1. ASSESSMENT and EVALUATION FOR IMPROVED STUDENT LEARNING:
Integrating Assessment and Instruction

2. KEY MESSAGE
Assessment, evaluation and instruction are integral to learning.
Each must be purposefully planned but also flexible to meet the needs of learners.
The beliefs and understanding expressed in this message are rooted in and supported by, the assessment and evaluation policy statements, which are set out in the front piece of the curriculum policy document.

3. Activity One: Assessment Inventory
Becoming skilled at assessment and evaluation in such a way that supports student learning takes time and practice.
Each opportunity we have to participate in professional dialogue allows us to consider and incorporate new ideas in our existing knowledge structure about assessment and evaluation.
What we in this room believed about a and e 10 years ago has evolved over time, and will continue to evolve, as we encounter new research, implement new practices and share our experiences.
We are providing you with a tool that you can use with your colleagues to reflect on your a and e practice.
Take 5 minutes to complete the Assessment and evaluation personal inventory ; personal – not a competition.
Ask participants to complete the Assessment and Evaluation Personal Inventory. (5 minutes)

4. How can we effectively use assessment and evaluation to improve our students’ learning?
Dr. Lorna Earl
Webcast:
Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind
To help us answer that question, let’s take a few moments to talk about assessment and evaluation.
Most are probably familiar with the work of Dr. Lorna Earl, a leader in the field of assessment and evaluation, and a recently retired Associate Professor in the Theory and Policy Studies Department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
In the webcast “Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind”, Dr. Earl identifies three approaches to assessment.
As you listen to this short clip, consider how this approach to assessment will impact your practice. What do you need to consider? Which of your current practices will you continue? Which might you revise? Use the “Give and Get” organizer on your placemat to record your thoughts in the left column (Give).
After the clip, you’ll have an opportunity to share your thoughts.
To put the clip into context, she is addressing a school staff in a workshop format. The workshop was recorded, as a webcast, as part of a series of webcasts published by the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. The entire recording, which is about one hour in length, can be viewed on the website of Curriculum Services Canada, (the link is provided in your resource CD).

5. Is there evidence that improving assessment for learning raises standards?
What does the research say about “Assessment for Learning”.
Is there any evidence that improving assessment for learning raises standards?
In their work, Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom”, Black and Wiliam pose the question.
“Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom”. Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., and Wiliam, D. Phi Delta Kappan, September 2004 p

6. YES…
“…few initiatives have had such a strong body of evidence to raise standards.”
Their findings were…
From “Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom”. Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., and Wiliam, D. Phi Delta Kappan, September 2004 p

7. “…the average effect size was around 0.3 standard deviations…
Here are the results
Read slide
This does not seem like a significant improvement, however

8. School Ranking by Quartile4 3 2 1
Quartile
Such improvements, produced across a school, would raise a school in the lower quartile of performance..

9. School Ranking by Quartile4 3 2 1
Quartile
to well above average.”

10. “Effectively implemented, formative assessment can do as much or more to improve student achievement…
The article concludes…
Read slide

11. …than any of the most powerful instructional interventions, intensive reading instruction, one on one tutoring, and the like.”
Adapted from Black & Wiliam ‘Inside the Black Box’ (1998)
This research certainly emphasizes the need to teachers to become highly competent “assessors for learning”.

12. Assessment OF Learning FOR Learning Evaluation Assessment
Summative (after)
Diagnostic (before) & Formative (during, ongoing)
Judging
Coaching
Assigning grades & reporting on achievement
Providing feedback to students
Providing feedback to teachers to adjust instruction
Ministry policies and resources will refer to the concepts of “assessment for learning” and “assessment of learning”. Both are important, but they are not the same thing. Assessment for learning emphasizes that the main purpose of assessment is not just to determine a mark at a particular point in time.
The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning.
It is meant to be on-going, to help students understand and to help teachers make adjustments before an evaluation takes place.
With this in mind, let’s talk about planning.
Here is a summary that compares the two types of assessment Dr. Earl spoke of.
Assessment of learning focuses on Evaluation. It is the traditional approach, typically using examinations to test what students know and are able to do. Through formal testing, teachers report on what students HAVE LEARNED at the end of a unit or course. It is summative, and it is what teachers are most familiar with.
The teacher’s role in evaluation is as JUDGE,
to assign grades
to report to students and their parents how they did
Assessment for learning, on the other hand, focuses on on-going assessment – the gathering of information about achievement.
It can take place before learning, through diagnostic assessment to determine students’ prior strengths or learning gaps,
or during learning, using more informal methods of assessment, which can include observation, performance, or student-teacher conference as well as quizzes and written assignments throughout the learning process.
The teacher takes a coaching role, giving students detailed feedback to tell them how they can do better.
The purposes of assessment FOR learning are to help teachers determine how student learning is developing, to identify what’s working and where problems are. This process assesses the effectiveness of instruction as well and helps teachers determine how instruction has to change to help struggling students.
As Dr. Earl stated, much of teacher’s formal assessment planning tends to fall into the “of learning” category. We carefully plan summative evaluations, perhaps because of the ‘accountability’ involved, and the fact that they are used for evidence when reporting to parents, or making decisions about placement.
While assessment ‘for’ learning occurs, it tends to be done more informally, as the occasion presents itself.
Our key message, and Ministry policy, suggests that this should not be the case…that assessment ‘for’ learning also needs to be planned.

13. Feedback Assessment Questioning For Learning Self- and Peer-
Sharing
Learning goals/
Criteria for
Success
Feedback
Questioning
Assessment
For
Learning
The literature on Assessment for Learning identifies four core practices, or “building blocks”:
Feedback, Self and Peer Assessment, Questioning, and Sharing Learning Goals/Criteria for Success
Self- and
Peer-
Assessment 13 13

14. The Purpose of Assessment and Evaluation
Activity Two:
The Purpose of Assessment and Evaluation
New ideas? New perspectives?
How does this information impact your assessment and evaluation practice?
Ask participants to engage in a think-pair-share activity about the introductory information about Assessment for, as and of Learning and their roles.
In debriefing, draw out the following key points:
Three kinds of assessment were identified, based on their purpose:
Assessment for learning: used to understand what students are thinking so that teachers can make instructional decisions
Assessment as learning: used to help students become good self-assessors, so that they are able to set goals and seek assistance
Assessment of learning: used to provide evidence for accreditation, promotion, reporting to parents
“as learning” is considered by many to be a “subset” of “of learning”.
The kind of assessment teachers use should be determined by the purpose of assessing.
There needs to be a balance of both ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘assessment of learning’

15. KEY MESSAGE
Assessment, evaluation and instruction are integral to learning.
Each must be purposefully planned but also flexible to meet the needs of learners.
Let’s move on to the second half of our presentation, and explore the intent and implications of the second key message.
Read.
The beliefs and understanding expressed in this message are rooted in and supported by, the assessment and evaluation policy statements, which are set out in the front piece of the curriculum policy document.
For example, the understandings that assessment and evaluation are integral to learning, and must be purposefully planned are expressed in the following policy statements:

16. Talk about Assessment, Cooper, D. p. 202
Planning your approach to assessment and evaluation is just as important as planning what you are going to teach.
Teachers regularly plan for instruction – it is equally as important to plan for assessment and evaluation – at the beginning, during and at the end of a period of learning.
Damian Cooper states it well:
Read slide
Talk about Assessment, Cooper, D. p. 202

17. Overall and Specific Expectations
Fundamental Concepts, Big Ideas
Achievement Chart
What do I want them to learn?
The process of Planning with the End in Mind ensures that assessment, evaluation and instruction are planned systematically to promote student success as they strive to achieve an identified learning goal.
By this we mean that assessment and instruction work together to support the learning that we expect to take place.
By asking “What do I want them to learn” first, we identify for ourselves and for the students the goal – the purpose of all the activity that will take place in our lessons. Keeping this goal in mind throughout the planning and the implementation of the teaching, we ensure that there are no “random acts of teaching” – everything is done with the purpose of achieving the learning goal, and what doesn’t aim to achieve that goal, doesn’t get done.

18. Policy Connection
“Assessment and evaluation will be based on the provincial curriculum expectations…”
Fundamental Concepts
Big Ideas
Overall Expectations
Specific Expectations

19. Policy Connection “The achievement chart is designed to:
guide the development of assessment tasks/tools
help teachers to plan instruction
assist teachers in providing meaningful feedback to students
assess and evaluate student learning”
When we think of the achievement chart, we usually think of it in terms of assessing and evaluating student achievement. However, the policy reminds us that the achievement chart has a wide range of uses:
guide the development of assessment tasks/tools
help teachers to plan instruction
assist teachers in providing meaningful feedback to students
assess and evaluate student learning

20. Suggestions for next steps:
Activity Three: What Do I Want Them To Learn?
What was done well?
Suggestions for next steps:

21. Activity Three: What Do I Want Them To Learn?
ST 1:
ST 2:
ST 3:
ST 4:
ST 5
ST 6:
ST 7:

22. WHAT DO I WANT THEM TO LEARN?
Identify the Big Idea, Fundamental Concept, Overall and Specific Expectations
Develop key questions relating to the big ideas
Cluster the expectations (overall and related specific expectations)
Develop learning goals

23. Overall and Specific Expectations
Fundamental Concepts, Big Ideas
Achievement Chart
What do I want them to learn?
How will I know they have learned it?
Evaluation
Measure learning at certain checkpoints near
the end of a cluster of expectations or the unit
The second question focuses on our accountability to determine whether the learning has taken place. What are the evaluation points (during the learning and at the end) that will allow us to report the level of the student’s final achievement.

24. Policy Connections
“Teachers will ensure that student work is assessed and/or evaluated in a balanced manner with respect to the four categories, and that achievement of particular expectations is considered within the appropriate categories.”
Policy requires that teachers
Use the achievement chart to guide the development of assessment tasks and tools;
assess and/or evaluate student work in a balanced manner with respect to the four categories of the achievement chart,
consider achievement of expectations within the appropriate categories.

25. Policy Connection
“A student’s achievement of the overall expectations is evaluated on the basis of his or her achievement of related specific expectations.” 25 25

26. Building Blocks – Sign Posts- Evidence – Look Fors
Overall Expectations
This graphic represents the role of the overall and specific expectations.
The overall expectations describe in general terms the knowledge and skills that students are expected to demonstrate by the end of each course.
The specific expectations describe the expected knowledge and skills in greater detail.
They define the particular content or scope of the knowledge and skills referred to in the overall expectations.
They can be considered “building blocks” that provide the scaffolding for students to attain and demonstrate the learning of the overall expectation.
They are also “evidence” or “look fors” through which the teacher can ascertain if the student has achieved the overall expectations – the teacher decides how much/many are needed.
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Building Blocks – Sign Posts- Evidence – Look Fors

27. Overall Expectations Professional Judgement EVALUATION Specific
Teachers will use their professional judgement to determine which specific expectations should be used to evaluate achievement of the overall expectations,
and which ones will be covered in instruction and assessment (e.g., through direct observation) but not necessarily evaluated.
When planning, teachers will
identify the specific expectations that relate to the overall expectation being addressed;
determine which specific expectations will be used to evaluate the student’s achievement of that overall expectation.
It is not necessary to evaluate the student’s achievement of each individual specific expectation.
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations
Specific
Expectations 27 27

28. If assessment and evaluation is to lead to the improvement of learning,
then teachers must use assessment and evaluation strategies that…

29. …are varied in nature, administered over a period of time, and designed to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning.

30. Activity Four: How Will I Know They’ve Learned It?
Does the culminating performance task allow students to demonstrate their learning?
Does the rubric clearly describe the specific performance criteria that will demonstrate the learning?
Does it align with the learning goals?

31. HOW WILL I KNOW THEY’VE LEARNED IT?
Design the Assessment of Learning (tasks/assessment strategies to evaluate students’ achievement of overall expectations through a cluster of related specific expectations)
Identify the criteria to measure performance
Design assessment tools to record data

32. Overall and Specific Expectations
Fundamental Concepts, Big Ideas
Achievement Chart
What do I want them to learn?
How will I know they have learned it?
Evaluation
Measure learning at certain checkpoints near
the end of a cluster of expectations or the unit
Assessment Strategies
And Tools
Checklists, Anecdotal Observations, etc)
Instructional Strategies
Scaffolding
Differentiation
Assessment for Learning
Ongoing monitoring of student progress
Sharing goals & criteria
Feedback, Questioning
Peer and self-assessment
How will I design the learning so that all will learn?
When we monitor learning, we’ll know who is successful, and who needs further instruction. We need to ask ourselves, “How will I respond to students who aren’t making progress?”, and make provision for them. This is the ongoing link between assessment and instruction.
How will I respond to students who aren’t making progress?
Adjusting Instruction

33. Feedback Assessment For Learning Sharing Learning goals/ Criteria for
Success
Feedback
Assessment
For
Learning 33 33

34. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
“…the most powerful part” of assessment…
Let’s hear briefly what Dr. Earl says about feedback…
Her words also emphasize the importance of feedback: it’s “the most powerful part” of assessment.
Dr. Lorna Earl

35. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Here are some typical examples of feedback given in school…

36. Assessment feedback often has a negative impact, particularly on low-achieving students, who are led to believe that they lack ‘ability’ and so are not able to learn.
In fact,
Read slide.
From “Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom”. Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., and Wiliam, D. Phi Delta Kappan, September 2004 p

37. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Substantial research has been done on the effects of feedback on student learning.
Here is some data from a research review, showing the “maximum percentile gains” for students currently at the 50th percentile, broken down by feedback practice.
From: “The Instructional Effects of Feedback in Test-like Events,” by R. Bangert-Downs, C. C. Kulik, J. A. Kulik and M. Morgan, 1991, Revew of Educational Research, 61(2), 213 – 238.
*These are the maximum percentile gains possible for students currently at the 50th percentile. (median)
The numbers highlight that:
Simply providing a “grade”, can actually have a negative result.
Providing the correct answer with an explanation improves results.
Providing students time to revise their answer based on feedback improves results.
Providing timely feedback, once the assessment is complete, improves results.
*These are the maximum percentile gains possible for students currently at the 50th percentile.

38. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
“…the most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.”
In 1992, researcher John Hattie, after analyzing 8,000 studies about feedback, wrote:
“the most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback”

39. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Anecdotal feedback;
No grade necessary for formative tasks
Numerical score;
Right/wrong;
What does the literature say about the nature of “effective” feedback?
Feedback that engages students and moves their learning forward is feedback that causes thinking to take place.
Much of the feedback that students receive is in the form of a numerical score or grade (e.g. 7/10),
What is preferred is feedback in anecdotal form – both oral and written.
Since feedback is formative assessment, no grade needs to communicated.
There is a substantial body of research showing that feedback in the form of a grade or score rarely helps improve student learning. Simply telling them whether they are wrong or right can actually have a negative effect on learning.
Not grading work that is formative also reduces the competitive focus among students (what did you get), and directs them to think more about the learning process…what do I do well, and how can I get better?

40. Students who are given comments only – rather than marks or marks and comments – make more gains in achievement and feel more positive about the experience (Butler, 1998).

41. Research indicates that oral feedback is more effective than written feedback, particularly for low-achieving, at-risk students (James, McCormick, & Wiliam, n.d.).
Leading Math success, p 50

42. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Identify what is done well,
what needs improvement,
and how to get there
Specific,
Focused
General
(“need more practice”)
Dr. Earl gave examples of general feedback (e.g. need more practice; greater care needed with homework).
To be effective, feedback should shift from being general to
Being specific and focused:
Identify what is done well,
what needs improvement, and most importantly,
And what the student needs to do, in very concrete terms, in order to improve.

43. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Opportunities for students to respond to comments
Little or no follow-up
Once the student has the feedback, he/she needs to be provided time and opportunity to act on it.

44. Assessment for Learning: Feedback
Effective feedback:
is anecdotal
is specific and focused
includes opportunities for improvement and follow-up
Read slide

45. Activity Five: Providing Effective Feedback
The sample represents a student’s first draft of the performance task submitted to you for formative feedback. Select ONLY ONE of the seven sections of the draft to provide specific descriptive feedback to the student that indicates what was done well, what needs to be improved and how specifically it can be improved.
The challenge
Thumbnail sketches
Preconstruction sketch
Trial and modification recording sheet
Explanation of procedures
Post construction drawings
Design Reflections

46. Overall and Specific Expectations
Fundamental Concepts, Big Ideas
Achievement Chart
What do I want them to learn?
How will I know they have learned it?
Evaluation
Measure learning at certain checkpoints near
the end of a cluster of expectations or the unit
Assessment Strategies
And Tools
Checklists, Anecdotal Observations, etc)
Instructional Strategies
Scaffolding
Differentiation
Assessment for Learning
Ongoing monitoring of student progress
Sharing goals & criteria
Feedback, Questioning
Peer and self-assessment
How will I design the learning so that all will learn?
How will I respond to students who aren’t making progress?
Adjusting Instruction

47. To maximize learning, assessment AND instruction must be purposefully planned to support students to attain a clearly defined learning goal.
We know that to maximize learning, assessment AND instruction must be purposefully planned to support students to attain a clearly defined learning goal.

48. Desired knowledge and skills
How will I design the learning?
Assessment
Scaffolded
Learning goal
Scaffolded
Learning goal
Instruction
Scaffolded
Learning goal
Present model.
Model was built on the following needs:
The student and the teacher must know the desired learning that is expected.
The student and the teacher must be clear on how the student can demonstrate that they have achieved the desired learning.
The instructional tasks and the strategies the teacher uses must systematically help the student to develop the knowledge and skills he/she needs.
The teacher and the student must use assessment strategies to monitor the student’s learning while the student is engaged in the instructional tasks.
Student’s current knowledge and skills

49. Desired knowledge and skills
How will I design the learning so all will learn?
Assessment
Scaffolded
Learning goal
Scaffolded
Learning goal
How will I respond to students who aren’t making progress?
Instruction
Scaffolded
Learning goal
Student’s current knowledge and skills

50. Assessment for learning is an ongoing feedback loop.
1. The teacher begins by planning an instructional activity giving careful consideration to how it will be used in assessment for learning (e.g. an investigation to be followed up with a journal entry reflecting upon the results.)
2. While the student is engaged in the instructional activity,
the teacher assesses (e.g. through observation), recording data on a checklist.
the student may be involved in peer or self assessment after the activity is completed. (e.g. Teacher may have several students share their entries orally while other students add new ideas or missing information to their own entries – self assessment – or make suggestions to others – peer assessment.)
Notice that instructional activities and assessment activities are inseparably linked.
3. Each of the parties receives and acts on effective feedback.
Teachers use feedback to adjust instruction;
The student uses it to determine where he/she needs to focus learning. (i.e. I’ve got this concept, but I need to work on this one some more.)
The process continues.

51. Activity Six: How Will I Design the Learning?
Is the learning goal shared and clarified with the students?
Do students know how their learning will be monitored during/at the end of this subtask?
Do students know what criteria will be used to measure their progress on the learning goal for this subtask?
Have oral questions that will identify challenges and misconceptions been planned in advance?

52. Activity Six: How Will I Design the Learning?
5. Is the assessment linked to instruction?
6. Does the design of the instruction and assessment provide for feedback from the teacher and/or peers?
7. Are there opportunities for students to follow up on feedback prior to completion of the performance task?
8. Are there suggestions for how the teacher will monitor that students have acted on the feedback?

53. HOW WILL I DESIGN THE LEARNING?
HOW WILL I RESPOND TO THOSE WHO AREN’T MAKING PROGRESS?
Share and clarify learning goals
Identify how students will demonstrate their progress
Plan key questions
Design assessment and instruction to develop knowledge/skills and monitor learning
Provide feedback and time to implement
Adjust instruction

54. An Assessment Planning Tool
A Planning Model for consideration
Graphic Organizer – based on a Fishbone

56. Assessment for learning
Learning Goal(s)
Instruction
Assessment
Assessment for learning
SUCCESS
Each of the evaluations are attached to a series of “bones”.
These “bones” represent the “assessment for learning” that supports the student to develop the requisite knowledge and skills to be successful on the evaluation task.
In this section (bones), list:
Instructional activities that build toward students’ success on each of the summative evaluations;
Formative assessment activities designed to provide quality feedback to students for improvement (ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING);
These activities should be:
Scaffolded and designed “backwards” from the overall and specific expectations being evaluated on the summative evaluation;
Designed to provide feedback to students to improve learning;
Designed to provide information to teachers to adjust their instruction;
Sequenced and designed to provide students sufficient opportunities to improve and demonstrate the full range of their learning.
Assessment data gathered from these activities:
Is not counted toward the final grade;
May be referenced to support professional judgements in determining the grade.

57. Works cited & research notes
Research question
Works cited & research notes
Report outline
First draft
Final published copy
The model uses the ideas of a fishbone organizer to show the progression of assessment and instructional tasks that scaffold the student in building knowledge and skills toward the evaluation.
Displayed here are some typical instructional activities that a teacher may design to “teach” students how to do an essay.
The culmination of this instruction is that students will write their reports and the teacher will assess and evaluate. Often the resport is returned to the student, with feedback, that is often NOT acted upon…why would they?
Evaluation:
K/U
T/I C A
Research Report
Subtask 5

58. Feedback* on research question
Learning Goal
Exemplar analysis
Feedback* on research question
Feedback* on works cited & research notes
Feedback* on outline
Peer assessment of first draft
Feedback* on second draft
This model allows us to build in the assessment FOR learning – the feedback loop.
In this way, teachers answer the more crucial question…How will I respond when they don’t learn it?”
Evaluation:
*Follow-up opportunities provided
Monitoring of follow-up
Research Report
Subtask 5

59. Assessment for Learning
What categories of the AC does the task assess?
What knowledge and skills in the overall and specific expectations do students need to be successful?
What are the assessment activities (formative/diagnostic) to develop the specific knowledge and skills?
What learning skills will contribute to students’ successful completion of the performance task?
How will I assess their individual learning from day-to-day?
What misconceptions/barriers might be anticipated?
What alternative strategies will I employ to address the needs of students who are not progressing?
When designing the Assessment for Learning steps, consider these questions:

60. Activity Seven: Assessment Planning
Complete one section of the fishbone organizer to show the learning goals, instruction and assessment that will build students’ knowledge and skills for successful completion of the culminating performance task.

61. When teachers commit to learning as the focus of assessment, they change the classroom culture to one of student success.
I’d like to leave you with this thought:
“When teachers commit to learning as the focus of assessment, they change the classroom culture to one of student success.”
If our goal is to improve each student’s learning, we need to create a culture of caring at every level of our system: in the classroom, in the school, in the board.
Our caring is demonstrated by setting high standards of learning for all students, and by providing the instruction and support to allow them to achieve.
The purposeful, appropriate use of assessment and evaluation is at the heart of this culture of caring, because it informs learning.
We hope that the presentation has
provided you with some information that challenged your thinking about assessment and evaluation,
Provided you with some practical models for implementing assessment for learning
And also the resources and supports to further professional learning for your staff in the area of assessment and evaluation.
D. Cooper, Talk About Assessment, p. 10

62. John Ryall, Manager
Assessment & Reporting Unit
Joanie Causarano, Education Officer
CAP Branch
Paul Walsh, Education Officer
CAP Branch