1. Assessment Practices in a Balanced Assessment System
Coordinating Council
May 21, 2007

2. Common Language? Formative Assessments Summative Assessment
Assessment FOR Learning
Benchmark Assessments
Assessment OF Learning
Formative Classroom Assessments For Learning

3. A Productive Multi-Level Assessment System
Is needed to be sure that all instructional decisions are informed and well made
Is needed to meet the informational needs of all users at all levels
State
District
School
Classroom (teachers and students)
In the past we haven’t had a multi-level assessment system. We have attempted to meet the informational needs of all users with one level of assessment – summative

4. A Balanced Assessment System
Summative Assessment
An event after learning
Benchmark Assessments
Formative Assessments/Classroom Assessments For Learning
A process during learning
All three levels are important. One level cannot replace another.

5. State Summative and Local Benchmark Assessments
Who are the primary users?
What are the typical uses?
What is being assessed?
What methods are being used?
When do we assess?
State Summative: Primary users include State, District and School
Local Benchmark: Primary users include District, School, and Classroom teacher
Typical uses: State Summative -To:-Verify individual and group mastery of standards & objectives-Measure achievement status at a point in time for purposes of reporting & accountability-Make decisions about district & school programs and resources
Benchmark-To:-Verify individual and group mastery of specific objectives-Identify students who require additional support-Provide instructional feedback to teachers-Identify objectives not yet mastered (gaps) early enough to enable teachers to make adjustments in the instructional program
Assess what? Summative – State standards and objectives Benchmark – Specific objectives as determined by the local curriculum map or pacing guide At the benchmark level you are assessing fewer objectives, but you are assessing more often
Assessment methods? Typically the same methods are used for the state accountability test and local benchmark assessments – selected response (multiple choice) and constructed response (short answer) Local benchmark assessments are often generated from purchased test item banks that are aligned with state standards.
Assess when? Benchmark assessments are usually administered 3 or 4 times a year. You increase the frequency of summative assessments

6. A Process During Learning
Formative Assessment
A Process During Learning
Who are the primary users?
What are the typical uses?
What is being assessed?
What methods are being used?
When do we assess?
Primary users: Classroom teachers
Typical uses: To:-Support learning-Reflect progress toward mastery of objectives-Help teachers diagnose and respond to student needs-Adjust instruction based on results-Understand which building blocks (learning targets) require additional attention-Provide descriptive feedback to students
Assess what? This is a major difference in benchmark and formative assessment: Small Explicit Learning Targets: Instructional objective(s) that are broken down into component parts that enable students to build toward mastery -Knowledge required-Patterns of reasoning-Performance skills-Product development Key: Focus on one aspect of quality at a time
Assess how? This is also a major difference in benchmark and formative assessment -Requires the use of many methods to provide a continuous stream of accurate evidence of students’ mastery of knowledge, reasoning, performance skills and product development. Learning Target – Method Match: Accuracy in formative classroom assessment requires matching the kinds of Learning Targets to the appropriate assessment method:-Selected Response-Constructed Response-Extended Written Response-Performance/Product (demonstrated and observed) -Personal Communication (finding out what students have learned through interacting with them)
Assess when? Continuously

7. Learning Targets
If I have not mastered an objective (summative/benchmark), how will I improve if I don’t know which specific learning targets are keeping me from mastery?
What knowledge do I need to demonstrate the intended learning?
What patterns of reasoning do I need to master?
What skills are required, if any?
What product development capabilities must I acquire?
Summative and benchmark assessments do not provide sufficient detail to inform teachers on how to help individual students. Formative/Classroom Assessments provide evidence of student progress in mastering the foundations or components (learning targets) that underpin and lead up to the objectives.

8. WVCSO: Reading/Language Arts Grade 5
RLA.O
arrange thoughts and ideas in graphic representations to plan and write a product.
What knowledge does the student need to have? What patterns of reasoning are required? What skills are required?

9. Classroom Assessment FOR Learning
The only difference in Formative Assessment (as described above) and Classroom Assessment For Learning is the student involvement component.

10. What is the Student Involvement Component?
Classroom Assessment For Learning acknowledges the critical importance of the instructional decisions made by students and their teachers working as a team.
Continuous descriptive (rather than evaluative) feedback is provided strategically in amounts that students can address effectively, in amounts that do not overwhelm them.
Feedback: Students need to know what they did well and how they can improve. Scores and grades are not descriptive.

11. What is the Student Involvement Component?
Assessments become far more than one-time events attached to the end of teaching. They become part of the learning process by keeping students posted on their progress and confident enough to continue to strive.
Students become consumers of assessment information, using evidence of their own progress to understand what comes next for them and to set goals.

12. What is the Student Involvement Component?
Students collaborate with teachers in creating and using assessments like those they will be held accountable for later.
Students become partners in the accumulation of growth portfolios that reveal the changes in their own achievement as it is happening.

13. What is the Student Involvement Component?
Students become partners in communicating about their own learning success as they rely on concrete evidence from their portfolios presented in student-led conferences.

14. A Process in Support of Learning
Support Verify
Learning Learning
“Teachers involve their students in classroom assessment, record-keeping, and communication during learning. But, when it’s time for students to be accountable for what they have learned, the teacher takes the lead in conducting assessments OF learning.”
-Richard J. Stiggins

15. Formative /Classroom Assessments For Learning
Happen while learning is still underway
Are not high-stakes
Are not for accountability
Are not for report card grades
Are in support of motivation and learning
“If everything is for a grade, there’s never time to practice – get better.”
-Rick Stiggins

16. When consistently carried out as a matter of routine within and across classrooms, this set of practices has been linked to profound gains in student achievement, especially for low achievers.
Benjamin Bloom, "The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-on-One Tutoring," Educational Leadership, May 1984
Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment," Phi Delta Kappan, October 1998

17. Questions ?