Enhancing Student Achievement: Building Bridges Between Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Building Bridges Between Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Presented by Leslie Skinner, PhD, NBCT Education Associate-Social Studies Assessment South Carolina Department of Education

Building Bridges Between Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

How can we improve achievement for all students? • A successful system aligns Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment with the standards. • Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment must work together to support students’ developing understanding.

STANDARDS BASED ASSESSMENT • What is it? • What does it look like? • How do we do it?

We tend to think of assessment asthis

Large-scale statewide accountability tests are only a part of the total picture Stuart Kahl, Measured Progress

To Assess is to • Determine or ascertain the value, significance, worth or extent of • Appraise or evaluate in an official capacity • Estimate the quality, amount, size or other features of • Examine and judge carefully • (Math) Calculate the numerical value of or express numerically

2 Main Types of Assessment • Formative- • Ongoing: before, during or after instruction • Can have many different formats • Evaluates specific concepts or skills • Identifies the effectiveness of ongoing instruction

2 Main Types of Assessment • Summative- • Measures student learning after completion of an instructional unit • Measures teacher effectiveness in teaching the unit • Can be used to revise a unit, course or program • Can have many different formats

A Valid Assessment seeks to answer these questions: • What evidence is acceptable to demonstrate that students understand the standard and the indicators? • Will a student’s response to the created assessment help to determine whether the student has mastered the designated content standard and indicator that the assessment was intended to assess?

Assessment, then, is most often practiced in the classroom, by the teacher.

Assessment, furthermore, is notsimply defined as testing. Testing is… a procedure for critical evaluation a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something a series of questions, problems, or responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability and sometimes, a basis for evaluation or judgement

We need to move away from the concept of assessment as judgment and competition or as a way to obtain grades. We need to move toward a vision of assessment as reflection that can improve classroom instruction.

Research shows that the key to student achievement lies in assessments administered in the classroom. Black & William

The way a teacher designs assessments and applies assessment data (how a teacher assesses)…can lead to substantial increases in instructional effectiveness. W. James Popham

“Improving the quality of classroom feedback offers the greatest performance gains of any single instructional approach.” Black and William

Classroom Assessments • should be embedded within the teaching and learning of important content knowledge • should be an integral part of good instruction • should be based on the principle that all students can learn if assessment feedback is used effectively to inform instruction and learning

Classroom Assessments • are often called “Assessments for Learning” since they should be constantly utilized to guide student learning effectively • are crucial to improvement on state-wide or nationally administered tests • are appropriate onlywhen they can affirmatively answer the question “Does the assessment have an impact on student learning?”

Improving Classroom Assessments • Useful assessment should determine if students can use their learning – not just regurgitate information or facts. Most state-wide or national assessments are not on a recall level. • Students need to adapt learning to new situations (application of knowledge or transfer). • Student knowledge must be generalizable - i.e. the concept or skill is applicable in all sorts of settings. • Teachers should use diverse kinds of questions to assess students’ ability to generalize conceptual understanding.

Improving Classroom Assessments • Students should have practice answering questions in various formats so they can focus on the content and intent of the question. • Students who only learned by rote, and only are assessed by rote, will have difficulty with novel questions. • Classroom practice should use meaningful questions assessing a depth of knowledge.

Utilizing Assessment Data to Inform Instruction • Analysis of the results of formative classroom assessment should reveal student misconceptions or lack of student learning. • Analysis of student test results indicate whether the teacher needs to review or re-teach the concepts.

Utilizing Assessment Data to Inform Instruction • Using Distractor Analysis • Each multiple choice question has one correct answer and 3 distractors. • A good assessment question elicits a correct response and differentiates from misconceptions. • The distractors in MC questions should be plausible to distinguish between correct and incorrect concepts.

Utilizing Assessment Data to Inform Instruction • Using Distractor Analysis • Encourage students to explain why they chose their answer. This is an excellent opportunity to discover misconceptions. • Explain why incorrect answers are incorrect. Understanding aids retention. • Review or re-teach. Feedback is crucial to student learning. It should be as immediate and applicable as possible in order to catch the “teachable moment.”

How do we improve student achievement? • Teach to the standards • All state-wide assessments are aligned to standards… not to a textbook.Classroom curriculum, instruction and assessments must be aligned to the standards. • Create assessment beforeinstruction. • Set curricular goals during planning priorto teaching the standards (Backwards Planning Model). • Examine allclassroom assessments to identify and clarify instructional objectives. • Ask yourself if all classroom activities and assignments are aligned and valid for purposes of instruction or assessment.

Where do we begin?During instructional planning ask yourself the following questions: What are the essential learning objectives of this unit of study How many objectives belong in this segment of instruction? At what cognitive level should students be able to process this new learning? What literacy elements should be incorporated? How should I best assess the acquisition of this new knowledge before, during and after instruction?

To your rescue… The new Enhanced Support Document was written for teachers to assist in the process of planning instruction and assessment.

Utilizing the Backwards Planning Approach… After Reading the standard and indicator and thinking about the taxonomic cognitive level of verb used in both, go to the Enhanced Support Document and Read the Assessment Guidelines. The level of assessment is determined by the cognitive level of the indicator. A variety of expected cognitive process outcomes are listed as exemplars. Read the Essential and Non-essential Information to assist you in determining the specificity of the standard and indicators. Read the Prior and Future Knowledge section to remind you of what your students should already know and how the education you are responsible for will be built upon in the future. Plan your formative and summative assessments, making sure that they are valid and appropriate. Utilize the release items found on the Office of Assessment’s portion of the SCDE website. Plan intellectual activities in which a student must engage in order to be successful in dealing with the tasks contained in the assessments.

Let’s try the process like our committee did. Standard 8-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the American Civil War – its causes and effects and the major events that occurred during that time. Indicator 8-3.1: Explain the importance of agriculture in antebellum South Carolina, including plantation life, slavery, and the impact of the cotton gin.

Did teacher understanding of content and cognitive level match SCDE expectations? Was the bridge constructed so that it met in the middle? Let’s look at an item from the state SS item bank to see…

How did the invention of the cotton gin most directly affect South Carolina’s economy? • It caused a rapid growth in urbanization due to increased cotton production. • It decreased the size of plantations because more cotton could be grown on less land. • It led to plantations being established further west because increased cotton production depleted the soil. • It encouraged Northern textile manufacturers to move their factories to the South to meet the increased demand for cotton products.

How did the invention of the cotton gin most directly affect South Carolina’s economy? • It caused a rapid growth in urbanization due to increased cotton production. • It decreased the size of plantations because more cotton could be grown on less land. • It led to plantations being established further west because increased cotton production depleted the soil. • It encouraged Northern textile manufacturers to move their factories to the South to meet the increased demand for cotton products. 46% 15% 18% 21%

What did this teach us? • That countless revisions were necessary in order to match practiced curriculum, instruction, and assessment with what was prescribed. • That the Enhanced Support Document (bridge building) is needed, as its creation process revealed unintentional gaps in teaching that could be corrected. • That further guidelines for actual test construction/use would also be helpful.

What should our own multiple choice test items look like? Use test items developed by the state as a model. Go to the released items on the SCDE website!

Grade 3 Standard 3-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the exploration and settlement of South Carolina and the United States. Indicator 3-2.4: Compare the culture, governance, and geographic location of different Native American nations in South Carolina, including the three principal nations – Cherokee, Catawba, and Yemassee – that influenced the development of colonial South Carolina.

How were Native American tribes in South Carolina most alike when European settlers first arrived? 23% 34% 25% 18% • They used gold to trade for goods. • Their religious beliefs were based on nature. • They used the ocean to get most of their food. • Their governments were based on written laws. • They used gold to trade for goods. • Their religious beliefs were based on nature. • They used the ocean to get most of their food. • Their governments were based on written laws.

Grade 3 Standard 3-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the events that let to the Civil War, the course of the War and Reconstruction, and South Carolina’s role in these events. Indicator 3-4.5: Summarize the effects of the Civil War on the daily lives of people of different classes in South Carolina, including the lack of food, clothing, and living essentials and the continuing racial tensions.

What did most slaves in South Carolina do during the Civil War? 19% 45% 14% 22% • They stayed on plantations. • They escaped to Northern states. • They revolted against their owners. • They fought in the Confederate army. • They stayed on plantations. • They escaped to Northern states. • They revolted against their owners. • They fought in the Confederate army.

Grade 4 Standard 4-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the settlement of North America by Native Americans, Europeans, and African Americans and the interactions among these people. Indicator 4-2.3: Identify the English, Spanish, and French colonies in North America and summarize the motivations for the settlement of these colonies, including freedom of worship, and economic opportunity.

Which country colonized most of the land between the Atlantic coast and the Appalachian Mountains? • Portugal • Spain • France • England • Portugal • Spain • France • England 12% 26% 18% 44%

Grade 5 Standard 5-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the economic boom-and-bust in America in the 1920s and 1930s, its resultant political instability, and the subsequent worldwide response. Indicator 5-4.4: Explain the principal events related to the United States’ involvement in World War II – including the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the invasion in Normandy, Pacific island hopping, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and the role of key figures in this involvement such as Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler.

In World War II, how were the German and Soviet governments alike? • They were communist. • They were dictatorships. • They declared war on Japan. • They declared war on the United States. • They were communist. • They were dictatorships. • They declared war on Japan. • They declared war on the United States. 36% 31% 15% 18%

Grade 5 Standard 5-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of major domestic and foreign developments that contributed to the United States’ becoming a world power. Indicator 5-3.4: Summarize the significance of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to America in the early 1900s, including the countries from which they came, the opportunities and resistance they faced when they arrived, and the cultural and economic contributions they made to this nation.

A transatlantic ship entering New York harbor in the 1920s most likely carried the largest number of immigrants from which country? • Ireland • Canada • China • Italy • Ireland • Canada • China • Italy 23% 11% 42% 24%

Grade 6 Standard 6-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in ancient classical civilizations and their contributions to the modern world. Indicator 6-2.1: Compare the origins, founding leaders, basic principles, and diffusion of major religions and philosophies as they emerged and expanded, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Secondary alignment to Indicator 6-4.5: Summarize the characteristics of the Islamic civilization and the geographic aspects of its expansion.

To which region did the Islamic religion first spread after the death of its founder, Muhammad, in A.D. 632? • Australia • Northern Africa • America • Western Europe • Australia • Northern Africa • America • Western Europe 06% 42% 06% 46%

Enhancing Student Achievement: Building Bridges Between Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment