1. Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways
Partners Briefing
Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways
June 15, 2015 | 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET

2. Agenda for today’s briefing
Share the impetus for Achieve and the Center for Assessment in collaborating on Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways.
Clarify the unique purpose of summative assessment in competency- based pathways (CBP).
Discuss characteristics, design and implementation considerations for summative assessments in a competency-based learning environment.
Review three “model” stories of districts utilizing assessments for CBP.
Discuss participants’ questions about the unique purposes and design of assessments for CBP, potential questions left to be explored, and applicability to state and district contexts.

3. Impetus for collaborating on Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways
Center for Assessment - support to states and districts on designing performance assessments
Achieve - CBP working group and site visits, support to states through the CBP State Partnership
Key questions
Which, if any, principles of assessment design need modification for a CBP context?
What unique considerations need to be addressed in implementation?
What various approaches might districts take based on their needs?

4. Unique purpose - validating instructional-level determinations of student proficiency/mastery
Assessments are used to validate, monitor the quality and consistency of determinations that students are ready to move on, and to signal rigorous definitions of proficiency or mastery.
Source: Page 20, Summative Assessment

5. Characteristics of assessment for CBP
Contribute to student learning by encouraging students to apply and extend their knowledge.
Allow students to demonstrate their learning at their own point of readiness.
Require students to actually demonstrate their learning.
Where possible, provide flexibility in how students demonstrate their learning (e.g. through a presentation, research paper or video).
Given the unique purpose of summative assessment in CBP, and given these characteristics, what assessment design, implementation and validity considerations need to be addressed to ensure quality, consistency and equity? How might districts make different decisions based on their priorities and context?

6. Design and implementation, validity considerations
Content
Administration
Quality
Reporting and Use

7. Content Considerations
Grain Size
Standards may be broken down into ‘building blocks,’ typically to isolate and assess pre-requisite skills.
Standards may be combined into larger units to gauge how well students have integrated or applied knowledge.
Structure
Content can be grouped by related domains and/or along a continuum of increasing complexity.
Structure and sequence informed by learning progressions

8. Administration Standardization Flexibility
More standardized approaches (e.g. centralized development and scoring) offer comparability and test security, but can be time consuming and resource intensive.
More flexible approaches may permit increased personalization but require solutions to address consistency and technical quality.
Developers attempt to find a balanced solution in keeping with the purpose and uses of the assessment.
For example, if classification consistency or generalizability is the goal, a more standardized approach is appealing
Alternatively, if integrated/applied performance in context is the goal, a more flexible approach may be suitable

9. Quality Considerations
Content
The test items should represent what teachers should be teaching and students should be learning with respect to breadth and depth.
Precision
When the primary purpose will be to classify the learner with respect to an established threshold, the assessments should provide the most precise information near the performance target. However, an assessment designed for growth may required more information along the full range.
Administration/ Scoring
Tests should be administered and scored using well-documented procedures. Typically, quality assurance measures such as training and audits are recommended.
Fairness
Efforts are made to mitigate barriers so students can show what they know.

10. Reporting and Use
How are assessments combined to support a decision (e.g. successful course completion)?
Conjunctive/ Disjunctive Approaches
Require mastery on all assessments or ‘best’ performance
Composite Scores
Multiple methods available to aggregate assessments into a compensatory, weighted score
External Criterion
Another summative assessment (e.g. state EOC) used to certify accomplishment

11. Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways – Model Illustrations
Creekside School District – flexible pacing model
Granite State School District – performance assessments
Mountain View School District – graduation distinction by exhibition

12. Questions and discussion

13. Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways
Partners Briefing
Assessment to Support Competency-Based Pathways
June 15, 2015 | 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET