Common Assessment Info

I know that many of you feel overwhelmed by all of the state-mandated and district initiatives. Please look at these opportunities for us to constantly evolve and improve for our students. Collaboratively, we can achieve new heights and support one another through the process. I know how positive our group can be and it will definitely help our team grow together.

This year, the "midterm" will consist of 3-4 common assessments given over the first semester. The assessments are going to not only call on their content knowledge, but also some aspects of the 21st century competencies. Thankfully, the science department has done a tremendous amount of work in creating common assessments over the past few years, as well as rubric work related to the competencies. We now have to marry the two aspects together in order to determine if we are hitting the mark of whole child, every child. We don't want to over test our students. We want our assessments to be meaningful both for and of learning. We want district consistency in our curriculum and assessments.


As we work to develop any common assessment, the task should be aligned toward the right side of this diagram. Our design focus in common assessments should be authentic and rubric-based. 

In earlier correspondence from my predecessor, there was a statement made about what constitutes a good assessment. Please refer to this with your grade-level and subject team:

•          Mirrors classroom instruction – in both content and form;

•          Focuses on what students know and are able to do;

•          Is meaningful to students;

•          Is challenging and integrates a variety of skills so that students can show all that they can do; Reflects clear and concise scoring criteria which are understood by students in order to provide them with meaningful feedback;

•          Allows for dialogue between student and teacher to facilitate growth;

•          Does not threaten the students’ feeling of self-esteem or psychological safety;

•          Improves learning.

Is this just in the science department?
No. Common assessments are going to be used for every department in our school district. It would be great if you met with some of your colleagues from other departments and compared strategies and assessments.

We already have a lot of labs that we are all using in the first semester. Can we use parts of our already existing labs?
Absolutely! As long as the team assessment includes aspects of both content and the 21st century competencies and does not rely on all multiple choice questions, bring it to the table. The goal is to build better assessments that diagnosis and capture student learning. We have plenty of great performance tasks that can be tweaked to include consistent rubrics for grading that work for the team.

Do we all have to use the same assessments as our team? 
Yes. They are all to be the same common assessments and they should all be graded the same way, with the same district curve if needed.

How will we grade these assessments?
We should be grading and discussing the results with our teams. During PLC meetings we should be discussing the results and pull random student responses from the pile to ensure students are all being graded fairly and consistently.

Our PLC conversations should be focused on:
What do we want them to learn? Did they learn it? What are the prevailing misconceptions that still need to be addressed? What can we do to help differentiate for the kids who got it and for those who did not?

Do we have to give the common assessments on the same date as our colleagues?
No, but they should all be used and calculated into the midterm grade.

Can the assessments ask the students to have a conversation about a topic with a peer?
Yes. If you have not observed how the World Language department assesses their students, I strongly encourage you ask a colleague if you can. Their assessments are fully in line with the direction our district is heading. Remember, if a students has memorized everything from the chapter, but cannot articulate an understanding as an effective communicator, they have not demonstrated any application of their knowledge. They have only acquired a lot of facts. What are they doing with this information?

Can we still use a set of questions to test the students individually about content?
Yes. No one is saying that you have to judge the students in groups for all of their common assessment scores. You are welcome to ask the students to individually solve a common problem, create a hypothesis, analyze data, create graphs/charts, etc. You could also ask them to log on to a computer with a given concept/problem and ask them to provide you with a list of sites that are useful in helping them learn about the problem in pairs, and then ask them individually to solve the problem.

Isn't it still important for students to take a comprehensive exam?
Sure. It is important for the students to retain the most important concepts from our classes. It is also important for us to develop a way to test what they can do with this information. I think we have a lot of assessments that are already doing this. Our kids are also already taking high-stakes, standardized tests every time they turn around. If we know that those other standardized tests don't capture everything about our kids, let's work to infuse more of the kinds of assessments that will!

Resources about multiple measures of student learning and performance assessments:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3bU-Lg-UoWSTmdqY3FqMnB2ck0/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/PB38beyondtwotestscores2011.pdf

http://www.edutopia.org/comprehensive-assessment-introduction

http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/files/21st_Century_Learn_Assess.pdf