OLLIE Iowa

I find this interesting. Authors are betting that giving up instructional time in favor of testing will pay off in terms of better decisions about students and what seems to be for some, the ultimate goal of improved standardized test scores. Assuming assessment structure and frequency is balanced as the paper outlines, that's a good bet.

what is interesting is that most teachers are doing formal assessment throughout their teaching, using RTI (response to intervention) time etc.

See my comments on the 'overflow of testing' highlight. Guess I should have read a little further. This is like betting on giving up one hour of instructional time every Wednesday for professional development will increase student achievement.

We also need to find a balance of instruction and assessment. How can we expect students to perform well on assessments when there is little or no time for instruction on the concepts being assessed because of all the testing.

I'm interested to know what they are basing this on. So, if I test my students more, they will learn more?

This is an excellent visual to help assessors think carefully about the learning target and in turn selecting a proper assessment method. It even has some flexibility supporting a multiple measures type of approach. Accuracy is important and this matrix can help serve that goal.

Well said Mike.  I think this would be a helpful document for teachers to keep in a ready reference file.  I hadn't considered some of the reasons why certain assessments would not be a good match with the learning targets. The explanations whether good matches or not are quite helpful.

I, too, really like this chart. It is a nice, simple thing for teachers to use when they are in their teams coming up with Common Formative Assessments.

As eveyone has stated, this chart really does a good job of breaking down quality ways to look at learning targets. It keeps it simple yet you get some quality information.

Assessment, as a science, can be tough to comprehend for professional educators, let alone a 8 year old, a parent, a school board member or some guy reading an article in the Des Moines Register. Ask ten people to explain validity and reliability and you might be surprised at the results. What I like about the concept in this article is that it emphasizes the "context" of the assessment. Do users of results truly understand what they are looking at and most importantly connect to a big picture and take the next step? Communication is important but so is education and review of assessment principles for all users of results to understand.

Great observation Mike! You summed up this article perfectly. All of the focus and discussion on assessments doesn't do any good if the people involved aren't truly understanding the information that is being shared with them. People can't comprehend next steps if they don't understand the information in the first place.

Great conclusion and mission. After reading this, I have definitely been challenged to take a closer look at how I view assessment, its purpose and what to do with the results. Seeking balance in the manner in which we conduct assessment and committing to improve assessment literacy for myself and others is a key take-away for me.

Seeking balance in assessment is something I gained from this article too. I will be looking at assessment differently.

Agreed! Balance is the key to anything. We need to show the students that assessment is important in any form. It is how we grow not only academically, but personally.

Multiple assessment methods is and always has been best practice. Choosing only one style of question type can prohibit many learners from expressing their knowledge of the material. There are too many lerner styles in any given class to apply a one size fits all assessment.

This is where I think our work with rubrics shows students how to grow.

Common assessments are a focus now during our Professional Learning Communities (PLC) work. There have been concerns expressed by educators that students are asked to complete too many assessments now. However, I have also observed when additional assessments can allow students more flexibility in terms of movement based on individual growth. If a student is tested only once per year and this one piece of data is used to guide decisions throughout the year that would not be in the best interest of the student either.

I know common assessments can be terrifying to teachers because of what it actually showing. The results are a reflection of how well your students did, but it is also a reflection of how well you did teaching the concepts. It's hard to be in "competition" with another teacher. When teams develop that true collaborative mindset they are less likely to see it as a competition but with the wrong dynamic sadly that's exactly what it could seem like. I think the common assessments also hold the teams accountable to each other because it's what they are agreeing to teach their kids.

Formative assessment is such an important piece. Students need feedback throughout the learning process, and providing ungraded feedback is essential. For those interested in learning more about formative assessment, I found the book Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam to be helpful.

I think rubrics should always shared with students when they start the assignment. so for me it is not an "IF:

I agree Noel! Mine are posted along side my standards and learning targets in my room, and constantly referred to.

I agree completely. I think the kids should know ahead of time what the expectation is.

As long as the rubrics are well constructed and use I believe they do help lead to more equality and consistency in assessment. Teachers that give the same assessments, also need to review the rubrics together for consistency across schools and district.

Many students will just complete the assessment to meet the requirements in the rubric, but students are then meeting the expectations you wrote in the rubric. If you want them to do more change the rubric. What would happen if you did not share the rubric some might do more than expected and many would not because they have no idea what is expected.

Looking at actual examples of student work ahead of time is a good idea. When we created the rubric for the Assess This assignment, we only had one example of student work. Then when we were given more pieces to assess, we quickly learned that the rubric would not work for all of the types of pieces that needed assessed.

Sometimes after using a new assessment an rubric, I reflect and notice the mistakes I made when creating the rubric and revise it. When you have students examples it makes it easier to evaluate your own rubric.

Last I checked, the iowa Assessments were not scored by a rubric. This is something I continuously struggle with. if students, teachers, buildings, and districts are measured by standardized test scores, why do we push for standards based assessments and rubrics? This will be the first year I have never taught specific focus lessons geared to higher achievement on the iowa Assessments. My district wanted me to pilot standards based assessment so I am going all out! Can't wait to compare and contrast previous years' scores to this year. Stay tuned!

Sounds more like a checklist approach. Who hasn't been guilty in their life of following a rubric like a checklist? Almost human nature.

There's my checklist comment! Should have kept reading :-) When I think of this in math though, I must admit it's a struggle to NOT say these skills are level 1, these are level 2, and so on.

I do see the checklists especially in math as a benefit when collaborative teacher teams are discussing what exactly the foundational skills of a priority standard look like and what dots to connect if a student is far away from achieving proficiency. I don't think that kind of learning progression would translate for a student who would see it as a checklist.

I think the checklist and deep learning piece are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The checklist may require certain content (based on the unit of study or course topic) but the rest of the rubric can be skill focused and framed in a growth model.

This ties in directly with a comment I made earlier, "How does this help increase student achievement scores of high stakes standardized assessments like the Iowa Assessments.

Good for us Group 1! We pretty much came up with these same criteria for our rubric :-)

I have to admit as a math teacher this peaks my interest the most. Would love to work with teachers who establish their own grading criteria for rubrics but want help 'converting' that into a conventional grade for reporting purposes i.e. report cards.

As should be the case with anything we do as professional educators.

I agree with you Shawn. Professional educators are constantly modifying and adapting their instruction to the meet the needs of their students and the curriculum. Change means growth and learning are taking place for both the student and the teacher.

When I see the word vital in this statement, it reminds me that we should only be assessing the qualities that are truly important. We need to be so careful when we are creating and assessing student work to not over assess or under assess our students.

I think this is true. Sometimes as teachers we feel the need to give a grade to everything. And while we are constantly assessing, we need to focus on the the things that are vital for the student to know.

I agree with both of your statements. The word "vital" does remind the teacher to assess only what is truly important. It is very easy for teachers to loose focus on the important skills being taught and turn their attention to mundane details that are easier to define like writing mechanics or content presentation.

This statement stands out to me because we should use rubrics for many purposes. Many times teachers just want to use the rubric to grade. We need to think about the feedback that we give students on a rubric as a way to encourage them to continue to push themselves in their learning and set goals for themselves.

I really like the word encourage here. I do not really show the kids the rubric I am grading them on (although I should). I don't know if my students are mentally there to "want" to move to the next progression. Currently I am doing a lot of forcing to learn. I think that encourage puts the wanting to learn on the students shoulders.

I like this concept - assess and encourage, not just evaluate and move on to the next assignment. In my opinion, this is where the learning on assessment and feedback is so important for teachers and students.

Students should not have to play a guessing game with instructors. We as teachers need to be transparent with our students about what they need to know and should be able to demonstrate.

So important to remember that rubrics are not the only way to provide feedback to students.

True! I would hope by the time that the students complete a project to get graded on by a rubric, that they have received feedback from formative assessments along the way.