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Talk About Assessment: Using
Assessment to Inform Learning
Damian Cooper
(905) 823-6298
Canadian Association of Principals Conference
Charlottetown
May 18 – 20, 2011
Session Outcomes
Examine conditions that promote
excellence in our schools
Provide school leaders with a deeper
understanding of the role of assessment
for learning in improving learning for all
students
Reflect on our role as leaders in
improving assessment literacy in our
schools
How the Leading Student Achievement Project Improves
Student Learning: An Evolving Theory of Action February
2010
Kenneth Leithwood
Hattie (2009) identified an effect size of .62
for professional development on student
achievement. One of the necessary
conditions for such a large effect was
teachers talking to teachers in a professional
community.
Why, in 2011,
are we re-
examining our
assessment
beliefs and
practices?
Mission: to sift and sort students
Mean
Mission: excellence from ALL
Range of Competent
Achievement
The Problem with 50%
Grade 9 marks were a strong predictor
of OSSD completion. Students with
marks between 50% and 59% were less
than half as likely to graduate as those
with marks over 75%.
Who Doesn’t Go To Post-Secondary Education? Final Report of Findings
for Colleges Ontario Collaborative Research Project 2009, A.J.C. King W.K.
Warren M.A. King J.E. Brook P.R. Kocher
Time to Talk About Assessment
What is the mission in my school?
How do teachers, students and the
community know this?
Conditions for Excellence
1. A classroom climate that demands and promotes
excellence
2. Strategic program planning
3. A belief in, and commitment to, differentiated
instruction
4. Clarity of learning and performance targets for
students
5. Separation of Achievement Data from Learning
Skills Data
6. Emphasis on Assessment that Improves Learning
How the Leading Student Achievement Project Improves
Student Learning: An Evolving Theory of Action February
2010
Kenneth Leithwood
A broader body of evidence indicates: that “the
principal is the most potent factor in determining
school climate,” which implies that his or her
influence on the prioritization of certain conditions
within their school and their associated variables is
likely to make a difference. Research shows that
visionary leadership is imperative to support teacher
efforts that lead to the success of innovation and
change program (Rencherler, 1991, cited in Benda,
2000)
Classroom Climate: Acknowledging
Adolescents’ Needs
To belong
To be engaged in their own learning
To be social
To be in control
To be recognized
To be treated respectfully
To be treated fairly
…
Classroom Climate: “Firm but fair”
What? Class norms:
Trust
Respect
Pride
...
How?
Teachers’ expectations
Students’ expectations
Weekly monitoring
Classroom Climate: teachers
need to insist upon excellence …
Model and talk excellence!
Model criterion-referenced thinking:
“This is what quality work looks like”
Challenge norm-referenced thinking:
“All I want is a 50%”
Provide high quality assessment tasks
and demand that they all be completed
to a high standard
Program Planning with the
End in Mind
“Backward Design” Program
Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings/skills
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of
those understandings/skills
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and
instruction that make such understanding/skills
possible
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know and do
Enduring
understandings/
Essential skills
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
-oral questionning
Triangulation of Data:
Classroom Assessment
Valid & Reliable
Picture of Student
Achievement
Performance task
Oral defense/
conference
Written test data
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those
understandingsWiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Topic INTU…
Testing Consumer Products on Animals I need to understand both sides of the
debate concerning whether it is right to test
consumer products on animals.
Video Gaming I need to understand whether video gaming
is helpful or harmful to learning for
teenagers.
Downloading Music I need to understand the arguments for and
against downloading music made by
consumers, record companies and artists.
Assessments that Engage Students
Consider how these “topics” differ from the corresponding INTU questions:
The G7 Summit
Time to Talk About Assessment
Do your teachers understand and apply the
basic principles of backward design?
Do they collaborate with their grade/course
colleagues to agree upon essential learning,
and the critical evidence necessary to
demonstrate that students have acquired
essential learning?
Do they communicate clearly to their students
what comprises critical evidence of essential
learning?
Conditions for Excellence
1. A classroom climate that demands and promotes
excellence
2. Strategic program planning
3. A belief in, and commitment to, differentiated
instruction
4. Clarity of learning and performance targets for
students
5. Separation of Achievement Data from Learning
Skills Data
6. Emphasis on Assessment that Improves Learning
A belief in, and commitment to,
differentiated instruction
Conditions for Excellence
The “zone of proximal development”
Lev Vygotsky
What do students currently know and
what can students currently do?
Where do I want them to get to?
How big is the gap?
How do I ensure the gap is just right to
challenge students in a way that
maximizes learning?
Differentiating Instruction
Teachers need to fully understand
accommodation, modification, and
substitution
To develop students’ skills, they need to
simplify the content e.g. Simpler texts, less
depth/breadth, etc.
To help students master content, they need to
present using a different mode suited to
student’s strengths e.g. Graphics, audio,
video, manipulatives, etc.
Differentiating Assessment
Content standards:
learning outcomes
Performance standards:
rubrics/checklists
Student products &
performances
Assessment conditions
Must be within
student’s “ZPD”
Keep consistent for all
students
May be adapted to be
within student’s “ZPD”
Tiered Assessments
Design task @ grade level, to
demonstrate proficiency, independently
Adapt or modify task to increase
challenge: less structure, more choice,
greater sophistication, etc.
Adapt or modify task to reduce
challenge: more structure, less choice,
less sophistication, etc.
“Damian, how do I explain to the parents
of a special needs student with an IEP that
the “A” she has received is for a modified
program and that it doesn’t mean the same
as the “A’s” received by other students in
the class who are working at grade level?”
Reporting to Parents
Reporting to Parents
Grade level at which
student is working
Achievement level at
which student is
performing
Degree of support
provided
Learning outcomes
(incl. IEP ref. if applicable)
Rubric levels
Anecdotal comments
Time to Talk About Assessment
How do teachers in your school assess
and monitor the needs and learning
preferences of their students?
How do they adjust their teaching to
meet different needs?
How do they adjust their formative and
summative assessment to recognize
different needs?
Clear Learning and Performance
Targets
Most students
can hit the target
if they can see it
clearly and it
stays still for
them.
Rick Stiggins
Clear Learning Targets Learning Goal: You will demonstrate that you
understand the relationship between the numerator and the denominator in a fraction.
At the end of the lesson, Linda points to the poster on the classroom wall and asks her students:
What did you learn in this lesson today?
Linda told me that the most effective AFL strategy for her has been to write the learning goal for each day’s lesson on the board.
Clear Performance Targets
Rubrics to describe what quality looks like
Anchors to show students what quality looks like
Checklists to enable students to monitor their own progress
Student-Generated Targets
Time to Talk About Assessment
Do your teachers collaborate with
colleagues to agree upon performance
targets for students?
Do they routinely communicate
performance targets to their students?
How?
Do teachers use these targets with
students to help them improve their
work?
Separation of Achievement Data
from Attitudinal/Behavioural Data
Attitudes and
behaviours must be
valued
Attitudes and
behaviours must be
assessed
Attitudes and
behaviours must be
reported on
separately from
achievement
Assessing Learning Skills
Time to Talk About Assessment
Does your current report card separate
achievement data from
attitudinal/behavioural data?
Do your teachers’ words and actions
communicate the importance of
attitudinal/behavioural to students?
How do they assess attitudes and
behaviors?
Assessment FOR
learning
Assessment OF
learning
Conditions for Excellence
Assessment for Learning“Assessment for learning
is any assessment for
which the first priority in
its design and practice is to
serve the purpose of
promoting students’
learning. It thus differs
from assessment designed
primarily to serve the
purposes of accountability,
or of ranking, or of
certifying competence.” Black, Wiliam et al. 2004
Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning
includes those tasks that are
designed to determine how
much learning has occurred
after a significant period of
instruction. The data from
such assessments is often
used to determine report
card grades.
Components of Assessment for
Learning (Wiliam, 2007)
Clarifying learning intentions and sharing criteria for success
Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning
Providing feedback that moves learners forward
Activating students as owners of their own learning
Activating students as instructional sources for one another
How the Leading Student Achievement Project Improves Student
Learning: An Evolving Theory of Action February 2010
Kenneth Leithwood
In the classroom, Hattie’s (2009) synthesis of
evidence implies that school leaders carefully
consider the value of focusing their efforts on
improving, for example, the extent to which teachers
are providing students with immediate and
informative feedback (d = 0.73), teachers’ use of
reciprocal teaching strategies (d = 0.74), teacher-
student relations (d = 0.72), the management of
classrooms (d = 0.52), and the general quality of
teaching in the school. Effect sizes for these
variables are among the highest reported for all
classroom-level variables,
Provide tons of feedback …
Oral & written feedback
tell students how to
improve – marks DON’T
Teachers need to
establish classroom
routines that create
opportunities for teacher
& peer feedback
They need to provide
feedback ALONE on
formative assessments;
do NOT include marks
Students need tons of feedback …
Needs to cause thinking: don’t provide the
“answer”
Must not be evaluative
Must direct students towards improvement
Must make reference to specific quality
indicators (a rubric or checklist)
Must include an expectation that it will be
implemented
Must include strategies for checking that it has
been implemented
Teachers need to
include self and peer
assessment as routine
practices in their
classrooms…
Self Assessment
Math ClassPete has his students use “Traffic Light” signs at the start of a lesson on equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages to assess prior knowledge.
Teacher: Do you know what the word “equivalent” means?
Students show either the red or green side of the “traffic light” in response.
He orally checks a sample of the “green” responses to see if they do, in fact, understand the term.
English Class
1. “Snowball” activity to activate students’ prior knowledge about writing an effective response to an essay question
2. Teacher consolidates this information on the board
3. Teacher presents a sample answer on the board and guides students as they assess it, using colour coding
4. Students have 15 minutes to answer a sample essay question
5. Students exchange responses and use coloured pencils to assess each other’s work
English Class– peer assessment guide
Underline in blue the best sentence. Explain why
Underline in red the worst sentence. Explain why
Underline in green a good choice of quote D
Underline in purple a good explanation of the C
effect of a quote
Underline in orange a good link back to the B
question
Underline in pink 3 words you think I’d get A
excited about
Underline in brown anything you think is correct A+
but that I didn’t teach you
Grade
Making self and peer assessment
routine practice …
Teachers need to:
Teach and model assessment skills
Provide weekly opportunities to practice the skills
Focus the assessment only on what was taught
Use descriptive feedback - what’s good; what’s not; what to do to fix it – NOT scores
Ensure that self and peer assessment is Assessment FOR learning ONLY
Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning
includes those tasks that are
designed to determine how
much learning has occurred
after a significant period of
instruction. The data from
such assessments is often
used to determine report
card grades.
How much evidence is “enough”
for reporting?
In other words…
How do we ensure that the body
of evidence selected for
evaluation and reporting in a
given subject or course is a valid
sample?
What are the requirements of
a “valid sample”? No diagnostic evidence
Includes a variety of
modes to allow for
differences in learning
style (write, do, say)
Includes multiple
(3+)pieces of evidence
for each learning cluster
Provides evidence of
the essential learning in
the subject
Tasks represent
polished work:
– Not practices or early
tries
– Feedback has occurred
previously and been
implemented
How do teachers in my school
currently try to ensure that
students complete the set of
assessment tasks that comprise
evidence of essential learning?
Time to Talk About Assessment
Guidelines for Ensuring that Critical Tasks are
Completed
Teachers must:
identify for students and parents the tasks
that are essential as proof of learning
operate on the understanding that all of these
must be completed to meet the requirements
of the subject or course
communicate timelines for completion of
these tasks to students and parents to
facilitate students’ and teacher’s workload
conduct frequent “process” checks
provide plenty of in-class time to work on
essential tasks
Guidelines for Ensuring that Critical Tasks are
Completed
Teachers must:
identify strategies for addressing non-completion of essential tasks: e.g.
-completion contract
-supervised learning centre
-”Recovery Week” & “Just Do It!”
Principals must:
have a school-wide policy concerning interim and final grade determination: e.g.
-use “Incomplete” on interim report card
-consistency regarding what “Incomplete” becomes on the final report card
Professional Judgement
Decisions made by educators, in light of
their professional experience, with
reference to public standards and
guidelines.
Communicating with Parents…
When describing achievement, reference appropriate standards:– NOT other students
– NOT siblings
– Provincial achievement standards
Avoid all labelling of students: there are NO “A” students or “Level 4” students, only “A” performances and “Level 4” performances.
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 today ….
What was your most significant learning?
What specific actions do you plan to take between now and September 2011?
Who will be involved?
What results would you like to see from these actions?
How will you assess the effectiveness of these actions?
Suggested Reading
1. Black, Paul and Wiliam, Dylan. “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards
Through Classroom Assessment”, Phi Delta Kappan, October, 1998
A seminal article on the value of formative assessment that summarizes
effective assessment practices as described in 250 studies in the UK, the US,
Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Africa.
2. Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve
Teaching and Learning, Nelson Education, 2007.
3. Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: High School Strategies and Tools,
Nelson Education, 2010
4. Davies, Anne. Making Classroom Assessment Work, Connections Publishing,
2000
A short and very useful overview of the basics of assessment in today’s
classrooms, with particular relevance to elementary schools.
5. Marzano, Robert J. Transforming Classroom Grading, ASCD, 2000
An excellent examination of past and present trends in classroom grading
practice.
6. O’Connor, Ken. How to Grade for Learning 3rd
. Edition, Skylight, 2009
A solid treatment of the grading dilemmas that arise in intermediate and senior
grades.
7. Stiggins. Richard. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, Assessment
Training Institute, 2004.
An in-depth “textbook” for students of assessment, organized according to
principles of assessment, assessment methods, and communication.
8. Wiggins, Grant. Educative Assessment, Jossey Bass, 1998
A comprehensive publication from a true expert in the field, this work
provides all the background to Wiggins” approach to classroom assessment.
9. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. Understanding By Design, ASCD, 1998
A concise and very readable guide to designing program from an assessment
point of view.
