1. Assessments: Beyond the Claims
Reidy Interactive Lecture Series .
Jeri Thompson
Center for Assessment
2016

2. Use of Assessments: District & Schools
Claims have been made… Assessments are being considered by the District… Now what?
We know what we want to be able to say about students/teachers/schools, what do educators and leaders need to know about assessments to make informed procurement decisions?

3. Use of Assessments: District & Schools
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there,” observed the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland

4. Use of Assessments: District & Schools
Decisions about which assessment to select will depend on its purpose and the audience of the data, including:
The interplay of summative, interim, and formative assessments for curricular and instructional decisions.
Clear understanding of the alignment to the knowledge and skills and their range of complexity as required by the standards or expectations.
Use of information gained from the assessments and where they are used within the curriculum.

5. What do educators need? Assessment types
Knowledge and understanding of the information provided by the assessment data
Flexibility within the curriculum to use assessment data
While there is a much longer list that could be made, these three items are the high-level issues that in my experience have tripped districts up the most.

6. Assessment Literacy
Formative Assessment: A process that teachers and students use to gather information during, as opposed to after, the learning process and to make adjustments accordingly. Assessment for Learning
Interim Assessments: Assessments administered during instruction that are designed to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills relative to a specific set of goals to inform decisions in the classroom and beyond. Assessment of Learning
Summative Assessments: Formal assessments that are given at the end of a unit, term, course, or academic year. Assessment of Learning

7. Formative Assessments
Purpose
Instructional
Implementation
Driven by moment-to-moment decisions; generated or selected by teacher; individualized
Timing
During instruction
High frequency
Scope
Narrow; one or very few learning objectives at a time
Audience
Classroom (i.e., students, teachers, and parents)
Feedback
Student teacher
Descriptive/narrative

8. Interim Assessments Purpose Implementation Timing Scope Audience
Most designed for decisions outside of the classroom (e.g., curriculum, program)
Some designed for instructional uses
Implementation
Regulated by a set of rules developed in or out of the classroom; teacher-generated or externally generated
Timing
After instruction or during a break in instructional flow
Moderate frequency
Scope
Moderate; a manageable number of objectives
Audience
Administration and/or
Classroom teacher
Feedback
School System audiences
Mostly evaluative

9. Summative Assessments
Purpose
Most designed for decisions outside of the classroom (e.g., curriculum, program)
Providing a grade in the classroom
Implementation
Regulated by a set of rules developed in or out of the classroom; teacher-generated or externally generated
Timing
After instruction
Low frequency
Scope
Broad; comprehensive set of objectives
Audience
Public
Administration (principal, curriculum director, etc.)
Classroom
Feedback
School System audiences
Mostly evaluative

10. Assessments Uses and Audience
Students
… see these assessments as fair measures of their understanding of important learning goals and can use the results to monitor their own performance.
Teachers
… see the assessments as a measure of how well they have taught the concepts and skills, a means of establishing the quality of the assessment, identifying the areas of need for students, and determining what needs to be re-taught.
Principals
…see the assessments as providing data across the school to determine personnel strengths and needs, support teachers, consider scheduling decisions, create classroom rosters, and identify programmatic needs.
District Personnel (curriculum director, assistant superintendent)
… see the assessments as providing data across the district to determine personnel strengths and needs, support principals, make fiscal decision based on programmatic needs, and inform strategic improvement strategies.
Classroom assessments should be a meaningful source of information that reflects the concepts and skills that have been emphasized in class, along with clear criteria for judging students' performance. These concepts, skills, and criteria should align with the instructional activities and, ideally, with state or district standards.

11. Knowledge and Understanding of Assessment Data
When considering the selection of assessments for classroom progress monitoring, consider these five key questions:
What are the best types of assessments to select for measuring the learning?
Are the assessment items and/or expectations aligned to the standards? Consider whether the assessment will actually measure what it is supposed to measure.
Are the assessment items and/or expectations appropriately rigorous (DOK levels aligned to standards) and have an appropriate level of difficulty?
Are there multiple opportunities throughout the quarter, semester, and year to assess students on the same concepts, using different types of assessments?
Are the directions and vocabulary clear, ensuring that they don’t detract from what students know and are able to demonstrate?

12. Flexibility to Use the Information and Data
What’s driving the assessment use??
Issues from the Field: Assessment(s) administered, but…
no professional development provided for teachers to analyze the data
no opportunity (common planning time, PLCs, data meetings) for teachers to review the data
scope and sequence requires teachers to continue moving forward – no time to reteach
curricular programs do not provide additional resources for reteaching
teachers are not sure where/how to obtain resources that are aligned to the content – district does not provide and teachers cannot purchase

13. Flexibility to Use the Information and Data
So… what happens to progress monitoring and adjusting instruction based on the assessments?
Nothing

14. Using Data for Instructional Decisions
Formative assessment…
can lead to significant learning gains (Black & William, 1998; Herman et al., 2006).
Frequent monitoring of student progress… results in higher achievement for students (Stecker et al., 2005).
A consistent feature of research findings on formative assessment is that attention to the interactive nature of formative assessment can lead to significant learning gains (Black & William, 1998; Herman et al., 2006).
Reviews of research on formative assessment processes support the use of questioning, observation, and student peer- and self-assessment. Frequent monitoring of student progress toward a determined goal and performance level results in higher achievement for students, particularly when teachers use the data collected to inform their instructional practices (Stecker et al., 2005).

15. Using Data for Instructional Decisions
Interim assessment data…
concepts students have learned
the potential to provide follow-up with struggling students
provide feedback to students
allow for the re-teaching of necessary foundational skills or concepts
differentiating instruction,
rethinking the way in which a concept was taught
provide a structured and systematic strategy for examining overall achievement
Interim assessment data can provide teachers with information of what concepts students have learned and the potential to provide follow-up for struggling students.
Interim assessments can be analyzed and used to provide feedback to students, to allow for the re-teaching of necessary foundational skills or concepts, differentiating instruction, and rethinking the way in which a concept was taught.
Interim assessments can provide a structured and systematic strategy for examining overall achievement and to identify areas of need that may be overlooked in everyday classroom interactions.

16. Using Data for Instructional Decisions
Summative assessment…
can serve both as a guide to teaching methods
aids in improving and planning curriculum to better match the needs of the students
allows for program evaluation
Summative assessment informs instructional practices in a different yet equally important way. Critics of large-scale assessments argue that they are disconnected from instruction and are not useful in the instructional process (Shepard, 2001).
However, summative assessment can serve both as a guide to teaching methods and to improving curriculum to better match the needs of the students. A primary use of assessment data is in planning curricula.

17. Using Data for Instructional Decisions
Putting it all Together: A Case Study…
If a school's performance on a state assessment indicates high percentages of students who do not meet standards in writing, then the school could collect more information on its writing curricula, student writing performance (through portfolios or other classroom work), and professional development needs for its teachers. After collecting such information, the school may then review and adopt new writing curricula as well as provide professional development to its teachers in order to support stronger student achievement in writing.
Ongoing evaluation of the writing program would be conducted through the use of formative and summative assessment. In this manner, when assessments are aligned, they can inform the instructional process and support both the daily instructional practices of teachers as well as the longer-term planning of curricula and instruction.

18. Comprehensive Assessment System
entails a collection of procedures that can inform the learning process.
Formative, interim, and summative assessments each have a place in the larger system of assessment, instruction, and curriculum.
Assessments can only serve this purpose, however, when teachers are supported to make appropriate adjustments in their instruction (Herman et al., 2006; Marsh, 2007).
entails a collection of procedures that can inform the learning process. Formative, interim, and summative assessments each have a place in the larger system of assessment, instruction, and curriculum. When formative assessments are used in conjunction with interim and summative assessment, the potential exists to improve outcomes for all students.
Assessments can only serve this purpose, however, when teachers are supported to make appropriate adjustments in their instruction (Herman et al., 2006; Marsh, 2007).

19. jthompson@nciea.org 401-316-7840
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