Formative Asssessment Post from Ann Mitchell

As assessment season begins with MIDYEAR assessments, it is important to put these assessments in perspective and understand the rationale of why we continue to monitor our students progress and how we can glean information from these assessments to INFORM INSTRUCTION.  

Remember the 3 reasons for assessment include:
1.  Know students and for students to know themselves as learners.
2.  Guide or inform instruction
3.  Communicate learning or report progress

Click here to see a case study of the use of Midyear MAPS and look at the norms.   Click here for information on using PALS information.    Click here to view a DIBELS Effectiveness worksheet to anyalyze your data.  






Ann Mitchell wrote a guest blog to illustrate the connections of teaching, learning, and assessment.

Educators enjoy at least two New Year celebrations: one at the beginning of a new school year and another at the beginning of our calendar year. As an educator, I enthusiastically and fondly refer to the latter as RE-New Year! It's a time to REnew our commitment to student learning, REview our students' progress, REvisit instructional strategies, and REset goals and priorities.  Our mid-year assessments provide multiple sources of data to help us re-evaluate instruction, re-charge interventions, and re-consider innovations.

In our efforts to thoughtfully and strategically personalize teaching and learning, multiple sources of data are critical. While we assimilate new assessments into our practice (PALS, F&P in K&1, and DIBELS Math, AIMSWeb, and NWEA Primary MAP for Math, depending on your building), we have an opportunity to cross-reference with older and more familiar assessments. We are carefully discerning which assessments to continue as we anticipate the addition of the PALS state requirement to second grade, a district decision regarding a math universal screener and eventual implementation of Smarter Balanced Assessment. In the meantime, let's glean as much information as we can from these tools to make the most effective instructional decisions for each student.

Consider using this protocol as you and your colleagues review and analyze assessment data and make decisions to support each child's learning goals, progress towards proficiency, and growth over time. Note the three-legged stool our assessments ought to keep in balance: goals, proficiency, and growth. Students are more likely to work towards goals they have a hand in setting. We know all too well the expectations of grade-level proficiency against standards. Most significantly, are we seeing meaningful and measurable GROWTH at a rate each student and we can celebrate?

Essentially, we're seeking answers for these three questions as we examine assessment data:
1) How effective are our instructional strategies, interventions, and innovations?
2) What impact are our efforts (student and teacher) having on growth in learning and what's our evidence?
3) What are our next steps to move learning forward?

Happy RE-New Year to our remarkable, renascent, and reflective teachers and learners!