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Welcome to the Balanced Assessment Wiki! Goals Increase knowledge of types of assessment Make connections between 21st-century learning and assessment Explore research to support balanced assessment and technology integration in assessment Recognize the impact of Higher Order Thinking Skills in effective integration of technology into assessment Demonstrate activities that integrate technology tools Discuss questions related to the implementation of assessment supported by technology tools

"The first part of an assessment design is the most obvious; the student performance, or more simply referred to as the activity. This requires a student to show the teacher what they know or can do. The second part assessment design is often assumed or omitted; however, this part of the assessment is critical to optimizing alignment to the objectives, and provides valuable support towards student success. This critical component is the grading plan or better named the feedback criteria. As a teacher, we need to effectively communicate to our learners both a description of how they will perform an assessment activity as well as a description of how we will judge the quality of their performance. Are you planning and communicating your feedback criteria? The Blended and Online Assessment Taxonomy Infographic presents types of activities that suit various levels of assessment as well as grading and feedback criteria which will help you plan better assessments."

"Effective Classroom Assessment: Linking Assessment with Instruction Successful middle schools engage students in all aspects of their learning. There are many strategies for accomplishing this. One such strategy is student-led conferences. As a classroom teacher or administrator, how do you ensure that the information shared in a student-led conference provides a balanced picture of the student's strengths and weaknesses? The answer to this is to balance both summative and formative classroom assessment practices and information gathering about student learning. Assessment is a huge topic that encompasses everything from statewide accountability tests to district benchmark or interim tests to everyday classroom tests. 4 In order to grapple with what seems to be an over use of testing, educators should frame their view of testing as assessment and that assessment is information. The more information we have about students, the clearer the picture we have about achievement or where gaps may occur."

The Connecticut State Department of Education has partnered with the Leadership and Learning Center to provide professional development in Common Formative Assessments. Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) are periodic or interim assessments that are administered to all students in a grade level or course several times during the quarter, semester, trimester or entire school year. Teachers analyze student assessment results in Data Teams to plan and differentiate instruction. Such results provide predictive value as to how students are likely to do on each succeeding assessment in time for teachers to make instructional modifications.

Ohio schools are moving toward online assessments for their students which include interactive assessment items. These interactive assessment items have been enhanced by technology and in order for students to successfully complete these online assessments, they will need to be able to perform many technology tasks including: click/tap, scroll, plot points, drag/drop, type with text editor, select object, select text, use video player, select area, drag/slide, deselect, highlight, use ruler, use calculator, use protractor....

"Intentionally involving your students in the assessment process helps students to become lifelong learners.  Peter Senge (2000) says, "A cornerstone of lifelong learning is the capacity for objective self-assessment - the ability to judge for yourself how well you are doing."  Similarly, William McKeachie (2011) relates the importance of helping students become lifelong learners to faculty members who intentionally involve students in self-assessment:"

"But what I wanted to share is the awesome work the teacher is doing with formative assessment.  " Formative assessment in the 7th grade math classroom

"-5 Formative Assessment Lessons (FALs) Edit 0 34… These Formative Assessment Lessons are the results of the work of the Kentucky Mathematics Design Collaborative. Thank you, Kentucky teachers and coaches!"

"That's why I wrote Teach Above the Test. This book is all about how we as teachers, administrators, parents, as school leaders, as people who see our students for 180 days a year…how we can go beyond the standards, and above the tests. Our focus needs to change. We can't hate these assessments. And we also can't love these assessments. We need to start treating these tests for what they really are…which is just one assessment out of many that our students will have to take in life. "

"Detailed in the infographic below (provided by McGrawHill Education, and designed by Santosh Kushwaha), these areas include: Assessment Types Question Types Delivery Methods Scoring Methods I could go into each one of these areas, but I believe the infographic provides a good explanation and overview of each.  I think the one overall takeaway for each of these items is that their use can vary by situation.  Certain content and contexts will favor different assessment types, questions, delivery, and scoring.  The important thing is to analyze the situation first before just throwing a bunch of multiple-choice questions together.  Doing so will result in much more reliable, and valid data."

"Critical thinking is thinking that assesses itself. To the extent that our students need us to tell them how well they are doing, they are not thinking critically. Didactic instruction makes students overly dependent on the teacher. In such instruction, students rarely develop any perceptible intellectual independence and typically have no intellectual standards to assess their thinking with. Instruction that fosters a disciplined, thinking mind, on the other hand, is 180 degrees in the opposite direction."

"Formative assessment, as I understand it, is an on-going process where both teachers and students evaluate assessment evidence in order to make adjustments to their teaching and learning. Robert Marzano has called it "one of the more powerful weapons in a teacher's arsenal.""

"The SimScientists program in WestEd's Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) program is comprised of a portfolio of research and development projects that focus on the roles that simulations can play in enriching science learning and assessment. The capabilities of technology allow modifications of simulation-based activities to offer accommodations for English learners and students with disabilities. Science simulations can be used in curriculum activities, as embedded, formative assessments, and as summative assessments."

"How PLCs Use Assessments Posted on October 19, 2010 By Rick DuFour We received a series of questions from a school grappling with developing common assessments. I summarized the questions and attempted to provide a brief response for each."

Ensuring that students are assessment-capable learners is the most important thing we can do to raise student achievement. The final task for this first session is to reflect on your own classroom. Use the continua below to mark where you think your students are in relation to being assessment-capable.

"The purpose of these tutorials is to demonstrate the navigation and tools available for Computer-Based Assessments and the use of the Test Booklet and Answer Documents for Paper-Based Assessments. The items appearing in these tutorials are samples used to allow students and educators to gain familiarity with the technology platform and paper-based format that will be used for PARCC assessments."

"The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction.  Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning."

"What is self-assessment? The ability to be a realistic judge of one's own performance."

"For those who might be new to the term, formative assessments are ongoing practices that help both the teacher and student evaluate and reflect on how they are both doing, and what changes either or both might need to make to become a more effective teacher and learner"

"Want to spend class time wisely? Formative assessments can help. The trick: taking the time to analyze the data and put it to use. You can do this in any subject area, but we'll start with an example from teaching math."