1. Preparing Educators in Classroom Assessment
Edward Roeber
Michigan State University

2. Preview of Coming “Attractions”
A “common core” of academic content standards has been developed by states
Within four years, there will be multi-state summative assessments measuring the common core
Common assessments will place uncommon added pressure on educators to “teach to the test”
Will educators be any better prepared for these assessments?
Will our assessment systems become even more unbalanced than is currently the case?
5/3/2019

3. Practitioner Preparation
There are different aspects to preparing practitioners in assessment:
Current practitioners who may not have had much, if any, preparation in college
Future practitioners, especially teachers and school leaders, currently being prepared in colleges of education
Educators using alternative routes to becoming a teacher, with less advance preparation in content, pedagogy, or assessment
The processes and experiences are similar, but a bit different, too
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4. What Teachers Need to Know About Assessment
Different purposes for assessment
Different types of assessment - for classroom use and elsewhere
Match of assessment purposes to types of assessment
Achieving balance in assessment by using
Summative assessments
Interim benchmark assessments
Formative assessment
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5. What Teachers Need to Know About Assessment
Keys to quality assessments
Clear purpose
Clear targets
Sound assessment design
Selection of assessment methods
Sampling
Item quality
Bias and distortion limited
Effective communication of results
Student involvement
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6. What Teachers Need to Know About Assessment
Basic measurement concepts (non-statistically)
Reliability
Validity
Correlation versus causation
Effect size
Development of good quality assessments
Multiple choice
Written response
Performance assessments
Portfolio-based assessment
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7. What Teachers Need to Know About Assessment
Formative classroom assessment
Assessment strategies
Assessment techniques
Understanding reports of assessment results
Student-level
Classroom-level
School-level
Using assessment results
Student
Classroom
School
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8. What Teachers Need to Know About Assessment
Reporting assessment results
Classroom results to students and parents
Student results to each student and parents
School results to students, parents, and others
Increasing student involvement in assessment
Student self-assessment
Student peer assessment
Student-led conferencing
Student-directed assessment
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9. What School Leaders Need to Know About Assessment
All of what teachers need to know (they should have been doing these when they were teachers, or learned these so that they could understand, watch for, and promote teachers doing these)
Understanding disaggregated reports of results
Demographic reports
School and district summaries
Statewide summaries of results
Understand the results from and implications of national and international assessments
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10. What School Leaders Need to Know About Assessment
Know enough about the state assessment program to lead constructive school team analyses of the results
Know how to spot weaknesses in the school’s instructional program and know what to do about these
Be able to lead a team of teachers to identify and suggest corrections for instructional weaknesses
Motivate staff to care about how well students can do; expect all to do well
Become proficient in data analyses packages, including their shortcomings
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11. What School Leaders Need to Know About Assessment
Use school learning teams to
Develop and maintain a school improvement plan
Determine where the school is in meeting its goal on the SIP
Identify educational needs
Collaboratively develop plans with the learning team for meeting the needs identified in the SIP
Monitor implementation of the plans and activities to address the SIP-identified needs
Determine if the changes have been effective
Provide mentoring and support to school staff in improving their assessment and instructional skills
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12. What Educators Need to Know About Assessment
Key Ideas
The most challenging type of assessment to learn is formative classroom assessment
These are the assessments teachers should use as they teach:
Plan in advance instruction, the assessment to be used to check understanding, and how to re-teach if necessary
Teach a concept
Determine student understanding
Adjust learning and teaching activities in a planned manner to assure student success
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13. Pre-service Educator Formative Assessment Learning
A three-part implementation is suggested:
Experience formative assessment in their college classes in the College of Education
Learn about formative assessment in a new class on assessment
Practice formative assessment when working with students while student teaching
Develop learning teams of student teachers in the same content area
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14. Experience a Variety of Assessments
The goal is to have students observe college instructors using a variety of assessment methods in their classroom
Summative strategies used to assess the students
Interim, instructional-unit based assessments
Formative classroom strategies used by the instructor to modify their instruction (and to let students know that this occurred so that they can readily see the “modeling” going on)
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15. Experience a Variety of Assessments
One place where this work is certainly encouraged is through TEAC or NCATE accreditation
NCATE and TEAC encourage each faculty to make claims and to show evidence in support of its claims
If a faculty claims that it prepares students to become good teachers, what evidence can the college muster to support this claim?
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16. Experience a Variety of Assessments
This means that colleges of education need to collect performance data on recent graduates
Show that newly-minted teachers are actually effective (or not) in a real classroom of their own
Will this carry over to demonstrating competence in classroom assessment?
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17. Learn About a Variety of Assessments
Teach classroom assessment explicitly as a required course for all teachers
Teach about assessment in other teacher education courses in which classroom assessment strategies could be embedded
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18. Practice Using a Variety of Assessments
Student teaching at MSU lasts for an entire year (the internship year)
Students take classes (1/2 master’s degree) and student teach for an entire year
Student interns are supervised by someone from MSU (faculty member or graduate student)
The internship year would be a good one to practice classroom assessment embedded within student teaching
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19. Practice Using a Variety of Assessments
Practice in assessment could be/should be mentored by the supervisor of the placement, perhaps in conjunction with other students
Through in-person and electronic meetings, the interns and the supervisor could practice good assessment embedded in instruction, and through this, learn how to use formative assessment strategies well.
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20. Challenges in Learning About FA in College
College instructors, as former K-12 teachers, may have had little or no training or experience with assessment
College teachers may not be inclined to use interim or formative assessments in their classes
Colleges already teach courses on assessment, so the need for learning about FA may not be seen
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21. Challenges in Learning About FA in College
Colleges may not provide sufficient PD opportunities for their own faculty
If PD opportunities were provided, would faculty avail themselves of the opportunities?
College faculty are rewarded for being “experts” and admitting shortcomings may hurt tenure chances
Many individuals need to learn about formative assessment yet collaborative work is not the norm at the university level
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22. Challenges in Learning About FA in College
Colleges are now stressing online classes
Typical online classes may be too structured or unstructured for modifying instruction to occur
Some courses may not lend themselves to experiencing or practicing such strategies
Even if intern supervisors know how to use classroom assessment strategies, they may not know how to mentor others in their use
Teachers in whose classrooms interns are placed may not support classroom assessment work
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23. Overcoming the College of Education Challenges
Offer assessment PD as something “new,” so existing faculty can learn in a non-threatening environment
Provide assessment literacy information and education in a variety of formats
Develop and offer online educational materials to teach about assessment
Colleges of education could work together to support each other as well as learn from one another
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24. What are your ideas? What do teachers and school leaders need to know?
How can assessment literacy best be provided to pre-service and in-service practitioners?
How might colleges of education work together and learn from one another how to provide the needed learning opportunities?
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25. Questions/Comments Edward Roeber Michigan State University
201H Erickson
East Lansing, MI 48840
(517)
5/3/2019