Analysis of Assessment Practices
Investing time in understanding outcomes and designing assessments accordingly can set both my planning and my students on a clear path to learning. Alberta teachers are tasked with knowing how to meet the needs of their learners through planning, instruction, and assessment practices (Alberta Education, 2020). As an elementary teacher at heart, I mastered the art of formative assessment and used summative assessment as an indicator of student achievement. An area I was not strong in was giving timely and descriptive feedback to move learning forward in addition to using data to inform my own instruction. I would use data to group students in reading or group work but not necessarily to change my teaching practice.
Formative assessments are used as strategies and calibration tools for me to check in on my students, assess where they are at in their learning, and reflect on how I can adjust my teaching. My students’ learning is benefited by timely check-ins, formative rubrics, and actionable feedback to help guide them throughout their assignments. When designing a rubric or evaluation of student work it’s important to have a clear learning destination and communicate clear criteria in order to move student learning forward. Involving my students in the process of assessment and laying out success criteria alongside students creates self-efficacy for students and gets them to buy into the process. Kids will buy in when they understand it and own it.
Albeit, important in providing students with focused feedback, summative assessment is also important in my teaching context. Wormeli mentioned, “a grade is supported to provide an accurate, undiluted indicator of a student’s mastery of learning standards” (p.19). The grade is a clear indicator if the student has mastered the skill and if not, we can go back and provide targeted supports to get them to where they need to be.
Throughout my teaching years and with the support of research-based professional learning I have enhanced and refined my assessment practices. In recent years, I have focused much of my effort on making data-informed decisions when identifying how to best support students. According to Hattie & Ziere (2018), “if the student is not learning, it is because we have not yet found the strategy to make learning happen” (p. 40). Understanding where a student is struggling in their learning is a means to determine how to best support them.
A challenge that I have in regards to assessment is making summative assessments linguistically equitable. I often ask the question, is a summative assessment the best way to test an English Langauge Learner or are we playing the ‘gotcha’ game that Wormeli (2006) often eludes to. Language learners benefit from descriptive and timely feedback to support their language growth in content area subjects. Although the government does not mandate a level 1 ELL to write the PAT, they do penalize schools with a 0 if the level 1 ELL did not write. I struggle with this concept and although it would be very difficult to do, I wish there was an accommodated PAT/Diploma exam for ELLs. I think this would complement the hard work educators do every day to accommodate instruction for language learners.
I believe there is still work to do in aligning our assessment practices with research. Especially as you move up in the grades. For example, high school teachers rely heavily on summative assessments to prepare students for final exams and diplomas in preparation for university. School leaders have a critical role in the implementation of assessment for learning. O’Connor (2001) emphasized, school leaders “must ensure that the grading practices used in their schools are based on quality assessment, and they should work with their entire faculty to develop a quality assessments environment” (p. 37). O’Connor recommends that in order to change grading practices, ongoing discussion around the issue of grading and reporting need to be had (O’Connor, 2001, p. 38). In addition, the LQS (2020) outlines that school leaders must ensure that, “student assessment and evaluation practices are fair, appropriate and evidence-informed” (p.4). In summary, assessment should guide our teaching practices and support students in their growth as a learner. Although we are not quite where we need to be, school leaders do have a duty to continue the journey of professional learning for fair assessment practices.
Alberta Education. (2020). Leadership quality standards.
https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/ed-leadership-quality-standard-english.pdf
Alberta Education. (2020). Teacher quality standards.
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/14d92858-fec0-449b-a9ad-52c05000b4de/resource/af
c2aa25-ea83-4d23-a105-d1d45af9ffad/download/edc-teaching-quality-standard-english-2020.pdf
Hattie, J.; Zierer, K. Ten Mindframes for Visible Learning: Teaching for Success; Routledge: New York, NY, USA, 2018.
O'Connor, K. (2001). The principal's role in report card grading. National Association of
Secondary School Principals.NASSP Bulletin, 85(621), 37-46. https://proxy.cityu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.cityu.edu/scholarly-journals/principals-role-report-card-grading/docview/216043019/se-2?accountid=1230
Wormeli, R. (2006). Accountability: Teaching through assessment and feedback, not grading.
American Secondary Education, 34(3), 14-27. https://proxy.cityu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.proxy.cityu.edu/scholarly-journals/accountability-teaching-through-assessment/docview/195186514/se-2?accountid=1230
Great reflection Anna! I love the references you used. I love Hattie's work on Visible Learning, but I really love his complimentary work on Mindsets surrounding Visible Learning. Wormeli's quote that states "a grade is supported to provide an accurate, undiluted indicator of a student’s mastery of learning standards" made me wonder, how do we ensure that assessment, specifically summative assessment, reflect an accurate, undiluted representation of student learning? So many summative assessments are riddled with inequity, like the example you shared about ELL learners. This is why I struggle with summative and grading... I feel it is so difficult to ensure that they are designed in appropriate ways.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you about the inequities, especially in regards to standardized assessment for ELL learners. One year I had a Grade 9 student from Cameroon who only spoke French and didn't understand a lick of English. I had her complete her written part in French and then I worked on translating it on my end for her final grade. I'm sure they had a bit of a heart attack at the government level when it came their way, but I was able to award her something as a final exam mark at the school level. It was either that or we took the 0 while she sat and stared blankly at the exam booklet. I would argue that these exams are just as inequitable for our students who struggle with reading as nearly all of them are designed in a way that relies heavily on the students ability to be able to read and comprehend.
So much to think about when it comes to assessment practices and ensuring that all our learners can be successful! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hey Vanessa,
DeleteThanks for your response! Your question of how do we ensure that summative assessment reflect an accurate representation of student learning really had me thinking. I think it important to not base marks off a stand alone summative assement, instead we must ensure we are using a triangulation of evidence sucha as products, observations and conversations. When using a stand alone standardized assessment, like a BAS reading asssessment, it can be helpful to guide our teaching and ensure we are teaching the outcomes until students have reached mastery but should not be something that is reported on.
Great post, Anna! I am so glad you weaved in your reflection about an accommodated PAT/Diploma exam for ELLs. Every since you brought it up this past weekend, it has been in the back of mind! Why don't we do that for our ELL Learners?! Rhetorical question; just my thoughts aloud. An actual question though - do you vision this as the same PAT/Diploma questions, only in their spoken language or do you see different levels of the assessment based on content or quantity?
ReplyDeleteHey Tina!
DeleteInteresting question, I envision it both ways. The easiest and fastest way would be to provide a translated MC exam and allow students to write in their home language. Thus, by utilizing translanguaging in the classroom as an instructional strategy, students are still able to demonstrate that they have mastered the outcomes of instruction. Another way to do it but it would take more time and resources to do so would be to simplify the language of a MC exam and make written ELA exams cultrually relavent. I remember one year the grade 6 PAT written exam had a visual of an escalator, however, none of our ELLs had seen an escalator before!!!
In summary I think even just allowing ELLs to translate a written exam in their home language would be a step in the right direction. Currently the Alberta Education does not allow ELLs to translate their written portion of a PAT/Diploma. It is safer for a school to exempt the ELL from writing the PAT if they are a level 1, as the school does not receive a 0 for this.
Great question!
Anna
Hey Anna,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. The quote you included from Hattie & Ziere is so powerful: “if the student is not learning, it is because we have not yet found the strategy to make learning happen.” To me, this quote really speaks to assuming competence in our students' ability to learn and the impact of teacher efficacy. I admire teachers who creatively approach student learning with an eye to finding the way it works for each individual. I'm curious about some of your breakthroughs you've had with student in discovering strategies to make learning happen. I get inspired by these professional "ah ha" moments.
Hey Vicky,
DeleteThank you for your response. As to a breakthrough in discovering strategies, I would say it was simply used data to inform my teaching practice. Once I have collected data on the learning of my students, I use that to guide my instruction and teaching strategies. In addition, I would say being more intentional in providing students with timely feedback which has shown to help them grow in their leanring.
Hey Anna, I loved your post and all the different points you brought up in it! Like Vicki said, the Hattie & Ziere quote is great and really speaks to how we need to approach assessment too. If the student is not able to demonstrate their learning in the way we ask them to, we need to change the way we are asking! I agree with you that there are a lot of issues with the PAT's, and even though I do not work with ELL students, we have many in our school that have extreme learning disabilities but they also receive a 0 if they do not complete the test. It is such a horrible way to assess children, especially when they can demonstrate success in different ways, I hate that they feel like they are failing! My question for you is around what you first mentioned, about being great at formative and summative assessments but struggling with giving timely feedback. How did you go about changing that part of your practice? Was it something that you changed before you took on your other position and what did you find worked best?
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great post!
Hey Chelsea,
DeleteGreat Question! I believe I surrounded myself with educators who were knowledgeable and passionate about assessment. From that stemmed my own desire to learn more. These mentors really motivated me to dig deeper and understand how to provide descriptive feedback to more learning forward. After leanring more about it, I was able to pracitce it in my own coaching and teaching and found. it have a possitive effect on the work student produced!