Assessment Happens January 7 th, 2014 Pete Turner & Erik Huntsinger SAAC Co-chairs

Agenda General Education Abilities Composition/Writing Results & Discussion Steps taken to improve students’ writing Communication Update Gen Ed Cycle Adjustment Information Literacy Recruitment About Assessment: Formative Assessment Background Obtrusive vs. Unobtrusive Comprehensive Assessment Tracking System (CATS!) CATS 2.0: Recent changes CATS of the Year CATS of the Month Sharing Time CATS Workshop Lunch

Thank you SAAC Members!

Writing-Composition Spring 2013 New writing-across-the curriculum rubric developed by composition and SAAC faculty On-Line Writing Center (OLC) was used to assess and report results Assessors went through inter-rater reliability training 10 classes (AJS123, ECN211, ECN212, EDU222, ENG081, ENG091, ENG101, ENH254, MAT217, SOC212), 15 sections, 8 instructors, and 214 unique students involved with a total of 235 documents submitted Results compared overall results of new freshman (0-7 cumulative earned hours at beginning of term) to sophomore students (30+ cumulative earned hours at beginning of term)

Writing-Composition Results

Campus-wide Focus on Editing

What We Have Done So Far  West Valley Think Tank  Presentation to a feeder high school  Leadership Council  blast to EMCC faculty and adjunct faculty  Division Meetings  Writing Center Staff

Results From Writing Center Meeting (Rodica, Doug, Kelly, Erik, Pete) Strongly suggested to involve your students (especially those with writing issues) to WC:  First writing assignment, require them to turn in a WC corrected draft with their final copy  Extra credit  Schedule WC person to come to class  Mandate identified students to go to WC  If doing in-class writing (research, assignments, etc.), use space right outside WC

Next Steps  Requesting a campus wide focus on writing mechanics and citations  At your tables, come up with 1-2 ideas that could be implemented across the curriculum to help support our student’s writing mechanics and/or citation skills  Information Literacy (Spring 2014) has a citation component

Communication Assessment Update Preliminary data  12 different instructors  12 different prefixes  19 different courses  29 different sections  526 (duplicated) students  Results will be shared when available and during Assessment Happens Fall 2013

Adjustments to Assessment Cycle

Rationale for Adjustments  Pair Social, Civic, & Global Responsibility with Writing- Composition  7 abilities in a 3 year (6 semester) cycle  All the SCGR submission from previous cycle were compositions  Next Round: Spring 2015  SAAC recommends rebranding of two gen ed abilities  Scientific Inquiry  Critical Inquiry  Numeracy  Quantitative Reasoning  Purpose is to create broader cross-curricular appeal  Need support from Science and MPE divisions, respectively

Information Literacy Assessment  If you assign paper or project requiring research and citations  Grade assignments as you normally would  Just need to submit your students’ work (electronically or hard copy) to Terry Meyer  Look for sign-up link coming soon! We need you!

Information Literacy Rubric

About Formative Assessment  “The research reported here shows conclusively that... assessment does improve learning.”  “The gains in achievement appear to be quite considerable... among the largest ever reported for educational interventions” (Black & William, 1998)

Formative Assessment – A Brain Tickler!  Do you know the difference between obtrusive and unobtrusive formative assessment?

Obtrusive vs. Unobtrusive Formative Assessment ObtrusiveUnobtrusive

Obtrusive Assessment Purposeful interruption of flow of instruction  Paper-and-pencil test or quiz  Demonstration (teacher or student)  Oral report (student)  Constructed conversation  Presentation (teacher or student)  Use of mini-whiteboards  Note-taking interruption with task (e.g. Cornell Notes)  In-class item analysis  Use of clickers in Ppt presentations

Unobtrusive Assessment Does not interrupt flow of instruction  Teacher observation  Use of proximity  Questioning with random selection  Observation of individual student or student interactions in groups, with feedback  Importance of teacher circulation

Formative Assessment  Both obtrusive and unobtrusive very powerful (Marzano, et. al., 2013)  The basis for the Comprehensive Assessment Tracking System!

Why Assess? Marzano, R.M. (2006)

CATS COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT TRACKING SYSTEM

Four UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 1. Faculty are more likely to change their teaching practices and strategies through the influence of their peers than through administrative dictum or externally imposed professional development (Huber, 2012; Reeves, 2008; Turner, 2013).

Four UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 2. Faculty (and leaders) who care about student learning have a persistent discomfort with the status quo (DuFour & DuFour, 2006; O’Banion, 2007; Wilson, 2010).

Four UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 3. Frequent formative assessment is one of the most viable, research-backed techniques to optimize student learning ( Angelo & Cross, 1993; Black & William, 2008; Marzano, 2006)

Four UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 4. The Action Research Cycle, employed both formally and informally, is the most effective vehicle for implementing, assessing, and reforming instructional techniques to maximize student learning (Mertler, 2009; Mills, 2007; Reeves, 2008; Stringer, 2007; Turner, 2003). PlanAct Observe/ Assess Reflect

What CATS is About  It’s about implementing a formative assessment  Seeing if it works  Sharing it

Recent Updates to CATS  Newly edited forms return to the top of the homepage  CATS of the Month Criteria Posted  SAAC Dashboard  CATS of the Year (All Faculty Vote - May 2014)

CATS of the Month Sharing  August – Pete Turner and Nikol Price  September – Cecelia Rosales  October – Christina Van Puymbroeck  November – Cheri Hebert

Lunch Ticket  READ a CATS form  COMMENT on a CATS form  RATE a CATS form Or… start a new CATS form!

References  Angelo, T.A., and Cross, P.K. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2 nd. Ed.).  Black, P., and William, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1),  DuFour, R. & DuFour, R. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.  Huber, M.T. (2008). The promise of faculty inquiry for teaching and learning basic skills. A Report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community Colleges. Retrieved from:  Marzano, R.M. (2006) Classroom assessment and grading that work. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Marzano, R.J., Yanoski, D.C., Hoegh, J. K., Simms, J. A. (2013). Using Common Core Standards to enhance instruction and assessment. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratories.  Mertler, C. (2009). Action research: Teachers as researchers in the classroom (2 nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  Mills, G.E. (2007). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (3 rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

References  O'Banion, T. (2007). Leadership for learning. Community College Journal, 78(2), Retrieved from Research Library. (Document ID: ).  Reeves, D. B. (2008). Reframing teacher leadership to improve your school. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Stringer, E.T. (2007). Action research (3 rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  Turner, P. (2013). Informal faculty leadership that transforms: Evidences and practices for the Learning College. Dissertation, Northcentral University. UMI #  Turner, R. (2003). A pragmatic approach to educating: Connecting problem-based learning to Service Learning. Dissertation, Capella University. UMI #  Wilson, C. (August 23, 2010). From a telephone interview conducted by Peter Turner, Doctoral candidate, Northcentral University; and Learning College Project Director at the League for Innovation in the Community College.