1. NESA Spring Educators Conference Keynote
Talk About Assessment: Eight Big Ideas to Improve Learning for All Students
NESA Spring Educators Conference Keynote
April 5, 2011
Damian Cooper
(905)
Damian Cooper, Plan~Teach~Assess 2011

2. Session Outcomes
Understand how the purposes of assessment and grading are changing
Learn about 8 Big Ideas that should guide our practices
Explore assessment strategies related to the Big Ideas in the context of our own schools and classrooms
Begin to develop a plan to improve our own practices

3. Why, in 2011, are we re-examining our assessment beliefs and practices?

4. Mission: to sift and sort students
Mean

5. Mission: excellence from ALL
Range of Competent Achievement

6. If the new goal of education is success for all, then we have no choice but to Differentiate Instruction & Assessment
Instruction
Students bring different knowledge & experience to school
Students learn at different rates
Students learn in different ways
Assessment
Not all students are able to demonstrate their learning in the same way
Not all students respond the same way to test pressure
Some students need more scaffolding than others

7. Research on Effective Assessment
The provision of effective feedback to students
The active involvement of students in their own learning
Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment
Recognition of the profound influence assessment has on motivation and self-esteem
The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve
Crooks, 1988; Black & Wiliam, 1998

8. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
Assessment serves different purposes at different times: it may be used to find out what students already know and can do; it may be used to help students improve their learning; or it may be used to let students, and their parents, know how much they have learned within a prescribed period of time.
Assessment must be planned and purposeful.
Assessment must be balanced, including oral and performance as well as written tasks, and be flexible in order to improve learning for all students.

9. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
4. Assessment and instruction are inseparable because effective assessment informs learning.
5. For assessment to be helpful to students, it must inform them in words, not numerical scores or letter grades, what they have done well, what they have done poorly, and what they need to do next in order to improve.
6. Assessment is a collaborative process that is most effective when it involves self, peer, and teacher assessment.

10. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
7. Performance standards are an essential component of effective assessment.
8. Grading and reporting student achievement is a caring, sensitive process that requires teachers’ professional judgement.

11. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
Assessment serves different purposes at different times: it may be used to find out what students already know and can do; it may be used to help students improve their learning; or it may be used to let students, and their parents, know how much they have learned within a prescribed period of time.

12. Assessment for Learning
“Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence.”
Black, Wiliam et al. 2004

13. Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning includes those tasks that are designed to determine how much learning has occurred after a significant period of instruction. The data from such assessments is often used to determine report card grades.

14. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
2. Assessment must be planned and purposeful.

15. “Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such understanding possible
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design

16. Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design

17. Grade 4 – Pulleys and Gears
Sample learning outcomes:
Describe how rotary motion in one system is transferred to rotary motion in another
Describe how gears operate in one plane(e.g. spur gears, idle gears) and in two planes (e.g. crown, bevel, or worm gears)
Why do we need pulleys and gears?

18. Topics Compared to Essential Questions
Consider how these “topics” differ from the corresponding INTU questions:
Topic
INTU…
Testing Consumer Products on Animals
I need to understand both sides of the debate concerning whether it is right to test consumer products on animals.
Video Gaming
I need to understand whether video gaming is helpful or harmful to learning for teenagers.
Downloading Music
I need to understand the arguments for and against downloading music made by consumers, record companies and artists.

19. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
3. Assessment must be balanced, including oral and performance as well as written tasks, and be flexible in order to improve learning for all students.

20. Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
-oral questionning
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design

21. Triangulation of Data: Classroom Assessment
Performance task
-state & local standards-based assessment to measure how well students are meeting state or district standards. Usually a 4-point rating
-Norm-referenced tests are comparative. Use percentiles or standard scores.
-both of these types of assessment have little potential for immediate intervention because too much elapses before results are available. Results also typically provide insufficient data to address specific areas of need.
-classroom assessments: least reliable but have the advantage of formative assessment to enable teachers to make immediate interventions
Valid & Reliable Picture of Student Achievement
Oral defense/
conference
Written test data
Damian Cooper, Plan~Teach~Assess 2011

22. You Need to Ensure a Balance of Assessment Types
Students: write, do or say
Teachers: mark, observe or listen
Authenticity is key –
change a book report
into a book review!

23. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
Assessment and instruction are inseparable because effective assessment informs learning.

24. The “zone of proximal development” Lev Vygotsky
What do students currently know and what can students currently do?
Where do I want them to get to?
How big is the gap?
How do I ensure the gap is just right to challenge students in a way that maximizes learning?

25. Differentiating Instruction
To develop skills, simplify the content e.g. Simpler texts, less depth/breadth, etc.
To master content, present using a different mode suited to student’s strengths e.g. Graphics, audio, video, manipulatives, etc.
For slides 32-34, provide headings only & space for notes.
Damian Cooper, Plan~Teach~Assess 2011

26. Differentiating Assessment
Content standards: learning outcomes
Performance standards: rubrics/checklists
Student products & performances
Assessment conditions
Must be within student’s “ZPD”
Keep consistent for all students
May be adapted to be within student’s “ZPD”

27. Reporting to Parents Grade level at which student is working
Achievement level at which student is performing
Degree of support provided
Learning outcomes
(incl. IEP ref. if applicable)
Rubric levels
Anecdotal comments
Damian Cooper, Plan~Teach~Assess 2011

28. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
5. For assessment to be helpful to students, it must inform them in words, not numerical scores or letter grades, what they have done well, what they have done poorly, and what they need to do next in order to improve.

29. When the classroom culture focuses on rewards, gold stars, grades, or class ranking, then (students) look for ways to obtain the best marks rather than to improve their learning. One reported consequence is that, when they have any choice, (students) avoid difficult tasks. They also spend time and energy looking for clues to the “right answer”.
“Inside the Black Box”, Black & Wiliam, 1998

30. “…assessment which is explicitly designed to promote learning is the single most powerful tool we have for both raising standards and empowering lifelong learners.”
Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box, 1999, University of Cambridge School of Education

31. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
Assessment is a collaborative process that is most effective when it involves self, peer, and teacher assessment.

33. Math Class
Pete has his students use “Traffic Light” signs at the start of a lesson on equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages to assess prior knowledge.
Teacher: Do you know what the word “equivalent” means?
Students show either the red or green side of the “traffic light” in response.
He orally checks a sample of the “green” responses to see if they do, in fact, understand the term.

34. Self and Peer Assessment
Assessment for learning ONLY
Requires training
and modelling
Focus assessment
on what was taught
Begin with short sessions
Needs to be part of your routine

35. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
7. Performance standards are an essential component of effective assessment.

36. Most students can hit the target if they can see it clearly and it stays still for them.
Rick Stiggins

37. Clear Targets Clarity of curriculum standards
High quality assessment tasks
Rubrics to describe what quality looks like
Anchors to show students what quality looks like
Checklists to enable students to monitor their own progress

40. The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
Grading and reporting student achievement is a caring, sensitive process that requires teachers’ professional judgement.

41. Grading involves summarizing a large amount of assessment of learning data into a single letter or numerical score….it has little to do with teaching and learning!

42. How much evidence is “enough” for reporting?
In other words…
How do we ensure that the body of evidence selected for evaluation and reporting in a given subject or course is a valid sample?

43. What are the requirements of a “valid sample”?
No diagnostic evidence
Includes a variety of modes to allow for differences in learning style (write, do, say)
Includes multiple (3+)pieces of evidence for each learning cluster
Provides evidence of the essential learning in the subject
Tasks represent polished work:
Not practices or early tries
Feedback has occurred previously and been implemented

44. How do I currently try to ensure that students complete the set of assessment tasks that comprise evidence of essential learning?

45. Guidelines for Ensuring that Critical Tasks are Completed
identify for students and parents the tasks that are essential as proof of learning
operate on the understanding that all of these must be completed to meet the requirements of the subject or course
timelines for completion of these tasks must be communicated to students and parents to facilitate students’ and teacher’s workload
conduct frequent “process” checks
provide plenty of in-class time to work on essential tasks

46. Guidelines for Ensuring that Critical Tasks are Completed
identify strategies for addressing non-completion of essential tasks: e.g.
-completion contract
-supervised learning centre
-”Recovery Week” & “Just Do It!”
have a school-wide policy concerning interim and final grade determination: e.g.
-use “Incomplete” on interim report card
-consistency regarding what “Incomplete” becomes on the final report card

47. Reporting Student Achievement
Given that it’s a crude summary of lots of information, what do we want the report card grade to represent?
The recent trend in
a student’s
achievement.

48. Report Card Comments… Purpose: strengths, weaknesses, next steps
invitation to further discussion
Audience: non-educators
Focus on quality of work, not personality of student.
Differentiate between achievement issues and behavioural issues.

49. Communicating with Parents…
When describing achievement, reference appropriate standards:
NOT other students
NOT siblings
Provincial achievement standards
Avoid all labelling of students: there are NO “A” students or “Level 4” students, only “A” performances and “Level 4” performances.

50. Commitment to Action
Spend a few moments reflecting on the 8 Big Ideas of Assessment ….
What was your most significant learning?
What specific actions do you plan to take immediately and/or between now and June 2011?
What results would you like to see from these actions?
How will you assess the effectiveness of these actions?
Damian Cooper, Plan~Teach~Assess 2011