Assessment Workshop

Article Excerpts
Re: Assessment for and as Learning

Quality Assessment
Excerpt from Winger, T. (2009). Grading What Matters. Educational Leadership, 67(3), 73-75. Retrieved from Professional Development Collection database. One key to making grades more meaningful is carefully distinguishing academic achievement from what Robert Marzano (2000) labels nonacademic factors. This strategy remains the important first step as we work to develop grading practices that support higher-level thinking (Winger, 2005). As an instructional coach, I work with teachers to shift the focus of their grades from compliance to learning. Some teachers point out that nonacademic factors, such as the ability to meet deadlines, are crucial to success in school and in life. I agree that teachers should emphasize, and maybe even measure, student responsibility. The issue is one of focus and priorities. Nonacademic factors must be measured independently from learning and should never be allowed to dominate the overall grade. To keep the focus on learning, we must carefully reconsider what we are measuring. For example, a student's performance on small daily assignments, usually assigned for practice or as preparation for the next class, is often more indicative of responsibility than of whether he or she grasps an important concept. Therefore, I record most of these daily assignments in a section of my grade book reserved exclusively for nonacademic factors.

Peer Assessment and Self-Assessment

Excerpt from Earl, L. (n.d.). Classroom assessment for deep understanding. The Network of Performance Based Schools. Retrieved from http://www.npbs.ca/Articles.htm When students (and teachers) become comfortable with a continuous cycle of feedback and adjustment, learning becomes more efficient and students begin to internalize the process of standing outside their own learning and considering it against a range of criteria, not just the teacher's judgment about quality or accuracy. This ongoing metacognitive experience allows them to monitor learning along the way, make corrections and develop a habit of mind for continually reviewing and challenging what they know.

UBC IB cohort August Institute

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Assessment Workshop

Provide Feedback That Moves Learners Forward

Excerpt from Leahy, S., Lyon, C., Thompson, M., & Wiliam, D. (2005). Classroom assessment: Minute-by minute and day-by-day. Educational Leadership, 63(3), 1824. After the lesson, of course, comes grading. The problem with giving a student a grade and a supportive comment is that these practices don't cause further learning. Before they began thinking about assessment for learning, none of the teachers with whom we worked believed that their students spent as long considering teacher feedback as it had taken the teachers to provide that feedback. Indeed, the research shows that when students receive a grade and a comment, they ignore the comment (see Butler, 1988). The first thing they look at is the grade, and the second thing they look at is their neighbours grade. To be effective, feedback needs to cause thinking. Grades don't do that. Scores don't do that. And comments like "Good job" don't do that either. What does cause thinking is a comment that addresses what the student needs to do to improve, linked to rubrics where appropriate. Of course, it's difficult to give insightful comments when the assignment asked for 20 calculations or 20 historical dates, but even in these cases, feedback can cause thinking. For example, one approach that many of our teachers have found productive is to say to a student, "Five of these 20 answers are incorrect. Find them and fix them!" Some of our teachers worried about the extra time needed to provide useful feedback. But once students engaged in self-assessment and peer assessment, the teachers were able to be more selective about which elements of student work they looked at, and they could focus on giving feedback that peers were unable to provide. Teachers also worried about the reactions of administrators and parents. Some teachers needed waivers from principals to vary school policy (for example, to give comments rather than grades on interim assessments). Most principals were happy to permit these changes once teachers explained their reasons. Parents were also supportive. Some even said they found comments more useful than grades because the comments provided them with guidance on how to help their children.

UBC IB cohort August Institute

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