The Power of Common Assessments

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The Power of Common Assessments

• October 23, 2007

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• One of the most
• powerful,
• high-leverage
• strategies
• for improving student learning
• that is available to schools
• is the creation of

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frequent, common, high-quality formative asses
sment by teachers who are working collaborativel
y to help a group of students develop
agreed-upon knowledge and skills
(Fullan, 2005aHargreaves Fink, 2006 Reeves,
2004 Schomoker, 2003 Stiggins, 2005).
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• State and provincial tests are
• summative assessments.
• Their purpose is to determine whether students
  have met intended standards by a specific
  deadline.
  
• They are assessments OF learning.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker Many

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Summative assessments can provide helpful
information regarding the strengths and
weaknesses of curriculum and programs in a
district, school or department. They often serve
as a means of promoting institutional
accountability.
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• Formative assessments
• are assessments FOR learning that measure a
  few things frequently.
  
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker Many

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• Formative assessments are timely in-process
  measurements that can inform teachers
  individually and collectively regarding the
  effectiveness of their practice.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker Many

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• One could compare the former (summative
  assessment) to an autopsy,
  
• and the latter (formative assessment) to a
  physical examination.
  
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker Many

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• A summative assessment, like an autopsy, can
  provide useful information that explains why the
  patient has failed, but the information comes
  too late...
• at least from the patients perspective.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• A formative assessment, like a physical
  examination, can provide both the doctor and
  the patient with timely information regarding
  the patients well-being and can help with a
  prescription for an ailing person or assist a
  healthy person to become even stronger.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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Criteria for Identifying Essential Common
Outcomes
To separate the essential from the peripheral,
carefully apply these 3 criteria to each standard

• Endurance are students expected to retain the
  skills/knowledge long after the test is
  completed?
  
• Leverage is this skill/knowledge applicable to
  many academic discipline?
  
• Readiness for the Next Level of Learning is
  this skill/knowledge preparing the student for
  success in the next grade/course?

Doug Reeves
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• Can the teachers in Grade 5 identify the
  essential outcomes for a fourth grade student?

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Clearly defined goals help teachers provide
descriptive feedback to students and provides
students with concrete insights in how to
improve. The growth they experience helps build
their confidence as learners.
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• If all students are expected to demonstrate the
  same knowledge and skills, regardless of the
  teacher to which they are assigned, it only makes
  sense that teachers must work together to assess
  student learning.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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Common formative assessments represent the most
effective strategies for determining whether the
guaranteed curriculum is being taught and more
importantly, learned. Dufour, Dufour,
Eaker and Many
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Common, team-developed formative assessments a
re such a powerful tool in school improvement
that no team of teachers should be allowed to opt
out of creating them. Dufour, Dufour, Eaker
and Many
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• Common formative assessments inform the
  practice of individual teachers. They provide
  teachers with a basis of comparison as they
  learn, skill by skill, how the performance of
  their students is similar to and different from
  other students who took the assessment.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• With this information, a teacher can seek
  assistance from teammates on areas of concern and
  can share strategies and ideas on skills in which
  his or her students excelled.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• When collaborative teams of teachers have the
  opportunity to examine indicators of the
  achievement of all students in their course or
  grade level and track those indicators over time,
  they are able to identify and address problem
  areas in their program.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• Their collective analysis can lead to new
  curriculum, pacing, materials, and instructional
  strategies designed to strengthen the academic
  program they offer.
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• Common formative assessments help identify
  groups of students who need additional time and
  support to ensure their learning.
  
• Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many

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• While the research on the use of formative
  assessment is compelling, the practice seems
  mindboggling and overwhelming to well-intentioned
  teachers.

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• How could I do that?
• We dont have that much time for each unit of
  instruction
  
• If I dont grade it, kids wont do it
• But if I did it, then I have to be prepared to
  differentiate based on the results and that would
  be a management nightmare.

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• Everything students might.
• say
• do
• create
• has the potential to be formative because it
  can provide information about how much then
  understand and helps the teacher plan the next
  steps of instruction.

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• The challenge in good formative assessment is to
  see how we can best utilize the key processes and
  student information that is already at our
  disposal.
• What you are doing everyday in class!
• The following scenarios is offered as a
  picture of what it could look like.

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Your Turn

• Name a formative assessment strategy you
  currently use to support learners in any stage of
  learning.

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Characteristics of Quality Formative Assessments
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Common Assessment Reflections
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Common Assessment Reflections
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Ainsworth and Viegut on Common Formative
Assessments

• Use the metaphor of a matched pair of
  bookends. The power standards/essential outcomes
  and the final summative assessment are the
  matched pair of bookends.
• Differentiated instruction
• Learning activities
• Assigned student work
• Classroom formative assessments
• Re-teaching and enriching of the standards
• are the books that typically appear between
  the bookends.

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