Demonstrating Proficiency

Does assessment support student learning?

Absolutely! If we remember the purpose. The purpose of assessment is to gather evidence on student learning and use it to guide how to proceed in the learning process. It should not just be a measurement of where students are. People learn from mistakes, we need to let kids learn from mistakes. Assessments can be used as a tool for students to know where they are and how to improve. When they are not used this way students think that some people are better at guessing the right answer. Others begin to believe that some people are smart while others just aren't. Neither of these views is useful for learning or for life.

Some teachers are worried that teaching to the test will inhibit student growth and learning. If we are testing what we teach, and we teach what is important it would be difficult not to 'teach to the test'. Building quality assessment practices that test the important skills and problem-solving techniques needed in life, makes teaching to the test a moot point.

There are others who claim: I taught it, they chose not to learn it! I don't think many students come to school and purposely choose to fail. They may have habits that impede learning. Obviously some do struggle. It is the teachers job to teach students good learning habits and use assessment data to demonstrate how working hard helps them improve. 'I taught it' is not a valid excuse for assessment scores that aren't favorable. We must use data to help students grow.

How can we be more effective with assessment?

Most educators know that assessment data is important. I think what to do with data is not clearly demonstrated for teachers. There are so many assessments: informal, formal, formative, summative... Teachers are also taught to have assessment variety: presentations, infographics, writing, self -assessment, traditional multiple-choice/short response. It can be overwhelming when combined with the mandatory benchmark, progress monitoring, and state assessments. Teachers can have so much data that it drowns the underlying purpose of assessment. Assessment must ensure students are learning and find where they need to improve.

To use assessments as a tool they should be created according to the academic goal in mind. This goal and steps to achieve it must be made clear to students. They are the ones accountable for showing their knowledge. The assessment should not be a secret. Once teachers have strategically chosen an assessment and students have completed it the data should be used to fill in learning gaps and clarify misconceptions. The corrective instruction should be more direct than general reteach and retest systems (Guskey, 2003).  Students who struggled should be supported and practice the specific areas that they did not understand. During this time students who demonstrated proficiency must be provided with extension activities to deepen their understanding of the concept. We need to stop 'the show must go on' mentality that has developed in response to high stakes testing (Marzano et al, 2018). Learning builds on previous learning. Shaky foundations cause students to slide farther behind each year.

Using assessment as a tool to find learning gaps means that students should be reassessed after gaps have been identified. Many teachers express that this is not fair to students who achieved proficiency on their first try. Those students (most likely) have already developed good learning habits and scoring well validates their hard work. Why do we not want to give students who have not experienced this motivation the ability to see the evidence of their development? They need to see that they are capable of growth, reassessing provides them evidence of their successes. Students need to see their growth, identify what works and what doesn't for themselves more than we do. All professions give beginners feedback on how to improve, teachers get to student teach as practice (Guskey, 2003). Even after obtaining a position, when mistakes are made teachers get feedback from mentors and leaders, then try again. Let us not deprive students of the same opportunity.

One way to simplify and provide students ownership of their learning is to move toward a competency-based format. If we structure our standards and goals into strategic competencies of learning, assessments can be written for each of the competencies. If we share the required competencies for the year with students, make assessment models accessible, and be transparent we will empower students to take control of their learning (Modern Teacher, 2020). They will be able to track their success in each competency and retest in them if needed. As they grow through analyzing their struggles and building knowledge they will have the ability to track their success in each of the competencies. This model would lead teachers away from current weekly story-based assessments and is a shift in thinking. I believe that the transparency in assessment data and purpose could be a turning point for many of our students who struggle. Allowing students to grow and reassess their knowledge would give hope to those who have given up.

References:

Guskey, T. (2003, February). How classroom assessments improve learning. Educational Leadership, 60(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org

Marzano, R. J., Warrick, P. B., Rains, C. L., & amp; Dufour, R. (2018). Leading a high reliability school: Use data-driven instruction and collaborative teaching strategies to boost academic achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.

Modern Teacher (2020, May). Choices for instructional design [Slides]. Retrieved from https://demio-accounts.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/kelly-jones-at-modernteacher-com/uploads/5bc0cbe34fc0b60a.pdf