Panel on Math and Science Assessment

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Panel on Math and Science Assessment

• Remarks by
• Sharon P. Robinson
• President and CEO
• American Association of Colleges for Teacher
  Education
• at the
• Math and Science Summit
• Association of American Publishers
• October 4, 2007
• Doubletree Hotel, Crystal City, Virginia

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Why Test?

• Identify learning needs of individual students in
  order to provide effective, targeted teaching
• Judge students proficiency measure their growth
  over time
• Evaluate the effectiveness of educational
  programs
• Monitor schools for educational accountability

Source AAPs Standardized Assessment A Primer
(Revised Edition)
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The Importance of Assessment to Teachers

• Critically important
• effectiveness
• evidence, impact, and outcome
• Teacher job performance, pay
• Life-affirming or destructive effects on students

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The Importance of Assessment to Teachers

• Depends on
• Alignment with what was taught
• What kind of assessment
• How soon results received
• Specificity of score reports

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The Importance to Teachers of Formative
Assessment

• More important than any other form of assessment
• Known by various names incremental,
  developmental, constant review, cumulative,
  internal, or enhanced
• Growing in popularity 10-state pilot
• An increasingly prominent tool for school
  improvement

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Findings of Instructional Practices Task Group
of the National Math Panel

• Formative assessment enhances mathematics
  achievement, particularly when
• Information from specific responses is used to
  determine the focus of tutoring
• Expert teachers offer advice
• Peer tutoring is a component

Source Briefing September 18, 2007 on the
progress of the work of the National Mathematics
Advisory Panel, U. S. Department of Education
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What IS Formative Assessment?

• Assessment of students during instruction,
  enabling the immediate adjustment of instruction
  to improve achievement
• Features
• More frequent testing
• Greater sensitivity to instruction
• Multiple assessment methods
• Continuous stream of evidence of student progress
• Student understanding of scaffolding
• Assessment for learning
• Reason to improve learning
• Inform students about themselves
• Focus enabling targets

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Publishers Carry a Heavy Assessment Responsibility

• Materials play a key role in defining what
  students are taught and learn
• Dangers
• Misalignment with curriculum
• Obfuscation or illogical presentation
• Unclear wording, graphics
• Inappropriate difficulty level
• Too much detail lack of focus

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What Teachers are Expected to Know about
Assessment

• NCATE Standards
• Pre-service Coursework

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NCATE Unit Standard 1d. Student Learning for
Teacher Candidates

• ACCEPTABLE
• Teacher candidates in beginning programs
• Focus on student learning
• Assess and analyze student learning
• Make appropriate adjustments to instruction
• Monitor student progress.
• Can develop and implement meaningful learning
  experiences for students based on their
  developmental levels and prior experience
• Candidates in advanced programs
• Thoroughly understand the major concepts and
  theories of assessing student learning and
  regularly apply them
• Analyze student, classroom, and school
  performance data and make data-driven decisions
  about strategies for teaching and learning so
  that all students learn
• Are aware of and utilize resources that support
  student learning.

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Pre-Service Coursework

• No national summary data on preparation program
  assessment course requirements or offerings
• Great variation in course requirements/ options
• Required OR optional courses
• Partially OR totally about assessment
• Few specific courses on test data analysis

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What Teachers Wantfrom Assessments

• Assurance that assessments linked to publisher
  texts and instructional materials
• Are aligned with the texts and materials
• The texts and materials are aligned with the
  state standards and tests
• Fully cover the required content
• Measure both conceptual factual understanding
• Include the essential matter
• Are not a mile wide, inch deep
• Information to help improve instruction

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Annual MeetingFeb. 7-10th, 2008, New Orleans, LA

• General Sessions
• Opening Night Lee Shulman, Carnegie Foundation
  for the Advancement of Teaching
• Hunt Lecture Deborah Ball, Univ. of Mich.
• Invited Address Wendy Puriefoy, PEN
• Cohen Lecture Richard Ingersoll, U Penn
• Intnatl Lunch Lani Florian Martyn Rouse,
  Aberdeen University, Scotland
• Town Hall Paul Vallas, RSD, New Orleans Rose
  Duhon-Sells, Southern Univ. at NO Kenji Hakuta,
  Stanford Mike Cohen, Achieve, Inc. Lynn Olson,
  Education Week

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