L U A N N C H R I S T E N S E N L E E , E D . D .N A T I O N A L B O A R D C E R T I F I E D T E A C H E R , A Y A S C I E N C E 1 9 9 8 - 2 0 1 8

ASSESSING LEARNING

Please sit near the front, with your friends.

HOW I GOT HERE

One small change at a time…..http://chemistar.com/NJEA2014.html@Stardiverrlclee1@gmail.com

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dahveedgr/7010088893/

THIS IS A WORKSHOP:

1. Formulate our own working definitions of assessment, how it relates to learning, and why it is important to learning

2. Examine various grading practices from an objective point of view

3. Assess where we are with various practices and their relationship to standards

4. Determine how we can best record student progress toward standards

5. Determine what steps to take and resources we need

6. Lay out a plan of action7. Assess our progress

ASSESSMENT IS….

• …the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs.

• Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_assessment • Retrieved on June 18, 2014

ASSESSMENT IS….

• Initial • pre-test

• Formative • assesses progress toward learning target• with feedback and discussion• diagnoses of improvable areas

• Summative assessment • used to evaluate student learning and to assign a grade.

LEARNING LINGO

• Goals• Objectives• Targets• Learning goals• Learning objectives• Learning targets• Performance goals• Performance

objectives

• Competency• Outcomes• Proficiency• Expectation• Benchmarks• Performance

expectations• Standards• Sub-standards1

No matter the language, best results come when students can:

• State their learning in their own words• Assess, using evidence, their progress

toward reaching the target/goal/objective

• Explain what to do next to get closer to the learning target

• List potentially helpful resources and explain how to use them.

ASSESSMENT

Assessment is finding out what a student learned and how we

know s/he learned it.

FORMS OF STUDENT WORK

• Homework• Quizzes• Tests• Exams• Projects• Book reports• Reports• Blogs• Lab reports• Lab practicals• Stories• Artwork

• Essays• Worksheets• Problems• PBL• Songs• Plays• Letters• Poems• Performances• ….add your own

STUDENT WORK CONTINUUM

Traditional Alternative

What is Alternative Assessment?

HOW DO WE ASSESS STUDENT WORK?

Depending on the student product, we might use• Points• Rubrics• Scale• Checklist• Criteria sheet• # correct/total • Percentage• Letter grade• 4-3-2-1 rating• “Credit/no credit”• Seat-of-our-pants

WAYS TO RECORD ASSESSMENTS

Use least Use most

In my practice, I:

WHAT ARE WE REALLY ASSESSING?

• Product?• Process?• Progress?• or….. Mastery of a standard?

• According to Guskey:• Product is what a student knows and can do• Process is how did the student get there? HW,

project, etc.• Progress – did the student make progress or

improve? (SPED, ELL)

IF ALL 3 ARE ASSESSED WITH 1 MARK:

Do you know if the student • mastered all learning targets, OR• does not know learning targets but worked really,

really hard, OR• made significant progress but did not meet all

learning targets?

To report clearly, report each separately.

(more on this after lunch)

4 STUDENTS:

1. “A student” – very bright, driven, hard-working

2. Intentional non-learner – why?

3. Learning disability – what is it? What support is

needed?

4. English language learner – may also be 1-3,

above

WHAT WE REALLY WANT

…is a source showing evidence that students have mastered a standard or learning target

OR

If they haven’t, what progress have they made and what further support they need.

BUT – MY GRADES AREN’T BROKEN!

WHAT DOES A GRADE MEAN?

• Student is “doing good” • (however you define “good”)• What does “doing good” mean?• What does the student actually know? What skills

does he have? What can he do?

GRADES: WHAT DO

THEY MEAN TO

STUDENTS?

With permission from my colleague Jenn Livingston @jennliv

GRADING PRACTICES

• Extra credit• 100 point scale• Averaging scores• Late penalties• Recording zeros• Dropping lowest grade• Recording rubric scores• Grading homework• Assessment retakes with or without penalty• Assignment re-dos/edits

EXTRA CREDIT:WHY? WHY NOT?

• Artificially padding grade?• Kleenex points?

• Offer ways for students to show they exceed standards?• Alternative assessment

100 POINT SCALEWHY? WHY NOT?

• A zero here is very difficult to overcome and still get an A.

• Assume every assignment is weighted at 100 points, on a 3-question quiz, scores are 100%, 67%, 33%, 0%.

• On a 4-point scale, the difference between each level is equal – 1 point.

• The parachute-packing analogy

• Only summative assessments are truly worth 100 points• Mastering 60-70% of

concepts covered has traditionally been considered aceptable• Points are not

necessarily percentages if total points used

AVERAGING GRADES

http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/curriculum/grading/Pages/CumulativeGrades.aspx

DROPPING LOWEST GRADE:WHY? WHY NOT?

• Reduces grade to a comparison• How do you know if

student has met/exceeded standard?

• Everyone has a bad day occasionally• Sometimes an

assessment was just off-target or too hard

ASSIGNING GRADES TO RUBRIC SCORESWHY? WHY NOT?

• How to turn marks on a continuum into a grade?• Depending on the

number of points, product that is nearly excellent can = C• Do the rubric points =

standards or learning targets?

• Add the total points to the actual score• Ex. score of 24/30

would be 54/60 • What does this show?• (what does the rubric

measure?)

RECORDING ZEROS:WHY? WHY NOT?

• On a 100 point scale, a score of 0/100 can be impossible to recover from.• “Can’t I just take the

zero (F)?”• Giving low grades to

perfectly capable students offers them an easy way out and enables laziness.

• Attention-getter for both parents and students.• Submission of missing

work (if accepted)

LATE PENALTIES: WHY? WHY NOT?

• “It’s never too late to learn.”• “I get it – NOW.”

• How late is too late?• Reality of late work:• Often completed carelessly

or hurriedly• Sometimes copied• Not possible to learn a

semester of ______ in 2 days.

• An “A” student does not need multiple attempts and more time.

• So long as student is showing evidence of progress, give more time

ASSIGNMENT RE-DOS AND EDITSWHY? WHY NOT?

• Students learn little from our corrections.• Something must be

done correctly to learn to do it.

• That’s a LOT of grading.• Team Xeroxing

RETAKING ASSESSMENTSWHY? WHY NOT?

• Full credit or not?• “If you trust the

validity and accuracy of your test/assessment, then you shouldn’t have any problems with redos for full credit.” @rickwormeli via Twitter

• Multiple versions of assessment• That’s a LOT or

grading.

GRADING HOMEWORKWHY? WHY NOT?

• Why grade practice? • Team xeroxing ≠

learning• That’s a LOT of

grading.

• If it’s not graded, they don’t do it.

WHERE ARE WE?

• Who’s in control of assessment?• What does each do to support student learning?• What are alternatives?

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

• Take no prisoners.• If a zero is assigned, what value does that place on

the assignment?• The consequence for not doing the work is getting to

do the work (aka learn.)• Plan make-up or credit recovery or redo or retake

options with your initial plans.• Yes, this is time-consuming.

• Instead of zeros, a mark telling what the zero really means.• Incomplete• Missing/no attempt• Retake/Redo needed• Absent

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS PART 2: HOMEWORK

• Multiple answer keys around room• Students trade you their pencil for a grading pen

(I use orange)• Students correct their work• If they’re happy with it, they submit. (Redo

offered later?)• If not, they do another assignment.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS PART 3:REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LATE

• Answer key/solutions provided.• Student comes in before or after school, lunch,

etc.• Student corrects his work and submits.• Full credit?

MORE ON HOMEWORK

• Can you offer your students options for their out of class work (without making it a logistical nightmare for yourself)?

• What options do you have for the type of work they could do?

• How will you assess the homework – will they do it for learning, practice, credit, or will they get something more out of it?

• Does the homework given enhance the material, expand upon it, or rehash it?

• How can you structure the homework to encourage the students to think critically and apply their knowledge?

MOVING FORWARD:

• What changes do you want to make?

STANDARDS – WHAT STANDARDS?

1. Find a standard:1. http://www.corestandards.org/ click Read the Standards2. http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-

standards choose DCI or Topic3. http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/standards/5/index.html

2. Choose a lesson from your collection1. Think of a favorite if you don’t have one on your device2. Use pg 5 of today’s document

3. Write learning targets/goals/expectations4. Devise an assessment to measure student learning5. Give examples of levels of performance (anchor

papers)6. Yes, you may work in a group. Go!

PEER REVIEW

• Share your work with another person or group.• Feedback: • Good things about the work are…….• What I would need to see to be more

convinced is….

SHARE WITH EVERYONE:

• What did you do? Standards? Assessment?• How does your assessment measure • What went well? • What was a challenge?• What help do you need?

RECORDING STUDENT LEARNING

In the electronic gradebook after several grades have been entered for a class, play with the weighting. Change from total points to weighting "categories" with values from the seat of your pants, then play with the values. Watch the final grades change at your whim.  Which best reflects your gut knowledge of what each student knows and can do?

RECORDING STUDENT LEARNING

• 5 = Mastery

• 4 = Proficient

• 3 = Near Proficient

• 2 = Emerging

• 1 = Insufficient Evidence

• 0 = No Evidence: Absent (Ab) or Missing (Mi)

RECORDING STUDENT LEARNING

One source of evidence can show mastery of more than one standard or learning target.

TRANSLATING TO LETTER GRADES

• A = Mostly Mastery (5), Some Proficient, no 3s

• B = Mostly Proficient (4), Some Mastery, no 2s

• C = Mostly Proficient (3), Some Near Proficient, no 1s

• D = Mostly Near Proficient (2), Some Proficient, no 1s

• F = Insufficient performance

ASSIGNMENT VIEW

STANDARDS VIEW

STANDARDS VIEW - EXPANDED

ASSIGNMENT VIEW

STANDARDS VIEW, EXPANDED

HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

TRANSLATING TO LETTER GRADES

• A = Mostly Mastery (5), Some Proficient, no 3s

• B = Mostly Proficient (4), Some Mastery, no 2s

• C = Mostly Proficient (3), Some Near Proficient, no 1s

• D = Mostly Near Proficient (2), Some Proficient, no 1s

• F = Insufficient performance

POWER LAW

• calculation type based on research on cognitive development

• time-based average• automatically adjusts assessment weights to give

higher weight to the more recent assessments• more closely represents true student learning progress• more difficult for students to understand • Inconvenient for teachers to predict without

spreadsheet or gradebook app• formula is somewhat complex• Most gradebooks can be set to allow teacher to

override the calculated score

FRONT-END LOAD YOUR WORK

• Decide what 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 papers might look like.• Learning Target: Correctly balance equations to

demonstrate the law of conservation of mass• 5 – correctly balances 5 equations, each one having

different combinations of atoms• 4 – makes an error(s) not related to counting atoms and

writing coefficients• 3 – makes error(s) in choosing coefficients• 2 – makes errors in counting atoms; misunderstands the

use of coefficients instead of subscripts• 1 – misunderstands task

ASSESSED STANDARD:

• Balance equations to demonstrate the law of conservation of mass• 5 – correctly balances 5 equations, each one having

different combinations of atoms• 4 – makes an error(s) not related to counting atoms and

writing coefficients• 3 – makes error(s) in choosing coefficients• 2 – makes errors in counting atoms• 1 – misunderstands task

MODIFICATIONS

• What might you modify with your assessment system?

SUPPORT NEEDED?

• Your learning?• Colleagues?• Administration?

ONE ASSIGNMENT, 2-3 GRADES

• One assignment, quiz, lab, etc. may include more than 1 standard.• Give it more than 1 grade. • This sounds insane at first until you realize that

you are grading fewer pieces of work. • Example: a lab report might meet learning targets

for:• Explaining a concept in the introduction• Engineering design• Using data to support a claim

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

• One-Minute Papers• Classic active learning techniques• Questions are open-ended so as to encourage

reflection and feedback. • Possible prompts for a one-minute paper, include:• The clearest point of today's class was:• The muddiest point of today's class (or something

that confused me or I want clarified) was:• How I prepared for class today:• What I liked best that helped me learn:• What I wish had been discussed during today's class:

POWER LAW EQUATION