common formative assessment: demystifying the...

Common Formative Assessment: Demystifying the Process

(Slides)

Virginia Mahlke

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Common Formative Assessment

Demystifying the Process

Virginia Mahlke Solution Tree Associate

Vienna, VA [email protected]

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What Does the Research Say?

“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community.”

—Milbrey McLaughlin

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The standards or behaviors by which we agree to operate while we are in this group

Norms

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  Gather back together by raising our hands and stopping our conversations when we see Ginny do the same.

  Stay engaged with the group—no cell phones, pagers, or extraneous work.

  Be open to new learning.

  Seek clarification and ask questions.

  Look at yourself and your school or school system with an honest and caring eye.

Our Learning Norms

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Outcomes for Our Session

  Understand the different ways to formatively assess students, both individually and in common with peers.

  Understand the power of formative assessments for student motivation.

  Make a commitment to further involve students in the assessment process.

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Reflection

  On a piece of paper make two columns with these headings:

  What Resonates With Me

  How I Can Apply This at My School?

  At different times during the session I will ask you to stop and write on this piece of paper about work we have just completed.

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Definition of a Professional Learning Community

“[It is] an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.”

—DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing (2010), p. 11

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“We cannot imagine any school succeeding in its effort to create a professional learning community without a commitment to formative assessments—assessments used for learning.”

—DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour (Eds.), On Common Ground (2005)

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What Do You Believe?

  We are testing kids too much.

  The data we gather on students helps me know exactly what my students have learned and what I will need to teach them next.

  Our students know exactly what they have learned.

  Our students use test data to help set goals for the future.


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“Professional learning communities create an intensive focus on learning by clarifying exactly what students are to learn and by monitoring each student’s learning on a timely basis.”

—DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing (2010)

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How will we know they have learned it?

Essential standards

Develop common

assessments. Design lessons.

Set SMART goal.

Give common assessments.

Plan based on common assessment results.

How will we respond when learning has not occurred?

Analyze data.

How will we respond when learning has already occurred?

What do we want all students to learn?

Deliver lessons.

Reteach—individualize, small group, deploy, etc. Enrich and deepen.

Reassess learning.

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Classroom Assessment for Student Learning

Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis (2006)

What is the intended learning?

That question should drive all planning and assessments in schools.


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A Balanced Assessment System

Assessment of:

  Summative

  Norm referenced, standardized, often teacher made

  A snapshot in time

Essential Question

What have students already learned?

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Formative Assessment

“[It is] all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they engage.”

—Black & Wiliam, “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment,” Phi Delta Kappan (1998), pp. 7–8

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Research on Formative Assessment

  The largest gain was for the lowest achievers.

  Formative assessment needs to improve.

  Improvements need to be made in:

o The accuracy of classroom assessments

o Feedback given to students (more descriptive feedback and less evaluative feedback and grades)

o More student involvement


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Assessments for Learning   Happen while learning is still underway.

  Help diagnose students’ needs.

  Help to plan the next steps in instruction.

  Give students feedback they can use to improve performance.

  Show students increments of achievement.

(Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, 2006)

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Now It’s Your Turn

  Find someone you don’t know and make a list of ways to formatively assess students.

  Now find another pair and add to your list from what they came up with.

  Next find another foursome and do the same thing.

  Be prepared to share three ways to formatively assess students.

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What Happens When Teachers Don’t Use Common Formative Assessments

“The more you teach without finding out who understands the information and who doesn’t, the greater the likelihood that only already proficient students will succeed.”

—Wiggins, “Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Idea of Authentic Assessment,” Edutopia (2006, April)


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Five Keys for Improving Assessment

Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment

The provision of effective feedback to students

A recognition of the profound influence assessment has on motivation and self-esteem

The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve

The active involvement of students in their own learning

Student-Friendly Terms   “In order for the learning intention to be shared effectively, it needs to

be clear and unambiguous, so that the teacher can explain it in a way that makes sense to her children.”

  “The task has to match the learning intention for the children to have a chance of fulfilling it.”

  “The learning intention has the greatest impact on children’s understanding of the task and their progress if it includes success criteria as well as the learning intention itself.”

  “Teachers need to separate the task instructions clearly from the learning intention and success criteria, or children can begin their work without knowing clearly the difference between what you want them to do and what you want them to learn.”

  The learning intention “needs to be the main focus of feedback.”

—Clarke, Unlocking Formative Assessment (2001)

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Meaningful Feedback to Students Students need to know:

 Where am I going? What is my target for mastery?

 Where am I now in reaching my target?

 What do I need to do to close the gap?

(Sadler, “Formative Assessment and the Design of Instructional Systems,” Instructional Science, 1989)


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Key Factors in Assessment for Learning Royce Sadler, 1989

Students must be able to monitor the quality of their work during actual production.

  Know what high-quality work looks like.

  Be able to compare their work to the standard.

  Have some strategies to make their work better.

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Four Generalizations About Classroom Assessment

“Feedback should give students a clear picture of their progress and how they might improve.”

—Marzano, Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work (2006), p. 3

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Feedback should encourage students to improve.



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Classroom assessment should be formative in nature.


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Formative classroom assessments should be frequent.


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Feedback and Its Effects on Achievement

  Right or wrong

  Give correct answer

  Criteria clear to students

  Explain why answers are right or wrong

  Repeat task until the student gets it correct

– 3%

+ 8.5%

+ 16%

+ 20%

+ 20%

(Marzano, Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work, 2006, p. 5)


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Success Oriented

  Feel encouraged by challenges.

  Perceive that hard work will bring success.

  Realize that the strategy for improvement is to work harder.

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Failure Avoidant

  Feel discouraged by challenges.

  Experience negative feelings associated with failure.

  Procrastinate.

  Set unattainable goals.

  Cite weaknesses as reasons for failure.

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Classroom Assessment That Is Encouraging to Students Must . . .

1.  Provide students with a way to interpret low scores in a way that doesn’t imply failure.

2.  Provide students with evidence that effort on their part results in higher scores.

(Marzano, Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work, 2006, p. 8)


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“The best corrective activities involve a change in format, organization or method of presentation” and should “engage students differently in learning.”

—Burke, Balanced Assessment: From Formative to Summative (2010), p. 22

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“Students engage in the assessment … process when they use assessment information to set goals, make learning decisions related to their own improvement, develop an understanding of what quality work looks like, self-assess, and communicate their status and progress toward established learning goals.”

—Chappuis & Stiggins, “Classroom Assessment for Learning,” Educational Leadership (2002)

Student Goal Setting

My Strengths (Targets I Learned)

My Growth Areas (Targets I Am Still Learning)

My Learning Goal Strategies and Actions I Can Use to Meet My Goal

(Modified from Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, 2006)


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“One mark of schools that make headway on the achievement gap appears to be their propensity to promote and organize conversations based on evidence of student progress.”

—Judith Warren Little, quoted in DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing (2010), p. 186

Go and Do Good Work!

Thank You! To schedule professional development at your site, contact Solution Tree

at 800.733.6786.

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