Common Assessments: The Key to Uncommon Results for ... · (DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to...

Common Assessments:The Key to Uncommon Results

for Student and Teacher Learners

Sharon V. Kramer, Tico Oms,

& Treena Casey

solution-tree.com | 888.763.9045


Common Assessments:The Key to Uncommon Results

for Student and Teacher Learners

Sharon V. Kramer, PhDTreena Casey

Tico Oms


We Will …

Examine the role of both formative and summative assessments.

Understand the reasons for developing and administering assessments in common.

Understand how to use data to improve practice and student learning.

Determine the implications for teacher and team assessments.

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Clarity Precedes Competence

In effective school systems, employees at all levels can explain consistently what they are doing and why.

Everyone can talk the walk with shared understanding.

(DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to Last:Systemic PLCs at Work, 2013)


The Right Work

Collaborative teams monitor student learning through an ongoing assessment process that includes frequent, team-developed common formative assessments.

Common formative assessments are the lynchpinof the PLC process.


What Do These Terms Mean?

Formative assessment Summative assessment Common formative assessment

Discuss your understanding of these terms with an elbow partner.

Which type of assessment is more prevalent in your school?

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Crucial DistinctionAssessment of Learning

How much have students learned at a particular point in time?

Assessment for LearningHow can we use assessment to help students learn more?


From Measuring to Diagnosing

Summative data measure student progress.o Exemplary, proficient, below, far below

Formative data help teachers diagnose student learning needs.o Specific next steps


So Why Do We NeedFormative Assessments?

If we examine the research …

Inside the Black Box:Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment

Black & Wiliam (1998)



Black & Wiliam Questions

1. Does better formative assessment equal high test scores?

2. Does formative assessment need improving?3. What improvement is needed?



1. Does better formative assessment equal higher test scores?

Yes!


Research FindingsStudy S.D. Gains

Bloom, 1984 1.0 to 2.0*Black & Wiliam, 1998 0.5 to 1.0**Meisels et al., 2003 0.7 to 1.5Rodriguez, 2004 0.5 to 1.8**

*Rivals one-on-one tutorial instruction**Largest gains for low achievers

(Stiggins, 2005)



1.0 Standard Deviation Equals …

30+ percentile on ITBS (middle-of-score range) Four grade equivalents 100 SAT score points 6 ACT score points U.S. TIMMS rank from 23rd to top five Potential elimination of score gaps

Unprecedented achievement gains


In Fact …

“When implemented well, formative assessment can effectively double the speed of student learning.”

—Wiliam, in Reeves, Ahead of the Curve: The Power of Assessment to Transform

Teaching and Learning, 2007



2. Does formative assessment need improving?

Yes!




3. What improvement is needed?

Accuracy Descriptive feedback Student involvement


John Hattie

Visible Learning:A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses

Relating to Achievement


Visible Learning is a meta-meta analysis of: More than 800 meta-analyses Comprising over 50,000 individual studies Representing the student achievement of more

than 800 million students worldwide



Barometers of Influence

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An Assessment Is Formative …

If it is used to identify students who experience difficulty learning

If students who have difficulty receive additional time and support for learning

If students receive an additional opportunity to demonstrate learning

If teachers use the results to inform and improve their individual and collective practice



If it is used to identify students who have already learned the targets

If students who have learned them receive extra time to extend their learning

If students receive an additional opportunity to demonstrate their extended learning

If teachers use the results to inform and improve their individual and collective practice




… if students are involved in the entire process.

Formative assessment informs learning. It puts students in the driver’s seat.


Formative assessment is the partnership of teachers with their students.

“Teachers become more effective, students become actively engaged, and both become intentional learners.”

—Moss & Brookhart, Advancing Formative Assessmentin Every Classroom: A Guide for Instructional Leaders (2009), p. 5


What Are Common Assessments?

“Not standardized tests, but rather teacher-created, teacher-owned assessments that are collaboratively scored and that provide immediate feedback to students and teachers.”

—Douglas Reeves, CEO and founder,The Leadership and Learning Center



Common Assessment

Any assessment given by two or more teachers with the intention of collaboratively examining results for:

Instructional planning for individual students

Shared teacher learning of instructional strategies and assessment improvements

Curriculum, instruction, and/or assessment modifications


What are the benefits of creating and administering assessments as a team?


Why Common Formative Assessments?

Efficiency: By sharing the load, teachers save time. Fairness: They promote common goals, similar

pacing, and consistent standards to assess student proficiency.

Effective Monitoring: Monitoring provides timely evidence of whether the guaranteed and viable curriculum is being taught and learned.



Why Common Assessments?

Team Capacity: Collaborative teacher teams can identify and address problem areas in their programs.

Collective Response: They support timely systemic interventions for students.

Informed Teacher Practice: Individual teachers obtain the basis of comparison that enables them to identify strengths and weaknesses in their teaching.


The Key Challenge in Schools: Changing Behavior

The key challenge in improving our practice is getting people to change their behavior.


What Might Motivate a Teacher to Change Practice? Sending him to a workshop or graduate course on

using different teaching strategies? Pointing out that students in other classes earn

higher grades? Having the principal visit the class to evaluate his

teaching and suggest changes? Seeing poor student performance on a test?



We’re Okay … They’re Not Okay …

According to a 2009 MetLife survey of teachers in the United States: 84 percent of teachers “are very confident that they

have the knowledge and skills necessary to enable all of their students to succeed academically.”

Only 36 percent of teachers “believe that all of their students have the ability to succeed academically.”


What Really Changes Practice?

“Nothing changes the mind like the hard, cold world hitting it with actual real-life data.”

(Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, & Switzler,Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, 2008)

“Teachers have to believe there is some compelling reason for them to change practice, with the best direct evidence being that students learn better. The key to enduring change in teacher practice is demonstrable results in terms of student achievement.”

(Elmore, Knowing the Right Thing to Do:School Improvement and Performance–Based

Accountability, 2003, p. 38)

Concrete evidence of irrefutably better results


Power of Positive Peer Pressure

Effective PLCs “get amazing results” because “peers are supporting and pressuring each other to do better.”

(Fullan, The Moral Imperative Realized, 2011)

Peer pressure and the distaste for letting down a colleague or the team is a powerful motivator.

(Lencioni, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team:A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators, 2015)

In high-performing teams, members hold each other accountable. Everyone carries his or her own weight.

(Blanchard, Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadershipand Creating High-Performing Organizations, 2007)



Team Analysis of Transparent Results

Successful schools: Focus on student work through common formative

assessment. Use the evidence of student learning to identify and

solve problems. Change their instructional practice accordingly to

get better results. Do all of this on a continual basis—unit by unit of

instruction.


Most Powerful Strategy

Teachers work together in collaborative teams to identify the most effective teaching strategies.

Reflective teaching must be based on evidence of student learning. Reflection is most powerful when it is collaborative.


But Accurate AssessmentIs Not Enough

It is not about creating the assessment, administering the assessment, scoring the assessment, or discussing the data as a team.

It is about what you do next!


Which Students Are You Concerned About?


Use Assessment to …

Inform and improve individual practice. Improve the effectiveness of the team. Identify students who need additional time and

support for learning. Identify students who are ready to extend their

learning. Provide precise, diagnostic feedback by examining

student work. Determine proven strategies for addressing the

problems.


Critical Mistake in Using Formative Assessment

Formative assessment results are used to clarify what the student needs to do differently.

Effective formative assessment must inform us about what we need to do differently.



Using Results of Common Assessments for Short-Term Goals1. Examine results of assessments from the previous

year.2. Identify problem areas.3. Develop a plan for improving on those areas.4. Set a short-term goal for the unit.5. Apply criteria consistently (inter-rater reliability).


Keys to Effective Assessments

Clear learning targets that can be taught in the time available

Commitment to standards-based instruction focused on learning for all

Aligned assessments with sufficient items to draw valid conclusions

Clearly communicated results Rigor and format to prepare students for high-

stakes assessments


Simulate the Challenge

How do we prepare for the driving test? How do golfers prepare for the Masters

Tournament?

What implications does this have for our practice?



What About Performance Assessments?

First, agree on the criteria by which you will judge the quality of student work.

Second, apply those criteria consistently.


Thank You!

To schedule professional developmentat your site, contact Solution Tree

at [email protected].

Sharon Kramer, PhD • [email protected]

Treena Casey • [email protected]

Tico Oms • [email protected]


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Reviews of accountability data from hundreds of schools reveal the schools with the greatest gains in achievement consistently employ common assessments, nonfiction writing, and collaborative scoring by faculty (Reeves, 2004).

Powerful, proven structures for improved results are at hand. “It starts when a group of teachers meet regularly as a team to identify essential and valued student learning, develop common formative assessments, analyze current levels of achievement, set achievement goals, and then share and create lessons and strategies to improve upon those levels.” (Schmoker, 2004b, p. 48).

“[Common formative assessments provide] regular and timely feedback regarding student attainment of the most critical standards . . . [and] also foster consistent expectations and priorities within a grade level, course, and department regarding standards, instruction, and assessment. . . . Most importantly, common formative assessment results enable educators to diagnose student learning needs accurately in time to make instructional modifications.” (Ainsworth, 2007, pp. 95–96)

The schools and districts that doubled student achievement added another layer of testing—common formative or benchmark assessments. These assessments were designed to provide detailed and concrete information on what students know and do not know with respect to specific learning targets (Odden & Archibald, 2009).

The key to improved student achievement was moving beyond an individual teacher looking at his or her classroom data. Instead, it took getting same-grade teacher teams to meet, analyze the results of each interim assessment to understand what concepts in the curriculum were posing difficulty for students, share ideas, figure out the best interventions, and actually follow up in their classrooms (Christman et al., 2009).

In schools that help students burdened by poverty achieve remarkable success, teachers work in collaborative teams to build common formative assessments and use the data to identify which students need help and which need greater challenges. But they also use data to inform teachers’ practice, to discuss why one teacher is having success in teaching a concept and others are not, and what the more successful teacher can teach his or her colleagues (Chenoweth, 2009).

Why Should We Use Common Assessments?

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Effective use of formative assessment, developed through teacher learning communities, promises not only the largest potential gains in student achievement but also a process for affordable teacher professional development (Wiliam & Thompson, 2007).

“There is strong and rigorous evidence that improving formative assessment can raise standards of pupils’ performance. There have been few initiatives in education with such a strong body of evidence to support a claim to raise standards.” (Black & Wiliam, 1998, p. 20)

“Assessment for learning . . . when done well, this is one of the most powerful, high-leverage strategies for improving student learning that we know of. Educators collectively at the district and school levels become more skilled and focused at assessing, disaggregating, and using student achievement as a tool for ongoing improvement.” (Fullan, 2005, p. 71)

“Studies have demonstrated assessment for learning rivals one-on-one tutoring in its effectiveness and that the use of assessment particularly benefits low-achieving students.” (Stiggins, 2004, p. 27)

“Formative assessments are one of the most powerful weapons in a teacher’s arsenal. An effective standards-based, formative assessment program can help to dramatically enhance student achievement throughout the K–12 system.” (Marzano, 2006, back cover)

“Formative assessment is a potentially transformative instructional tool that, if clearly understood and adroitly employed, can benefit both educators and their students . . . formative assessment constitutes the key cornerstone of clearheaded instructional thinking. Formative assessment represents evidence-based instructional decision-making. If you want to become more instructionally effective, and if you want your students to achieve more, then formative assessments should be for you.” (Popham, 2008, p. 3, 15)

Why Should We Use Formative Assessments?

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Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment

The following information is summarized from Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam’s “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment.”

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139–148.

What This Study Found Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam reviewed research from 250 studies of schools using formative assessment to improve student achievement. These studies were selected internationally and included students from five years old to university age and involved multiple subject areas. Three questions are raised in this research study. The first is, “Is there evidence that improving formative assessment raises standards?” The answer is a resounding yes. To draw this conclusion, they looked at students who were provided an innovation (formative assessments) and compared them to similar students who were not. Results are given as an effect size ratio calculated from the average improvement of students during the innovation divided by the typical scores of the students not provided the innovation. Effect sizes for these students ranged from 0.4 to 0.7. These sizes are greater than those typically found in educational studies. Black and Wiliam offer some context information in their article to explain what these gains mean. At the lower end (0.4), students who have been through the innovation score at about the same level as the top 35 percent of students who have not been through the innovation. At the top end (0.7), the score would have moved from the “middle of the pack of forty-one countries” to one of the top five countries. Another important conclusion drawn by the researchers is that using formative assessment helps reduce the achievement gap between average students and low achievers by especially helping the low achievers. They suggest that this is beneficial because it is important that these students don’t see themselves as incapable learners. The second question asked in the research is, “Is there evidence that there is room for improvement?” Again, the answer is yes.

19© Kramer 2015. solution-tree.com

Do not duplicate.

Black and Wiliam identify the following problems: • Tests usually test for rote learning rather than understanding. • Test questions are typically developed by individual teachers and are not reviewed

and analyzed by colleagues. • Teachers often reward quantity over quality of work. • Too much emphasis is given to the final grade rather than the learning process. • Students are compared to each other, which causes many students to stop trying

because they don’t feel they can learn. • Effective feedback to students is not provided. • Tests are given to create grades rather than provide information to teachers to help

learning. The third question asked is, “Is there evidence about how to improve formative assessment?” The article suggests that knowing formative assessment can improve achievement but doesn’t necessarily make it easy to do so. They suggest that teachers must:

• Increase the amount and quality of feedback provided to students. • Ensure that students are actively involved in their own learning. • Use the results of formative assessments to adjust teaching and learning. • Consider how assessment can be used to motivate students, especially by engaging

students in self-assessment and reflection about their own learning.

20© Kramer 2015. solution-tree.com

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Protocol for Team Analysis Prior to Teaching a Unit

I. Review of prior common assessment for this unit a. Based on analysis of the results from last year’s common assessments, we have

identified the following area or areas in which students generally struggled:

b. We believe a primary cause for their struggle with this content was:

c. We have identified the following action plan for improving student achievement that we will implement as we teach this new unit:

d. We have established the following SMART goal for this unit to improve on last year’s results. For example: Last year ___% of our students met or exceeded our proficiency target on the following essential skill or standard on our team’s CFA administered at the end of the unit:

________________________________________________________________________ SMART goal: At least ___% of this year’s students will meet or exceed our proficiency target on our team’s CFA administered at the end of the unit.

II. Identification of prerequisite skills or vocabulary for this unit

a. We have concluded that students need the following skills or vocabulary to be successful in this unit:

b. Our plan for gathering evidence about student proficiency in prerequisite skills or vocabulary and addressing the needs of those who lack those skills is as follows:

III. The administration could help us achieve our goal in this area by:

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Common Assessments: The Key to Uncommon Results for ... · (DuFour & Fullan, Cultures Built to...

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