Assessment & Accountability TEP 128A March 7, 2006

Assessment Helps teachers, students and other stakeholders to gauge learning and to plan instruction

Assessment Formative: during a lesson (or within a series of lessons) –Questions –Observations –Student work samples Summative: at the end of a lesson (or series of lessons) –Standardized, norm-referenced (e.g., CST) –Curriculum-embedded, criterion-referenced (e.g., end of unit tests) Diagnostic: main purpose is to determine student learning needs (e.g., initial CELDT)

CA mathematics standards By the end of grade one, students understand and use the concept of ones and tens in the place value number system. Students add and subtract small numbers with ease. They measure with simple units and locate objects in space. They describe data and analyze and solve simple problems.

How many characters started out to see the world?  0  15  13  1

Student work samples Which strategies did children use to solve the problem? What does each child’s answer reveal about her/his understanding? About the understanding of the group as a whole? What other information would you want to gather in order to plan for future teaching?

Accountability The use of assessment data and other measures (e.g., attendance, safety) by policymakers to determine how well schools are performing.

NCLB controversies

The accountability movement 1983: A Nation At Risk –Choice –Competition –StandardsStandards What is the purpose of public education? What is the role of the federal government?

State accountability measures California’s Student Testing and Reporting Program (STAR) (1999) –California Standards Tests (CSTs) match the content standards –Academic Performance Index (API) measures growth CSTs California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) CA Alternative Performance Assessment (CAPA)

The Elementary & Secondary Education Act: No Child Left Behind (2001) Choice, Flexibility, Teaching practices that “work”, accounability –Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) 100% of students proficient by 2013 Targets for subgroups of students to close achievement gap

Components of AYP 1)Achievement of the statewide Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs) in both English language arts (ELA) and math “Percent proficient” 2)Achievement of a 95% participation rate on all applicable assessments 3)Achievement on the “additional” indicators API for all schools, and Graduation rate for high schools

Under No Child Left Behind: If a school does not meet its academic growth target for two consecutive years: parents have the right to transfer their child to a successful public school, including a charter school and…

The school district must pay for transportation.

If a school has failed for three consecutive years, parents of disadvantaged students have the right to supplemental educational services at the expense of the school district.

If a school is designated by the state as dangerous or unsafe, parents have the right to request a transfer to a safer public school.

Highly Qualified Teachers & Paraprofessionals No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

Improving Teacher Quality State Grants “Our new education reforms ask a lot of America's teachers—and we owe them something in return. We owe them our respect. We owe them our support” -(Former)Secretary Rod Paige-

Improving Teacher Quality State Grants "Good teachers... need to know—deeply—the subject they teach... You can't teach what you don't know well." -Sandra Feldman- President of the American Federation of Teachers

TEACHER QUALITY Does It Really Matter? Good teaching lasts a lifetime - and bad teaching limits dreams and opportunities. Compelling evidence confirms what parents have always known: A teacher’s mastery of the academic content of what he or she teaches is critical to engaging students and inspiring them to academic excellence. For example, students in Tennessee with “highly qualified” teachers for three years in a row scored 50 percentage points higher on a test of math skills than those who had ineffective teachers SOURCE: W.L. Sanders & J.C. Rivers, Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement (Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1996); and H. Jordan, R. Mendro & D. Weerasinghe, Teacher Effects on Longitudinal Student Achievement (paper presented at the CREATE annual meeting, 1997).

Defining A Highly Qualified Teacher 1.A Highly Qualified Teacher holds a minimum of a bachelor’s degree 2.A Highly Qualified Teacher has obtained full state certification or licensure 3.A Highly Qualified Teacher has demonstrated subject area competence in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches (e.g., CSET)

TEACHER QUALITY The Inequity Source: Richard M. Ingersoll, University of Georgia, Unpublished, From Schools and Staffing Survey

HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS Timelines For Implementation  :  : All teachers teaching core subjects in Title I schools hired after the first day of the school year must be “highly qualified.”  :  : All teachers teaching in core academic subjects, including Charter, VocEd and JROTC teachers, must be highly qualified by the end of the school year.