m ike m c k ay june 2011

MIKE MCKAY JUNE 2011

ASSESSMENT LITERACY:

BUILDING CAPACITY

Knowing…Doing…Leading

ASSESSMENT LITERACY: THE LEADER’S ROLE IN CHANGING PRACTICE

Reframing the narrative and reclaiming the high ground:»Acknowledging “where we are”» Identifying “where we want to be”»Planning “to get from here to there”

Assessment Literacy: Building Capacity Mike McKay June 2011

With thanks to Rick Stiggins, Ruth Sutton and other passionate leaders helping us to do the work of changing assessment practices to support student learning

Leadership 101: Our Self-Assessment Guide

Attributes of

successful people

and organizations

Brutally honest in self-assessment

Develop a reasonable plan

Relentless follow through

(from McREL)How does your learning environment hold up to these standards?


Our Context: Leadership Focus and Guiding Truths

5 Guiding Truths

Students First

Results Matter

Count What Counts

We Are All Responsible

Do What’s Right

STUDENTSUCCESS

Content Knowledge/

Context Skill

RelationshipsInstructional/AssessmentStrategies

Is our sacred trust (every child, every chance, every day) important enough to change current norms?


There are no throw-away kids and no throw-away schools

The overwhelming majority of the adults in our system come to work wanting to do the best job they can do

We need to work smarter together rather than harder alone

“Skill and Will” are not fixed assets. They can be influenced and increased by strategic action

Each school is in a different place in its development, level of success and sense of efficacy.

Leadership is about taking the school from where it is to where it needs to be.


Foundational Values and Beliefs for our Leadership Work

Table Talk: Where is your “sweet spot” for action in these value statements?

Dynamic Tensions and the Leader’s Brain

Values

Results

Support

Rules

Opportunities

Pressure

Ingenuity Compliance


Simple truth about learning

“Cramming more content per minute or moving from one piece of learning to the next

virtually guarantees that little will be learned or retained”

Eric Jensen: Teaching with the Brain in Mind


The Learner is Ready for the World Today and Tomorrow When…From Tony Wagner – The Global Achievement Gap

We develop students’ 21st~century skills by revolutionizing the curriculum into something that is interdisciplinary, integrated, project-based so that students engage in authentic experiences with:

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving• Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence• Agility and Adaptability• Initiative and Entrepreneurialism• Effective Oral and Written Communication• Accessing and Analyzing Information• Curiosity and Imagination

Table Talk: How many of our classrooms achieve this on a daily basis? How do our current assessment practices support development of these skills?


Where Do Today’s Assessment Practices Take Us?

We train the factory workers of tomorrow. Our graduates are very good at following instructions. And we teach the power of consumption as an aid for social approval…

or

We teach people to take initiative and become remarkable artists, to question the status quo, and to interact with

transparency. And our graduates understand that consumption is not the answer to social problems.

Seth Godin, Linchpin


Assessment for Achievement

1. Provides descriptive feedback.

2. Engages children in their own learning

3. Provides children with opportunities for self-assessment and feedback for improvement.

4. Informs and guides instruction.

5. Is sensitive to effects on children’s self-esteem and motivation.

Rick Stiggins


Assessment: 2 Different Purposes

Assessment of learning

Checks learning to date

Audience beyond the classroom

Periodic

Uses numbers, scores and grades

Criterion/standards referenced

No need to involve the learner

Assessment for learningSuggests next learning

Audience is teachers and learners

Continual – conversation and marking

Specific feedback, using words

Self-referenced, progress over time

Must involve the learner – the person most able to improve learning


Distinct Differences

Assessment OF Assessment FOR

Learning

Students

Descriptive

Daily

Coach

Measuring

Public/Parents

% # Symbols (A,B,etc)

Event

Judge


Letter Grades as Feedback

NOT Timely – often very removed from learning experience

NOT Specific – numbers or letters that provide no useful information to the learner

NOT Understood – students are not able to express what the letter grade reflects about their learning

Does NOT Allow for Student Self Adjustment – usually summative/final – no opportunity for redos


How far have we come? Many students don’t “survive” old assessment practices as well as Winston Churchill did.

Formative Assessment – Descriptive Feedback (Coaching)

These four criteria are key to quality feedback (assessment for learning):

1. Timely

2. Specific

3. Understood by student

4. Able to be acted upon by the student


Transforming Assessment in a Winnipeg SchoolFrom

Ruth Sutton

1. Teacher is clear about purpose and task2. Teacher knows how to ‘State, share and show’ learning

expectations 3. Teacher designs and explains the ‘enabling tasks’4. Teacher and students develop criteria5. Students check their work, while the task is in progress 6. Students say what’s OK and what’s not7. Students identify a next step8. Students continue, or correct work so far9. Students reflect periodically on what they’ve learned,

and how they learned it10. Students present learning and achievement to an

audienceAssessment Literacy: Building Capacity Mike McKay June 2011

When We Get It Right! (from Rick Stiggins)

1. We understand the relationship between assessment and student motivation and use assessment to build student confidence rather than failure and defeat.

2. We articulate to our students, in advance of teaching, the achievement standards they are to achieve.

3. We inform our students regularly, in terms they understand, about those achievement standards, by sharing the criteria and samples of high-quality work.

4. Our students can describe what standards they are to hit and what comes next in their learning.


5. We transform these learning standards into dependable assessments that yield accurate information.

6. We consistently use school assessment information to revise and guide teaching and learning.

7. Our feedback to students is frequent, descriptive, constructive, and immediate, helping students know how to plan and improve.

8. Our students are actively, consistently, and effectively involved in assessment, including learning to manage their own learning through the skills of self-assessment.

9. Our students actively, consistently, and effectively communicate with others about their achievement status and improvement.

Table Talk: Where can we build from current successes to consistent, high reliability assessment norms?

When We Get It Right! (contd) (from Rick Stiggins)


Assessment for Learning: A dramatic shift in long-established norms

Six Key Elements

– Learning Intentions: how clear are we in planning and sharing?

– Criteria: what does “good” look like (and why)?

– Descriptive Feedback: intended to guide, not to reward/punish.

– Questions: Do our questions promote curiosity, risk taking, growth…?

– Self and Peer Assessment: engaging students in the work of critical analysis.

– Ownership – is assessment something being “done to” students?


In your current leadership environment, what strategies can you use to promote greater understanding and ownership of quality AFL for each

of the skill/commitment quadrants?

HighLow

Low

High

Commitment

Skill

Master Educator

Beginning Educator

Disengaged Educator

Struggling Educator


Effective and Efficient Assessment Routines

1. Connect learning activities directly with learning outcomes – multiple learning outcomes if possible – more time spent on fewer assignments

2. Provide clear criteria, rubrics and high quality student samples – help kids see what “good” looks like

3. Assess/observe but don’t “mark” all assignments – particularly formative work

4. Spend your time providing assessment feedback on the most important assignments to the most needy students


5. Give quick, clear, specific and supportive feedback to stronger students in the moment and “on your feet”

6. 6. Move away from letter grades, numbers and scores on assignments – replace with descriptive comments – what’s working, what isn’t, where to from here

7. Give more efficient formative feedback as you move from desk-to-desk or as you connect on-line

8. Only summatively mark one or two performance-based assignments per unit - give constructive/formative feedback in between

When will school stop being a place where young people go to watch old people work hard?

.

Effective and Efficient Assessment Routines (cont.)


Grading Isn’t Going Away! How Does It (Mis)Align With AFL?

Rate your current reality from 1: often to 5: never with the following statements

(not what you want to believe but what you know is taking place)

1. Teachers decide on grades based on their own criteria (whatever information and “formulas” they choose to use) 1 2 3 4 5

2. Every piece of work done by a student should be given a grade 1 2 3 4 5

3. It is fair and effective for teachers to give zeros 1 2 3 4 5

4. A percentage grade is more accurate than a letter grade 1 2 3 4 5

5. Parents understand the basis on which grades are awarded, and what the grades mean about a student’s work and progress 1 2 3 4 5

6. A letter grade factors in attendance/ behavior as well as achievement 1 2 3 4 5

7. Grades are used to motivate students to improve their learning 1 2 3 4 5


The student is a learner when…

• He remembers what he can already do• He knows what he can’t do yet• He can identify one or two next steps that

would improve his work• He knows what to do when he doesn’t know

what to do• He has some strategies for getting ‘unstuck’• He is sufficiently confident to take risks

These are our learners today – and our leaders tomorrow. What legacy are we choosing to leave?


Post-session reflection/self-assessment

m ike m c k ay june 2011

Documents

building capacity mike

mind assessment literacy

current assessment practices

thereassessment literacy

todays assessment practices

student learning leadership

leadership focus

leadership worktable