BLAZING A TRAIL TOWARDS

BALANCED ASSESSMENT

Ocean Lakes was designated a Balanced Assessment Vanguard School. This

status marked the beginning of an initiative to refine individual teachers'
plans with the theories and best practices of balanced assessment, a
cornerstone of Understanding by Design, and (more importantly) to
strengthen our PLCs focus on student learning outcomes. Our ultimate goal
was to have the PLC's serve as the catalyst for our work with Balanced
Assessment.

SURVEY SAYS

Balanced assessment became our passport to

change:
Use

of preassessment
Collaborative review of assessments
Providing descriptive rubrics prior to evaluation
Development of collaborative summative
assessments that measure understanding.

TROUBLESHOOTING OUR ITINERARY

Identifying potential misconceptions

What

is Understanding by Design?
What is a rubric?
What constitutes collaboration?
What is preassessment?

HOW SEASONED ARE OUR TRAVELERS?

Novice

>>>

>>>

Expert

HOW SHOULD WE DIFFERENTIATE DELIVERY FOR SUCH A WIDE RANGE OF PRACTITIONERS?

Getting SMART about our goals

PROJECT GOALS

PLC's will revise a unit from the first semester, one they've taught this year, using
the principles of Balanced Assessment and UbD.

PLC will use the theories and best practices of Balanced

Assessment to work together to create units designed with
authentic learning and on-going assessment in mind.
PLC will collaborate on summative, formative, and preassessment tools.
PLC will revisit on-going assessment data to work together
when refining sequences of teaching and learning (Stage 3).
PLC will refine units by examining student learner outcomes
(ideally through the data-driven improvement protocol).
Individual teachers will use literacy strategies as formative
assessment tools.
Individual teachers will use assessment tools during a unit to
develop RTI plans for students.

TAKING IT TO THE STREET

What exactly do we want

to accomplish?
What is on the road ahead?

2011-2012

BALANCED ASSESSMENT
FOCUS

All teachers will work with their content area

PLC to revise one unit each nine weeks.
Teachers will showcase their work once each
semester.
Goals identified during our work last year