Transcript Document

Implementing a Formative
Assessment Model with
Districts and Schools: What
North Carolina has learned
Presented By:
Sarah McManus, Section Chief,
Testing Policy & Operations/Accountability Services
CCSSO Education Leaders Conference
Using Data to Improve Instruction
What is formative assessment?
Read the following vignette and discuss
with a partner
• Is this formative assessment?
• Why or why not?
The teacher provides students with an open-ended
question related to a concept they are studying and asks
the students to identify the information or details
necessary for a response to demonstrate full
understanding of the concept. A list of these details is
recorded on the board. The teacher then provides
students with examples of several student responses that
were given by students in previous years. The students
are asked to analyze the responses and to determine if
the responses show full understanding, partial
understanding, or no understanding of the concept.
Students must justify their answers. As this thinking is
shared, the list of details or supports necessary for a
response to the question is further refined until a set of
criteria emerges.
Historical Background
The CCSSO Formative Assessment
Initiative began in March 2006 under the
direction of Don Long, former CCSSO
SCASS Director
Concerns “Inside the Black Box”
Too much time spent on measuring learning rather than promoting and
helping learning to occur
Most summative assessments look like “mini state tests”
Forced to “teach to the test”
Less motivated students
As a Nation…..
Where do we want to go?
Where are we now?
How do we close the gap?
Focus on improving teaching and
learning
Formative assessment must be part
of a comprehensive, balanced, and
coherent standards-based system for
teaching and learning in the 21st
century.
What is getting the most attention and what is getting left behind?
There is an emphasis on:
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“The test”
State test results
Practice items
Alignment
Remediation
There is little emphasis on:
• Student learning
• Developing self-directed learners
• Increasing student motivation
• Delivering quality professional development for teachers
•content delivery
•classroom assessment
How do we close the gap?
Create a National Initiative
• Gather a group to oversee the initiative
– CCSSO Formative Assessment Advisory
Group
– Formative Assessment for Students and
Teachers SCASS
• Develop a Common language
• Develop a Common vision
• Share the vision
CCSSO Definition of 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’ achievement of intended
instructional outcomes.
Developed and approved by the CCSSO Formative Assessment
Advisory Group and Formative Assessment for Teachers and Students
(FAST) SCASS, October 2006
What does this mean for teacher
practice?
Teachers should elicit evidence about
learning during instruction using a variety of
methods that result in adjustments to
teaching and learning. These methods can
include, but are not limited to, tasks and
activities. The tasks and activities alone
are not formative assessments but are
used during formative assessment.
Attributes of Effective Formative
Assessment
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Learning Progressions
Learning Goals and Criteria for Success
Descriptive Feedback
Self- and Peer-Assessment
Collaboration
FAST SCASS Areas of Focus
• Professional Development
– Definition and Attributes
– Vignettes
• Technology
– Identify tools that can be used during the
process not as a formative assessment
– Create a website to house all information
• Research
– Identify supporting literature
• Policy
– Working on a White paper for policy makers
North Carolina’s Response to the
Initiative
• Gathered stakeholders (assessment,
curriculum, EC, LEP, policy) including State
Superintendent and SBE representative to
create a vision
• Involved in the Delaware Enhanced
Assessment Grant (focus on mathematics
and science)
• Joined FAST SCASS
• Created a brochure to share the vision
• Presented at conferences to share the vision
Creating and Sharing a Vision
Aligned to State Standards
Statewide Assessments
(Summative)
Interim/Benchmark Assessments
(Summative)
Classroom Assessment
(Formative and Summative)
Focus on the Importance of Classroom
Assessment
• Guides students’ judgment of what is important to learn
• Affects their motivation and self perceptions of competence
• Structures their approaches to and timing of personal study…
• Consolidates learning
• Affects the development of enduring learning strategies and
skills
“It appears to be the most potent force influencing
education.”
Crooks (1988)
BALANCED CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
A process used by teachers
and students during instruction
that provides feedback to
adjust ongoing teaching and
learning to help students
improve their achievement of
intended instructional
outcomes.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
A tool used after
instruction to measure
student achievement
which provides evidence
of student competence or
program effectiveness.
COMPARISON OF ASSESSMENTS
FORMATIVE
•Occurs During Instruction
•Not Graded
•Process
•Descriptive Feedback
•Continuous
SUMMATIVE
•Occurs at the end
•Graded
•Product
•Evaluative Feedback
•Periodic
Possible Assessment Methods
Formative Assessment includes
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Questions
Classroom Discussions
Learning Activities
Feedback
Conferences
Interviews
Student Self-Assessment
Summative Assessment
• Selected Response
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Multiple Choice
True/False
Matching
Fill-in
• Extended Written Response
• Performance Assessment
• Both formative and summative
assessment are valuable and
important
• Without both the classroom
assessment system is not balanced
Research
Research shows that if students are formatively
assessed, learning will improve. When learning
is improved, students are able to demonstrate
that learning in a variety of ways including
scoring well on standardized assessments.
Black and Wiliam (1998)
Products
Skills
Reasoning
Knowledge
©Copyright Educational Testing
Service/Assessment Training Institute
Standard IV: Teachers Facilitate Learning For Their Students
Teachers use a variety of methods to assess what each student has
learned.
• Teachers use multiple indicators, including formative and
summative assessment to evaluate student progress and
growth.
• Teachers provide opportunities, methods, feedback, and
tools for students to assess themselves and each other.
• Teachers use 21st Century assessment systems to inform
instruction and demonstrate evidence of students’ 21st
Century knowledge, skills, performance, and dispositions.
Participation in the
Delaware EAG provides
an opportunity to discuss
formative assessment
and to share the vision
Delaware Enhanced Assessment
Grant (EAG)
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10 states
2 -3 Low-performing HS
2 years
Professional Development in FA as part of
Comprehensive Balanced Assessment
System
Goals of the EAG…
• Increased commitment to a high-quality
formative assessment as a process
– Increase the use of descriptive feedback,
reduce evaluative feedback
• Focus on formative assessment as a part of a
comprehensive balanced assessment system
• Increase the quality of classroom assessment
(formative and summative)
– Increase student involvement
EAG Project
• Pilot semester/Implementation Year
– Small budget was provided to support travel, copies
– Identified 3 high schools to participate in Pilot;
extended to a middle school in Implementation Year
– 2 Teachers per school in Pilot; all HS Mathematics
teachers and all Middle Mathematics and Science
teachers in Implementation Year
– NC Team consisted of 2 mathematics curriculum
specialists, 1 school improvement specialist, 2
testing specialists, and an LEP specialist in pilot
semester; added another mathematics specialist
and a science specialist during Implementation Year
Professional Development Plan
– All FA schools were introduced to how
formative assessment could be used to
improve learning through a 1 day meeting
– Schools required to form a Learning
Team/PLC
– Ongoing support from the state through
web meetings, site visits, and additional
face-to-face meetings
– Student and teacher surveys and
interviews
– Professional Development Materials
shared
Challenges during EAG Pilot
• One high school dropped out
• One teacher struggled with finding
ways to use formative assessment
• Difficulty finding time for the learning
team at the local level
• Materials were not used
Meeting the Challenges and
Preparing for Implementation
• Principals set aside time for staff to meet
(staff meetings, common planning time)
• School that dropped out rejoined
• Teachers that went through the process
during the pilot were asked to share ideas
and support others
EAG Project Themes
Theme 1: Dialogue was used as a
tool to elicit evidence of learning
Beginning:
• General questions; Univocal; Teachercentered
Emerged at the end:
• Probing; Dialogic, Student-centered
Theme 2: Teachers Reported
Increased student involvement
“I think that in my situation my students
became a lot more comfortable discussing
in class because it became more their
class.”
Teacher more accessible. Students became
partners in the learning. Emerging socialconstructivist environment
Theme 3: Using Descriptive
Feedback was difficult for teachers
but found useful by students
“During traditional, when you looked at a
check you don’t know what you did wrong.
With this one, it is easier so that you know
what you did, When we miss it [the
teacher] puts information on there to help
us understand what we did wrong so that
we could do better on the next test.”
Theme 4: Implementation
Challenges for teachers
“When you get up to 9, 10 years of teaching,
you have your way and you don’t want to
do it any other way.”
• More work for the teacher and the student
• Power sharing was an issue
• Teachers have to be on top of their game
Theme 5: Teachers and students
reported that student-developed
rubrics helped student learning
“They owned their own learning and they got
to see what was important.”
• Better understanding of the criteria
• More transparency
• Improvement in performance
Student perspective
“We got to make up our own rubric so we
made it so we knew what we were looking
for unlike traditional grading so we knew
exactly what to do so we could get a better
grade.”
Theme 6: Peer-assessment and selfassessment was beneficial
• It’s like, if we are doing something new.
Some people might not get it and [the
teacher] doesn’t have time to come to
everyone at the same time. So, the people
who do get it come to the people who don’t
understand it. And, the person who is
explaining it gets a better understanding
by explaining it to the other person.
EAG Influence on other state work
• Comprehensive Support to Districts
– Subcommitee on Formative Assessment
• Adopted definitions of formative and interim
assessment
• Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and
Accountability
– Committee looked at ways to redesign the
testing and accountability system
• Able to discuss power of formative assessment
State Board of Education’s Vision
• Framework for Change: The Next Generation of
Assessments and Accountability was the
response to the Blue Ribbon Commission
– Calls for a move to a system of formative,
benchmark, and summative assessment
which will equip teachers and
administrators with data and feedback
needed to align instruction to student’s
needs
The New Assessment System Must:
• Align with graduation project
• Include performance-based, authentic,
real-world tasks
• Provide diagnostic information to teachers
on individual students
Professional Development Must:
• Provide teachers and administrators with
skills and understanding of data to inform
instructional practice and make formative
assessment a daily practice in the
classroom
Response to the Framework
• Online Professional Development Modules
are being created
• All work in the agency around formative
assessment is being aligned
1st essential element for effective
formative assessment
• Open discourse about content between
the students and the teacher
– Students must take risks
– Trust is essential
– Teachers must probe for understanding
– Students must be able to articulate
learning targets and criteria for success
– Dialogic questioning must be prominent
2nd essential element for effective
formative assessment
• Teacher must consciously elicit evidence
of learning for the purpose of recognizing
learning gaps
– Focus on what learning is occurring not
just providing activities
– Plan ahead for what misconceptions may
occur
3rd essential element for effective
formative assessment
• Teachers must take action by providing
descriptive feedback or advice that
provides hints and props to scaffold
student learning
– Teachers apply pedagogical content
knowledge to provide the best
opportunities to close gaps in learning
– Students must have time to improve before
being graded
– Students must be involved in this process
Modules under development
• A Comprehensive Balanced Assessment System:
What is FA and how is it used for learning in NC?
• The Process of Deconstructing NCSCS-Teacher
and Student Friendly Language
• I know what they don’t know—now what?: Data
Driven Decisions
• Descriptive Feedback and Grading
• Assessment Methods-Designing and Selecting
Assessments to Do What You Want
• Assessment Literacy 101
Modules (continued)
• Writing Lesson Plans to Incorporate Formative
Assessment
• Student Ownership: Peer Assessment, SelfAssessment and Goal Setting
• Transforming the Classroom Assessment
Environment: Helping Teachers, Students and
Parents Understand Formative Assessment
• Effective and Ineffective Questioning in the Classroom
• Collecting and Documenting Evidence of Learning
• Teaching Scenarios: Is This Formative Assessment?
• Administrator Roles: What Should I See in the
Classroom and How do I Support FA?
• Collaboration with Appalachia Regional
Comprehensive Center (ARCC), the
Assessment and Accountability
Comprehensive Center (ACC) at the
National Center for Research on
Evaluation, Standards, and Student
Testing (CRESST) to develop and
implement an online professional
development community
Including all students
• Developing a Portfolio for LEP Students
(“I Can” statements, self-assessment
and monitoring)
• Linking to Responsiveness to
Instruction for students (EC initiative)
• Reviewing ways to include formative
assessment in agency work to support
capacity building with districts
Possible
Next steps
for YOU…
• Promote the use of formative assessment as a
process
– Reference the CCSSO definition and attributes
• Offer professional development in the area of
formative assessment for teachers
– Use the vignettes as examples
• Resources from CCSSO are posted on the website
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/SCASS/Projects/
Formative%5FAssessment%5Ffor%5FStudent
s%5Fand%5FTeachers/
Challenges you might have
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Getting buy-in
This is not a quick fix, so why do it?
Teachers are doing this, so why do it?
We will never get teachers to do this well?
Do we believe that all teachers can effectively
teach/assess students?
Process vs. Product
Focus on learning vs. Focus on measurement
Finding the time
Changing priorities and using time wisely vs.
Add-on for teachers
Helpful resources
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Black, P., & Dylan, W. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards
through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 139-148.
Butler, R. (1987). Task-involving and ego-involving properties of
evaluation: effects of internally focused feedback on enhancement of
academic self-concept. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79,474-482.
Butler, R. (1988). Enhancing and undermining intrinsic motivation; the
effects of task-involving and ego-involving evaluation on interest and
performance. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 5, 1-14
Crooks,T. J. (1988). The impact of classroom evaluation practices on
students. Review of Educational Research 58(4) 439-481.
Sadler, D. R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of
instructional systems. Instructional Science 18.119-144.
Stiggins, R., Arter, J. A., Chappuis, J. & Chappius, S. (2006).
Classroom Assessment for Student Learning Doing it Right – Using it
Well.
Q&A
Thank you!!!!
Contact Information
Dr. Sarah McManus
Section Chief, Testing Policy and Operations
NC Department of Public Instruction
Accountability Services Division
[email protected]