Welcome
New Concepts
to Consider in
Classroom Assessments
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Let’s Get
Acquainted
Today’s Agenda
• Understanding how assessment improves student
learning
• How teacher teams develop formative
assessments
• How teachers link essential learning standards
with assessment items
• How teachers use assessments to provide
interventions and enrichments
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On assessment…
With a partner, discuss these two
questions:
• What has been the traditional use of
assessment in schools?
• How can assessment in classrooms
improve student learning?
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Smartest Kid in Class
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbH-Q7-DuJE
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The Big Ideas
1. The fundamental purpose of schools is
to ensure that all students learn
With a partner, discuss these three components:
a. What is the difference?—”all students learn” v. “all
students are taught”
b. If we accept learning as the fundamental purpose
of our schools, are we willing to examine all
practices in light of their impact on learning? What
would that look like?
c. To ensure that all students will learn requires all
teachers to be involved with all students in the
school and not only with those in their classes.
What would this look like?
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The Five Big Questions
1. What is it we want all students to learn—by grade
level, by course, and by unit of instruction?
2. How will we know when each student has learned—
that is, has acquired the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions deemed essential?
3. What are the best ways to teach what all students
need to know and be able to do?
4. How will we respond when students experience
initial difficulty in their learning?
5. How will we enrich and extend the learning for
students who are already proficient?
(Matthews, Williams, & Stewart adapted from DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Karhanek,
2010)
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The Big Ideas of a PLC
2. Helping all students learn requires a
collaborative culture and a collective
effort.
a. Teachers cultivate a collaborative culture through
development of high performing teams in which
they work interdependently to achieve high
learning for all students.
b. Teachers work together rather than in isolation to
address the five questions.
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The Power of Teams
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgGrjEzvkhA
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On Collaboration
Research suggests that the schools with the
greatest student learning are those which do
not isolate teachers, but instead encourage
professional dialogue and collaboration.
Teaching in effective schools is a collective,
rather than individual enterprise (Freiberg and
Knight, 1987, p. 3).
The Big Ideas
3. Teachers will be unable to monitor their
effectiveness in helping all students learn
unless they create a results orientation.
a. Teachers assess their effectiveness on the basis of
results rather than intentions.
b. Individuals, teams, and schools seek relevant data
and information and use that information to
promote continuous improvement.
c. Teachers use formative assessments to improve
their own teaching which, of course, leads to
improved student learning.
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Teachers also use results to identify
students who are struggling.
In the past, the
variable was student
learning and the
constants were time
and support.
The right variables are
time and support, and
the constant is student
learning.
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Teachers need to identify those
students who already know it
• Too often, students who already know the concept
or the skill are subjected to going through it over
again.
• Likewise, some students get the concept or skill
quickly and have to wait until others get it.
• Teachers need to differentiate their practices so
that all students continue to progress.
• Discuss as a group: Share a time when this
happened to you.
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What is the difference?
Formative
Assessment
Summative
Assessment
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Summative Assessments
Summative assessments, or high stakes
tests and projects, are what the eagle eye of
our profession is fixated on right now, so
teachers often find themselves in the tough
position of racing, racing, racing through
curricula.
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If we must use summative
assessments, then we
need to know how to help
students perform better
on these assessments.
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Sometimes we have to slow down in
order to go quickly.
• The only way to drive cattle fast is ….
….slowly
Losing Students—This We Know
• The fastest way to lose our students is
to drive them too fast.
• If teachers are not routinely checking
for understanding then they are not in
touch with students learning.
• Perhaps students are already far, far
behind.
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Scenario
After an instructional
lesson, the teacher asks :
"Are there any questions,
students?"
Teacher pauses for three
seconds. Silence.
"No? Okay, let's move on."
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Formative Assessments
• Formative assessments are about checking
“for understanding” and “for learning” in
an effective way in order to guide teacher
instruction.
• They are used during instruction rather than
at the end of a unit or course of study.
• Teachers use formative assessment to
improve and not just monitor and check on
student learning
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Teachers can use formative
assessments to . . .
•
•
•
•
•
identify student understanding,
clarify what comes next in their learning,
intervene for struggling students,
Improve instructional practices of teachers,
help students track their own progress toward attainment of
standards,
• motivate students by building confidence in themselves as
learners,
• fuel continuous improvements with teachers, and
• drive a school’s improvement efforts
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Formative assessments are not
about ”gotcha-ing” students but about
guiding where instruction needs to go
next.
Teachers should use them frequently,
and when students learn a new idea,
concept, or process.
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Formative Assessment:
A Process, Not a Test
Moreover, it is a planned process.
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The Key to Formative
Assessments is Making
Adjustments in Teaching
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Using Formative Assessments to
Improve Summative Assessments
Monday
formative
assessment
Tuesday
formative
assessment
Wednesday
formative
assessment
Summative
assessment
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Using Formative Assessments to
Improve Summative Assessments
Monday
formative
assessment
Tuesday
formative
assessment
Wednesday
formative
assessment
Thursday
Summative
assessment
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Using Formative Assessments to
Improve Summative Assessments
Monday
formativ
e assessment
Teach
Reteach
Intervene
Extend
Enrich
Tuesday
formative
assessment
Wednesday
formative
assessment
Thurs
Summative
Assessment
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Maximizing Learning through
Assessment
Formative assessment, done well,
represents one of the most
powerful instructional tools
available to a teacher or a school for
promoting student achievement.
Rick Stiggins & Rick DuFour
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A Conversation
Reflect as to your response to parents who ask
this question:
“Your school says that it is committed
to helping all students learn at high
levels. What specifically happens at
your school when a student does not
learn?”
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Traditional Instructional Design
(Instruction Influenced)
Curriculum
standards
Instruction
Assessment
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Our Commitment (Assessment Influenced)
Curriculum
Standards
Assessment
Instruction
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Each Assessment Item is Aligned
with a Curriculum Standard
Assessment
Item
Assessment
Item
Assessment
Item
Curriculum
Standard
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Teachers Also Need to Use
Various Types of
Assessment Items
 Selected-response assessment (e.g.,
multiple choice, true or false, matching)
 Constructed-response assessment
(response to open-ended questions: Short
or long (e.g., fill in the blank, short answer,
essay)
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 Performance assessment
Different Assessment Items are
Aligned with Each Curriculum
Standard
Assessment
Item
Assessment
Item
Assessment
Item
Curriculum
Standard
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Each Curriculum Standard has
Multiple Assessments Items
Assessment Item
Assessment Item
Curriculum
Standard
Assessment Item
Assessment Item
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To make strong assessments,
teachers need to use . . .
•numerous assessments
•a variety of types of assessments
Review: The Big Ideas
1. The fundamental purpose of schools is to
ensure that all students learn
2. Helping all students learn requires a
collaborative culture and a collective
effort.
3. Teachers will be unable to monitor their
effectiveness in helping all students learn
unless they create a results orientation.
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Review:
Formative Assessments Help Teachers
Make These Choices
• Go on with the next lesson
• Re-teach the previous lesson or part of it
• Clarify some aspects that are not quite
understood
• Intervene with certain groups or individuals
• Offer enrichment or extensions to certain
groups or individuals
The Future
What are the possibilities?
As you watch the video, think of what your
school’s possibilities are this year?
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