1. Standards, Assessment, & Accountability
Chapter 11 (Pgs )
Foundations of Education

2. Standards, Assessment, & Accountability
Margaret Spellings “Why Accountability Matters – and How Can It Can Be Improved”

4. Which side is high level and which is low level?
FABLES
1. Describe the characteristics of a fable
2. Explain the use of personification
3. Identify the source of conflict
Analyze a set of fables to show their similarities and their use of conflict, character development, and a moral.
GEOGRAPHY AND WEATHER
1. Describe landforms in the U. S.
2. Explain the water cycle
3. Name the stages of the water cycle in each season.
Compare how seasons and landforms affect changes in weather patterns within regions of the US.
MATH PROBLEM – SOLVING
1. Multiply multi-digit numbers
2. Divide numbers using decimals
3. Multiply and divide numbers to change decimal values and pounds
Use computational results to analyze and compare costs of energy.
Remember this?
Remember how you wrote your benchmarks at a higher level on the assumption that by default the students would have to have the skills/knowledge on the left in order to perform the higher level task on the right.
Ask: How are the statements on the right side different from those on the left?
They are written at a higher level
Applies basic information (left side) within the context of higher level thinking OR
Includes basic information from the left side but applied to higher levels of
thinking
Applies to everyday connections
Worksheet: Target/Method Match Key Words Across Content Areas

5. Educational Standards
Educational standards are descriptions of desired student learning.
As a teacher, it is what we should know and be able to do.
CCSS (Common Core State Standards)
We use MO Learning Standards
Grade Level Expectations (GLE)
Course Level Expectations (CLE)
Focus on Learning Centered (instead of teacher centered)

6. Other Standards? World Class Standards
World is realizing it is important to be competitive in education (see page 321 for comparison)
Real World Standards – Focuses on knowledge & skills to make students employable & enable them to live independently

7. Other Standards?
Opportunity to Learn Standards – Identify instructional resources, assessments, & structures to create optimal learning environment
Content Standards – Specific learning outcomes for a subject
STANDARDS ARE COMMON PRACTICE AND HERE TO STAY (for the foreseeable future)

8. History of Standards
Original George Bush created a plan to have the USA be 1st on international academic competitions
Bill Clinton saw it wasn’t happening so we enacted “Goals 2000” to move standards to be world class standards by the year 2000
George W. Bush initiated NCLB requiring a set standard for competency & expected growth (AYP) – if not met, school was identified as “needing improvement”

9. ASSESSMENTS
Definition: Use of a variety of methods, including tests, to evaluate the current level of student learning; used in planning future steps in instruction.
Formative: Used during lessons/units to gauge what’s been learned so far & to plan the next steps
Summative: Conclusion or end-of- unit test to evaluate final/complete knowledge of the unit, grade-level, etc.

10. Role of Formative Classroom Assessments
Strives to increase achievement
Informs students about themselves
Reflects targets that underpin standards
Can produce unique results for individuals
Teacher’s role is to promote success
Student’s role is to strive for improvement
Motivates with promise of success
Standardized assessments are either Norm-referenced which ranks individuals against a set of norms (Stanford, Iowa Basic Skills) or criterion referenced which determine "...what test takers can do and what they know, not how they compare to others (ISAT, Prairie State)
Classroom assessments should be used to give immediate feedback to students and the teacher on their mastery of the units benchmarks. (Student learning objectives)

11. ASSESSMENTS
Take 1 minute to write down as many different ways one can assess student work. Discuss as a class.

12. ASSESSMENTS – Some Examples
Walk around
Paper/pencil test
Online
Quiz
End of Course
Projects
Oral Presentation
Labs
Interviews
Portfolios
Diagrams
Essays
Journaling
Coaching
Peer Review
Assignments
Debates
Focus Groups
State Test (MAP)
Models
Illustrations
Exit Slips
Discussion
Socratic Seminar

13. Cycle of Best Practices with Assessment

15. Types of Assessment Measures
Diagnostic: Determines what level a student is functioning at (I.Q., special needs, gifted, etc.)
Criterion Referenced: Compare a student’s performance with a specific type of accomplishment or criterion (student being able to answer 10 two- digit subtraction problems)

16. Types of Assessment Measures
Norm-Referenced: Compared to an “average” population (standardized tests)
Capstone/Summative: Milestone accomplishment or proof of mastery (Work samples, learned throughout)

17. What is a Rubric?
A set of scoring guidelines describing different levels of accomplishment of degrees of being proficient.
Analytic – Evaluate each criterion separately & individually
Holistic – Evaluating/considering all simultaneously
Rubrics answer the questions
By what criteria should a performance or product be judged?
What does the range in the quality of the performance look like?
Often accompanied by examples of products
or performances to illustrate the various scoring
points
Handout: Creating Rubrics with students

18. Five Reasons to Use Rubrics
Rubrics set standards – information on the expected quality of the task performed is given
Rubrics tell students they must do a careful job – students know in advance what they have to do to achieve a certain level.
Rubrics Clarify Expectations – When levels are described in clear language, everyone knows what is required. The quality of student work will improve.
Rubrics help students take responsibility of their own learning – Students use rubrics to help study information the teacher values
Rubrics have value to other stakeholders – Anyone (including colleagues, parents and community memebrs) seeing a rubric and a student score based on that rubric knows what content was mastered by that student

19. Accountability
Mike Miles, Superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District
Discusses how accountability can help educators in their mission of improving students’ proficiency

20. Accountability
The pressures on educators have never been higher. Everyone wants to see higher levels of student learning.
Two main tools being used to hold educators accountable: standards & testing
Stakes of testing can be high for the education field (school accreditation, student higher education opportunities, government funding & awards, etc.)
Every effort must be taken to ensure that tests are of high quality & high stakes decisions are based on multiple sources of evidence.

21. How Accountability Helps Educators
Newest approach is with a “GROWTH MODEL” where one analyzes or creates a statistical model that compares the change in test scores of the same student(s) over time.
Chris Garcia, Teaching Trust & Former Principal, Uplift Peak Preparatory