This course undergraduates in
exploring assessment from multiple perspectives - in terms of assessment’s
relationship to school and society, the ethics of assessment, social justice
and assessment, ways of knowing, and school reform and assessment, as well
examining specific assessment practices.
Students are involved in an internship as they explore issues and refine
their own repertoire of assessment strategies.
Glossary of Assessment
Terms
Alternative assessment: a term applied to a variety of assessment techniques that
have been proposed as alternatives to standardized tests. Often called "performance"
or "authentic" assessments, their intent is to measure
directly a student's ability to perform; therefore, they are designed to
resemble real tasks as closely as possible. Many of these alternatives were
developed in order to provide more meaningful assessments of the reading and
writing that students do and out of dissatisfaction with what traditional
assessments were measuring. Portfolios, performance-based assessments, dynamic
assessment, on-the-run assessment, and anecdotal records are among the
alternative approaches included in the class
Anecdotal records: written observations made by teachers as students read, write, or
engage in conversations, discussions, or collaborative work with other
students. They focus on what the child can do rather than on what he can't do.
The comments are phrases or quick notes that document what happens when it
happens. Anecdotal records can focus on students' achievements, progress,
effort, and ongoing learning goals and serve as reminders or notes to reflect on
in order to plan instruction.
Assessment: a term often used interchangeably with evaluation, though there is
a difference between the two. Assessments the collection of information or data
gathering. The purpose of assessment is to monitor learning processes and to
inform teacher and student decision making. Evaluation refers to examining and
reflecting on the information that has been gathered. When you evaluate, you
make a judgment.
Authentic assessment: the development and use of tests that reflect legitimate
learning goals and instructional practices. Authentic reading and writing tasks
in an assessment context have learners engage in tasks replicating as closely
as possible the actual challenges facing readers and writers in specific topics
of study, in the workplace, or in daily living, where learning is
contextualized and purposeful. Proponents of authentic assessment criticize
traditional standardized tests, which rely heavily on multiple-choice items,
the use of short reading passages, and isolated skills testing.
Checklist: a list of activities, behaviors, or steps that an observer uses
to guide his or her ssessment of a student. The observer marks or checks off
skills, strategies, or behaviors observed in the student's performance. The
observer is most often the teacher, but students may also use checklists for
peer and self-evaluation.
Classroom-based assessment: the various assessment procedures teachers use to assess
students as well as engage students in self-assessment. These include informal
procedures such as observations, checklists, or on-the-run assessments and more
formal procedures such as periodic assessment and portfolios.
Criterion-referenced test: a test that assesses students in terms of the extent to
which they demonstrate certain capabilities rather than how students compare to
each other.
Dynamic assessment: assessment that is related to diagnostic teaching--assessment and
evaluation clearly linked to teaching and often occurring as part of the
check-reflect-act cycle during teaching. it indicates assessment that informs,
rather than drives, teaching.
Evaluation: (See Assessment.)
Holistic assessment: method of assessing the overall quality of written responses such
as essays or to attain an overall impression of a reader's performance.
Evaluators are trained in holistic scoring procedures to be sure they operate
from the same bases as they make judgments.
Informal Reading Inventory (IRI): originally intended to be a quick check
of whether a selection was too easy, too difficult, or appropriate for use with
an individual student. Over the years, it became more formalized and was used
more rigidly to define a child's reading level and to justify placement
decisions. More and more people have become disenchanted with its use for
placement and seem to be going back to the original purpose.
Interview: a one-on-one meeting in which the teacher can ask a student
questions in order to profile that student's strategies, metacognitive
awareness, habits, likes, dislikes, and factors influencing his behaviors.
Inventory: student interview or survey form used to guide the assessment and
evaluation of student interests, attitudes, and background knowledge.
Norm-referenced test: a test that compares students to a larger population, such
as a national sample. Most current norm-referenced tests rely heavily on short
passages and multiple-choice items.
On-the-run assessment: the everyday, quick assessments a teacher makes during the
check-reflect-act cycle in order to see whether or not most students are
keeping up or to determine which instructional options to follow. On-the-run
assessment occurs in the context of teaching.
Peer assessment: assessment in which one student assesses another's work and/or
gives feedback.
Performance-based assessments: assessments that evaluate students'
reading and
writing abilities by requiring demonstration or exhibition of a
concept or skill. Students can demonstrate their abilities and understanding
with writing, oral reports, dramatizing, simulations, products or projects, and
behaviors. When students demonstrate a skill or concept, they are rated by an
evaluator who uses observation and selected criteria to judge the quality of
the performance. The evaluator usually is the teacher; however, well-informed
students can also do peer or self-assessment.
Portfolio: a process in which students select representative samples of their
reading and writing and develop ongoing collections.
Primary trait analyses: procedures for analyzing open-ended responses or essays
according to criteria identified as being important. For example, primary trait
procedures might be used to analyze a story retelling in terms of plot or
consideration of character traits.
Reading log: a record of books a student has read. It may include such
information as the date the book was read; book title; author; genre; whether
the book was easy, medium, or challenging; the student's reason for choosing
the book; whether or not he finished the book; why he liked or didn't like the
book; a person he shared the book with; whether he wrote about the book.
Retelling: an alternative method of assessing comprehension. To retell is to
tell again. A retelling usually involves having a reader give his recollection
of a story--sometimes the reader is asked to recap the story as if he were
telling it to someone who doesn't know anything about it. To assess retellings,
analyses tend to focus on whether or not important events were included.
Rubric:
a listing of criteria and rating scales used to assess student writing,
open-ended responses to reading, and other responses that require an
examination of different traits.
Running record: a procedure developed by Marie Clay to assess oral reading
behavior using a simplified method of coding oral reading errors. It is easy to
use and does not require a lot of teacher preparation. The teacher simply
records everything the child says and does as he or she reads the selection the
teacher has chosen. Teachers take running records to be sure that a selection
is sufficiently challenging but not unduly so; to observe what strategies
children are using; to observe what children are able to do, not just what they
can't do; to identify children who need special attention. Running records are
especially useful for assessing students' ability to cross-check, self-monitor,
and self-correct.
Self-assessment: students' reflection on their work on assignments, tests, and
portfolios. Self-assessment might focus on differentiating strengths or
weaknesses, discussing the process or development, establishing ongoing
learning goals, or examining improvement.
Standardized test: a test designed to provide an assessment of a sample of student
performance, administered to prescribed rules, scored by set guidelines, and
interpreted by comparing students with other populations. (See also
Norm-referenced tests.) Note: Many criticisms of standardized tests are really
criticisms of their misuse. Most assessment experts agree that they should not
be used as the sole indicators of student achievement and that educators and
the public have put too much stock in their scores.
Think-alouds: the thought processes and strategies that readers and writers use
as they pause and share their thoughts, questions, and predictions at different
points while reading a selection. Think-alouds give the teacher an immediate
impression of readers' and writers' ongoing thought processes, as well as the
shifts in their understanding and reactions.
Writing log: a record of what a student has written. It may include reflections
on strategies the student feels he uses well and those on which he is working.
Examples of some class Notes
on the web site
Ideas, Problems and Questions
shared from small groups:
1. During portfolio conference
put less emphasis on the writing, and more on the message
2. Consider tape recording
conferences
Problem: When to get 1 on 1 time
with the kids in a busy day with the whole group.
1. Moving the portfolio from
being just a storage file to a self-reflection process
2. Before individual reflection,
discuss as a group the things to consider
3. Encourage different people's
perspective: students and parents
1. Giving the students choice
2. Self-assessment
3. Encourage students to find a
way to organize their work
Problems
1. How to get kids motivated
2. Too many students in the day
(60-80)
3. Not enough time in class
(40-45 min.)
1. To start, each student brings
a personal photograph from home and shares about self
Questions:
1. How to do a portfolio in a
short amount of time.
2. How to put oversize projects
in a portfolio
3. How to do KWL effectively
1. Make children a part of it
from the beginning
2. For conferences, give children
who are not experienced with portfolios a guide for reflection
3. Send pieces home for parent
comments
4. Use during parent-teacher
conferences
5. Talk with kids before you
start
Question: When do you fit in
conferencing?
1. Start small.
2. Allow the system to adapt to
the students' needs and classroom situation.
3. Active involvement of students
(ownership)
Question: Adapting informal
assessment to letter grades.
1. Use the buddy system (such as
fifth grade buddies)
2. Set a timer when working with
one child, help other students to learn not to interrupt
3. Construct a standard form to
fill out for self-assessment
Questions:
1. I you haven't started, how do
you do it this time of year?
2. If you are the only teacher in
the classroom, how do you do this?
3. Parents expect papers to go
home . It is a good way to communicate, so they know what is going on in the
classroom. How can you keep them at school for the portfolio?
#
Slides: Mistakes we can make...
1. Thinking the portfolio can
include only "Sunday Best"
(Some of the most interesting
things are not the best work.)
2. Going overboard formally
explaining in depth why each piece was selected. ("I'm proud of this piece
because..." becomes time-consuming.)
3. Restrict portfolio contents to
classroom items.
4. Going overboard with the final
product and appearance of the complete portfolio. (The value is in the
reviewing and thinking about the process, the conversations and sharing that go
on.)
5. Keeping the portfolios for the
teacher. (Kids need access, too.)
#
Responding to Journals
Choices of your response. (It can
be a powerful way to connect or disconnect.)
1. Reflective response (like a
therapist) ask questions and you tend to get more from the student next time
2. Share a similar personal
experience, and you tend to get more from the student next time
3. Glib response (postcard) short
notes of no particular substance, and you tend to close off communication with
the student
#Send e-mail this week regarding
these questions:
1. When are you going to be
trying portfolios in your classroom?
2. What are you doing it with?
(In conjunction with what project, subject, etc.)
3. What are you doing to help the
kids collect different things? How will those things be related?
4. How are you going to connect
the portfolios with the parents?
5. What sorts of things are you
going to get the kids to do with their portfolios?
6. What are you planning on doing
with the portfolio?
#Suggestion:
Get the portfolio disconnected
from grading at this time. After the process, debrief the kids and see what
they think could be learned from the portfolio process.
Hints and hits on the website
Series of notes, articles that
were generated in conjunction with the class by students, teaching assistants
and others
#Assessment and Evaluation Tools
from Literacy Class
#Evaluation Information from
Pedagogy Class
#How Do I Get an A in This Class?
Implementing Portfolio Assessment
with Kindergarteners
#Interview with Dr. Michael
Beeth--Science educator
Involving Parents with Portfolios
#Is Assessment Better Suited to Elementary
Not Middle School?
#Lost Assessment Class Notes
Making the Process More Efficient
#Matching Class Theory to
Cooperating Teacher's Practices
Math Assessment
#Types of Assessment Studied in
This Class
#What Is an Anecdotal Record?
Will This Assessment Work with
Urban, Low Socio-Economic Kids?
Success Stories
Example
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
PROFESSOR MICHAEL BEETH:
AG: We've had some requests for
guidance in science assessment, particularly regarding the use of portfolios.
Can you help our ever-aspiring student teachers?
MB: Well . . . should I call you
"Assessment" or "Guru" or what?
AG: Nicknames spell trouble for
me. Let's stick with initials, MB.
MB: All right, AG.
AG: About your sage advice?
MB: Of course. I'm afraid there
isn't a single source to which I can point students, but I can remind them of a
few things we touched on in class. The main theme of my reminder is that
open-ended inquiry lends itself to authentic assessment because of its
student-centered, somewhat uncertain nature. Writing can become a valuable part
of science in both meaning making and assessment. Do you remember the overhead
on "Writing and Science?" On the outside chance that you haven't
committed it to memory, here it is:
Writing and Science: Science and
Writing organize and categorize notes taken during investigation (note-taking
skill) send postcards describing science investigations (interpersonla
communications) document procedures used step-by-step, what was done (technical
writing) present data collected during an investigation: graphs,
charts,pictures, webs, etc. (non-verbal communication) describe what happened
during an investigation: what was expected/unexpected? (narrative/expository
writing) write to persuade others that your comclusions are valid (persuasive
writing) write how it feels to do science investigations (creative writing)
reflect on what you learned and how your ideas changed, if they did (reflective
writing) suggest additional questions that should be asked about the topic
(projective writing) AG: Thanks. That is probably a helpful refresher. Though
you didn't present this material as an approach to portfolio assessment, it
seems this list provides a lot of suggeted contexts for looking at children
both in the short term and over time. Have you got any more great ideas?
MB: Of course. I have a list of
"Cognitive Objectives for Science Learning." Finding means for
assessing these might best be done with multiple sources of information (i.e.
portfolios): Observes, describes, and classifies objects and phenomena found in
the natural world. Asks questions based on observations of natural objects and
phenomena Can focus observation on one setof characteristics for an object or
phenomena (i.e. knows what to look for). Asks questions that can be addressed
through scientific inquiry. Uses physical models, analogies, and metaphors to
help explain thoughts and ideas. Ideas are consistent from day to day.
Recognizes when they have sufficient information to draw a conclusion. Can
locate information necessary for studying an object or phenomena. Records and
analyzes information appropriately. Is developing an attitude that s/he can
engage in scientific inquiry. Listens to others to determine if an idea is
understood (i.e. find the ideas of others intelligible). Can provide sound
reasons for an idea (i.e. states reasons why an idea is plausible). These are
things to give you an idea where to start looking. Your method/means of
assessing such things may be a conference or a writing assignment or a log or
observation . . .or a combination. This isn't a one-time checklist. It's
pointing to strategies developed over time.
AG: Very appropriate for
portfolios. What about with middle-school students?
MB: There isn't all that much
different with middle-school students theoretically. The difference, for me,
lies in the possibilities and the "rigor" with which you can
"accept arguments" from students. Simply put, older kids can handle
more complexity. They can stand back and look more rationally at what's going
on. However the task of getting kids to reflect on their physical world and how
it influences their world. You're starting with their own experience and pushng
them to the level of abstraction
AG: Any other ideas for us?
MB: You might want to have the
students look back at the Peterson and Junket article they read in the summer.
It's the one about the "Three P's." It talks about how the scientific
process is never complete until a person has had to persuade someone else of a
"good idea" that has resulted from the scientific exploration.
Speaking persuasively encourages students to take ownership of the material.
That persuasive context is facet worth contemplating when designing an
assessment system.
#
Emails
Here we will share some of the
Greatest Hits gleaned from the hoppin' e-mail lines of WWW:
Dear Assessment Guru,
Isn't this assessment stuff
we're talking about in class better suited for the elementary classroom rather
than the middle-school classroom? Hmm?
Signed,
Knee Deep in Seventh Grade
Hormones
Dearest Knee Deep,
You raise an interesting
point. One can get the false sense that because there are more actual subjects
being taught in an elementary classroom that there might be more assessment
options there. Time is a factor with middle school classrooms, but the basic
concepts of assesment point out to us that we need to look at students in
on-going, periodic, and long-term ways. That's true regardless of age. Your
assessments will obviously look somewhat different than those happening in a
kindergarten class (because your kids already know their colors and how to tie
their shoes, of course). It would seem that you would have a lot more options
for self-assessment than younger children might present. Options for more
independence goes hand-in-hand with older students' self-assessments. I
acknowledge that change is more difficult twith older than younger. We get set
in our ways over time. But rememebr that the ultimate goal here is ownership.
Who more desirous of ownership than an adolescent?
Ask yourself: Are the learning
goals that are important to you are spoken through your assessment system?
Love in Assessment,
A.G.
#Dear Assessment Guru,
I am taking this class on
assessment. I hear a whole lot of interesting ideas being presented, but they
would never work at my school with my kids. My classroom is filled with
urban,low-socio-econmoic-status kids who are accustomed to a traditional
classroom. This portfolio thing is too much change for them to handle.
Your pal,
Yes But . .
Dear Y.B.,
I understand your concern.
Change is not something we all embrace easily. That just means that change
needs to come in a manageable package. The sticky part is that the package must
be created by you. No one is asking you to transform your sudents or yourself
into something or someone else. No portfolio system is going to make an urban
classroom look like a suburban one, or a culturally diverse one look like a
culturally homogeneous one, or a first-grade one look like a middle-school one.
You have to start where you are and where your students are. Many urban
teachers talk about the huge social concerns that "get in the way" of
assessment. Find ways to fold the social, affective elements into your
assessment system. You're looking for ways to involve the students in their own
learning to make them feel as though they have voices and choices. Working
toward more authentic assessment does not mean that you come in on Monday
morning, chuck the grade book out the window, and join hands to frolic in
student-chosen creations whatever they may be. You need to set up a framework
for assessing kids in which both you and your students can SUCCESSFULLY analyze
their work, set goals for their progress, and chart growth over time. Notes,
anecdotal records, conferences, interviews, observations, self-assessments,
checklists, portfolios--whatever procedures (or better, combinations of
procedures) you use, they need to be inviting and inclusive for students. There
is no hard and fast rule about exactly how to implement this. But the pressure
is on you to make it meaningful for your students. A lot of urban kids can
benefit from the sense of ownership portfolio assessment can provide, not just
educationally but personally--in the big picture of life. Goals. Decisions.
Growth. They matter outside the classroom, too.
Sincerely,
A.G.
#Dear Assessment Guru,
What the heck is an anecdotal
record anyway . . . and how does it count as assessment?
Signed,
Sick O'Lingo
Dear Sick O,
Anecdotal records are just
what the label says: a record of observed anecdotes. They are a way of keeping
track of your students on an individual basis. Some teachers keep looseleaf
notebooks with a divider for each child. Other teachers keep their anecdotal
notes on post-it notes and collect them on larger sheets or in files. Some keep
index cards for each kid in a file box. Some use computer labels, then stick
them to a larger piece. Some use the computer. I'm sure there are many other
methods, too. Let us know what you've seen/tried/invented.
Anecdotal record content will
vary from teacher to teacher and child to child. Some teachers choose certain
sets of students to focus on each day and rotate the schedule over the course
of a week. Other teachers find it easier to get anecdotal records started by
focusing on a certain subject area or portion of the curriculum. Other teachers
are comfortable just looking broadly and trusting themsleves to see fairly over
time. The important part of anecdotal records is taking the time to re-visit
them, looking for patterns and trends and suggestions to improve your teaching
and your understanding of your students' learning. Some teachers present and
place their anecdotal notes in a place where the students and the teacher can
both readily access and contribute to them. Other teachers prefer to keep their
notes private and share selected portions with students. There are probably 578
ways to organize and use anecdotal records correctly. You need to develop
what's right for you.
The actual notes themselves
may take on lots of forms. Some teachers find that they are taking the same
anecdotal notes over an over again for every student. Such a trend might
suggest that the teacher ask him/herself: So what am I really looking for here?
Is there more? Am I looking closely enough? OR The repetitive trend could
suggest that for a particular portion of your assessment, you are looking for
specific things . . . and they might be best represented in a checklist. There
isn't a formula. It's trial and error. Trust yourself and trust your kids. You
know more than you think.
Love in Assesment,
A.G.
#My Darling Assessment Guru,
How much would it take to buy
an "A" in this class?
Signed,
Been in School Too Long
My Sweet B.I.S.T.L.,
Have you any connections with
the Getty family? Or is it the Carnegies? Perhaps the Rockefellers . . .
Actually, for legal purposes, I might recommend striving for an "A"
by more traditional means. You will struggle with assessment when you get your
own classroom like every teacher does. Taking a stab at your own system will
give you a running start. Promise.
Faithfully,
Your Darling Guru
P.S. You do just call me
"darling," right?
#HELP ME!!!! I am in a
terrible state. I know that I have read and seen and attempted jillions of
forms of assessment over the course of this past year, but I can't remember
what they are and the dog swallowed all my old notebooks and papers, so I can't
refer back to them.
Desperately Seeking Strategies
Dear Desperate,
Sorry about your dog's
digestive tract. Hope the pages weren't stapled . . .
Did I say that?
Anyhow, being a guru and all,
I was able to make psychic contact with a portion of your past. The ghost of
XXX appeared to me in a dream and listed the following things that you
did/saw/lived in the name of assessment during Literacy. Perhaps they will
refresh your memory and help you find some meaning in your assessment system. I
am in the process of receiving other-worldly messages from other professors and
instructors as well, once our stars align.
Observation Survey
*Letter ID
*Running Record
*Word Test
*Dictation Task
*Writing Vocabulary
Qualitative Analysis of
Written Products
*What can this child do? . . .
Observation of both processess and analysis of products
Ethnographies/Fieldwork
*Observations
*Interviews
*Correspondences
*Home visits
*Collection of artifacts
*Community visits
Shadow Studies
*Following children through an
instructional day
*Observing processing and
experiences
*Examining contexts of
learning as well as content
Your own participation in the
construction of portfolios to document your learning both summer and autumn
quarters
Teacher logs/checklists as
exemplified by Mrs. XXXX of Park Elementary.
Some of this list represents
specific stategies that you can plug into your assessment system. Other parts
of this list represent exercises that stretched you to think or observe in a
certain way or through a certain lens that you can borrow/adapt and apply to
some portion of your assessment system. Still other parts of this list may be
things you never care to revisit again. The choice is yours, as is the
assessment system. Make it meaningful for you and your kids.
Good luck.
A.G.
#Assessment Guru,
I am getting the old trapped
feeling again; hanging out right there between my classroom and the university.
In class I hear all sorts of cool ideals and ideas about using portfolios and
authentic assessment in the classroom, but none of it really matches with
what's happening in my classroom. Truthfully, I don't feel like ticking my
cooperating teacher off this late in the game, but I think the expectation for
this class is that I will lead an assessment mutiny by the quarter's end. Maybe
I'll just abandon ship . . .
Signed,
Theory V. Practice
Dear T.V. (or shall I call you
"television?"),
Student teaching is an
extremely emotional and taxing experience. It's the time to try on the whole
teacher suit at once, not just a hat here or boots there, but the whole get-up.
Exciting on one hand, but on the other, limits lurk everywhere. You see just
how much time every thing takes . . . and how many unplanned crises can muck up
a good schedule/lesson/unit or set you wondering--on certain days--why you ever
thought you could possibly be a teacher . . . and was that a "Help
Wanted" sign in the Burger King window? The reality of it all sometimes
seems to boil down to survival. You're allowed to have such days. Everyone
who's ever taught has had them.
Such days are especially
prevalent at the point where you "take over;" precisely where you
guys are right now. So your focus is on the immediate stuff, like "How do
I get through tomorrow?" Then you show up for assessment class, and
everyone is asking you to look at children in a big, broad way over time. Think
big. Be innovative. Question practices and patterns. Set up portfolios. Find
the layers. Create a system. Lead the child from behind. The list goes on. To
deny the seeming contradictions and questions that must pervade your experience
at the present moment would be to live in fantasyland (an alternative to the
Burger King thing). One side pulls you into the moment-to-moment, the other to
the global view. The seeming split is probably more pronounced for you now than
it will ever be. Cognitive dissonance is good for the soul.
But you might as well get past
that split idea and set yourself about merging the two sides in a meaningful
way for yourself. Right now you have people to associate with each facet, so
it's easy to make them into extremes. The teachers represent "practice,"
and the university people represent "theory." I would argue that good
teachers have quite a bit of theory undergirding their practice. And good
university types ground their theory in practice. There is an art to merging
theory and practice.
The thing about assessment is
that the theory and practice of it are all tangled up together. The way you
choose to look at children is all about your theories on what's important about
teaching and learning and children. Those theories are subject to perpetual
change, which will then impact how you assess. So the only way to find an
assessment system that helps marry your theory and your practice is to jump in
and try one. Sure you'll feel as though you're lost in the sauce at certain
times and totally bluffing it at others, but you will also INEVITABLY stumble
upon practices, strategies, approaches, and ultimately a system that makes some
sense to you. The only way to really screw up is to only talk about assessment
and never really try it.
One last thing--there seems to
be a rampant case of Portfolio-phobia about the place. Try to get yourself over
that. Portfolios seem to come with a whole huge heap off connotations and
expectations, such as the one the LEADS interns have been struggling with all
year. Dr. Tierney has lots of experience with seeing these things in effective
action. When he shares his ideas, they are suggestions or possibilities. Choose
the parts that fit with you, your mission, and the mission of your students.
Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be. Whatever method you choose
to look at, your students over time will bear some similarity to portfolios.
The benefit of the portfolio is that it provides a physical record of the
journey and involves the student in his/her own assessment. You iron out the
details according to your own criteria. As always, trust yourselves and try,
knowing full well that you'll have ample opportunity to reflect and try again.
Your pal,
A.G.
Readings
Burnham,
C. (1986). Portfolio evaluation: Room to breathe and grow. In C. Bridges (Ed.),
Training the teacher of college composition (pp. 125-138). Urbana, IL:
National Council of Teachers of English.
Calfee,
R. C., & Freedman, S. W. (1997). Classroom writing portfolios: Old, new,
borrowed, blue. In R. Calfee & P. Perfumo (Eds.), Writing portfolios in
the classrooms: Policy and practice, process and peril (pp. 3-26).
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Calfee,
R. C., & Hiebert, E. H. (1991). Classroom assessment of reading. In R.
Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of
reading research: Volume II (pp. 288-309). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Camp,
R. (1990). Thinking together about portfolios. The Quarterly: National
Writing Project/Center for the Study of Writing, 12(2), 8-13, 27.
Camp,
R. (1992). Portfolio reflections in middle and secondary school classrooms. In
K. T. Yancey (Ed.) Portfolios in the writing classroom: An introduction.
(pp. 61-79). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
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Example of an article
Classroom-Based Assessment
Systems for Literacy
by Robert J. Tierney
Over the past ten years a great
deal has been written about the shortcomings of traditional methods for
assessing literacy in schools. some of those criticisms have centered upon:
the mismatch between what we
value and teach as literacy and what we actually assess.
the extent to which assessment
practices sometimes derail worthwhile instructional pursuits.
the disenfranchisement that
occurs as more weight is given to performance on standardized tests than is
given to the input of teachers, parents, students, and classroom-based
indicators.
the costs in time and dollars
associated with these testing programs.
the failure to develop assessment
procedures that involve students in assessing themselves.
A major goal of the
classroom-based assessment systems is to realign assessment with teaching and
learning. At first glance, this may seem a somewhat straightforward goal. Upon
closer study of the system, however, it should be apparent that achieving this
goal required a great deal of careful and thoughtful classroom- and
research-based effort.
There are two important aspects
of classroom-based assessment systems. Classroom-based assessment procedures
for teachers and self-assessment practices for students.
For Teachers: Classroom-Based
Assessment procedures
Can you imagine an assessment
system that affords you a sense of student growth, range of abilities, and
effort, and also helps you set goals?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that values teachers as professionals--as individuals responsible for
observing students, facilitating their learning, and informing others of their
progress?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that engages students in establishing their own goals and assessing
their own literacy learning?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that provides teachers and students with evaluation criteria that
represent what they value in literacy?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that does not disrupt classroom life?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that supports and encourages teachers and students instead of seeming to
judge and penalize them?
Can you imagine an assessment
system that supports you and your students--empowering your instructional
plans?
In an attempt to ensure that
assessment is always aligned with instruction, I envision assessment as a
continuing cycle involving these three steps:
CHECK ACT REFLECT
Sometimes this cycle occurs in a
matter of seconds as teachers and students operate on-the-run; at other times
it occurs over weeks or months as teachers and students look over a unit's
work. The implementation of this assessment cycle ensure that all assessments
are connected in an ongoing fashion to teaching and learning.
The dynamic nature of assessment
is most apparent when teachers are making decisions on-the-run. Imagine that
students and teachers are engaged in a shared reading experience or in some
kind of discussion about a selection. As the shared reading or discussion
ensues, the teacher is keeping a watchful eye on how the students are
responding: Which students are initiating responses? What kinds of reactions
are they having to the selection?
As teachers observe their
students, they are also doing a check on what they are doing themselves: What
is happening and how do I feel about it? How might I proceed as a result? As
the activity continues, the teacher continues to make adjustments or to act
upon situations as necessary. Later he/she might jot down some observations.
Such notes might be reminders about selecting subsequent materials or
facilitating future discussions, or they might be about particular students;
for example, "The class loves to discuss everyday dilemmas that people
fact" or "Jerry began sharing his thoughts today. He offered several
evaluative comments about the story and was willing to suggest ideas that
extended other students' responses." The teacher can then place these
notes about materials or future discussions into a file; the note about Jerry
can be put into the file kept on him. Or, it might entail a teacher joptting
down a note to remind herself to spotlight something (e.g. perhaps some
problem-solving that a student did etc.) or to follow up with some advice or
brainstorming with the students about how they might proceed.
As you might imagine, on-the-run
assessment may not be that visible to the untrained eye. However, teachers are
constantly checking whether or not their students are engaged in an activity or
are incurring difficulty. They are also capitalizing on new teaching
opportunities, making adjustments, or changing tracks to meet emerging needs.
To do these things, they are reading how the students are responding, both
verbally and nonverbally.
Different procedures work for
different teachers, and different teachers will use different procedures. For
some teachers, on-the-run assessment means keeping "mental track" of
their observations; for other teachers, it means jotting down notes and/or
encouraging their students to do so. While each teacher needs to develop
his/her own procedures, I would encourage you to think about ways to connect
your notes, checklists etc. to the decisions that you will make in the areas
that are important to you and the students. Some teachers find it useful to
have a menu-like listing of things to observe; others are ablt to keep track of
things without such lists. Once a note is made or a checklist is completed, do
look over the checklist and follow up on what you have noticed. This may be
just a matter of giving feedback to studnets or it could involve making some
plans for a focussed seesion where you follow up with the students. I would
also encourage you to keep these notes or receipts in an ongoing file(s). I
would stress that although valuable, such record-keeping should not overshadow
teaching and learning. Teachers must take care not to let their desire to keep
records interfere with interactions with students. Instead, they should adopt a
system that is both manageable and useful. This includes developing a filing
system that enables them to place notes in some kind of file or folder with a
minimum amount of time and effort.
On-the-run assessment can occur
as quick checks in the middle of a story discussion, science experiment, or
during a workshop activity. On-the-run assessment informs rather than drives
instruction and is directly tied to what is being done in the classroom--and,
therefore, to what teachers and students value. The goal of on-the-run
assessment is to have a system that complements rather than runs roughshod over
teaching and learning.
Hand in hand with on-the-run
assessment, there may be occasions when a teacher takes some time with a
student or a group of students to pursue more systematic observations.
Systematic observation is more planful than on-the-run assessment. it may occur
at regular intervals, be scheduled, or emerge as a result of a teacher wanting
to take a closer look at a student or students. Systematic observation also
involves the same cycle of checking, reflecting and acting as on-the-run
assessment. The teacher stops to check and reflect, and then uses these
observations to develop instructional plans with the students. These time-outs
might take the form of conferencing or may be done in conjunction with ongoing
classroom activities, such as the use of portfolios. Often for these purposes,
checklists or organizers are helpful because they include a menu of possibile
areas for observation etc. that should not have to be memorized but with which
teachers should be familiar. These systematic assessments can be managed in
whatever ways work best for the individual teacher. Some teachers choose to use
the systematic assessment in conjunction with their schedules for individual
conferences over the course of a month. Others initiate a plan whereby they
assess a small subset of students each week. Still others pursue their
observations in a more opportunistic fashion; they may prefer to keep a
clipboard of forms handy so that when assessment opportunities arise, they can
quickly note their observations or ideas.
However teachers use systematic
assessment, it should not be allowed to become more paperwork. Rather, it needs
to be manageable and useable. Just as on-the-run assessment involves a cycle of
checking, reflecting, and acting, so does systematic assessment. These
assessments should be set up to help the teacher--together with students,
parents, and others--decide or reflect upon goals and establish future courses
of action. Alongside evaluations, teachers might consider jotting down some
possible new directions to take, or suggestions for ways to follow up certain
activities or events. If systematic assessment is used in conjunction with
student conferences, future possibilities and goals should also be discussed.
There is a need for a combination
of assessment that includes on-the-run ways to check progress as well as ways
to conduct a range of formal and informal periodic assessments. One of the most
exciting assessment devices is the inclusion of performance assessment
activities. Instead of having assessment devices that do not fit with the kinds
of activities that you want your student to have with these materials, the
performance assessment activities are built around activities that you would
want to do with these materials. They involve a rich mix of alternatives to
questions and answers. Webs, time lines, and a host of other possibilities are
included. So, if you want an assessment packet that will enliven learning as it
guides your decision-making, then look to the performance assessment
activities.
The use of portfolios can be a
powerful catalyst in connecting assessment to teaching and learning. Your
approach to portfolios should not overly prescribed and regimented; it is
child-centered and varied. Other articles decscxribe the portfolio in more
detail
In addition to using the
assessment tools suggested, teachers should also consider how they are going to
report various results to administrators, parents, and students. With parents
and students, a reporting method that involves ongoing formulation and feedback
might be best, rather than summarizing and reporting results periodically. With
parents and students, my inclination is toward a method of reporting which
involves both ongoing formulation of goals, sharing feedback and setting
decisions rather than summarizing and simply reporting results. Here are some
things to consider when making such decisions:
Range of Purposes
The range of purposes might
include:
various ways of providing
students and parents feedback (e.g., portfolios, conferences, and so on).
jointly constructed narratives
with students, teachers, and others.
checklists of various sorts,
detailing facets of students' reading and writing.
Considerations for the Report
Process and Product
How are assessment reports used?
How should they be used? Some possibilities:
to engage with students and
parents in periodic reflection of ongoing progress and goal setting.
to inform parents of the nature
of students' reading and writing development (instead of reporting whether performance
is satisfactory or unsatisfactory).
to help maintain some authority.
Are the reports positively
inclined or negatively inclined?
Do the reports point out
achievement, effort, and improvement?
Do they treat and assess students
as individuals, or do they compare students' progress to others'?
Are the reports goal-oriented or
retroactive?
Are they expansive or
restrictive; generative or constraining and delimiting?
Are they written, oral, ongoing,
or transactive?
Are students involved in
developing the reports?
What is the relationship between
the report and the parent-student conference?
How do students' achievement
scores contribute to the report?
Do the reports address the
complexity and idiosyncratic nature of development?
Is the report process assessed in
terms of whether or not it achieves its goals and whether or not is fruitful,
detrimental, and so on?
Personally, I would prefer that
we do not assume a single standard format for reporting results across classes
or within classrooms. Instead I would prefer an approach to reporting that is
more individualized than comparative, more proactive than retroactive, more
ongoing than summative, and more transactional. Rather than grade reports, I
would prefer co-authored narratives that assess progress and discuss future
goals. I would prefer that we acknowledge the complexity of literacy and
embrace rather than retreat from individual differences. Teachers have a lot to
think about and decide. They should not lock themselves into any assessment
practice that is not itself evaluated--even the report card procedures that
currently might be in force.
For Students: Self-Assessment
Practices
A major goal of any assessment
program is the engagement of students in self-assessment. We consider such an
approach to assessment client-centered, or responsive, evaluation. Just as
other professions, such as dentists, are intent on encouraging their patients
to assess and monitor their own dental progress, we believe that teachers
should be intent on helping students assess and monitor their own literacy
progress. And as other professionals rely upon a business rapport, or
"partnership," with their clients, we also believe that teachers need
to develop and rely upon "assessment partnerships" with their
students. Traditionally, students have been on the receiving end of assessment
rather than being engaged in cooperative forms of assessment or self-checking,
self-reflection, goals-setting, and self-initiated action.
There is yet another reason for
pursuing student self-assessment that must not be overlooked. Namely, students
can contribute in measurable ways to the management of assessment in the
classroom. It would be an overwhelming task for a teacher to keep track of
every student's progress every day. Students can keep their own logs and
records; they can assess whether or not they need help; they can be expected to
self-select some reading and writing topics, books to read, and activities to
pursue; they can select material for their portfolios and can engage in other
self-assessment practices. Also, they can consult with their peers for purposes
of reflecting on their improvement and achievements and ongoing learning goals.
Some Ongoing Considerations
We see assessment as needing to
be dynamic, manageable, integrated, useful, and thoughtful. It does not make
much sense to us to develop an assessment system that is overwhelming,
impractical, or illogical. While we are intent on providing teachers options,
we want those options to be workable. They need to be integrated with what and
how we teach. In other words, we want an assessment system that aligns
assessment with teaching and learning. Our goals are to develop a meaningful
assessment process and to provide the tools needed for its implementation.
It is important that assessment
works comfortably and effectively for teachers and students. Just as we
encourage students to engage in self-assessment and to shape their own learning
goals, we encourage teachers to develop their own assessment procedures or to
adapt ours to meet their needs. In so doing, we ask teachers to keep in mind
the following questions:
Goals and Values
Does your assessment system
reflect the goals you have in place for your students?
Are there areas that you value
that need to be added to the forms?
Are there areas that do not fit
your students' needs, abilities, or interests?
Will you and your students be
provided with the means to check, reflect, and act upon those areas that you
deem important? (Different forms of assessment may yield somewhat different
outcomes. Do not be perplexed. While different assessment procedures complement
one another, they are not carbon copies of each other.)
Manageability
Will the assessment system work
for you? (Be careful to balance these assessments against what you and your
students do day by day. Do not let these assessments assume too much importance
or time.)
Are you focusing too much on some
areas and too little on others?
How can you maximize the return
on your and your students' efforts?
How can you streamline?
Outcomes
Does your assessment system
prompt thoughtful reflection on future goals and actions?
Do students, parents, and others
react positively to these assessments and your methods of reporting?
We are sure there are other
questions teachers will need to ask themselves. Too often we have not assessed
our own assessment practices, but we all should do so. Assessment practices
should be subjected to the same scrutiny as other educational practices. They
should not be viewed as cast in stone but should be subject to revision,
refinement, and redevelopment whenever necessary. Ultimately, they should work
for teachers and for students in the most efficient and effective ways
possible.
Some closing remarks
Our
preservice teacher preparation program has continued to pursue an orientation
to assessment which primarily addresses classroom based assessment needs. For
those concerned that we may have displaced technical issues related to
standardized assessment and state mandates, I would stress that we do address
these topics, but they are embedded within the course rather than superordinate
as they once were. In conjunction with my current planing of such a course, I
am contemplating spending some time to address the development of legally
defensible alternatives to traditional proficiency tests. At a time in our
history when proficiency test use has become rampant we might need to give
serious consideration to how teachers might enlist their own more direct
classroom based assessment to be used in conjunction with decisionmaking and do
so in a fashion that has the same legally defensible currency that more
traditional assessments tout.