Ross Abrams Tests that Challenge and Excite

TESTS THAT CHALLENGE AND EXCITE: CREATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR THE SECONDARY CLASSROOM Ross Abrams

What is Assessment and Why do We Do it?  “Educational assessment seeks to determine how well students are learning and is an integral part of the quest for improved education. It provides feedback to students, educators, parents, policy makers, and the public about the effectiveness of educational services.” - The Center for Education

The Dark Side of Assessment * Assessments can be used to punish students – “because you are not listening, I’m giving you a test on this tomorrow.” * Assessments can be used as the primary motivation for learning – “you want to take notes on this because I’m giving a test tomorrow.” * Assessments only measure a narrow band of intelligences * Assessments can demotivate some of our neediest students * Assessments can lead to complacency and risk-aversion * Assessments can create unneeded stress on students, teachers, and parents *Assessments can obscure more important learning goals

Hoop-Jumpers So what I saw around me were great kids who had been trained to be world-class hoop jumpers. Any goal you set them, they could achieve. Any test you gave them, they could pass with flying colors. They were, as one of them put it herself, “ really excellent sheep.” - William Deresiewicz

The Doomed  [Schooling and testing] tag the unfit – with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments – clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior. - Thomas Gatto, “Against School.” Harpers

The Alienated  New research has found that parents of public school students in states with more extensive and stringent student assessment systems express lower trust in government and more negative views of their children’s schools, threatening civic engagement and the potential for future education reform. Jesse H. Rhodes. Learning Citizenship? How State Education Reforms Affect Parents’ Political Attitudes and Behavior. Political Behavior, 2014; DOI:

The Dilemma: We want to have a transparent system of assessment that allows us to help kids reach their full potential but we also need/want to preserve the joy of learning, a process that is complicated and, by necessity, filled with failures.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation "Wow, you did really well at these problems. You got 8 -- that's a great score. You must be really smart at these problems." ”Wow, you did really well on these problems. You got 8 -- that's a really high score! You must have worked really hard on these problems." What kind of problems would you like to work on next, problems that are pretty easy so you'll do well, problems that you're pretty good at so you can show that you're smart, or problems that you'll learn a lot from even if you don't look so smart? Dweck, Carol S. “Person vs. Process Praise.”

Performance Goal vs. Mastery Goal Cauley, Kathleen. “Formative Assessment Techniques”

Summative vs. Formative Assessment Summative Assessment * Happens at the end of something… a reading chapter, a unit, etc. * Meant to give an ultimate, final assessment of student’s success at that thing. * Often assesses more than one thing at the same time. * End product of the assessment is a “high stakes” grade given by the teacher. The grade “counts.” Formative Assessment * Happens during the unit and is a process rather than a single event. * Worked on by both teacher and student * The end product is adjustments to either curriculum or student work process. * Low stakes. Doesn’t “count” in the traditional ways.

Goal for this Course? Can we create assessments that measure individual student’s growth, encourage intrinsic motivation and mastery orientation, and also meaningfully inform our instruction?