Creating Common Formative Assessments that Advance Student Learning

Let’s chat… What have you learned since this whole PLC process started that has positively impacted your practice and/or the learning of your students? What has your team accomplished thus far? Tell us about your team successes and challenges…

Our Learning Targets for Today’s Session: 1. Gain a deeper understanding of (common) formative assessment and how it is used to advance student learning 2. Make the connection between (common) standards, learning targets, proficiency scales and formative assessments for collaborative data-analysis (examining student work) 3. Increase the amount and variety of formative assessments to use within my classroom 4. Gain access to and an understanding of the tools (on the Weebly) that can assist my team with the development of effective common assessments

Remembering Our PLC Blueprint

Common Formative Assessments What do you already know? Summative? Benchmark? Formative?

The Case for Common Assessment

In my reviews of accountability data from hundreds of schools, the schools with the greatest gains in achievement consistently use common assessments and collaborative scoring Doug Reeves, 2007

The schools and districts that doubled student achievement added another layer of testing—common formative and benchmark assessments… Odden and Archibald, 2009

The key to improved student achievement was moving beyond an individual teacher looking at his or her classroom data. Instead, it took getting same-grade (or same-subject) teacher teams to meet, analyze the results of each interim assessment to understand what concepts in the curriculum were posing difficulty for students, share ideas, figure out the best interventions, and actually follow-up in their classrooms Christman, et al., 2009

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, 2009

Does better formative assessment = higher test scores? YES (Bloom, 1984, Black & William, 1998, Meisels et. Al., 2003, Rodriguez, 2004)

Defining Formative Assessment: It’s a Process NOT a Product “ As illustrated by Bob Stake’s maxim: when the cook tastes the soup, it is formative, when the guests taste the soup, it is summative. Thus a key issue is timing, and it is possible that the same stimulus (tasting the soup) can be interpreted and used for both forms of assessment. Hence, it is NOT the instrument…that makes it formative or summative. It is the timing of the interpretation and the purpose to which the information is used.” Marzano, 2009

Defining Formative Assessment: Timing & Purpose “Effective formative assessment involves collecting evidence about how student learning is progressing during the course of instruction so that necessary adjustments can be made to close the gap between students’ current understanding and the desired goals. Formative assessment is not an adjunct to teaching but, rather, integrated into instruction and learning with teachers and students receiving frequent feedback.” Council of Chief State School Officers Sarah McManus

If a teacher uses information from a particular assessment to track learning, give students feedback, and adjust instructional strategies in a way intended to further progress toward learning goals, that teacher is engaging in formative assessment. ASCD: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/110017/chapters/Questions-and- Answers-About-Formative-Assessment.aspx

Formative Assessments & Grading Formative Assessment is practice Formative Assessment should not be graded Join the discussion on Edutopia… http://www.edutopia.org/blog/courageous-conversation-andrew- miller

Generates Timely Student Performance Information Formative Assessment Generates Timely Student Performance Information To Identify Individual Student Progress To Determine What Students Did or Did Not Learn To Determine What Students Can or Cannot Do To Evaluate Instructional Effectiveness For Possible Modification of Instruction For Possible Intervention or Enrichment

Five Characteristics of High Quality Formative Assessment Learning Goals (targets) are presented in a progression, articulating the sub-goals that must be achieved in order to achieve the larger learning goal

Five Characteristics of High Quality Formative Assessment 2. Learning Goals and the Criteria for Success (achievement of the goals) are clearly identified and communicated to students Proficiency Scales Examples of weak and strong work https://www.pinterest.com/smshopaholic/s uccess-criteria-and-learning-goals/

Five Characteristics of High Quality Formative Assessment 3. Descriptive Feedback that is timely and specific (helps student understand what he/she can do to improve toward the learning goal). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tihrg7nBos

Five Characteristics of High Quality Formative Assessment 4. Student self-assessment & monitoring, peer- assessment https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=p eer%20assessment

Five Characteristics of High Quality Formative Assessment 5. Culture of Collaboration: The classroom culture assumes that teachers and students are partners in learning (trust, respect, transparency, appreciation of difference, & supportive) Council of Chief State School Officers Sarah McManus, 2008

Focusing on Characteristic #2: Learning Goals and the Criteria for Success (achievement of goals) are clearly identified and communicated. Developing Proficiency Scales to Communicate the Criteria for Success Generic Format for Proficiency Scale: http://pages.solution- tree.com/rs/solutiontree/images/LOWRES_35MEU_MRL_Proficie ncyScalesForCC_webinar.pdf (p. 11-12)

Developing Proficiency Scales 1. Teams develop a set of common learning objectives from the standards Look at the example (8th Grade Science: P. 107-109, Leaders of Learning) Teams determine what proficiency for that learning objective looks like 2. Teams put each objective into a proficiency scale at level 3.0 3. Teams determine subordinate and superordinate content/objectives and place those into the proficiency scale above or below 3.0 P. 116, Leaders of Learning example scale http://www.marzanoresearch.com/resources/proficiency-scale-bank

Proficiency Scales and Formative Assessment Proficiency Scales make the process of developing Common Formative Assessments easier/more efficient Example of an assessment tied to proficiency scales P. 124, 125 – assessment items for each level on the proficiency scale Examples of scoring P. 126 Translate to 100 point scale P. 134 Developing Common Proficiency Scales or other Common Criteria for Success can be difficult https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDiVl6Msn8c

Where is your team in this formative assessment process Where is your team in this formative assessment process? Where do you want to go? How will you get there?

YouTube Clip with Ideas for Types of Formative Assessment in High School Classrooms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUqK20VRM3w (Hatboro-Horsham School District HS Teachers)