Welcome to Methuen High School!

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Methuen Public Schools
Formative Assessment to Improve Student Learning
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Formative vs. Summative Assessment
TO PRODUCE GRADE REPORTS SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
shows the students knowledge/skills after the
learning about a topic has happened. TO GUIDE
TEACHING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT shows the
students knowledge/skills while the learning
about a topic is happening.
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Formative Assessment
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT is Ongoing assessment
during the learning process that provides data to
guide instruction and improve performance Example
s Diagnostic tests Questionnaires Observation,
conference notes, small-group assessments Any
tools or techniques used to check for
understanding Examination of daily class work,
homework, or other work produced while
students are still practicing the
knowledge/skills they are being taught
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Formative Assessment and Feedback
Its all about FEEDBACK for the teacherto
teach more effectively. for the studentto learn
more effectively.
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Giving Feedback to Students Effective teachers

• Give feedback
• frequentlyduring or soon after the learning.
• to individuals, not just the whole class.
• in chunks that students can handle.
• in language that students can understand.
• Give feedback that
• Is descriptive rather than evaluative.
• (Example You included many details to support
  your main idea. vs. Great job on this
  paragraph!)
• Is specific.
• Offers a second chance for students to re-do the
  assignment and learn from the process!

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Using Feedback from Student Work

• Feedback tells a teacher how much individual
  students know and are able to do.
• Effective teachers use it systematically, to set
  up flexible groups and tiered assignments for
  students who
• Need some re-teaching.
• Are ready to move to the next step.
• Can skip the next step and/or go on to more
  advanced material.

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What Is Interim Assessment?
Interim assessments are common, district-wide,
formative assessments used to see how our
students are doing before they take MCAS. Many
districts now use interim assessments and are
seeing significant student growth. Well use the
results to respond to our students specific
strengths and learning needs in relation to the
state standards.
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How Will We Use Interim Assessment?

• The data will help us to
• Fine-tune our teaching.
• Identify students who need intervention.
• Plan curriculum revision.
• Interim assessments are not going to be used for
  teacher evaluation.

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What Will the Interim Assessments Involve?

• Twice a yearfall and winter
• One-hour assessments, with accommodations as
  specified in IEPs and 504 plans
• Grades 3-10 in reading/literature and writing
• Grades 2-10 in math
• Items matched to state standards and Methuens
  curricula
• Multiple-choice and open-response
• Writing sample

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How Were the Interim Assessments Developed?
School Brains Testing and Performance Assessment
System Questions from Questions
Designed in Online Item Bank
Methuen Design of items based on power
standards Collaborative design by coaches,
coordinators, teachers during 2008-2009 school
year Review by expert teachers in winter 2009,
then revisions
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How Will the Interim Assessments Be Scored?
Multiple-choice itemsscored electronically Open-r
esponse itemsscored by teacher teams, using
rubrics Training and guidance in using the
scoring rubrics will be provided for the teacher
scorers.
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How Will the Interim Assessments Be Scored?
Once the scoring is complete, a teacher will be
able to log into his/her computer and see how
all students in the district did. how all
students in the school did. how his/her class
as a whole did. how subgroups of students
did. how his/her students as individuals
did. There will be overall scores and item
analyses for both the interim assessments and
MCAS. Then individual teachers and school teams
can plan for differentiation and intervention.
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Future Uses for schoolBrains
Store and analyze reading scoresDRA and DIBELS
Develop and analyze assessments for transient
students Develop and analyze additional
assessments for students who need interventions
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Why Do Interim Assessment?
Lets work together to fix our students learning
problems during the year, rather than waiting
for MCAS and AYP to make summative judgments on
us all at the end of the year.