An Urban District Uses Assessment Data to Improve Instruction

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An Urban District Uses Assessment Data to Improve
Instruction

• Astrid Fossum Sharonda M. Harris Mathematics
  Teaching Specialists Milwaukee Public Schools
• fossumag_at_milwaukee.k12.wi.us
• harrissm_at_milwaukee.k12.wi.us

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In this session participants will

• Explore a professional development model used to
  inform classroom instruction.
• Examine how district leaders are working with
  teachers to support the use of formative
  assessments in mathematics.
• Engage in writing effective descriptive feedback.

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Milwaukee Public Schools

• 209 schools
• 87,360 Students
• 2006-2007, percentage of students
  proficient/advanced in mathematics
• Grade 4, 52
• Grade 8, 40
• Grade 10, 29
• 4,793 Teachers

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Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership

• NSF/MSP Grant
• Math Teacher Leader (MTL) positions
• Assessment Pilot Leaders (APL), Grades K-7
• Foundation Level Assessment Leaders, Grades 8 and
  9

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Comprehensive Mathematics Framework
References National Research Council. (2001).
Adding it up. Mathematics Learning Study
Committee, Center for Education, Division of
Behavioral Sciences and Education, National
Research Council. Washington, DC National
Academy Press. National Research Council. (2002).
Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Mathematics
Learning Study Committee, J. Kilpatrick J.
Swafford, Editors. Center for Education, Division
of Behavioral Sciences and Education. Washington,
DC National Academy Press. Wisconsin Department
of Public Instruction. (1998). Wisconsins model
academic standards for mathematics. Madison, WI
Author.
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CABS Classroom Assessments Based on Standards

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Why?

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District Learning Targets
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State Assessment Descriptors
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Description of Assessment
CABS Class Summary Report
School Teacher Date Grade Level _______Sp.Ed _______Reg.Ed
MPS Learning Target(s) State Descriptor(s) Expectations (What do you expect to see on students paper to demonstrate understanding?)
Students Successes Students Challenges
Next Steps Next Steps
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Description of Assessment
CABS Assessment Overview After working through
the assessment, reflect on what you expect
students to do. Complete the following table
before developing your descriptive feedback.
School Teacher Date Grade Level ______Sp.Ed _______Reg.Ed
Identify appropriate Key Mathematics Features students may develop as a response to this assessment Identify misconceptions you anticipate students will demonstrate

Identify misconceptions you observed in the students work


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Descriptive FeedbackOur Journey

• To use student work from CABS to drive
  instructional decisions on what we do next in
  the classroom and to provide appropriate and
  continuous feedback to students.
• How do teachers give students descriptive
  feedback that prompts them to self-reflect on
  ways to improve their work?

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Types of Feedback

• Motivational Feedback
• Evaluative Feedback
• Descriptive Feedback
• Effective Descriptive Feedback

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Motivational Feedback

• Goal is to make the learner feel good.
• Feedback that is intended to encourage and
  support the learner.
• Does not give guidance on how to improve the
  learners reasoning.
• I like how you completed the assignment.

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Evaluative Feedback

• Goal is to measure student achievement with a
  score or a grade.
• Feedback that is intended to summarize student
  achievement.
• Does not give guidance on how to improve the
  learners reasoning.
• 73

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Descriptive Feedback

• Goal is to improve student achievement by telling
  the learner what steps to take in order to move
  forward in the learning process.
• Feedback that is intended to tell the learner
  what needs to be improved.
• Gives specific guidance as to how to improve the
  learners reasoning.
• You accurately found the number of students in
  4th grade who said ice cream was their favorite.
  You now need to divide this number by the total
  number of students to get the percent who said
  ice cream was their favorite.

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Effective Descriptive Feedback

• Goal is for students to internalize the effective
  feedback.
• Feedback that is intended to be used by the
  learner to independently move their reasoning to
  the next level.
• I agree with the pattern that you have
  identified in the table. I am not convinced that
  the rule you wrote works for all the values in
  the table. How could you prove this?

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Types of Feedback
Motivational Evaluative Descriptive Effective
Feedback is primarily motivational Feedback is primarily evaluative Descriptive feedback primarily tells the student how to correct their reasoning. Descriptive feedback asks the student what to do to move their reasoning to the next level.
Purpose to encourage and support the learner Purpose to measure student achievement with a score or a grade Purpose to improve learning by indicating to the student what needs to be improved Purpose to improve learning, by moving student reasoning to the next level
More Summative More Formative
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Description of Assessment
Student Feedback Summary
School Teacher School Teacher Date Grade Level _______Sp.Ed _______Reg.Ed
Student Name Descriptive Feedback to Student (Frame with language to students that challenges them to revise, redo, relearn, or expand.) Summary of Instructional Decisions (How much re-teaching is needed? What follow-up is needed? Do my lesson plans need to be revised?)




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Successes

• Teacher
• Conversations around student work
• Identify different student strategies
• Increased understanding of formative assessment
• Instructional decisions based on identified
  misconceptions and challenges
• Descriptive Feedback can save on re-teaching time

• Student
• Increased achievement
• Ability to clear up misconceptions on second
  attempts, without re-teaching/intervention
• Self-reflection on ways to improve their work
• Increased involvement in self-assessment

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Challenges

• Teacher
• Buy-In
• Time commitment
• Record-keeping
• Grading
• Redundancy

• Student
• Interpretation of the feedback
• Looking for a grade
• Lack of motivation

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Resources

• Black, P., Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black
  box Raising standards through assessment. Phi
  Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148.
• Brookhart, S.M., (2007). Feedback That Fits.
  Educational Leadership, 65(4), 54-59.
• Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J., Chappuis, J.,
  Chappuis, S. (2005). Assessment FOR Learning An
  Action Guide for School Leaders. Portland, OR
  Assessment Training Institute.
• Wiggins, G., McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding
  by Design. Alexandria, VA Association for
  Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership (MMP), an
initiative of the Milwaukee Partnership Academy
(MPA), is supported with funding from the
National Science Foundation under Grant No.
EHR-0314898