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Using Assessments to Improve P-12 Student Learning

Using Assessments to Improve P-12 Student Learning. AN AACTE WEBCONFERENCE DECEMBER 2008 HILDA ROSSELLI, DEAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning?.

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Using Assessments to Improve P-12 Student Learning

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  1. Using Assessments to Improve P-12 Student Learning AN AACTE WEBCONFERENCE DECEMBER 2008 HILDA ROSSELLI, DEAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION WESTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY H Rosselli 12/04/08

  2. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? Increasing public dissatisfaction with schools, teachers, and the programs that prepare teachers H Rosselli 12/04/08

  3. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? An ever-changing but persistent focus on achievement of students, most often measured only by standardized tests H Rosselli 12/04/08

  4. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? A political agenda to implement measures of accountability for teachers linked to student achievement H Rosselli 12/04/08

  5. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? An ever-increasing array of student needs and attributes that impede student learning, particularly the type required in standardized measures of performance H Rosselli 12/04/08

  6. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? An improved capacity to aggregate and disaggregate data along with temptations to measure everything quantitatively H Rosselli 12/04/08

  7. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? An increased skepticism and scrutiny of higher education and particularly teacher preparation that has in turn fueled accreditation efforts and accountability measures. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  8. Why the Increased Focus on P-12 Student Learning? A more fully articulated and implemented approach to standards based education. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  9. Impact of the Standards Based Movement The standards set for learning in today’s schools define the successive bars to be reached by students as they progress in their learning, and standards- linked assessments indicate where students stand at a particular point in time with respect to a particular bar, but it is each student that needs to reach each bar and the main job of teachers is to help each student in each classroom make steady progress toward each bar that lies immediately ahead. (Del Schalock, 2006) H Rosselli 12/04/08

  10. “…it is not sufficient for teacher educators to simply ‘teach’ prospective teachers about teaching, or about content to be taught.” D. Schalock & D. Imig (2000) Shulman’s Union of Insufficiencies +7: New Dimensions of Accountability for Teachers and Teacher Educators. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  11. Expectations for Teacher Candidates • Teacher candidates are expected to know and be able to use state standards in planning instruction. • Teacher candidates are expected to help candidates become thoroughly familiar with and able to analyze district or state assessments. • Teacher candidates are expected to use formative assessments to ascertain student progress on achieving standards. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  12. Expectations for Teacher Candidates • Discipline-specific standards have emerged from the professional organizations defining what each teacher candidate should know and be able to do, creating an additional layer of standards that candidates need to master and demonstrate and that institutions must assess. • Candidates need a repertoire of practical ways to differentiate instruction and assessment as well as classroom management skills useful to facilitating differentiated learning environments (Tomlinson, 2000). H Rosselli 12/04/08

  13. Far Reaching Implications “In a standards orientation to schooling, performance expectations for learners are no longer normative, pupils can no longer opt to work for Cs or Ds with impunity, and a teacher’s work is no longer over when grades are calculated, assigned, and reported” (p. 409). Del Schalock (2002) H Rosselli 12/04/08

  14. Far Reaching Implications • As educators more clearly defined and reached common agreements on what students should know and be able to do at various points in their development, the world of teaching moved from a private act to a more public act. • And so did teacher preparation… H Rosselli 12/04/08

  15. Programs are now asked to provide data aggregated by program which has promoted the use of more sophisticated relational databases that can be mined and used for program improvement and research. • The increased use of evidence-based decisions against public standards used to determine candidates’ progression at each stage of a program responds to increased calls for accountability in all areas of higher education. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  16. And in truth, much of what was traditionally used to evaluate teacher candidate performance was often void of P-12 student evidence. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  17. And whereas feedback for individual candidates was traditionally given only to candidates by university supervisors and mentor teachers for the purpose of individual coaching and improving, these data now need to loop back and provide feedback to programs to inform decisions about curriculum and instruction. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  18. NCATE’s Attention to Student Learning A centerpiece of the NCATE performance-based system is collecting and aggregating data to show that candidates have the knowledge and skills to teach effectively so that students learn, a requirement that directly impacts approximately two-thirds of all new teacher graduates nationally (Westat, 2006). H Rosselli 12/04/08

  19. TEAC’s Attention to Student Learning Although less explicit, TEAC also references P-12 student learning as found in Quality Principle 1.3 Teaching Skill which states that teachers must “act on their knowledge in a caring and professional manner that would lead to appropriate levels of achievement for all their pupils.” H Rosselli 12/04/08

  20. Assessments used to Improve P-12 Student Learning • Teacher Work Samples-Originally developed at Western Oregon University and popularized by the Renaissance Partnership. • PACT-Performance Assessment for California Teachers—Candidates submit lesson plans, copies of instructional and assessment materials, video clips, a summary of whole-class learning, and an analysis of student work samples; they also write commentaries describing their teaching context, analyzing and reflecting on what they learned about their teaching practices and their students’ learning. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  21. Other Assessments used to Improve P-12 Student Learning • Reading Language Arts Student Learning Assessment Tool that examines students’: (1) interest in learning activities, (2) engagement in reading/writing through self-selection of materials, (3) understanding of lifelong learning, (4) motivation to engage in reading/writing activities, and (5) progress in content learning. (Grand Valley State University) • Vanderbilt University uses a case study approach that includes a five week assessment plan for two students on IEPs. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  22. Other Assessments used to Improve P-12 Student Learning • At Bank Street College, candidates complete a case study on a single student and use two systematic methodologies for analyzing their observation notes: an age level study and pattern summaries. • Broadley University has taken a content specific focus in science with attention to whether candidates can design and deliver appropriate and accurate assessments. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  23. Teacher Work Sample Methodology • At WOU, a TWSM is a written, standards-based contextual teaching and learning unit of a minimum of ten lessons that demonstrates a candidate’s ability to assess, plan, and instruct in a standards-based educational system and impact student learning in a positive manner. • And in Oregon, each teacher candidate is required to successfully implement two teacher work samples prior to being awarded initial licensure. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  24. Components of a TWS • An analysis of Contextual Factors about the “community” that impact teaching and learning. • Goals and Objectives that tell what learning outcomes are expected of students and how they relate toDistrict, State or National Content Standards and/or Common Curriculum Goals. • A Unit Plan that connects learning goals and objectives, methods of teaching and assessment and the knowledge of students and their prior knowledge. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  25. Components of a TWS • Lesson plans that includes activities using a variety of instruction and assessment strategies that help students meet learning outcomes. • Assessment results that include formative, summative and pre/post summative and influence planning and instruction including specific levels of student learning by IEP, Title I, and/or LEP status or achievement quartiles.. • Candidate reflection about the relationship between her own teaching and student learning. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  26. Helping Candidates Become More Effective Teachers Candidates must be able to: • Predetermine what students know or don’t know and modify the initial instructional plans, • Adjust instructional pace, • Change the sequence of skill development as needed, • Select alternative modes of presentation, revisit a previously taught concept, or • Reconsider a means of motivating certain students H Rosselli 12/04/08

  27. Helping Candidates Become More Effective Developers and Users of Assessment Teacher Work Sample prompts require candidates to explain: • why they selected a particular pre- and post-assessment, • how they determined criteria and scoring for each part of an assessment, • what adjustments were made to a post-assessment based on analysis of pre-assessment results, and • what flaws they discovered in the assessment instrument with ways to improve its usefulness in the future. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  28. Candidates learn how to USE assessment data to: • Adjust instructional pace, • Change the sequence of skill development, • Select alternative modes of presentation, revisit a previously taught concept, or • Reconsider a means of motivating certain students H Rosselli 12/04/08

  29. Increased focus on assessment • Candidates are provided specific instruction on different forms of assessment and the circumstances in which each is appropriate; • Candidates have opportunities to practice creating assessments that are appropriate for explicit learning goals; • Candidates are expected to administer assessments with P-12 students during their preparation program; H Rosselli 12/04/08

  30. Increased focus on assessment • Candidates are given explicit instruction in the state standards and the state assessments for the grades and subjects they are preparing to teach; • Candidates have opportunities to interpret results of both standardized and teacher-created assessments; • Candidates have opportunities to develop appropriate teaching responses as follow-up to their reflection on assessment results. It’s All About Student Learning: Assessing teacher Candidates’ Ability to Impact P-12 students. (2008), NCATE H Rosselli 12/04/08

  31. Widespread use of TWS • Adopted by state of Oregon in 1990 • Promoted by the Renaissance Partnership • Currently, 501,000 websites for TWS • Currently, 363,000 websites for TWSM • Widespread use in other states including: • Colorado, Louisiana, Kentucky, Idaho, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Iowa, Utah, North Carolina, Virginia, Kansas, Oklahoma, California, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, Georgia, Pennsylvania H Rosselli 12/04/08

  32. Reflective Teaching and Learning Dialogue • Candidate with P-12 Students • Candidate with Candidates • Candidate with Mentor Teacher • Candidates with Faculty • Faculty with Mentor Teachers • Faculty to Faculty H Rosselli 12/04/08

  33. Multi-purposing of TWSM Use of TWS results by programs • Disaggregated data • Candidates’ ability to teach to state and national standards • Candidates’ ability to enact best practices in content based pedagogy linked to national professional standards (NSTA, NAEYC, NCTM, CEC, etc.) • Candidates’ ability to improve student learning! • Aggregated data • Program accountability • Program improvement • Context for research H Rosselli 12/04/08

  34. Development issues • Careful instrument development and validation is paramount to avoid overloading an already complex method of measuring candidate performance. • Multiple lines of evidence need to be considered in reaching a recommendation for licensure, only some of which come through teacher work sampling. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  35. The Most Powerful Lasting Outcome When teachers start to grapple with tough questions about their teaching such as “who’s learning? why? who’s not? and why not?” they arrive at a reason for learning more and ultimately the true purpose of professional development: improving performance. H Rosselli 12/04/08

  36. Additional Resources Available at the AACTE bookstore H Rosselli 12/04/08

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