1. PLC Team Leader Meeting
Prep for Team Meeting #9
Common Formative Assessment

2. Cycle of a Collaborative Team
Step 1: Identify
Power Standards
What do we really want students to
know and be able to do?
Cycle of a Collaborative Team
Step 4: Participate in ongoing data-driven decision making
How do we respond when they aren't learning, or if they already know it?
Step 2: Design/Use
Assessments for Learning
How will we know students are learning (before it’s too late)?
this visual illustrates the ongoing process in which a collaborative team emphasis on Step 2
Step 3: Design & Deliver Effective Instruction
What are research-based practices that will lead to student learning of power standards and beyond?
© Capistrano Unified School District

3. Four Critical Questions of Learning
What is it that we expect students to learn?
How will we know when they have learned it?
How will we respond when they don’t learn?
How will we respond when they already know it?
Stress the second This is what we must do before anything else. Get consensus

4. Next Step in Team Learning Process
Develop multiple common formative assessment per year for each course or content area.
Studies have demonstrated assessment for learning (formative assessment) rivals one- on-one tutoring in its effectiveness and that the use of assessment particularly benefits low-achieving students.
-Stiggins, 2004

5. Common Assessments
assess the learning of all students in the same course.
use of the same instrument and/or the same criteria by all teachers of the course.
administered at the same time or within a narrow window of time.

6. Formative Assessment Assessment for learning.
Informs both teacher and student of student’s progress.
Requires appropriate steps to advance student learning.
Based on results, which students need:
Remediation?
Reinforcement?
Enrichment?

7. Formative Assessment
It is not the content of the assessment or when it is administered that makes an assessment formative. It is how the results are used, or what happens after the assessment, that determines whether or not it is a part of the formative process.
-Learning by Doing, p. 63

8. Formative Assessment
Three things must occur for the assessment to be formative:
It is used to identify students who are experiencing difficulty.
Those students are provided additional time and support to acquire the intended skill or concept.
Students are given another opportunity to demonstrate that they have learned.

9. If the teacher or student fails to take action on the evidence, then the teaching-assessing-learning cycle is stopped.

10. Formative Assessment Process
A formative assessment is assessment for learning while a summative assessment is an assessment of learning.
Formative assessment is to summative assessment what a physical examination is to an autopsy.
Summative assessments give students the chance to prove what they learned; formative assessments give students the chance to improve on their learning.

11. Based on the knowledge, understandings and skills you defined for your students, what evidence will demonstrate proficiency? What will student work look like?

12. I can… Standard: Students should know (Content):
Students should know (Content):
(facts, vocab, formulas, etc.)
Students should be able to (Skills):
Students should understand (Concepts):
(Big ideas, enduring understandings)
Learning Targets
I can…
Based on what you defined- know, understand, do- you must determine what evidence will show proficiency

13. One Team’s Strategies & Action Steps
In order to achieve our SMART goal we will:
Clarify the essential writing skills.
Develop common monthly writing prompts.
Agree on criteria by which we will judge the quality of student writing.
Practice applying criteria consistently to establish inter-rater reliability.
Establish the proficiency target of 3 out of 4.
Identify anchor papers for each rubric stage.
Share standards, rubrics and anchors with students and teach them how to apply the rubric to their writing.
Example of one team’s action steps, based on their smart goal.

14. Resources to Help Teams Build Valid Common Assessments
List of essential outcomes or pacing guides for each course or subject.
Recommendations from Stiggins, Reeves, Ainsworth, and William on high-quality assessments
Released items from district, state, provincial, and national assessment (ACT, SAT, etc.)
Websites such as:
(sample items from Common Core)
Data from past indicators of achievement.
Methods of alternative assessments/examples of rubrics
Assessments from other “teams”
Textbook and other published assessments and tests
p-.54 conference book, see pg. 68 in Learning by Doing for additional resources to consider
Brainstorm other sources with your team

15. When Creating a Common Assessment, Determine…
1. What is the purpose of the assessment? What are you attempting to discover and whom will the assessment inform?
p Learning by Doing

16. When Creating a Common Assessment…
2. What essential standard or standards are you addressing with this assessment? What specific knowledge and skills lead to proficiency in this standard?

17. When Creating a Common Assessment…
3. How can you plan to gather the information that is most important to you?
Teams decide how many and what kinds of items to include on the assessment. Options include (1) selected response, such as multiple choice, (2) constructed response, such as short answer or essay, (3) performance assessment, which requires a rubric, or (4) personal communication, such as an interview or individual reading inventory.
*Once these first three questions have been addressed, the team turns its attention to creating the assessment.

18. When Creating a Common Assessment…
4. How will you choose items and questions? Who will be responsible for pulling it together?
Any item to be included on the assessment, must be reviewed and endorsed by the team.

19. When Creating a Common Assessment…
5. What must students score to be deemed proficient in each essential standard?

20. Resources
DuFour, DuFour, Eaker. PLC At Work Institute Materials, 2013.
DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many. Learning by Doing,

21. Essential Standards Chart

22. Essential Standards Chart: What is it we expect students to learn?
Standard/ Description
Example/Rigor
Prior Skills Needed
Common Assessment
When Taught
Enrichment
What is the essential standard to be learned? Describe in student-friendly vocabulary. (I can…)
What does proficient student work look like? Provide an example and/or description.
What prior knowledge, skills, and/or vocabulary is/are needed for a student to master this standard?
What assessment(s) will be used to measure student mastery?
When will this standard be taught?
What will we do when students have learned the essential standard(s)?
Grade:
Subject:
Semester:
Team Members:
When selecting consider endurance, leverage and readiness (previous slide)