Anne Bubnic's List: Data/Assessment

• We know that the typical multiple-choice and short-answer tests aren't the only way, or necessarily the best way, to gauge a student's knowledge and abilities. Many states are incorporating performance-based assessments into their standardized tests or adding assessment vehicles such as student portfolios and presentations as additional measures of student understanding.

    

  These rigorous, multiple forms of assessment require students to apply what they're learning to real world tasks. These include standards-based projects and assignments that require students to apply their knowledge and skills, such as designing a building or investigating the water quality of a nearby pond; clearly defined rubrics (or criteria) to facilitate a fair and consistent evaluation of student work; and opportunities for students to benefit from the feedback of teachers, peers, and outside experts.

    

  With these formative and summative types of assessment come the ability to give students immediate feedback. They also allow a teacher to immediately intervene, to change course when assessments show that a particular lesson or strategy isn't working for a student, or to offer new challenges for students who've mastered a concept or skill

• Without question, assessment remains among the very hottest topics in school improvement. High-stakes state accountability assessments and adequate yearly progress continue to represent the driving forces of school improvement these days. But, as accountability systems evolve, attention to this topic has turned in an interesting direction. Educators have concluded that testing once a year does not provide sufficient evidence to inform many crucial, more frequently made instructional decisions, which has generated renewed interest in formative assessment.
• ormative assessment as defined by the test publishers has taken on a narrow meaning. In this context, it refers to a system of more frequent summative assessments administered at regular intervals (often quarterly) to determine which students have not yet met state standards - an early warning system, if you will.
• Assessment for learning happens in the classroom and involves students in every aspect of their own assessment to build their confidence and maximize their achievement. It rests on the understanding that students, not just adults, are data-driven instructional decision makers.
• Several key features differentiate assessment for learning from formative assessment as currently being sold by test publishers: To begin with, state standards are deconstructed into classroom-level learning targets, which we translate into language our students understand so they know what they are responsible for learning. In addition, we turn those classroom-level targets into dependably accurate classroom assessments, aspects of which we integrate into daily instruction. In short, everyone understands the definition of success from the outset and we generate an ongoing flow of descriptive feedback that permits students to watch themselves grow. In this case, students and their teachers become partners in the classroom assessment process, relying on student-involved assessment, record keeping, and communication to help students understand what success looks like, see where they are now, and learn to close the gap between the two.
• we weren't given the opportunity to learn to apply principles of assessment for learning during our preparation to teach. It remains the case that colleges of education often fail to include this kind of assessment training in their programs. And lest we believe that teachers can turn to their principals for assistance in this regard, be advised that assessment training of any sort remains virtually nonexistent in leadership training programs across the nation.

• First, we need to know why we're assessing. If assessment is the process of gathering evidence to inform instructional decisions, teachers must begin the assessment process by asking:  

  • What decisions?  
  • Who's making the decisions?  
  • What kind of information will be helpful?
   

  The assessment must produce that information, and it must take into account the needs of the student as a crucial decision maker.

   

  Second, quality assessments can arise only from a clear vision of the achievement to be mastered. We cannot dependably assess targets we have not completely defined and mastered ourselves. Neither can we communicate them clearly to students.

   

  Third, we develop and use assessments in a manner that yields accurate results. We select proper assessment methods, high-quality items and scoring guides, and plan for careful sampling of achievement. And we minimize distortion in results due to bias.

   

  Fourth, results must feed into effective communication systems that deliver accurate information into the hands of the intended user(s) in a timely and understandable manner. For students, this includes receiving descriptive feedback while there is still time to use it to improve.

   

  And finally, students must be taught the skills they need to be in control of their own ultimate academic success: self-assessment and goal setting, reflection, keeping track of and sharing their learning.

• Developing assessment competencies requires that people rethink both what they do now and what beliefs led them to adopt those practices. It requires that they make decisions about what to give up and what to retool. The workshop model of professional development cannot offer the support needed for such changes.

   

5 more annotations...