Improving Assessment Literacy School-wide

School and System Improvement

Improvement by Contract

-external threats and rewards Improvement by Culture

-partnerships, collaboration, teamwork, community

Caring is as important as learningHargreaves, 2003

Professional learning communities use evidence and intuition in order to work and talk together to review their practices and to increase their success…In a professional learning community, the culture changes – everyone sees the big picture and works for the good of the whole community. Professional learning communities bring together culture and contract. They value both excellence and enjoyment.

Hargreaves, 2004

School and System Improvement

The Big Ideas of Professional Learning Communities

Ensuring that students learn

A Culture of Collaboration

A Focus on Results

DuFour, 2004

The Big Ideas of Professional Learning Communities

Ensuring that students learn:

-Focus on learning

-What do we want each student to learn?

-How will we know when each student has learned it?

-How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

DuFour, 2004

The Big Ideas of Professional Learning Communities

A Culture of Collaboration

-partnerships

-sharing knowledge and learning

-team work

-community

-conversationsDuFour, 2004DuFour, 2004

The Big Ideas of Professional Learning Communities

A Focus on Results-establish baseline data-set improvement goals-work together to achieve goals-gather frequent evidence of progress-identify strategies that lead to the greatest gains-share these with colleagues DuFour, 2004DuFour, 2004

Teacher Learning: What Matters(Linda Darling-Hammond, 2009)

Centred on student learningIntegrated with school

improvementActive, sustained learning

Principal Leadership(DuFour and Marzano, 2009)

Create schedules so teams meet at least one hour per week

Create collaborative structures for teams to focus on issues that directly affect student learning

Provide teams with training, support, and resources to implement new approaches

Monitor progress through tangible products and dialogue

Time to Talk

Discuss the comments from Hargreaves, DuFour, Darling-Hammond, and Marzano

To what extent does your school`s current approach to improvement reflect their recommendations?

Which of their recommendations require your attention?

School Improvement through Assessment Reform

“Attaining any vision of assessment excellence requires that certain conditions be in place. Those conditions include well-defined learning targets for students, supportive school and district policies, clear communication systems, and most important, assessment-literate teachers and administrators.”

Rick Stiggins

A Vision is Essential!

Improving Assessment Literacy: Essential Elements - Cooper

Clear mission and vision Alignment of curriculum, assessment,

and communication systems Clear and coherent curriculum map,

K-12 High-quality, “backward-designed” units High-quality assessments and tools

Improving Assessment Literacy: Essential Elements - Cooper

Assessment and grading policy to guide and support practice

School-wide assessment literacy Students empowered to self and peer

assess and to act as instructional support for each other

Well-informed parents who support initiatives

Ongoing process to monitor project

It’s June, 2012. You are conducting a Walkabout on your campus. Use your creativity to communicate to your colleagues what you see and hear during your Walkabout.

Dare to Dream!

Reality Check!

What are the major obstacles to realizing this vision in your school?

To realize our vision, we need a plan ...

Designing Down from the Desired State

Goal Area: e.g. Grading and Reporting

Desired State

Actions

Key Result Areas

Goal Area: e.g. Grading and Reporting

Current State

1. What specifically needs to be done? 2. How does it need to be done? 3. What is the timeline for doing it? 4. Who is responsible for getting it done? 5. What resources are needed? 6. How will we monitor progress? 7. How often and by what means will we

communicate progress? 8. How will we celebrate success?

Grading policy

Grading software

Report card design

Improvement Planning Template Desired State/Goal:

Current State, including Evidence

Indicators of Desired

State (may

include targets)

Specific Measures (tools used to gather

data)

Strategies (specific actions that will be taken)

Resources (improvement

teams, materials)

Lead Responsibility

Timelines Communicating Progress

Celebration of Success

Four Conditions for Sustainable Improvement Focus

Pressure and support

Collaboration

Stay the course

The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment

1. Assessment serves different purposes at different times: it may be used to find out what students already know and can do; it may be used to help students improve their learning; or it may be used to let students, and their parents, know how much they have learned within a prescribed period of time.

2. Assessment must be planned and purposeful.

3. Assessment must be balanced, including oral and performance as well as written tasks, and be flexible in order to improve learning for all students.

The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment

4. Assessment and instruction are inseparable because effective assessment informs learning.

5. For assessment to be helpful to students, it must inform them in words, not numerical scores or letter grades, what they have done well, what they have done poorly, and what they need to do next in order to improve.

6. Assessment is a collaborative process that is most effective when it involves self, peer, and teacher assessment.

The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment

7. Performance standards are an essential component of effective assessment.

8. Grading and reporting student achievement is a caring, sensitive process that requires teachers’ professional judgement.

Four Conditions: Focus Identify areas of greatest need

-human bar graph

-survey data

-observation

School-wide focus

Embed within other initiatives

Case Study: Walkden High School

3-Year Assessment for Learning Project Year 1: focus on specific, descriptive

oral and written feedback to students Year 2: strategies for self and peer

assessment Year 3: Lesson Design

Time to Talk about Focus

How focussed is our school’s improvement plan?

Do we need to sharpen the focus to improve our plan?

Time to Talk about Focus

What sources of data are identifying our focus for improvement?

Are these data sufficient?

If not, what further data do we need to gather?

Pressure & Support: Walkden High School

Head and Assistant both teach a class 8 AFL Key Teachers who work across

departments to model and coach best practice

They have half day per week outside of school to do research

Every committee and meeting must have an AFL component

Four Conditions: Pressure ...

Teachers submit tangible evidence of their collaborative work e.g. Units of study, common assessments, etc.

Annual improvement plans for all teachers include the initiative

Struggling teachers teamed with those who have mastered the desired skills

Time to Talk about Pressure

How are teachers held accountable for improving their practice?

How do we move from “pockets of improvement” to a critical mass?

Four Conditions: ... and Support

Common resources to communicate best practice, etc. (print resources, handbook, on-line resources, etc.)

PD events to communicate the message

Key teachers to lead the charge and provide training

Time to Talk about Support

What professional learning resources are available to leaders and teachers to inform this improvement initiative?

What professional learning opportunities are available to teachers during this project?

Four Conditions: Collaboration Within grade or course teams (unit design) Between grade or course teams (program

design) System-wide: e.g. efficient use of technology

to create banks of units, assessments, tools, etc.

Coaching and mentoring within grade or course teams

Key Teachers provide training across the school

Unit Planning

Time to Talk about Collaboration

What collaborative structures exist in our school that facilitate improvement?

Are these structures sufficient?

If not, what needs to change?

Time to Talk about Collaboration

Is peer coaching part of our improvement initiative?

If not, could it be? If it is, how well is it working? How might it be improved or expanded? What PLC or similar approach is being used

to facilitate our improvement initiative?

Four Conditions: Staying the Course Minimum 3-Year, ``design down``

from desired state plan Frequent monitoring of progress Adjust plan according to data Integrate with other initiatives as they

occur Celebrate success as it occurs Plan for sustainability

Time to Talk about Staying the Course

How are we monitoring our improvement initiative:

- teacher self-monitoring?

(e.g. reflective journals)

- teacher peer-monitoring?

- administrative monitoring?

Some final thoughts...

“Change is a process, not an event…

beware the implementation dip.” (Fullan) Teachers must not work alone. Collaboration

will help them problem solve and will improve the quality of your school’s initiatives.

Be proactive - communicate with parents and students before changing practices and procedures.

Commitment to Action

Spend a few moments reflecting on your learning today….

What was your most significant learning? What specific actions do you plan to take

immediately and/or between now and June 2010? Who will be involved? What results would you like to see from these

actions? How will you assess the effectiveness of these

actions?42

School Improvement Bibliography

Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: High School Strategies and Tools, Nelson Education, 2010. ISBN-10: 0-17-635712-2

Darling-Hammond, L. & Richardson, N. Teacher Learning: What Matters, Educational Leadership, February 2009, 46-53

DuFour, R. &Marzano, R. J. High Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership, Educational Leadership, February 2009, 62-68

DuFour, R., R. Eaker, R. DuFour, and G. Karhanek. 2004. Whatever it Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn, Solution Tree, Bloomington, IN.

Guskey, Thomas R. Evaluating Professional Development, Corwin Press, 2000, ISBN 0-7619-7561-6

Hargreaves, Andy. Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity, Teachers College Press, 2003. ISBN. 0-8077-4360-7