom assessments?” We combined our teams.

ASSESSMENTS IN CLASSES Were completely voluntary. Nothing was mandated. We offered choice. We offered our time for each school

AFTER ASSESSMENT CONVERSATIONS Those teachers who participated in these assessments are invited to an, “ after-assessment conversation.” An afternoon or morning release is provided for teachers to talk about their assessments.

AFTER ASSESSMENT CONVERSATIONS Using Judy and Linda’s Spiral of Inquiry … We posed questions: What’s going on for our learners? How do we know? Why does it matter?

AFTER ASSESSMENT CONVERSATIONS What are you noticing? What trends are you seeing(strengths and areas needing attention)? Are the same trends existing across the grades? We share ideas, We problem-solve, We talk about resources, We chat about the Learning Resource kits that support this work.

DEVELOPING A HUNCH What’s leading to this situation? How are WE contributing to it?

FOCUSING Where are we going to put our attention?

CHECKING How will we check that we made enough of a difference?

WHERE TO SPEND PRECIOUS DOLLARS AND TIME… Management structures Creative Leadership Bruce Bearisto

A VALUABLE BYPRODUCT… Having common assessments have helped us develop a common language. And we feel this is a great benefit to our most vulnerable learners. It helps, in part, to bring them to a place of calm.

OFFERING THE GIFT OF TIME TO COLLABORATE During these release meetings, we develop a plan. We’re not collecting numbers. We talk about our next steps.

EFFICIENT USE OF TIME The assessments we’ve chosen, give us a lot of information in a short period of time. We are able to find trends, brainstorm ways to explicitly teach these needed skills, and later review how we’ve done.

CREATING BALANCE … There are lots of other assessments out there that are time-intensive. But … Do we need to know a benchmark level for every primary child? What if we give them a topic that’s not of interest? What is we give them a topic of passion? Do we need to compile data abut phonological awareness for students who are already reading?

THE SOFTER SIDE OF ASSESSMENT Make it joyful, Create a fit with what’s already happening, Nurture our learners forward by carefully considering next steps through conversation with a team!

TOO MANY PIECES OR JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT?

LRC kits align with our assessments… Draw pictures and create labels to show what you know ALIGNING ASSESSMENT WITH RESOURCES …

Concept Map ~ Draw pictures and create labels to show what you know When vulnerable children revisit these same skills, they gather confidence and expertise.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT? Learning how to use pictures, and subtitles to to create a web.

FIGURING OUT THE MAIN IDEAS… … using pictures and subtitles

IN ONE CLASS … … during the reading conference we asked this question: “You know yourself best as a reader and thinker. What do you think would be a good step to become even better? In one grade 5/6 class many students told us they needed to work on oral fluency. So … we planned a team project!

IN ONE CLASS … Reading fluency project co-created criteria about reading fluently, practiced’ created an audio recording of student reading a picture book, placed a QR code on the library book, so others can hear