K-12 Classroom Practices for
Using Student-Involved Assessment
Bruce Herzog & Joni Heutink
Grade 5 Teachers/Trainers/Consultants
Nooksack Elementary
Nooksack Valley School District
[email protected]
[email protected]
Some kids come to school
to slay the dragon…
some come to be
slain.
Student-involved
assessment practices build
student confidence and
have the greatest impact on
low-achieving students.
Why should I believe that there
is a connection between student
-involved assessment practices
and student achievement?
Black & Wiliam (1998) International Research Review
0.5 to 1.0 Standard Deviation Score Gain
Largest Gain for Low Achievers
Bloom (1984) Mastery Learning Research
1.0 to 2.0 S.D. Gain
Rivals Impact of One-on-One Tutoring
Rodriguez (2004)
0.5 to 1.8 S.D. Gain
Effect of Reducing Class Size
0.2 S.D. Gain
1.0 Standard Deviation Equals:
35
2
Percentile Points on ITBS
to 4 Grade Equivalents
100
SAT Score Points
5 ACT
U.S.
Score Points
TIMMS Rank from 22 of 41 to Top 5
Potential
Elimination of Score Gaps
Unprecedented Achievement
Gains
Key Element #1
Establishing Clear Learning Targets:
Good assessment practices begin with
students having a clear understanding
of the specific learning targets they
are expected to meet.
“Students can hit any
target that is clear and
that holds still for them.”
Rick Stiggins
The learning targets need to be clear
to the teacher and to the students:
• What do students need to know/do?
• How well do they need to know/do it?
• How will you know they know?
• How will you get them there?
• What will you do when they fail?
Instruction should focus primarily on
the Grade Level Expectations (GLEs).
Procedural directions are not the
same thing as learning targets.
Understanding by Design (UbD) is a great
model for developing clear learning targets.
• Essential Questions
• Enduring Understandings
• Vocabulary
• Activities
• Assessments (evidence of learning)
Probability (GLE 1.4.1)
Essential Questions:
• How do you determine the likelihood of an event?
• What is the difference between mathematical and experimental probability?
• What mathematical notation is used to to express probability?
• What makes a game fair or unfair?
Enduring Understandings:
• Probability is the chance that an event will occur out of all possible events.
• The actual outcome of an event may differ from its mathematical probability.
• Probability can be expressed as a fraction or as a number out of a total number.
• A game is fair if the outcome for all players has an equal mathematical probability.
Vocabulary:
Certain
Equally Likely/Probable
Possible Outcomes
Experimental Probability
Activities and Assessments
More Likely/Probable
Less Likely/Probable
Mathematical Probability
Experimental Outcome
Impossible
Actual Outcome
Fair/Unfair
To clarify the learning target use:
• Examples and non-examples
• Models
• Rubrics
• Scoring guides
• Test specification guides
Grade 1 and 2
Grade 2 and 3 morning calendar
Grade 4
behavior targets
Grade 5 work examples
Do your students know what they
need to know and do they know
whether or not they know it?
Key Element #2
Engaging Students in Formative
Assessment Activities:
Throughout a unit of instruction
students engage in practice and risktaking activities and receive feedback
that will help them move toward
meeting the learning targets.
Formative Assessment is
individualized assessment
FOR learning.
Formative Assessment tells a
student what he or she needs
to do next to improve.
Every student needs to be
able to answer the question,
“What do I need to do next
to improve my own work?”
Students need to be given
multiple “next” opportunities to
practice, experiment, and,
ultimately, show growth.
Good feedback is less like a
grade and more like advice.
NON-SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
• produces no changes in learning
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK
• produces positive changes in learning
SPECIFIC FEEDBACK &
STUDENT SELF-EVALUATION
• produces the most positive changes in learning
What the Research Says:
• minimum 7% achievement gain
(Lysakowski & Walberg, 1981)
• maximum 41% achievement gain
(Kumar, 1991)
• average 35% achievement gain
(nine studies, 1981-1999)
It’s OK to grade daily work or
homework for the purpose of
informing students of work
quality or accuracy, but those
grades should seldom, if ever, be
used to determine a student’s
grade in that subject.
The teacher frequently
conferences individually with
students about their work.
The teacher provides
opportunities for students to
assess anonymous samples
of work, their own work,
and each other’s work.
The teacher creates an
atmosphere of trust within the
classroom where students feel
free to take risks.
Are you just
giving feedback?
Or are you taking time
to “feed forward?”
Key Element #3
Using High Quality Summative
Assessments:
The teacher uses a variety of high
quality assessments that best
measures the learning of their
students.
Summative Assessment is
assessment OF learning that
has already occurred.
Grades are always summative!
Tell students, in advance, how they
will be assessed, when they will be
assessed, how the assessment will
be graded, and what the
consequences for failing to meet
the learning targets will be.
Never give a summative
assessment without
advance warning; no pop
quizzes or “gotcha” tests.
Use summative
assessments that reflect
the stated learning targets
(no surprises).
Good, teacher-created tests
are better than commerciallyproduced tests because they
can focus more precisely on
the learning targets.
Give students the results of
summative assessments in
a timely manner.
What the Research Says:
• feedback immediately after item:
7% achievement gain
• feedback immediately after test:
26% achievement gain
• feedback delayed after test:
21% achievement gain
Discuss the results of summative
assessments with students so they
can use the results to plan and guide
their own learning.
Every test should also be used as a
learning activity.
Use summative assessments as
opportunities for students to reflect
on their own performance
The problem:
My answer:
The correct answer:
What I did wrong:
What the Research Says:
• right/wrong answer:
3% loss in achievement
• correct answer:
9% achievement gain
• explanation:
20% achievement gain
Whenever possible, whenever
any student fails to meet of any
of the learning targets the teacher
should provide opportunities for
additional instruction and
practice and should then reassess
that student.
What do you teach that you
don’t want 100% of your
students to learn?
What the Research Says:
• when students repeat until correct:
20% achievement gain
Conducting frequent summative assessments:
• Lets students know how they’re doing.
• Identifies student misconceptions.
• Provides information for progress reports.
• Identifies students who need extra help.
• Minimizes the amount of content to reteach.
• Makes students accountable for learning.
Classroom assessments paint a more accurate
picture of student achievement than district or state
assessments:
• They occur more frequently.
• They cover a specific range of material.
• They are often more authentic.
• They use a greater variety of types of assessment.
• The assessor knows the students.
• They can be individualized.
Key Element #4
Involving Students in GoalSetting and Reflection:
Students set goals and reflect on
their learning as it progresses and
communicate their understanding
to others.
“Self assessment by pupils,
far from being a luxury, is in
fact an essential component
of formative assessment.”
Black & Wiliam, 1998
Students must be taught
how to set realistic goals.
A goal without a
plan is just a wish.
Students must be held
accountable for making
progress toward meeting
their goals.
What the Research Says:
• minimum 18% achievement gain
(Walberg, 1999)
• maximum 41% achievement gain
(Wise & Okey, 1983)
• average 24.5% achievement gain
(three studies, 1983-1999)
A key premise is that, for
students to be able to
improve, they must have the
capacity to monitor the
quality of their own work
during actual production.
Royce Sadler, Australia, 1989
Portfolios of student work
allow students to monitor
their progress over time.
A portfolio without student
reflections is just a scrapbook.
Ruth Sutton
Key Element #5
Communicating About Student
Achievement:
Students are the primary users of
assessment information and, as
such, they regularly communicate
about their achievement.
When students keep portfolios
with self reflections they can
see the quality of their work
change over time.
Result? Success is within reach.
When students lead or participate in
parent/teacher conferences they gain
a greater sense of responsibility and
pride in their accomplishments.
Result? Greater achievement
Involving students in conferences
sends a powerful message to
students that they are responsible
for their own learning.
Student-Involved Conferences
Don’t have to be student led.
Parents want to hear from the teacher.
Don’t take more time than traditional conferences.
Can look different in different classrooms.
Need to be by direction, not by invitation.
Provide an opportunity to model communication.
Allow teachers to “publicly” recognize students.
May require some system changes.
Key Element #6
Using Fair Grading Practices:
Grades are based on ample
evidence that accurately reflects a
student’s level of achievement in
specific subjects, performances,
products, or skills.
Most computer grading
programs convert scores to
percents and then average those
percents to arrive at a grade.
The NVSD K-5 Grading Scale
4 = 88% - 100% exceeding standard
3 = 75% - 87% meeting standard
2 = 62% - 74% not meeting standard
1 = 50% - 61% significantly below
standard
Students need to
understand classroom
grading practices.
Using Points and Percents
20 points
16 points
12 points
4 = 88% - 100% 18-20 14-16
11-12
3 = 75% - 87% 15-17 12-13
9-10
2 = 62% - 74% 13-14 10-11
8
1 = 50% - 61% 10-12
6-7
8-9
Creating Summative Assessments
For all tests use the smallest sample
possible that covers all aspects of
the learning target.
Separate knowledge/comprehension
application/analysis and
synthesis/evaluation tests.
It’s OK to use averaging to calculate
a student’s grade, but only when
averaging gives a result that
accurately reflects achievement.
2
1
2
3
2
3
4
3
Average = 2
Most-Recent Evidence = 3
All grades must be
justifiable.
(measurement theory says that you need at least
3 pieces of good evidence for triangulation)
There are no right grades only justifiable grades
Teaching is like trying to row a boat across
a lake with one student at a time.
• Some kids will help you row.
• Some kids will make you do all the rowing.
• Some kids will try and jump out.
Student-involved assessment
practices force students to grab the oars!
In a standards based system
grades are criterion referenced
and not norm referenced.
(student achievement is measured against a standard
- students are not compared to each other)
Nooksack’s K-8 Grading Scale:
4: exceeding grade level standards
3: meeting grade level standards
2: not meeting grade level standards
1: significantly below grade level
standards
Grades are motivating
for some students.
A student’s grades
belong to that student.
Teach students the
connection between
effort and achievement.
A grade, by itself, cannot
communicate the
complexity of the learning
that has occurred.
Grades, by themselves,
give students LITTLE
useful information and
do LITTLE to improve
student learning.
A grade should NOT reflect
effort, improvement, extra
credit, attitude, absences, or
late or missing assignments.
(these should all be reported elsewhere)
Not everything
needs to be graded.
(everything counts, but everything
doesn’t need to go into the grade book)
Put grades into your
gradebook in pencil not in permanent ink.
DON’T grade pre-test, practice, risk-taking, or
formative tasks.
DON’T give group grades for cooperative work.
DON’T factor late work, effort, or improvement
into achievement grades.
DON’T give achievement grades for homework
or other work that you can’t be sure
was completed by the student alone.
Extra Credit
A student’s grade should not
go up simply because that
student has done extra work.
A student’s grade should go up
if doing that extra work results
in higher achievement.
Get rid of the
zero score.
What does a
“C” mean?
All grading is
subjective.
GOOD PRACTICES REGARDING GRADING
• Use the most-recent evidence.
• Use the most-comprehensive forms of
evidence.
• Use evidence that reflects the most
important learning goals.
• Use only selective, representative grades.
When using any grading
scale, the highest possible
score needs to be within
reach of all students.
(the “achievable” 4)
When using any grading
scale, all the scores on
the scale need to be
available to all students.
When using any grading
scale, the divisions between
grades need to be equal.
(a “fair” grading scale)
An adopted grading scale provides a
consistent standard for determining grades,
but ultimately it is the teacher who decides
the grading standard for each assessment
because it is the teacher who chooses how
many questions to ask, what type of
questions to include, the level of difficulty
of the questions, and what constitutes
“meeting the standard.”
(remember: all grading is subjective)
What standard do you set for your students?
…your airline pilot?
…your surgeon?
…your hairdresser?
More importantly, what standard do
your students set for themselves?
The grading standards for each
subject, performance, product, or
skill should be consistent within
and across grade levels.
Consistent standards
can only be achieved
through collaboration.
A student’s classroom grades
should predict that student’s
level of achievement on state
and district assessments.
The grades a student receives
can have a tremendous impact
on that student’s life especially in high school.
Good grading practices are
important, but you don’t
fatten a pig by weighing it!
Student-Involved Classroom
Assessment:
Anything you do that helps students:
• Understand learning targets.
• Engage in self-assessment.
• Watch themselves grow.
• Talk about their growth.
• Plan the next steps in their learning.
Everyone Wins
•
•
•
•
• More accurate
Students
assessments
Teachers
• Stronger desire to
Parents
learn
Administrators • Increased
achievement
• Accountability for
performance