ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING

1. ASSESSMENTFOR LEARNING QUALITY ASSESSMENT TO IMPROVE CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

2. What Is Assessment? • Assessment provides feedback on a student’s learning to encourage further development. • Evaluation is a judgment on how a student is doing based on the quality, value or worth of a response or product.

3. 'Evaluation' always accompanies ‘Assessment'. Assessment and evaluation provide ongoing feedback to teachers, students and parents in order to enhance student learning. Assessment and evaluation are employed when teachers: gather information about what students know and can do (diagnostic), monitor student progress (formative), evaluate achievement of the learner outcomes for the purpose of report card marks (summative). The assessment process reveals what a student understands, knows and can do. The evaluation process indicates the quality of performance based on the curriculum (learner outcomes).

4. Why is AFL Important? • When students are involved in their own assessment and evaluation, they are required to think about their learning and articulate their understandings which helps them learn. (Schon 1983, 1990; Walters, Seidel, and Gardner 1994; Wolf 1987, 1989; Young 2000; Zessoules and Gardner 1991)

5. Why is AFL Important? • Self-assessment asks students to make choices about what to focus on next in their learning. When students make choices about their learning, achievement increases: when choice is absent, achievement decreases. (Purkey and Novak 1984; deCharms 1968, 1972; Kovalik 1994; Lepper and Green 1974, 1978; Maehr 1974; Mahoney 1974; Deci and Ryan 1985; Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, and Ryan 1991; Mager and McCann 1963)

6. Why is AFL Important? • When students are involved in their own assessment, mistakes become feedback they can use to adjust what they are doing. When students' mistakes are identified by others and feedback is limited to marks or letters, students are less likely to know what to do differently next time. (Butler and Nisan 1986, 1987; Buttersworth and Michael 1975; Kohn, 1993; Seagoe 1970; Shepard and Smith 1986, 1987)

7. Why is AFL Important? • Involving students in assessment, and increasing the amount of descriptive feedback while decreasing evaluative feedback, increases student learning. While all students show significant gains, students who usually achieve the least show the largest gains overall. (Black & Wiliam, 1998)

8. Why is AFL Important? • Performance assessments provide the means for improving teaching and learning, but only if teachers receive sufficient training and support. (Borko et al. 1993; Falk and Darling-Hammond 1993; Gearhard et al. 1993; Kentucky Institute for Educational Research 1995; Koretz et al. 1993; Smith et al 1994)

9. The Final Word On Why! "The assessments that drive student learning and academic self-concept are those used by teachers in classrooms. Without quality classroom assessment, instruction cannot work and schools cannot be effective." Richard J. Stiggins, Assessment, Student Confidence, and School Success. Phi Delta Kappan, November, 1999.

10. WHAT IS GOOD ASSESSMENT? Assessment is enhanced when: • Assessment is integrated with instruction (unit and lesson planning) • Students are involved with their own assessment • Immediate, meaningful feedback is provided to the students and teachers • Students of all ability levels are able to demonstrate what they know and what they can do • It increases the learning • It motivates the student

11. What improvements are needed to ensure our assessment practices support student learning? • Assessment Accuracy Teacher accuracy in judging student performance and inter-rater reliability. (i.e. consistency in scoring)

12. What improvements are needed? • Quality of Feedback To students and parents (provide useful information, enhance student confidence and encourage further development) To the teacher (inform/guide teaching and learning processes)

13. What improvements are needed? • Student Involvement Help set criteria, complete assessment tasks that reveal what the student knows and can do, and self-evaluation.

14. What improvements are needed? • Teacher Pro-Development Honor teachers as professionals by assisting them to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to embed enhanced assessment practices into the instructional process. This is applicable to both pre-service teacher education and in-service/ professional development for veterans.

15. The Use of Rubrics and Criteria According to Guskey - Rubrics and Criteria: • are powerful tools for teaching and assessment. • help students become more thoughtful judges of their own work. • reduce the time teachers spend evaluating students' work. • allow teachers to accommodate differences in heterogeneous classes. • are easy to use and explain. • improve objectivity in scoring.

16. The Use of Rubrics and Criteria Provide teachers with a tool that will help: • identify targets for instruction • involve students in setting criteria, resulting in increased student motivation and understanding • select and design appropriate evaluation tools • increase the level of consistency in evaluating student performances • clarify what students know and can do • generate specific and informative comments for students and parents • identify outcomes to be reviewed or taught again (student strengths and weaknesses)

17. The Use of Rubrics and Criteria Provide students with: • clear performance targets and the opportunity to know what excellence would look like • a way for reflecting on their learning and setting goals for improved performance • an opportunity to be involved in setting the criteria. Provide parents and community with: • information about what is important in a subject area • a basis for working with students and the school to help improve performance.

18. Thinking Like an Assessor What would be sufficient and revealing evidence of understanding? What performance tasks must anchor the unit and focus the instructional work? How will I be able to distinguish between those who really understand and those who don't (though they may seem to)? Against what criteria will I distinguish student work? What misunderstandings are likely? How will I check for those misunderstandings?

19. Final Thoughts “Over time, students move forward in their learning when they can use personal knowledge to construct meaning, have skills of self-monitoring to realize that they don’t understand something, and have ways of deciding what to do next.”

20. “The Last Quote” “All good assessment is a perpetual work in progress.”

21. SAMPLE AFL LESSON • Banff’s Future – What will we decide? • Grade 4 Social Studies lesson including Assessment For Learning