State Assessment Systems Exploring Best Practices and Innovations: Summary of Two Workshops (2010) / Chapter Skim
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7 Making Use of Assessment Information
7 Making Use of Assessment Information
Pages 83-94
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From page 83... ...
As she had discussed earlier, when rich assessment tasks are embedded in the curriculum, they can serve multiple purposes more effectively than can current accountability tests and can influence instruction in positive ways. She provided several examples of tasks that engage students in revealing their thinking and reasoning and that elicit complex knowledge and skills.
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From page 84... ...
Such an assessment system could also make it easier for policy makers to understand student performance: for example, they could see not just abstract scores, but exemplars of student work, at the classroom, school, or district level. 1For detailed descriptions of learning progressions in English/language arts, mathematics, and other subjects, Darling-Hammond pointed participants to the website of England's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (http://www.qcda.gov.uk/ [accessed June 2010]
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From page 85... ...
SOURCE: Reprinted with permission from Linda Darling-Hammond on behalf of Stanford University School Redesign Network, Using Assessment to Guide Instruction: "Ohio Perfor mance Assessment Project ‘Heating Degree Days' Task." Copyright 2009 by Ohio Department of Education. SUPPORTINg TEACHERS Many teachers seem to have difficulty using assessment information to plan instruction, Margaret Heritage observed, but if they don't know how to do this, "they are really not going to have the impact on student learning that is the goal of all this investment on effort." A number of studies have documented this problem, examining teachers' use of assessments designed to inform instruction in reading, mathematics, and science (Herman et al., 2006; Heritage et al., 2009; Heritage, Jones, and White, 2010; Herman, Osmubdson, and Silver, 2010)
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From page 86... ...
This understanding of how ideas develop from rudimentary forms into more sophisticated conceptual frameworks is the foundation for the learning maps discussed earlier (see Chapter 2) and is also key to teachers' work.
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From page 87... ...
Thus, learners need not only to accumulate discrete knowledge, but also to develop increasingly sophisticated conceptual frameworks for the knowledge and skills they are acquiring. They also need to use metacognitive strategies to guide their own learning -- that is, to monitor and assess their own progress and develop strategies for making progress.
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From page 88... ...
If clear descriptions of learning progressions were available, assessments could be linked to clear descriptions of performance goals and of what particular levels of competence look like. Teachers also need an array of resources that support them in interpreting information and acting on it.
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From page 89... ...
The professional development approach includes teacher workshop time to participate in developing a standards-based assessment and for analyzing student work. Another, the Hawaii Progress Maps, has focused on documenting learning pro gression and formative assessment practices (Hess, Kurizaki, and Holt, 2009)
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From page 90... ...
However, the legislation that resulted diverged significantly from what had been requested, though it incorporates some ele ments. Siskind said districts have had mixed reactions to some of the changes suggested, noting that "some things that are lovingly embraced when they are voluntary turn evil when they are mandated." Peg Cagle, a long-time middle school mathematics teacher in California, began with the observation that "a good assessment system would buttress, not batter, classroom teachers." She noted that she was extremely impressed by the visionary ideas presented at the workshop, but that "the most visionary design coupled with myopic implementation is not going to improve teaching or learning." At present, she said, the California state assessment system has very high stakes for teachers but not for students, so, in effect, teachers are rewarded for
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From page 91... ...
Current assessments, by and large, she argued, reflect "a tragically impoverished view of what public education is supposed to provide." AggREgATINg INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES Laurie Wise returned to the idea of a coherent system, a term that implies disparate, but interrelated, parts that work together. He focused on how it might be possible to aggregate disparate elements to provide summative information that meets a range of purposes.
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From page 92... ...
These models could be devised to permit some of both, thus allowing teachers to see how closely their formative results map onto summative results. For example, each of the tests administered throughout the year could include both summa tive and formative portions, some of which might be scored by the teacher and some of which might be scored externally.
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From page 93... ...
One solution would be to incorporate other kinds of information about teachers, as is done in many other employment settings. For example, teacher ratings could include not only student achievement data, but also principal and peer ratings on such factors as contributions to the school as a whole and the learning environment, inno vations, and so forth.
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