Assessing Learning

1. Please sit near the front, with your friends.  Assessing Learning Luann Christensen Lee, Ed.D. National Board Certified Teacher, AYA Science 1998-2018

2. How I got here One small change at a time….. http://chemistar.com/NJEA2014.html @Stardiverr lclee1@gmail.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/dahveedgr/7010088893/

3. This is a workshop: • Formulate our own working definitions of assessment, how it relates to learning, and why it is important to learning • Examine various grading practices from an objective point of view • Assess where we are with various practices and their relationship to standards • Determine how we can best record student progress toward standards • Determine what steps to take and resources we need • Lay out a plan of action • Assess our progress

4. Assessment is…. • …the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. • Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_assessment • Retrieved on June 18, 2014

5. Assessment is…. • Initial • pre-test • Formative • assesses progress toward learning target • with feedback and discussion • diagnoses of improvable areas • Summative assessment • used to evaluate student learning and to assign a grade.

6. Learning Lingo • Goals • Objectives • Targets • Learning goals • Learning objectives • Learning targets • Performance goals • Performance objectives • Competency • Outcomes • Proficiency • Expectation • Benchmarks • Performance expectations • Standards • Sub-standards1

7. No matter the language, best results come when students can: • State their learning in their own words • Assess, using evidence, their progress toward reaching the target/goal/objective • Explain what to do next to get closer to the learning target • List potentially helpful resources and explain how to use them.

8. Assessment Assessment is finding out what a student learned and how we know s/he learned it.

9. Forms of Student Work • Homework • Quizzes • Tests • Exams • Projects • Book reports • Reports • Blogs • Lab reports • Lab practicals • Stories • Artwork • Essays • Worksheets • Problems • PBL • Songs • Plays • Letters • Poems • Performances • ….add your own

10. Student Work Continuum What is Alternative Assessment? Traditional Alternative

11. How Do We Assess Student Work? Depending on the student product, we might use • Points • Rubrics • Scale • Checklist • Criteria sheet • # correct/total • Percentage • Letter grade • 4-3-2-1 rating • “Credit/no credit” • Seat-of-our-pants

12. Ways to record assessments In my practice, I: Use least Use most

13. What are we really assessing? • Product? • Process? • Progress? • or….. Mastery of a standard? • According to Guskey: • Product is what a student knows and can do • Process is how did the student get there? HW, project, etc. • Progress – did the student make progress or improve? (SPED, ELL)

14. If all 3 are assessed with 1 mark: Do you know if the student • mastered all learning targets, OR • does not know learning targets but worked really, really hard, OR • made significant progress but did not meet all learning targets? To report clearly, report each separately. (more on this after lunch)

15. 4 students: • “A student” – very bright, driven, hard-working • Intentional non-learner – why? • Learning disability – what is it? What support is needed? • English language learner – may also be 1-3, above

16. What we really want …is a source showing evidence that students have mastered a standard or learning target OR If they haven’t, what progress have they made and what further support they need.

17. But – my grades aren’t broken!

18. What does a grade mean? • Student is “doing good” • (however you define “good”) • What does “doing good” mean? • What does the student actually know? What skills does he have? What can he do?

19. Grades: What do they mean to students? With permission from my colleague Jenn Livingston @jennliv

20. Grading practices • Extra credit • 100 point scale • Averaging scores • Late penalties • Recording zeros • Dropping lowest grade • Recording rubric scores • Grading homework • Assessment retakes with or without penalty • Assignment re-dos/edits

21. Extra Credit:Why? Why Not? • Artificially padding grade? • Kleenex points? • Offer ways for students to show they exceed standards? • Alternative assessment

22. 100 Point ScaleWhy? Why Not? • A zero here is very difficult to overcome and still get an A. • Assume every assignment is weighted at 100 points, on a 3-question quiz, scores are 100%, 67%, 33%, 0%. • On a 4-point scale, the difference between each level is equal – 1 point. • The parachute-packing analogy • Only summative assessments are truly worth 100 points • Mastering 60-70% of concepts covered has traditionally been considered aceptable • Points are not necessarily percentages if total points used

23. Averaging Grades http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/curriculum/grading/Pages/CumulativeGrades.aspx

24. Dropping Lowest Grade:Why? Why Not? • Reduces grade to a comparison • How do you know if student has met/exceeded standard? • Everyone has a bad day occasionally • Sometimes an assessment was just off-target or too hard

25. Assigning grades to rubric scoresWhy? Why Not? • How to turn marks on a continuum into a grade? • Depending on the number of points, product that is nearly excellent can = C • Do the rubric points = standards or learning targets? • Add the total points to the actual score • Ex. score of 24/30 would be 54/60 • What does this show? • (what does the rubric measure?)

26. Recording zeros:Why? Why Not? • On a 100 point scale, a score of 0/100 can be impossible to recover from. • “Can’t I just take the zero (F)?” • Giving low grades to perfectly capable students offers them an easy way out and enables laziness. • Attention-getter for both parents and students. • Submission of missing work (if accepted)

27. Late penalties: Why? Why Not? • How late is too late? • Reality of late work: • Often completed carelessly or hurriedly • Sometimes copied • Not possible to learn a semester of ______ in 2 days. • An “A” student does not need multiple attempts and more time. • So long as student is showing evidence of progress, give more time • “It’s never too late to learn.” • “I get it – NOW.”

28. Assignment Re-Dos and EditsWhy? Why Not? • That’s a LOT of grading. • Team Xeroxing • Students learn little from our corrections. • Something must be done correctly to learn to do it.

29. Retaking AssessmentsWhy? Why Not? • Full credit or not? • “If you trust the validity and accuracy of your test/assessment, then you shouldn’t have any problems with redos for full credit.” @rickwormeli via Twitter • Multiple versions of assessment • That’s a LOT or grading.

30. Grading HomeworkWhy? Why Not? • Why grade practice? • Team xeroxing ≠ learning • That’s a LOT of grading. • If it’s not graded, they don’t do it.

31. Where Are We? • Who’s in control of assessment? • What does each do to support student learning? • What are alternatives?

33. Possible Solutions • Take no prisoners. • If a zero is assigned, what value does that place on the assignment? • The consequence for not doing the work is getting to do the work (aka learn.) • Plan make-up or credit recovery or redo or retake options with your initial plans. • Yes, this is time-consuming. • Instead of zeros, a mark telling what the zero really means. • Incomplete • Missing/no attempt • Retake/Redo needed • Absent

34. Possible Solutions Part 2:Homework • Multiple answer keys around room • Students trade you their pencil for a grading pen (I use orange) • Students correct their work • If they’re happy with it, they submit. (Redo offered later?) • If not, they do another assignment.

35. Possible solutions part 3:Really, really, really late • Answer key/solutions provided. • Student comes in before or after school, lunch, etc. • Student corrects his work and submits. • Full credit?

36. More on Homework • Can you offer your students options for their out of class work (without making it a logistical nightmare for yourself)? • What options do you have for the type of work they could do? • How will you assess the homework – will they do it for learning, practice, credit, or will they get something more out of it? • Does the homework given enhance the material, expand upon it, or rehash it? • How can you structure the homework to encourage the students to think critically and apply their knowledge?

37. Moving Forward: • What changes do you want to make?

38. Standards – what standards? • Find a standard: • http://www.corestandards.org/ click Read the Standards • http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards choose DCI or Topic • http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/standards/5/index.html • Choose a lesson from your collection • Think of a favorite if you don’t have one on your device • Use pg 5 of today’s document • Write learning targets/goals/expectations • Devise an assessment to measure student learning • Give examples of levels of performance (anchor papers) • Yes, you may work in a group. Go!

39. Peer Review • Share your work with another person or group. • Feedback: • Good things about the work are……. • What I would need to see to be more convinced is….

40. Share with everyone: • What did you do? Standards? Assessment? • How does your assessment measure • What went well? • What was a challenge? • What help do you need?

41. Recording Student Learning In the electronic gradebook after several grades have been entered for a class, play with the weighting. Change from total points to weighting "categories" with values from the seat of your pants, then play with the values. Watch the final grades change at your whim.  Which best reflects your gut knowledge of what each student knows and can do?

42. Recording Student Learning • 5 = Mastery • 4 = Proficient • 3 = Near Proficient • 2 = Emerging • 1 = Insufficient Evidence • 0 = No Evidence: Absent (Ab) or Missing (Mi)

43. Recording student learning One source of evidence can show mastery of more than one standard or learning target.

44. Translating to letter grades • A = Mostly Mastery (5), Some Proficient, no 3s • B = Mostly Proficient (4), Some Mastery, no 2s • C = Mostly Proficient (3), Some Near Proficient, no 1s • D = Mostly Near Proficient (2), Some Proficient, no 1s • F = Insufficient performance

45. Assignment View

46. Standards View

47. Standards view - Expanded

48. Assignment View

49. Standards View, expanded

50. How did they do that?