1. Assessment and Accountability 2017 Presented to the Santa Clara County Assessment and Accountability Network April 7, 2017
PRESENTED BY
Deborah V.H. Sigman
Deputy Director. Standards. Assessment and Accountability Services
Director, Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation

3. Recent Headlines
School, Parent Groups Urge State Board to Give More Weight to High School Tests
State to Leave College, Career Readiness Metric off Upcoming School and District Report Cards
Parents Continue to Push for a Simple Way to Evaluate Schools as California Readies its Accountability Dashboard
LA group renews debate over single ranking on school report cards
California School Dashboard Debuts, Provides Multiple Measures of School Performance and Progress
Report card time for schools: California Dashboard goes live today, but some find it impossible to navigate
California Launches New School Assessment Dashboard, Drops API Score

4. Assessment vs Accountability
State Academic Assessments
ELA and Math, Grade 11
ELA Grades 3-8
Math Grades 3-8
English Learner Progress:
CELDT – ELPAC
Other State Indicators:
Chronic absenteeism
Suspension
Graduation

5. Assessment vs Accountability
Dashboard is a launching pad for deeper examination of data

6. What remains the same in assessment implementation under ESSA?
States are still required to administer statewide assessments annually in both mathematics and English language arts to every student in grades 3–8 and once in high school, in addition to a science assessment once per grade span (elementary, middle, and high school).
States must provide alternate assessments and accommodations as needed for students with disabilities.
States must assess English learner (EL) students in grades K–12 annually for language acquisition.
At least 95% of all students must be assessed.

7. California’s State Assessment System
Diagnostic Assessment
Formative Assessment
Interim Assessment
Summative Assessment

8. Educational Assessments Students May Encounter
Smarter Balanced ELA/Literacy!
Projects!
Classroom Observations!
Essays!
English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC)!
Finals!
Teacher Created Tests/Quizzes!
Student Portfolios!
End of Unit Tests!
Speeches!
Smarter Balanced
Mathematics!
Curriculum embedded Performance Tasks!
College Entrance!
AP Exams!
2 minutes Running Time = 16 minutes
Slide intent: Setting the stage to show the multiple sources of assessment information that are used in California’s classrooms, -- there is no one assessment that meets all needs.
Presenter says:
This slide is intended to represent the multiple kinds of assessments administered in our schools.
Do you recognize any that are used in your schools?
Do they all serve the same purpose? (Answer: No, they don’t.)
With this visual and in this session, we want to acknowledge the different ways in which different assessments contribute evidence of student learning, and to engage you in thinking about the balance between the assessments being administered at your LEA
We’ve marked with bold text the tests administered in California that have mandatory technical specifications that are not required of tests that a classroom teacher develops.
Remember to keep your district assessment list close by as we engage in this session.
Materials required:
Publisher Tests!
California Alternate Assessment
Interim Assessments!
California Science Test (CAST)!
Classroom Discussions!
End of Course Exams!

9. LEA Assessment Inventory
Opportunity to Create Systems of Assessment that Can Support Effective Accountability Systems
LEA Assessment Inventory
State Plan (Long term goals and interim progress)
Every Student Succeeds Act (equity and access)

10. Importance of Building Assessment and Data Literacy Capacity
Acquire a common language
Develop a shared understanding
Establish time for collegial contribution and reflection
Elicit a shared commitment

11. Building a Comprehensive Assessment System
Multiple measures
Collect a variety of evidence along the student learning continuum
States, districts, and all stakeholders would benefit from a common understanding of different assessments and the specific role they play in the comprehensive system
Designing a Comprehensive Assessment System
Multiple measures responding to criticism (opt-outs)
Assessment literacy important aspect for this component
Stakeholder input, buy-in, acceptance, long-term support. 4

12. Differentiating Assessments
Purpose
Frequency of administration
Format
Type of information
Use of information
Assessments differ… 5

13. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding
Description
Purpose
Format
Frequency
Classroom Use 8

14. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding (cont.)9

15. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding (cont.) 10

16. Educator Engagement
Develop a shared understanding to elicit a commitment from your educators
Benefit to engage teachers from the beginning when considering a comprehensive assessment system
Consider local measures to provide evidence for LCAP goals
1 minutes Running Time = 38 minutes
Slide intent: Help participants understand that teachers gain a lot from participating in an assessment inventory.
Presenter says:
A secondary, but important, benefit of undertaking an inventory is the shared understanding that develops when educators engage in this activity.
During an assessment inventory, teams of teachers and administrators work together to improve the quality of assessments (e.g., incorporating more writing, real-world application, and critical thinking), and to improve their understanding of how to appropriately use the data that is collected from the assessments.
Materials required:

17. Considerations for a Comprehensive System
Purpose
Alignment within and across the system
Vertically across the learning continuum
Horizontally across the different parts of the system (state, district, school)
Balance 9

18. Purpose Assessments generally developed for primary purpose
Agreement about purpose and use imperative
Purpose lays the foundation for the numbers and types of assessment
Avoid unintended consequences with transparency of purpose
Purpose most important aspect of test development
Purpose and use tied together
Transparency of purpose critical to avoid unintended consequences 10

19. Alignment Within and across the learning continuum
Vertically within the learning continuum
Horizontally across the different parts of the system (state, district, school)
All work in support of the learning goals or standards
Levels of the system have particular roles to play to support the alignment
Efforts to support the underlying learning goals
All assessments in support of the same underlying objectives
Assessment literacy has a role to play
Different layers in the system need to function together (in support of, not in contradiction to)
Different parts in the system have different complementary roles to play 11

20. Balance BURDEN Cost Time Perceived benefit from stakeholders VALUE
Information needs
Stakeholders needs
Program and policy needs
Balance involves trade-offs
Competing interests within and across the system 12

21. Steps to a Cohesive and Effective Assessment System
Take stock
Meaningfully involve stakeholders
Pay attention to your own context – one size does not fit all
Consider
Purpose and use
Alignment
Balance 13

22. Funds for Assessment Audits
ESSA permits states/LEAs to use Title I funding to audit their assessment systems to ensure that unnecessary, duplicative exams are not being layered on top of federally mandated annual assessments (20% of funds).

23. Diving Into the Data in 2017 Numbers aren’t enough
Move beyond the numbers
Beware of data stall
Get to the decision

24. Data Stall
Decision
Data
Data

25. Maximizing Use of Summative Results
Focus on improving learning
As opposed to increasing scores
Focus on groups, subgroups, and disaggregation
Focus on the analysis process and the collaborative conversations
Focus on the analysis, not the numbers

26. Helping Parents Understand Scaled Scores High, Medium, and Low Bands
(Divide the difference by three = 21 pts)
(Divide the difference by three = 21 pts)
2367 to
2387
2388 to
2408
2409 to
2431
2432 to
2450
2451 to
2469
2470 to
2489
(Divide the difference by three = 21 pts)
(Divide the difference by three = 21 pts)
2416 to
2433
2434 to
2452
2453 to
2472
2473 to
2491
2492 to
2511
2512 to
2532

27. Remember: Different Assessments Fulfill Different Needs
In a comprehensive assessment system, different types of assessments have different roles to play. Consider the:
Continuum of assessments
Continuum of needs of stakeholders
Continuum of kind and depth of information and data

28. WestEd Resources Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation
Understanding Proficiency Website
Scaled Score Ranges - High, Medium, Low Charts

29. For more information, please contact:
Deb Sigman