improving assessment literacy at the classroom, school, and district levels · 2011. 5. 13. ·...

Improving Assessment Literacy at

the Classroom, School, and District

Levels

Damian Cooper

(905) 823-6298

dcooper3@rogers.com

Canadian Association of Principals Conference

Charlottetown

May 18 – 20, 2011

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

-conversations

DuFour, 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, 2004

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

Centred on student learning

Integrated with school

improvement

Active, 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 the Research

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

It’s June, 2013 – the end of your

3-Year Assessment Improvement

Plan. 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!

“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

Time to Talk about Challenges

Individually, identify the major issues

and challenges you face as you

manage assessment reform in your

school

Share your observations with your

colleagues

What are the common challenges you

face?

Redefining “Fair” - Assessment and Grading for the 21st Century

Challenge 1

As evidenced by their reluctance to

abandon traditional grading and

reporting formats, state and

provincial departments of education

have not demonstrated the political

will to change grading and reporting

systems from a norm-referenced

model to a criterion-referenced

model.

Challenge 2

Despite the resources that have

gone into supporting teachers, there

is little accountability to ensure that

“no teacher is left behind” in terms

of acquiring and implementing the

skills necessary to improve learning

for ALL students.

Redefining “Fair” - Assessment and Grading for the 21st Century

Challenge 3

Teachers cling to outdated beliefs

about motivation, discipline,

responsibility, and fairness that lead

to inappropriate assessment and

grading practices.

Challenge 4

The lack of communication

between secondary and tertiary education

systems supports teachers in

holding on to these outdated beliefs.

Damian Cooper,

Ken O'Connor,

with Nanci Wakeman

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

Smart Goals

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Results-

oriented

Time-bound

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

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

Walkden H. S. – classroom observations

Highly skilled teachers

Respect for all students

Consistent approach to lesson design

School-wide use of interactive

technology

All lessons included movement,

games, student ownership of learning

Planning maximized time-on-task

Case Study: Walkden High School

Self and peer assessment were

routine in every class

All teachers insisted on respectful and

appropriate behaviours throughout the

school

Teachers addressed common errors

and misconceptions

Praise and recognition of achievement

used appropriately

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

Time to Talk About Focus

Would these two tools to help you gather useful data about assessment and grading practices in your school?

How might you wish to change them?

What other data-gathering tools & approaches would you need to feel confident about your focus for improvement?

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 ...

Examples:

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?

Dealing with resistance

Time

“if it ain’t broke…”

Habits

Student resistance: marks!

Parent resistance: marks!

Implementation dip

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

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?

Time to Talk about our

Improvement Plan

Where are we in our plan?

What progress have we made?

Are we staying the course?

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 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?

48

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