Social Studies Not Left Behind Large Scale Assessment Conference June 18, 2007 Joann F. Prewitt Preston Shockley Delaware Department of Education Sara Moshman Metalogic, Inc.

Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project Social Studies SCASS Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project CSSAP

Information About CSSAP http://scasscssap.org History/Background of Project Evolution of Project Learn about the Units News and Updates

This project evolved from a discussion of the issues facing social studies in 2000. Emphasis on teaching/assessing the recall of factual information rather than thinking and application Standards used as topics of content to teach instead of concepts to understand Textbooks used as the curriculum and often for the instructional strategies and the assessment Limited or no use of technology as an instructional tool or resource Assessments only at the end of a unit Emphasis on assessment for grades instead of analysis of student work

Goal of the Project Create a product to assist states and districts with the issues identified by the state members in 2000

Guidelines of the Project Use research/best practices with a primary focus Alignment Evidence Integration Create units that can be used for Instruction of Students Training of Educators Supervisors of Curriculum Teachers

How can districts align social studies assessment, curriculum, and instruction so that the level of expectation of the standards is reached? How can these units be structured so they are deep in understanding, rich in resources, engaging for teachers and students, but are also clear and simple? How can units be structured so that they are instruction-ready for the classroom and are also training tools for understanding alignment, evidence, and integration of best practices?

This session will show how a collaboration of states integrated research models for alignment, instructional scaffolding, and backward design of instruction and assessment to create a model for states and districts to use for alignment of formative and summative assessment, curriculum, and instruction to produce evidence of achieving the expectations of the standards.

Units can be used by the teacher in the classroom. Units can be used for professional development. Alignment Backward Design Scaffolding of Instruction Integration of research models Delivery of curriculum through technology Use of technology in instruction Formative assessment Summative assessment Use of transfer in assessment

Application of training and use of the units can lead to two key understandings.

Why is scaffolding important to instruction? What is the relationship between formative assessment and summative assessment? Why is alignment to a level of knowledge important to effective assessment? Why is scaffolding important to instruction? How does alignment of the assessment and scaffolding of instruction work together?

What evidence should summative assessments yield? Why is analyzing student work important? Why is collaborating with colleagues valuable in the process of analyzing student work?

To Help States Reach This Goal Training is provided to state members Professional Development Manual Analysis of Student Work Model Training products are online to state members Future plans include adding student work and scoring commentaries to the online units

Design of the Units Backward design model was used for the alignment and the structure/format of the units.

Planning and Designing Cycle

Levels/Depths of knowledge model was used with the assessments. Level One Recall of Information Level Two Processing/Basic Reasoning Level Three Complex Reasoning/Application

A level 3 summative assessment/transfer task that measures understanding will often ask students to: Reason, think, and perform as geographers, historians, political scientists, and economists. Solve problems, analyze issues, and make decisions. Interpret and use social studies data. Relate and connect events, people, places, and eras. Provide evidence (historic, geographic, political, or economic) to support an answer. Make predictions. Explain why and how.

What are the levels of knowledge? Assessment What are the levels of knowledge? How are the levels assessed differently? How are the levels aligned to instruction at that level? What happens to levels one and two when students are performing an assessment at level three?

DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE LEVELS Recall of Information Processing [of information]/Basic Reasoning Complex Reasoning/Application LEVEL 3 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 1

Scaffolding was used to build the instructional strategies. How does the depth of knowledge for the assessment work with instruction? This is an important question since alignment and integration of the best practices models are key guidelines for the project. Scaffolding was used to build the instructional strategies.

Gathering Information Extending and Refining Meaning Application SCAFFOLDING INSTRUCTION Gathering Information Extending and Refining Meaning Application STEP 3 STEP 2 STEP 1

Scaffolding of Instruction What happens to steps one and two at step three? What do the assessments look like at the different steps? How might the strategies at each step be different? What are the students being prepared for in the assessments at each step?

Key Understandings How alignment has been used in instructional strategies formative assessments How alignment and scaffolding demonstrate integration

What is the source of the evidence? How should the evidence be used? Key Understandings What is evidence? What is the source of the evidence? How should the evidence be used? When should the evidence be used?

Reasons for analyzing student work To gain information about modifying the assessment To gain information about modifying instructional methods To gain information about the performance of students

Key Questions to be Answered in the Design of Assessments How is the evidence/information from the assessments at each step going to be used? Should the evidence/information from each step be different?

Within the Instruction Cycle

Evidence Begins with the planning/design of the summative assessment continues with the planning/design of the formative assessments continues with the planning/design of the instructional strategies continues with the analysis of student work and feedback

How do the units accomplish these goals? What has been the role of our technology partner? How will technology help the expansion of the project?