1. Balanced Assessment in the Classroom

2. Balanced Assessment Learning Objectives will answer the following essential questions: What is balanced assessment? Why is balanced assessment necessary? What is the difference between Formative and Summative Assessments?

3. Assessments have various purposes, provide answers to different questions, address different users, and have varying implications for an assessment system.

5. What is a balanced assessment system? “A balanced assessment system is a set of interacting assessments focused on serving the needs of different consumers of assessment information for the common purpose of improving education.” -Pearson

6. Why is Balanced Assessment important? A balanced assessment system is important to determine if a student is benefitting from the instruction and what changes might be needed to enhance his or her education.

7. A balanced assessment system helps answer these four questions: ▫ What do we expect all students to be able to know and do? ▫ How do we know if students are meeting the expectations? ▫ What do we do if students are not meeting expectations? ▫ What do we do if students exceed expectations? ◦ (DuFour, 1998)

8. Balanced Assessment Types of Assessment: Formative and Summative

9. Formative Assessment What is Formative Assessment?

10. Formative Assessment Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievements of intended instructional outcomes. (FAST SCASS, October 2006)

11. Formative Assessment occurs moment-to-moment as part of instruction is used frequently by teachers and students and is embedded in the current unit of instruction are small scale, short cycle assessments given in the classroom to diagnose where students are in their learning ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING--Stiggins, Arter, Chauppuis and Chauppuis, 2006

12. Uses of Formative Assessment Guide student learning on a daily basis by providing information about what critical skills were and were not learned Provide extra learning opportunities to students who are struggling academically Report student progress to students, parents, and other educators

13. The Formative Assessment Process What It Is…What It Isn’t… A planned process Unplanned Based on assessment evidenceIndividual strategies Using evidence to make instructional adjustments and/or verifying learning Moving on regardless of student evidence Reflective feedback for studentsGrading

14. Formative Assessment Process ETS, 2009

15. Formative and summative assessment are interconnected. The vast majority of genuine formative assessment is informal, with interactive and timely feedback and response. It is widely argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement.

16. School Improvement Assessment for learning, when done well, is one of the most powerful, high-leverage strategies for improving student learning that we know of. Educators collectively become more skilled and focused at assessing, disaggregating, and using student achievement as a tool for ongoing improvement. Michael Fullan

17. Assessment FORMATIVE is for learning Taken at varying intervals to provide information and feedback that will help improve ▫the quality of student learning ▫the quality of the instruction SUMMATIVE is an assessment of learning Taken by students at the end of a unit or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of what they have or have not learned. Must be reliable, valid, and free of bias

18. Forms of Summative Assessment Performance Assessment Portfolio Traditional Tests

19. Summative Assessment Evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Examples: Performance Assessment final project senior recital Portfolio a research paper Traditional Tests mid-term/final exam

20. Formative Assessment Techniques and Tools Exit pass Extended wait time Find the errors and fix them Generating test items Group-based end-of-topic questions Group-based test prep Hand signals Hot-seat questioning Journal entry If you did know what would you say? If you don’t know, I’ll come back to you If you have learned it, help someone who hasn’t Index card summaries/questions I-you-we checklists Learning logs Learning portfolios Mini white boards Observation One sentence summary One word summary Oral questioning and interviews Popsicle sticks Practice Presentations Questionnaires Self/peer assessment Ranking exemplars Think-pair-share Two stars and a wish What did we learn today?

21. Rick Stiggins “If we wish to maximize student achievement in the U.S., we must pay greater attention to the improvement of classroom assessment. Both assessment of learning and assessment for learning are essential. But one is currently in place, and the other is not.”