Assessment and Evaluation

1. Assessment and Evaluation September 28, 2012

2. What Principles have we explored so far? Effective Teachers: • Appreciate and Understand Adolescents • Understand how Students Learn • Create a Nurturing Classroom • Adopt a Balanced Literacy Approach • Scaffold Reading and Writing

3. Principle # 8 of Effective Instruction Effective Teachers LINK Instruction and Assessment

4. Assessment/Evaluation In your Learning Log…. • 3column chart - Last Column Blank for Now

5. Assessment vs. Evaluation Commonly used interchangeably but have DIFFERENT MEANINGS

6. Assessment • Formative • Ongoing • Provides immediate feedback • Used to inform instruction • Its goal is to improve learning • It is usually authentic

7. Evaluation • Summative –Final and after instruction takes place • Usually in a “test” format • Usually measures achievement compared to standards • Used to compare student data

8. Assessment Language • Summative Assessment (Evaluation) • Assessment of Learning • For grading or placement • Formative Assessment • Assessment for learning • Identifies strengths and weaknesses • Assessment as learning • Learning takes place through the assessment • Self assessment

9. The word ‘assess’ • Latin verb ‘assidere’ meaning ‘to sit with’. • In assessment one is supposed to sit with the learner. • This implies it is something we do withandforstudents and not to students (Green, 1998)

10. Summative versus Formative Assessment The Garden Analogy If we think of our children as plants … Summative assessment (Evaluation)of the plants is the process of simply measuring them. It might be interesting to compare and analyze measurements but, in themselves, these do not affect the growth of the plants. Formative assessment, on the other hand, is the equivalent of feeding and watering the plants appropriate to their needs - directly affecting their growth.

11. Formative and summative assessment • Formative and summative assessment are interconnected. They seldom stand alone in construction or effect. • The vast majority of genuine formative assessment is informal, with interactive and timely feedback and response. • It is widely and empirically argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement.

12. Formative Assessment Ought to : • lead toward Summative Assessments. • be the most important form of assessment • inform instruction and learning • be ongoing and regularly practiced throughout the year

13. Formative Assessment Should : • Inform the student and the teacher/parent • Timely Feedback . . . . Immediately is best! • Pinpoint misunderstandings or weaknesses accurately • Be low stakes • No grading • Completed when student and/or teacher is ready • Be flexible and easy to administer

14. Activity

15. What do we want for our students? The test of a successful education is not the amount of knowledge that a studenttakes away from a school, but the appetite to know and the capacity to learn. If a school sends out students with a desire for knowledge and some idea of how to acquire and use it, it will have done its work. Too many students leave school with the appetite killed and the mind loaded with undigested lumps of information. (Abbott, 1999)

16. Research indicates that improving learning through assessment depends on five deceptively simple factors: The provision of effective feedback to students. The active involvement of students in their own learning. Adjusting teaching to take into account results of assessment. A recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self esteem of students. The need for students to be able to self assess themselves and understand how to improve. Five Deceptively Simple Factors:

17. A tendency for teachers to assess quantity of work and presentation rather than quality of learning. Greater attention to marking and grading, much of it tending to lower the self esteem of students rather than provide advice for improvement. Teachers feedback to students often serves social and managerial purposes rather than to help them learn more effectively. Teachers not knowing enough about their students’ learning needs. Several Inhibiting Factors:

18. Types of Classroom- Based Assessments • Tests to determine students’ reading levels • Informal assessments: Monitoring • Diagnostic tests • Portfolios

19. Determining Reading Levels • Independent • Instructional -**where teaching can take place • Frustrational

20. Examples of These Individual Assessments • Fountas and Pinnell Running Records and Benchmark System • DRA’s – Developmental Reading Assessments Whole Group • SRI- Scholastic Reading Inventory

21. Diagnostic Assessments Assess strengths and weaknesses to drive instruction • Running Records • Independent Reading Inventories

22. Portfolios • “…systematic and meaninful collections of artifacts documenting students’ literacy development over a period of time.” • Folders, or large envelopes • Teacher and Student Selections • Teacher and Student reflections and evaluations

23. Monitoring Progress • Conferences • Observations • Anecdotal Records • Checklist • Rubrics

24. Glows and Grows Conference Log Sample

25. Conference Log Sample

26. Writing Rubric Sample

27. Guided Reading Checklist Sample

28. Anecdotal Record Sample

29. High- Stakes Testing • NJASK – NJ Assessment of Skills and Knowledge • Terra Nova • CTBS – California Test of Basic Skills

30. Purpose of Standardized tests • Give data to students, parents, teachers and districts about how students are meeting to state or national standards • Use to ensure competence of educational system • Accountability at a local and state level • SUMMATIVE!!! ONLY!!!!

31. Formative Assessments • Thumbs Up/Down • Exit Slip • Quick Writes