ASSESSMENT THAT SUPPORTS HIGH-QUALITY LEARNING A BALANCED APPROACH DAY ONE Getting Ready for the Next Generation of Assessment 7/2/ Draft Presenters: Abbie Lareau Susan Palma

Goals and Outcomes Identify connections between standards, curriculum, and assessment practices. Develop an assessment vision that can be communicated and shared across the district with all stakeholders. Identify the most effective use of your current assessments. Formulate an action plan to improve the capacity of the district, school, and classroom to engage in assessment practices that support and promote high-quality learning. 7/2/ Draft

Day 1 Objectives District Teams will be able to… Recognize and understand the components of a balanced assessment system Use the Principles of Assessment to reflect and provide feedback regarding current district assessment plan. Define reliability and validity regarding district, school, and classroom assessment. Create a district vision for assessment of student achievement. 7/2/ Draft

What are the Next Generation of Assessments? 7/2/ Draft

7/2/ Draft

How do we get ready for the next generation of assessments? 7/2/2015 Draft 6 What does readiness look like…  At the district–level?  At the school-level?  At the classroom-level ?

Principles of Assessment 1. Assessments are grounded in a thoughtful, standards-based curriculum and are managed as part of an integrated system of standards, curriculum, assessment, instruction, and development. 2. Assessments include evidence of student performance on challenging tasks that evaluate Common Core Standards of 21 st century learning. 3. Teachers are integrally involved in the development and scoring of assessments…so they deeply understand and teach the standards. 4. Assessments are structured to continuously improve teaching and learning. 5. Assessment, reporting, and accountability systems provide useful information on multiple measures that is educative for all stakeholders. (Darling Hammond 2010) 7/2/ Draft

What is a Balanced Assessment System? 7/2/ Draft

Definition of Balanced Assessment System A balanced assessment system is comprised of formative and summative assessments* administered on both a large scale and at the classroom level. In this context, “balanced” does not refer to assessments that are of equal weight (Redfield, Roeber, & Stiggins, 2008). * Interim/Benchmark fall into both categories 7/2/ Draft

Balanced Does Not Always Mean Equal Balanced Assessment System---A balanced assessment system is a configuration of different assessment types and processes to fulfill purposes that align with expectations for learning and performance (Bazemore, Cippoletti, Howard, et al., 2008). It meets the needs of all users, but does not necessarily mean equal or of equal weight 7/2/ Draft

Is this equal? Formative Benchmark Summative 7/2/ Draft

Balance Does Mean Sound  Balancing multiple pieces of assessment data—formative, benchmark and summative—provides the most robust, sound information for educators. 7/2/ Draft

Three Types of Assessment “(In)formative Assessments,” Harvard Education Letter, 2006 Summative Benchmark/ Interim Formative Key Questions Do you understand? Is this class on track for proficiency? What do you understand? When Asked End of unit/term/year 3 – 4 times per year On-going Timing of Results After instruction ends Slight delay – within 72 hours Immediate – within 24 hours 7/2/2015 Draft 13

Productive Assessment Systems “Truly productive assessment systems within schools and districts serve the information needs of a wide variety of assessment users.” ASSESSMENT MANIFESTO STIGGINS /2/ Draft

Purpose To provide students, educators, parents and the public with a range of information about academic achievement, and to determine the best practices and policies that will result in improvements to student learning. The Purpose of a Balanced Assessment System 15 7/2/2015 Draft

Important Question How do you know when you have a balanced assessment process? 7/2/2015 Draft 16

FORMATIVE BENCHMARK/ INTERIM SUMMATIVE Classroom School District Balanced Assessment System A visual representation of responsibility 7/2/ Draft

Shifts in Assessment Practices FROM: Separating successful from unsuccessful learners Primarily summative Focus on large-scale assessments Teacher directed TO: Ensuring universal competence/success Balance of formative and summative Balance large-scale w/ classroom assessment Teacher and student focused 7/2/2015 Draft 18

Assessment vs. Testing Assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand, and can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experiences; the process culminates when assessment results are used to improve subsequent learning. Testing – is a procedure for critical evaluation. 7/2/ Draft

Assessment – Balanced and Productive Assessments must evolve from being isolated events to becoming events that happen in ongoing series so as to reveal patterns in student learning over time. This will reveal to the learner and the teacher, not only current achievement status, but improvements in student own capabilities—a powerful booster of confidence and motivation. 7/2/ Draft

Reflection “Methods of assessment are determined by our beliefs about learning.” Dietel, R.J., Herman, J.L., Knuth, R.A. NCREL 7/2/ Draft

Growing Your Vision What do you want your assessment system to accomplish? 7/2/ Draft

Vision Matched to Reality How does your present reality match your vision? Does your present assessment system serve children well? 7/2/ Draft

Purpose! Purpose! Purpose!  To plan learning prior to instruction  To support learning during instruction  To monitor learning between instruction  To verify learning after instruction 7/2/ Draft

How Are You Assessing? At your table divide into two groups, identify all the assessments you use. With the total group at your table compare and contrast the ways you assess student learning. Identify the most commonly used and the most unique approaches, record on chart paper. Discuss what you do with the results and student work? 7/2/2015 Draft 25

Reflection on Assessment Inventory 26 Consider the system of assessments used in your school and district: How are your assessments aligned to the principles of assessments?  To what extent?  Standards alignment  Cognitive processes and 21 st century skills  Improving teaching and learning  Teacher involvement  Response to data 7/2/2015 Draft

Analyzing Your Assessment Inventory Do you see any trends or patterns? What direction do you need to go? 7/2/ Draft

Assessment Alignment – Tools to Use 7/2/ Draft

Summary 29 Use more than one type of assessment; employ multiple measures; and gather holistic evidence Not necessary to have the same “amount” of formative, benchmark and summative assessments; balance is achieved by how you use the data Consider assessments, their purpose and characteristics along a continuum of options. Not as important to have balance between assessment types, but balance between types of data that result from various assessments Data from one assessment often informs another as there is often overlap among assessment types Think about all types of data you can gather, rather than the different types of assessment you need to give. 7/2/2015 Draft

Getting Answers to All Your Questions 7/2/ Draft

Action Planning Look forward! 7/2/ Draft

Thank You to the Design Team Members Dr. Shelbi K. Cole, Consultant, Bureau of Student Assessment, SDE Harriet Feldlaufer, Chief, Bureau of Teaching and Learning, SDE Dr. Nick Fischer, Superintendent, New London Public Schools Abbie Lareau, Consultant, Education Connection Tim Nee, Director of Montessori Initiatives, CREC Gail Pagano, Consultant, Bureau of Student Assessment, SDE Sue Palma, Consultant, Education Connection Dr. Tony Rigazio-Digilio, Central Connecticut State University Dr. Philip A. Streifer, Superintendent, Bristol Public Schools Charlene Tate Nichols, Consultant, Bureau of Teaching and Learning, SDE Dr. Michael Wasta, External Consultant, SDE Iris White, Consultant, Bureau of Accountability and Improvement, SDE Joanne White, Consultant, Bureau of Teaching and Learning, SDE