1. What is Formative Assessment?
[Consider adding your own introduction slides prior to presenting this content.]

2. Assessing School “Readiness”
Children are ready to learn at birth.
However, by age 5, they have learned different things.
Children who start kindergarten behind are often still behind in Grade 3.
Children who are behind in Grade 3 are at increased risk of dropping out of high school.
This is why policymakers care about where children are at entry to kindergarten.
Script:
As the research shows, some children start K in a place where they are better able to learn than other children. But this idea of “readiness” and getting kids “ready” for school is a bit of a misconception. Kids are “ready” when they are born. That being said, what kids learn prior to K varies considerably and that is why it’s important to assess children as they enter K. This is especially important because we also know that children who start K behind are often still behind at 3rd grade and if they’re behind at 3rd grade, they are more likely to not do well in school and ultimately to drop out of high school. This is why policy makers care, and why teachers care too.

3. Different Types of Assessment
Developmental Screener
Summative Assessment
Script:
When you think of assessment, you could be thinking about a lot of different things. Sometimes we think of a developmental screener. That is a brief, simple procedure used to determine if developmental skills are progressing as expected, or if there is cause for concern and further evaluation. Examples include the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test.
Other times, we think of summative assessments which are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period. These assessments evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Examples include state assessments and district benchmark or interim assessments.
Then there is formative assessment…
Formative Assessment

4. Formative Assessment Formative Assessment
A process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to help students improve their achievement of intended instructional outcomes.
American Educational Research Association,
The American Psychological Association (APA), and
The National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), 2014 &
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), 2006
Script:
Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to help students improve their achievement of intended instructional outcomes.
Some points to highlight include:
Formative assessment is a PROCESS (not a one and done)
That it happens DURING INSTRUCTION (not a pull-out, one-on-one)
And it’s used for instruction and decision-making.
This is a common definition that we will use for this project, and we will often refer back to this definition and specifically these highlighted words included in this definition!

5. Multiple Purposes of Assessment
Screen for learning or developmental problems
Identify a disability
Inform instruction
Improve instructional programs
Track student progress
Target school or district resources
Inform professional development
Inform policy
Etc.
Script:
There are multiple purposes of assessment:
In some cases it is good practice to assess a child for one or more of these purposes.
And in some cases, assessment is done inappropriately or it doesn’t improve instruction.
The intent of this assessment is that it is used to inform instruction

6. Why Should Teachers Want to Assess?
Research shows that when...
...Children achieve at higher levels.
Good assessment is developmentally appropriate practice and good instructional practice.
Teachers regularly assess what children know and can do
Use that information to guide instruction
AND
Script:
So, Why should teachers want to assess children? Research shows that when teachers regularly assess what children know and can do AND use that information to guide instruction, children achieve at higher levels. Good assessment is developmentally appropriate practice and good instructional practice.

7. Let’s Pretend… Script:
Let’s consider 3 children with very different profiles. Child 1 is pretty even across the board, but is especially strong in social-emotional development. Child 2 has strong literacy skills, but is lower in social-emotional development. Child 3 is in the middle or at lower levels than his peers in all skill areas.
Do you have these children in your classroom? What if you had this kind of information about children in your classroom at the beginning of the school year? And at different points during the school year? Would that be helpful to you? Providing this type of information is one of the purposes of the K-3 Formative Assessment.

8. Let’s Pretend… Script:
Consider these classroom-level data. This graph provides information about where four children are at in five different domains. What would this tell you about what you need to do in your classroom to best support your students? We think these data could be very powerful for helping inform instruction and meet the needs of children.

9. “I don’t have time for assessment. I need more time for instruction.”
Common Refrain
“I don’t have time for assessment. I need more time for instruction.”
Script:
One of the things we most often hear is that teachers don’t have time for assessment and need more time for instruction. This pits instruction against assessment. If an assessment is not giving the teacher useful information, then this statement makes sense.
We hope you will find what you can learn from the K-3 Formative Assessment Process to be very useful. The goal is to provide teachers with instructionally meaningful information – and to be able to tell policy makers where children are at different points during the K-3 grade span.
We are asking for your help in the development of this assessment process because we are committed to an assessment that provides teachers with useful information. Our goal is to have an assessment for grades K-3 that teachers will see as essential to instruction, not something that is pitted against it.

10. K-3 Consortium’s Vision for the K-3 Formative Assessment
NC Vision Video:
Script:
Let’s watch a video put together by NC’s Department of Public Instruction. This video spells out a really clear vision for this assessment and helps you see what this assessment looks like in action.
Play Video:
Right click image, select “Open Hyperlink”, or copy and paste into your browser. The password to play this video is “johnp”
Script/Notes on Video:
In the video, what did you see in terms of development of the whole child? Additional questions/prompts:
What does that make you think or assume about the characteristics of the learning environment?
What does that make you wonder about?
In the video, what did you see in terms of instruction and assessment practices?
In the video, what did you see in terms of collecting evidence of student learning?

11. What the K‒3 Formative Assessment is NOT
Script:
The goal of the K-3 Formative Assessment is to provide a systematic way for teachers to assess children and use that information to plan and implement instruction. The goal is not to create more stress for teachers OR for children.

12. What the K‒3 Formative Assessment is NOT
K‒3 Assessment is NOT:
A developmental screener
A structured direct child assessment
A high-stakes test
Linked to teacher evaluations
Script:
We also want to emphasize what the K-3 Formative Assessment is NOT—it is not a high-stakes, summative, direct assessment.

13. K-3 Formative Assessment Vision: 4 Key Points
Key Point #1: K-3 Formative Assessment Process focuses on the whole child
Approaches to Learning
Cognitive Development
Language Development
& Communication
Physical/Motor Development
Social-Emotional Development
Script:
The K-3 Formative Assessment Process focuses on the whole child. This means that it addresses five domains of learning and development and includes attention to areas beyond those typically assessed (e.g., mathematics and literacy). Research clearly indicates the importance of attending to and supporting children’s growth and development in all of these areas especially since children’s development in one area impacts their development in other areas. For example, if a child does not feel well, he or she may not approach a new task with vigor and interest or remember the two-step directions that were given. Therefore, when we think about and plan for children’s learning and development, we need to consider the whole child.

14. K-3 Formative Assessment Vision: 4 Key Points
Key Point #2: Occurs during instruction rather than as an isolated event apart from instruction.
Teachers can learn about students throughout the day in a variety of settings:
Whole group
Small group
Centers/stations
Individual
Script:
This process is intended to be a part of instruction and not something that takes time away from instruction.
When a classroom schedule allows for a variety of groupings (whole, small, centers, stations, individual), the teacher is able to learn about the students in a variety of contexts. In addition, the students are able to learn, practice, and further develop skills and understandings in a variety of settings.

15. K-3 Formative Assessment Vision: 4 Key Points
Key Point #3: A teacher can collect evidence about students using a variety of strategies:
Talk with families
Take photos
Record student conversations
Write anecdotal notes
Collect work samples
Incorporate evidence from other school educators (e.g., PE, OT, Speech, ELL)
Script:
Multiple strategies can be used to capture student understanding- both those we are already using and new methods. If using an electronic platform, the data can be captured quickly, compiled for easy referral, and used to document learning and plan instruction.

16. K-3 Formative Assessment Vision: 4 Key Points
Key Point #4: What is learned is used to guide instruction:
Identifies what students know and are able to do and where to head next
Helps to plan and adjust instruction in an ongoing manner
Helps to meet the needs of all students
Script:
Teachers use a variety of data to better understand what their students know and are able to do. This helps teachers plan and adjust instruction in an ongoing manner; thus, supporting the teachers’ efforts to meet the needs of all of the students.

17. Components of the assessment

18. Features of the K‒3 Formative Assessment
Based on construct progressions
Learning in any area occurs in sequences which can be described
New learning must build on what the child already knows
Teachers identify where a child’s skill level is on the progression
Helps teacher determine the next step for the child
Uses assessment means to gather evidence
Script:
Another important feature of this assessment is that it covers multiple domains. The assessment is focused on the whole child so in addition to traditional areas like math and reading, it includes social-emotional development as well as physical/motor.
The assessment is rooted in construct progressions. This might be a new term for you , and we will do our best to help you understand what this term means and walk you through a few example construct progressions
Each of the assessment’s construct progressions have what we call, “assessment means,” associated with them. Assessment means are the guidelines you will use to gather evidence of your students’ learning. We will also spend time today going over these.

19. Domains and Constructs in the K‒3 Formative Assessment
K‒3 Constructs
Approaches to Learning
Perseverance
Cognitive Development
Object Counting
Problem Solving
Mathematical Patterns
Social-Emotional Development
Emotion Regulation Strategies
Emotion Expression
Emotional Literacy
Physical/Motor Development
Fine Motor: Grip & Manipulation
Fine Motor: Hand Dominance
Crossing Midline
Gross Motor
Language Development & Communication
Book Orientation
Print Awareness
Letter Naming
Following Directions
Vocabulary Concepts
Writing
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Script:
Here are the constructs currently included in the assessment. We are going to return to this table later, but for now we wanted you to know that there are 5 domains in this assessment and 18 constructs that we will be talking about with you.

20. Components of the Assessment
Construct Progressions
Assessment Means
Script:
As mentioned, these are two important terms in this assessment that you will become very familiar with over the course of the training

21. Components of the Assessment
Construct Progressions
Assessment Means
Script:
Let’s take a look at what we mean by “Construct Progressions.” Construct progressions are essentially sequences of learning.
Sequences of learning

22. Defining Construct Progressions
Define the expectations for knowledge and skills students should have at the end of a grade level.
Standards
Do not represent the intermediate pathways (building blocks) between the end of one grade and the end of the next
Curriculum Scope and Sequence
Script:
Before we can really talk about how the definition of a construct progression, we thought we would start with describing how standards and scope and sequence are defined and are different than construct progressions. Standards help teachers define the expectations for knowledge and skills that children should have at the end of a particular grade level. They do not represent the intermediate pathways between the end of grade and the end of the next.
Construct Progressions

23. Defining Construct Progressions
Standards
Scope: concepts, ideas, topics to be covered in a curriculum within a given period
Curriculum Scope and Sequence
Sequence: the order in which content is presented
Script:
A curriculum’s scope are the concepts, ideas or topics to be covered within a particular period of time. The sequence is the order in which the content should be presented.
Construct Progressions

24. Defining Construct Progressions
Standards
Lay out increasingly more sophisticated understandings of core concepts, principles or skill development in a domain
Curriculum Scope and Sequence
Describe development over an extended period of time
Script:
Both Standards and Curriculum Scope and Sequence differ from a construct progression which lays out increasingly more sophisticated understandings of core concepts, principles or skill development within a domain. They describe development over time and provide a picture for how to progress or improve in an area of learning.
Provide a picture of what it means to “improve” in an area of learning
Construct Progressions

25. Construct Progression: Structure
Domain
Language Development & Communication
Construct
Book Orientation
Understandings
Children understand that books are objects with pages
Skills
Performance Descriptors
Examples
Script:
Domain: One of the five areas of learning and development that considers the whole child.
Construct: Specific areas the assessment is designed to measure.
Construct Progression: Multi-step descriptions of how a child’s learning develops in a construct.
Understandings: The major concepts within a particular construct.
Skills
The competencies within each “understanding,” ranging from simple to more complex levels
Steps of the progression
Performance Descriptor: Help to further describe the behaviors a child may display at each skill level.
Examples: Paint a picture of what a child may say, do, make or write to demonstrate his/her understanding or skill at each step of the progression.

26. What is a Construct Progression?
Multi-step descriptions of how students’learning develops in the construct
Steps range from less to increasingly more sophisticated forms of learning
Based on research and professional wisdom
There are some differences across the progressions in terms of scope, breadth, and level of granularity.
Script:
A Construct Progression is a carefully sequenced set of understandings and skills for a particular concept which moves from a less sophisticated to a more refined state. Construct Progressions can help teachers by providing a developmental pathway of learning and articulating the skill progression for a particular concept.
When teachers understand the continuum of learning and have information about a child’s current learning status and how that relates to a child’s learning goals, they are better able to make decisions about what the next steps are for that child. Each construct progression helps a teacher figure out where the child needs to move next along the continuum of learning/development in the construct.

27. Construct Progression Example: Book Orientation
Understanding
Skill
Performance Descriptor
Example
Children understand that books are objects with pages.
Holds or otherwise demonstrates awareness that a book is an object with pages
When observed interacting with a book, child orients the book upside down or right side up, opens the front or back cover, and turns pages one or more at a time, either front to back or back to front.
After selecting a book from one of the classroom book baskets, Ella opens the front or back cover and randomly turns one or more pages at a time.
When handed a closed book in a non-upright orientation, James holds the book right side up or upside down, opens the front or back cover, and randomly turns pages one or more at a time.
Script:
Let’s look at an example of a construct progression. This progression has 4 parts:
Understandings identify the major concepts within a particular construct;
Skills tell you the competencies within each “understanding,” ranging from simple to more complex levels;
Performance Descriptors help to further describe the behaviors a child may display at each skill level;
Examples paint a picture of what a child may say, do, make or write to demonstrate his/her understanding or skill at each step of the progression.

28. Book Orientation Construct Progression: Skills A ‒ C
Script:
If you all could locate the Book Orientation progression, let’s review the components of that construct progression:
The 1st understanding, Children understand that books are objects with pages, is reflected in Skill A with the child holding and manipulating a book in random ways. The child knows it is an object but does not know how to use it properly.
The 2nd understanding, Children understand that books must be oriented properly and that books have a front and a back, is seen in Skills B through D where children typically fall
First, children recognize the books have a proper upright orientation so that they can see the pictures and text right side up (Skill B)
Then, they realize that you open a book from the front cover and move from front to back through the pages, several pages at a time (Skill C)
Finally, they demonstrate that in order to get meaning from the book, it’s important to look at each page in order (Skill D on next slide).
The examples show what this might look like if you are observing children interacting with books or sitting with a child and looking at a book together.

29. Book Orientation Construct Progression: Skill D
Script:
Here is Skill D, the highest skill on the progression. The child is holding the book upright, starting at the front of the book, and turning the pages one at a time. The examples show what this might look like in the classroom.

30. Components of the Assessment
Construct Progressions
Assessment Means
Script:
Now let’s discuss what we mean by “Assessment Means.” Assessment Means are the ways of gathering evidence to identify a child’s skill level.
Ways of gathering evidence
to identify a child’s skill level

31. What is an Assessment Mean?
How teachers gather the evidence to decide which step on the progression best describes the child’s current skill level
Teachers will use evidence from multiple assessment means to determine where a child is on a construct progression.
Teachers also will document the evidence as part of the assessment.
Script:
Assessment means are the ways in which a teacher gathers information about a child to inform the teacher about where he/she should be placed on the progression. The idea is that a teacher will collect multiple pieces of evidence about a child to inform his/her best fit (learning status) on the progression. Part of the assessment materials include suggested ways in which a teacher can document their evidence.

32. 3 Types of Assessment Means
Situations
Observations
Tasks
Script:
In the context of this project, there are 3 types of assessment means that teachers can use when collecting evidence about their students.
The primary assessment means is observation. Since this assessment is meant to be embedded in instruction, teachers are encouraged to observe and document children in everyday classroom activities that are already occurring throughout the day.
The second type of assessment means, situations, are meant to be used when a teacher is not able to see a child display a particular skill/behavior and needs a more structured activity to elicit that behavior.
Finally, a task is a very intentional activity that is meant to be done one-on-one or in very small groups. The task is meant to be used when neither the observation nor the situation provided the teacher enough information to make a decision about a child’s learning status.

33. Assessment Means Observations ALL of the constructs Situations
MOST of the constructs
Tasks
A FEW of the constructs
Script:
Given that Observations are the primary way we are collecting evidence, these are going to be employed across all constructs. Most of the constructs also have situations, whereas only a few of the constructs have tasks.

34. Assessment Means Form: Book Orientation
Script:
Here is a snapshot of what an Assessment Means form looks. Each Assessment Means form provides general teacher instructions, terminology explanations if appropriate, potential opportunities for observing or materials you might be able to use…

35. Assessment Means Form: Book Orientation
Script:
This particular example for Book Orientation also has a situation associated with it, detailed here with the purpose, instructions, materials, and other information you need to know before it’s used.

36. Let’s Review Purposes of Assessment Features of Formative Assessment
Vision for this Assessment
Components of the K-3 Assessment
Construct Progression
Assessment Means
Script:
So far we have learned about the purposes of the assessment, the features of formative assessment and our operationalization of the term, the vision for the his assessment, and components of the K-3 Assessment.