Building Common Assessments

1. And Using! Building Common Assessments Rebecca Bush Ionia County ISD Kimberly Young Ionia County ISD/MDE

2. Session Targets • Session will address: • The key factors to consider when developing common assessments • Strategies and tools for building common assessments • Understanding of the rationale for and process of using common assessments

4. Common Assessments in the Context of PLCs(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many, 2006) • What is it we expect students to learn? • How will we know when students have learned it? • How will we respond when students don’t? • How will we respond when students do?

5. What Do We Mean by “Common Assessments”? Any assessment given by two or more instructors with the intention of collaboratively examining the results for: • Shared learning • Instructional planning for individual students, and/or • Curriculum, instruction, and/or assessment modifications

6. What Constitutes Effective Classroom Assessment? Key Points: • Assessment is information, not scores (Scores are accountability) • Assessment is best done early and often (Assessment at the end is accountability)

7. What Constitutes Effective Classroom Assessment? Assessment that: • Provides evidence of student performance relative to content and performance standards • Provides teachers and students with insight into student errors and misunderstanding • Helps lead the teacher and/or team directly to action

8. Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment Accurate Assessment 2. Clear Targets Assess what? What are the learning targets? Are they clear? Are they good? 1. Clear Purpose Why assess? What’s the purpose? Who will use the results? 3. Good Design Assess how? What method? Sampled how? Avoid bias--how? Effectively Used 4. Sound Communication Communicate how? How do we manage information? How do we report? 5. Student Involvement Students are users, too. Students need to understand learning targets, too. Students can participate in the assessment process, too. Students can track progress and communicate, too.

9. Practical Standards of Assessment • Serve clearly articulated purposes • Arise from and reflect clear achievement targets • Rely on the appropriate assessment method given in the context • Sample student achievement appropriately • Avoid unwanted sources of interference or error

10. Mapping A Common Assessment PlanTemplate

11. Designing Classroom AssessmentsFundamental Questions • What standard(s) are you assessing? • What kinds of evidence are you gathering? • What levels of performance do you expect?

12. Kinds of Achievement Targets • Master Factual and Procedural Knowledge • To be learned outright or retrieved through reference materials • Use Knowledge to Reason and Solve Problems • Analytical, comparative, inferential, or evaluative reasoning • Demonstrate mastery of Specific Skills

13. Kinds of Achievement Targets • Demonstrate mastery of Specific Skills • Speaking a second language, public presentations, working on a team, carrying out the steps in a process • Create Quality Products • Term papers, artistic/craft products, or science exhibits

14. Target-Method Match How well does your method of assessment match your target?

15. Target-Method Match How well does your method of assessment match your target?

16. Assessment Methods • Selected Response • Multiple choice • True/false • Matching • Fill in • Writing Assessments • Constructed response • Extended response • Essay

17. Assessment Methods • Performance Assessments • Skills • Products • Demonstrations • Personal Communication • Questions/answers • Conferences • Interviews • Oral examinations

19. Let’s look at an example of one question in two formats designed to gather different information

20. Multiple-Choice Format A school bus holds 36 high school students. If 1,128 high school students are being bused to a special event, how many buses are needed? a. 12 b. 31 c. 31.33 d. 32

21. Constructed Response Format A school bus holds 36 high school students. If 1,128 high school students are being bused to a special event, how many buses are needed? Explain your answer.

22. Student Responses to the Constructed-Response Task • If you have 31 buses there are 12 students left over. These students can squeeze into 31 buses. So they need 31 buses. • You need 31 buses, but there are 12 students left. They need to go too. So you just need another mini-van. There fore, answer should be 31 buses and one mini-van.

23. Student Responses to the Constructed-Response Task • Twelve students are left, another bus is need for 12 students, so the answer is 32. • Out of the 31 buses you can choose 12 busses to hole the 12 students, each bus holds 1 extra student. Therefore, you just need 31 buses. How could this question be improved to elicit the desired student response?

24. Why Create a Protocol? • Creates a safe place to take risks that positively impact student learning • Keeps the focus on student learning • Fosters collaboration that supports clear learning targets and high expectations for all students

25. Student Work Speaks! • Seeking Evidence Protocol • Post and Pass Scoring • Consensus in scoring • Reflecting on Data Sets • Let’s try it!

26. 8th Grade Inquiry Standard Common Assessment DataTeam Results • I can define and identify Quantitative Data • I can define and identify Qualitative Data • I can create examples of and geographically display Quantitative Data • I can create examples of and logically organize Qualitative Data • I can manipulate quantitative data to be qualitative and qualitative data to be quantitative Classroom Proficiency

27. 8th Grade Inquiry Standard CommonAssessment DataIndividual Classroom Results

28. 8th grade Inquiry Test Common Assessment DataClassroom D’s Results by Student

29. 8th Grade Inquiry Test Common Assessment Classroom D’s Results by Student and Target

30. Looking at Common Assessments • Imagine this is your data. Address the results for your classroom/building as if you are trying to improve student learning • Use the following Reflection Questions: • As a team, which targets from the assessment require more attention? • As a team, which students did not master the targets? • As a team, which classrooms require additional support: • As an individual teacher, which area was my lowest, and how can I improve in that area?

31. Looking at Common Assessments • Create and explain a team plan of action to address the needs of students who have not mastered the required targets. • Planning a PLC/Team Response template

33. Contact Information • Rebecca Bush Ionia County ISD rjbush@ioniaisd.org 616.522.1407 • Kimberly Young Ionia County ISD youngk1@michigan.gov 517.373.0988