Some Elements & Ideas Large Scale Assessment

Some Elements & Ideas Large Scale Assessment Situate

Elements • Purposes • Information targets • Administration • Scoring • Analysis • Reporting

Purposes Generate estimates of student achievement of important learning outcomes • In order to: • provide feedback to students, parents & teachers in relation to – • other students in BC • expectations or standards of performance • provide information about the mean performance of various populations within the BC school system – schools, districts, the province, student sub-populations

Purposes Collect information about student traits, attitudes & perceptions Collect information about instructional conditions & practices Collect information about home & community characteristics & conditions • In order to: • investigate relationships amongst student, home & school traits and learning outcomes • perhaps yielding instructionally relevant information about the learning performance of our students

Purpose JOA To identify, collect and analyze information related to students, schools and homes that could help educators, policy makers and the public better understand learning practices, student traits and perceptions, and instructional conditions and practices that have direct association with important learning outcomes.

Information targets • Domains • Achievement: • The basics – reading, writing, arithmetic • Other curricular areas – e.g.: science, physical activities, history, arts, ... • Cross curricular competencies • Thinking – critical, creative reflective • Communications – language & symbols, digital • Personal & Social – identity, personal & social awareness and responsibility • Attitudes & perceptions • e.g.: self concepts, attitude to learning & schools, motivation, engagement,

Information targets • Populations • Students • Schools • School districts • Province • Other information • Graduation / retention rates / absentee frequencies & patterns • Physical health indices • Social indicators – satisfaction, bullying reports, absentee rates, student/teacher engagement age / grade status curricular location . . .

Administration • Scheduling • one time per cycle • on demand within cycle – for individualized learning • Tracks • single track like current 12-month cycle or 3 year like PCAP or PISA, or . . . • multi-track – annual for basic skills with more expansive, researchy cycle for the C3 assessment

Cross Curricular Competencies Learning Standards Enduring Understandings

Administration • Medium – paper/pencil, computer, performance/observational • Scoring • centralized • classroom based • on-line – • analogous to current FSA • with local report & central aggregation

Scoring Raw scores Transformed scores - normative Category levels – competency-standards related Test level Sub-tests Item level

Analysis Descriptive Comparative Relational • Levels of aggregation • Class/School/District/Province • Student groupings – gender/status/location/. . .

Reporting • Aggregation levels: • Students & Teachers • Schools • School districts • Province • Audiences: • Students & Parents • Teachers & Schools • School districts • Province – the public/the Ministry

Reporting • Content • Descriptive – means, SD, distributions, correlations • Comparative – jurisdictions/to standards & expectations/across time • Relational – correlates of learning • Commentary – informed & reasoned

end • Miscellaneous • Budget • Security • Teacher engagement • Public interest & awareness • Periodicity • Monitoring – both the LSA & the responses

Some Elements & Ideas Large Scale Assessment