Fostering a Balanced Assessment System

1. Fostering a Balanced Assessment System

2. Learning Goals Participants will • learn about the Testing Action Plan; • review different types of assessments; • consider the purpose of educational assessment; and • consider tools to refine and balance local assessment systems.

3. Success Criteria Participants will • become familiar with the shift to a more balanced assessment system; • become familiar with the resources provided; • think about using these resources and activities to help other educators understand different types and purposes of educational assessments; and • be motivated to work toward improving local assessment systems.

4. Setting the Stage • How might you use this information at your local educational agency (LEA)? • What knowledge exists already? • What can be adopted or adapted? • Take notes as we go along… California Department of Education

5. Significant Shifts at the Federal Level That Facilitate Change in State Assessment Policies The Testing Action Plan calls on states and districts to review their assessment systems and ensure that the assessments students take are rigorous, fair, non-redundant, and tied to improved teaching and learning.

6. Testing Action Plan – Principles for Fewer and Smarter Tests • Worth Taking – Are part of good instruction and require complex student work; provide timely, actionable feedback. Tests should not be given solely for educator evaluation. • High Quality – Cover the full range of standards and elicit complex student demonstration of knowledge. Tests should provide an accurate measure of student achievement and growth. • Time-Limited – Recommend students spend no more than 2 percent of classroom time taking statewide standardized tests; “drill-and-kill” test prep must be eliminated. • Fair—and Supportive of Fairness—in Equity in Educational Opportunity – Accessible and fair measures that accurately reflect what students really know and can do, including students with disabilities and English learners. 3

7. Testing Action Plan – Principles for Fewer and Smarter Tests (cont.) • Fully Transparent to Students and Parents – Every parent has access to understandable information about the assessments their students are taking. • Just one of Multiple Measures – Assessments provide critical information about student learning, but no single assessment should ever be the sole factor in making an educational decision about a student, an educator, or a school. • Tied to Improved Learning –In a well-designed testing strategy, assessment outcomes are not only used to identify what students know, but also inform and guide additional teaching, supports, or interventions that will help students master challenging material. 4

8. Tell your neighbor what you think about the call on states and districts to review their assessment systems to ensure that the assessments students take are rigorous, fair, non-redundant, and tied to improved teaching and learning.

9. Types of Educational Assessment Group work! Essays! Classroom Observations! Smarter Balanced ELA/Literacy! English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC)! Teacher Created Tests/Quizzes! End of Course Tests! Student Portfolios! End of Unit Tests! AP Exams! Interim Assessments! Smarter Balanced Mathematics! Brief Writes! Publisher Tests! Student Work! California Science Test (CAST)! End of Course Exams! Classroom Discussions!

10. Types of Educational Assessment • Diagnostic Assessment • Formative Assessment • Interim Assessment • Summative Assessment

11. Relationship to Annual Learning Goals “Grain Size” of standards being assessed Statewide Summative Classroom Formative Immediacy of actionable information… California Department of Education

12. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding California Department of Education

13. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding (cont.) California Department of Education

14. Building Shared Knowledge and Understanding (cont.) California Department of Education

15. Table Activity California Department of Education

16. How did we do?

17. Another way to think of this…

18. Why do we assess? Inform Instruction Diagnose Need Use for Accountability

19. Example: Lower Grades Use for Accountability Inform Instruction Diagnose Need

20. Example: All Grades Use for Accountability Inform Instruction Diagnose Need

21. Example: Upper Grades Use for Accountability Inform Instruction Diagnose Need

22. Consider the assessments that you administer in your district or at your school. Are the purposes clear? Are the results used for the intended purpose?

23. Setting the Stage for a Balanced Assessment System Know what’s in place: • Identify and eliminate gaps and redundancies. (overall and for specific populations of students) • Identify high quality assessments that maximize instructional goals. • Think about how each assessment contributes to the balance of the whole assessment system. • Highlight assessments that provide results useful to teachers, students, and the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). California Department of Education

24. Teacher Engagement Enabling teachers to make sense of the local assessment system can build a shared understanding of what purposes the assessments serve and how the results are used.

25. Options to Conduct an Assessment Inventory Two of several that are available: • Student Assessment Inventory for School Districts (Achieve) (adopt/adapt) http://www.achieve.org/assessmentinventory • Assessment Inventory Resource Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) (build inventory) http://www.csai-online.org/sites/default/files/Assessment%20Inventory%20Resource%20and%20TAP%20Handout.pdf

26. Student Assessment Inventory for School Districts • Is this assessment essential because of clear requirements in law or policy? • Does this assessment have real benefits for students, teachers, parents? • Does this assessment provide clear feedback and actionable data? • Is this assessment: • of high quality? • aligned to the state’s standards? • being used for the intended uses? • if not, what might strengthen the use of results? • Do teachers find the results from this assessment useful?

27. Assessment Inventory Resource • Linked to Testing Action Plan • Questions you may want to address • Meant to offer options for creating a survey California Department of Education

28. read First, read and highlight those items on the inventory tools that resonate with you. Talk to your neighbor, and share your takeaways from the review of the tools. California Department of Education

29. Another Assessment Inventory Option • Have teacher teams list assessments on post-its, and place into cells to begin the conversation. • Where are the gaps? Where are the redundancies? Diagnose Need Inform Instruction Accountability California Department of Education

30. Assessment Calendar/Plan Example 1Clovis Unified School District

31. Assessment Calendar/Plan Example 2Central Unified School District

32. Assessment Calendar/Plan Example 3Red Bluff Union Elementary School District

33. Assessment Calendar/Plan California Department of Education

34. Does your LEA have a published assessment plan? What’s in it? What does it look like? To what degree does it reflect a good balance of assessments?

35. Decide to evaluate the local assessment system: Who needs to be involved in this decision? Who needs to support this decision? Conductan inventory: Who needs to participate? When is the best time to get this done? Analyze the inventory: Who will lead grade level or content area discussions? When? Who is responsible for recording and communicating? Applyknowledge of assessment types and purpose: Does anyone need this training? Who can conduct the training? Make recommendations: Who will have authority to make the final selections of what to keep and what to abandon? (How will we deal with the “sacred cows”?) Adopt and implement recommendations: Who needs to make this transition? When should the changes be implemented? Putting it all together… …and consider: • Stakeholders • Challenges • Leadership • Communication California Department of Education

36. Implementation Planning California Department of Education

37. Who? When? What’s needed?

38. Thank you