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Assessment and Data

Students demonstrate learning through authentic, rigorous, and relevant assessment and engage in frequent feedback cycles in order to improve. Data drives instructional decision-making.

Phase 2: Demonstrating Mastery of Learning

Picture
"Look-Fors" During Observations
​
Remember: The most helpful part of the observation is not checking off items but the conversations and reflections that happen after the visit.
Beginning/ Practicing​
  • Students regularly demonstrate their learning in one or two ways, e.g., a multiple-choice exit ticket at the end of a lesson cycle.

  • Students engage in assessments that are not reflective of real-world challenges, tasks, etc. that they might expect to face in a career.

  • Assessment lives between the student and the teacher, i.e., students may not have an opportunity to share and/or defend their work to a public audience for feedback and celebration.

  • Students engage in assessment that tends to focus on lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Knowledge and Comprehension).

  • Students regularly engage with formative and summative assessment but may not see how it connects and drives their overall learning experience.


Developing/ Achieving
  • Students regularly demonstrate their learning in many different ways, e.g., oral presentations, projects, essays/written compositions, portfolios, experiments, graphic organizers, multiple-choice questions, etc.

  • Students engage in assessments that they would see in the real-world, i.e., assessment reflects tasks that might occur in college, the workplace, and adult life.

  • Assessment might also be authentic if it mirrors what students might actually do in a particular discipline in the future, e.g., writing an op-ed to persuade an audience.

  • Students have an opportunity to share and/or defend their summative work (e.g., a unit project) with a public audience for feedback and celebration.

  • Assessments, when possible and meaningful, support students to make connections across content areas and apply what they know in an interdisciplinary way.

  • Students engage in assessment that tends to focus on higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation).

  • Assessment challenges students to think critically, exercise their creativity, collaborate, and communicate.

  • Students are invested in the assessment because they understand the purpose of it, seize opportunities to share what they’ve learned, and value feedback and critique that can help them grow.

  • Formative assessment is purposefully used to monitor daily and weekly progress; formative assessment is tightly aligned to summative assessment and is carefully scaffolded.
Questions to Guide Observation
  • How do students demonstrate their learning?
  • What do formative and summative assessments ask of students?
  • Are students mostly expected to recall information and demonstrate comprehension, or are students asked to apply/analyze/synthesize what they’ve learned?
  • Do assessments reflect an actual task or challenge that a student might face in college or career?
​Questions to Ask Students
  • Based on the learning objective(s), how are you expected to demonstrate your learning? How will you show what you know?
  • How can opportunities to show what you know help you grow?
  • Why does your teacher ask you to demonstrate your learning?
  • What are the different ways you show your teacher and your peers what you know?​
 
​Resources
  • What Are Some Types of Assessments? , describes not only standardized assessments, but also includes alternative authentic assessments (Article from Edutopia)
  • How Should We Measure Student Learning?, focuses on 5 keys to assessments (Video from Edutopia)
  • Assessment Professional Development Guide, includes a series of workshop activities that could be used in a PD session about assessment with staff (Article from Edutopia)
  • What is “Authentic” Assessment?, includes overview of assessment at a 6-12 school in NYC (Video from Edutopia)
  • Studies in Success: A Survey of Assessment Research, reports the effectiveness of relevant evaluation of student work (Article from Edutopia)
Exhibits and Presentations as Assessment
  • Using Exhibits as Assessment, includes an overview of how a K-8 school uses four annual exhibits for students to share what they’ve learned over the course of a unit
  • Celebrations of Learning at Expeditionary Learning schools, includes two video clips: one that shows how kindergarteners share what they’ve learned with a public audience and another that shows how 7th graders shared their work at the end of an expedition
Portfolios and Defenses as Assessment
  • Portfolios as Authentic Assessment, a toolbox that describes what a portfolio is, why portfolios are valuable, and how to create and use a portfolio in the classroom
Assessment in Project-Based Learning
  • Resource List: Assessment in PBL, includes 20+ links to videos, blog posts, and tools to support assessment throughout a project​​
In the Field
Click here
 to view pictures and artifacts to see how personalized learning teachers and leaders in Dallas ISD are using data to drive instructional decision-making.



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  • Home
  • About
    • Personalized Learning
    • Meet the Work
    • Meet the Cohort
    • Meet the Team
    • In the News
    • Impact Report
  • The Rubric
    • Assessment and Data >
      • Data Driven Instruction
      • Student Feedback
      • Authentic Assessment
    • Instructional Rigor >
      • Varied Learning Experiences
      • Differentiated Learning Objectives
      • Personalized Learning Pathways
    • Student Agency >
      • Rapport with Students
      • Self- Direction
      • Opportunities for Input
    • Classroom Culture >
      • Routines and Procedures
      • Peer Accountability
      • Growth Mindset
    • Equity >
      • Self- Awareness
      • Diversity in Design
      • Collaborative Grouping
    • Phases of PL
  • Readiness Continuum
    • 1 Vision + Priorities
    • 2 The PL Graduate
    • 3 Principal/ Leader
    • 4 PL Classroom Practices
    • 5 Curriculum + Instruction
    • 6 Data Driven Instruction
    • 7 Collaborative Design
    • 8 PL Campus Team
    • 9 Personalized PD + Supports
    • 10 Culture of Innovation
    • 11 Social Emotional Learning
    • 12 Sustainability + Access
  • Teacher Fellowship
    • Fellowship Showcase
    • 2018-2019 Fellows
    • 2017-2018 Fellows
    • 2016-2017 Fellows
    • 2019 Fellowship Application
  • Blog
  • Opportunities
    • Google Summit
    • PL World Cup
    • Book Clubs
    • Communities of Practice
    • University Partnerships
    • BetterLesson
    • Edcamp
  • Educator Tours
  • Sharing the Work
  • The Lighthouse