Minutes+of+prior+meetings

This page will contain a listing of important discussion points and topics from previous meetings in case members are not able to be present, or if there is a need to make reference to something previously discussed. I propose that we take turns updating this page - one person for each meeting - so no one person gets overwhelmed by added responsibility. I will take the first turn and will try and get my entry done within the next two weeks.

Meeting on October 21st - Debrief of Assessment workshop

Less about nature of the assessment and more about the attitude of the teacher. What you do with the information that is gathered is more important than the type of assessment.

Moving forward - we need a clear vision in each department on what we are building and where we are going. We need to provide knowledge in certain areas of assessment for teachers - formative, authentic, project-based. We can't expect people to all be at the same level.

At BBM time in November provide some type of best practice - big picture, authentic assessments. Where we are going or what does balanced assessment looks like? What would an effective assessment system in the school look like? What would it look like if we balanced vertically, what about if we balanced as a grade level? More discussion in a group. Interviewed kids - asking what they know about assessment - different types of assessments.

Maybe preview a video clip or an article - have it available ahead of time.

For next BBM - review the results of the discussion from October. Then discuss what is our vision of assessment after reviewing an article or video.

November 23, 2009

Review of survey found lack of knowledge in inter rater reliability, 6 facets of understanding, and need for more clarification

Balanced system of assessment encompasses not just different types of assessment but also inter rater reliability and making sure that philosophies are intertwined.

A school department of assessment - school-wide. Needing a common understanding. There is a lot of disparity in some departments.

There need to be a vision for the building of assessment. Look at types of assessments fitting into it. Message from admin about what we see a balanced system looking like. Defining what needs to happen.

We've been gathering data - here is what we have learned. Based upon these holes - this is what we need to do next. Principal gives a common philosophy as to why we are doing this. Here is what we have learned so far - here is our vision for the next steps.

This committee - should we come with definitions for each type.

Assessment resource guide for HHS with descriptions of each type and examples of each. Can be a living document.

Cris Bright has a professional library in her back room.

Members present: Alyson, Tim, Maxine, Diane, Valerie, Sharon, Ann Marie, Alan
 * December 7, 2009**

It became clear to Alyson that we needed to take a step back and develop a guiding philosophy--why are we doing this, why should teachers choose a particular assessment. We talked today

Alyson distributed an article entitled, "Using Data to Improve Student Achievement" by Thomas Guskey and we completed in jigsaw.

**Summary of reading:** Large-scale assessments generally not good instruments. Teachers need to see assessments as a crucial part of the instruction process--not just a "gotcha."

3 different ways: · Put information on the test that you have been doing in the classroom...shouldn't be a guessing game for the students; some teachers believe that their assessments should be a secret. · __ Assessment should be a reflection of what they've been learning __ · Best assessments inform the teacher · Look at the item...was it clearly written? If yes, then we need to examine our teaching practices--__teacher and student share responsibility for learning__.
 * 1) ** Make assessments useful **

· Give an assessment to identify learning errors—you then change your instruction to address. It doesn’t mean that you just teach it again the same way. · Need to accommodate different learning styles · Coverage? Eventually when students see a benefit to this, you can move this corrective action to homework or special study sessions · Students learn in different ways in different time frames
 * 2. **** Follow assessments with corrective action **

· Errors are a part of the learning process—we need to determine how we respond when this happens. o If our response is punitive, kids will shut down, cheat… o Article from Skillful Teacher—errors reveal the most about student thinking—show us the patterns of their learning · Relationship between assessments and grades o Tim shared an example of a series of assessments in his class. If the fifth essay meets the standard of his classroom, then that shows mastery. o The connection between assessments that we use in our classroom now and standards-based is a struggle. Presently, we calculate, or average the series of assessments instead of looking at growth. o The concept of second chance can be difficult—what is the goal? Is it mastery? If so, shouldn’t we give second chances? It’s almost like we have two separate measures—against the standard, and the “life skills” (effort, on-time). When they’re combined it creates a cloudy picture of a student’s ability. § Tim posed an example: If our goal is to have students hit homeruns, should the student who hits five homeruns in five chances have the same score as the student who strikes out his first four at bats and then hits a homerun in his fifth at bat. · Questions of that: if that’s the final exam (the last at-bat), then it would be an A or a 100, however we count our finals as 10%...this is an example of homework—should it be counted, or is it practice toward that? Tutors take feedback from individual students and provide corrective action A coach watches a gymnast and comes to her giving her individualized information on how to improve.
 * 3. **** Give second chance **
 * Comparisons **

Because we don’t have a guiding philosophy, we have very different approaches to assessment. Where do we go from here?

If you average grades together throughout the course of a unit or semester, you essentially are not recognizing that errors are inherent in the learning process, that students learn at a different pace…

The letter grade, as is presently constituted, includes so much data and information that it doesn’t necessarily inform you about a student’s skills in, say, Calculus

Based on reading this and this discussion, what are the guiding principles that we will accept surrounding assessment?

We will start as mixed groups (one or two from each department) and then return as departments.

Mixed groups

As a facilitator - think about what you are going to highlight. What issues does this article bring up? Goals for each section What do you see as the pros, cons and questions that arise from this section What principle of assessment philosophy does this exhibit? When groups report about the concepts - the facilitators ask questions such as What do you think about

**Introduction** How do you decide what will be on your assessment or the way that students will be assessed? How have large scale assessment practices impacted classroom assessment? Do you change assessment instruments from year to year

**Make Assessments Useful**

How are you reviewing assessment results? Are students using test corrections? To what extent should students know what is going to be on the test? How does standards based Are our assessments accurately gauging whether students have met the learning goals and essential questions? What is the teacher's responsibility in the learning process? When students don't do well - what aspects can we examine to determine why?

Do we believe that errors are inherent in the learning process? How do we allow students to show mastery of a particular concept? Do we penalize students for "learning errors?" How can we teach students to
 * Follow Assessments with Corrective Instruction**

How can giving students multiple chances to success be a more accurate reflection of their knowledge What do grades reflect about student performance? In a standards based approach, what should a grade reflect? Could we divide grades into adherence to standards vs. life skills
 * Give Second Chances to Demonstrate Success**

At the end of the session -

Idea of the mixed group would be how could you personally respond to these issues Then go back to the departments to determine guiding philosophy What are the next steps of the assessment process for us as a school At the end of the session - have three questions for the departments to answer. And ask them to come up with three contributions to an overall school philosophy.

If a schoolwide philosophy of assesment would be developed - what are three things that you think should be included?

Questions -

What should grades reflect? We believe assessment should be. ..

Frame the whole activity - as a committee, we've come to realize that we need to build a philosophy first - before we define a balanced system or rubrics or project based,

February 3, 2010

Home run analogy - doesn't work for some because they worry that a student may not maintain the proficient level. But is that what we are getting at - or are we getting at not penalizing kids who may take multiple tries to reach a standard. This is a way to facilitate a discussion about standards. Demonstrating a standard in Art or Drama is different than in a more academic course. In our school some departments may have different ways to demonstrate the standard.

Faculty meeting conversation - two camps emerged. some feel standards are most important, some feel effort is most important. They are both important. Is there a way to separate those two things in a final grade. Whether you have improved but not hit the standard is important.

Stiggins - assessment manifesto - assessments that are sensitive enough that they can measure progress towards a standard. You started out at A and you are trying to get to Z but you have to get credit for getting to G.

The first step is acknowledging that our grading system is imprecise and subjective in many ways. A student who gets a 55 semester average in a course and a 78 on the final fails. A student who gets a 62 as a semester average and a 22 on the final fails. Which student should pass?

We all have grading systems that take different pieces - effort, standard, homework - into account. But in the end, we all have to roll out the grade (make the sausage).

Students need to know how much effort is required in each course. If you get an A+ in a class but a 2 in effort. In the system that we use now, parents student and kids attach value to grades that reflect who you are as a person. There is so much more to the grade than just achievement. It is a judgment about who they are as a person.

How this relates to school wide rubrics. Can we measure all kids against a standard school-wide. Would we have each department responsible for these or should it be more wide spread throughout the school. Could we rotate the rubrics from year to year.

Looking at the learning expectations as an example of standards based learning. Could we use this as a model for other standards based learning. What if instead of having an exam period - we have a school wide standardized assessment. Over the course of the year - each teacher does each standard one time. Or what if at the end of the year, students work on a combined project that demonstrates their understanding.

An event that would measure student's progress on each of the rubrics. Rubrics triathlon. Whole school could have a writing prompt, speaking, problem solving.

Using the day long PD day for looking at assessments. What are the top two or three assessments that you do in your department that you would like to see in the whole school.

When these things come up - logistical problems immediately come up. They are blockers. Separate practical things from philisophical things. If we look at a perfect world, what would we like to do with it. How do we conceptualize it? Can we conceptualize it differently.

What are next steps -

Authentic assessment - what is it? Departments could discuss what some authentic assessments you give to your students. Have different departments demonstrate what they do for authentic assessment.

Time now to solidify what we have decided so far - take some philosophical stuff we have developed and see where the rubber meets the road.

We need to create our understanding of authentic assessment.


 * March 2, 2010**

Planning for March 12th PD day

Projects

Workshops for teachers. Each presenter will do two workshops of 45 minutes each. 8:15 - 9:00 Session 1 9:10 - 9:55 Session 2 10:05 - 10:50 Session 3 11:00 - 11:30 Debrief

Debrief - What did you see in the presentations that you could transfer to your own practice? What did you learn about authentic assessment through this process? How can you interweave authentic assessment into your own courses? Has this changed your view of what authentic assessment is?

For March 15th - Discuss the role of authentic assessment in the department

How often and how much should authentic assessment be something that you do.

Challenge the faculty to come up with some type of authentic assessment for their own curriculum by the end of the year

Also - review the assessment philosophy tenets. After we've looked at assessment as a whole school - now look at it by department.

March 15th - BBM

Debrief of Authentic Assessment Workshops

1. In small groups - What have you learned about authentic assessment through our discussions and the workshops? How have these activities changed your view of what authentic assessment is? What did you see in the presentations that you could transfer to your own practice? Were there any cross curricular applications that you noticed? How can you more effectively incorporate authentic assessment into your own courses?

2. By Department - What authentic assessments are you currently using in your courses? (Make a list) Brainstorm ideas for different types of authentic assessments that could be used. Could some of these be course ending or year ending authentic assessments? What would a culminating authentic assessment of that type look like in your department?

April 7. 2010

Where we go from here - more work on departmental assessments from our work last month. Let's come up with a plan for how we make a map that matches the assessment philosophy. Grading needs to be taken on, but it is a bigger topic that could go through next year. These are big issues, and if we are trying to change the culture from grade only to process driven.

People are uncomfortable with the idea that if in the end the kid gets it but he has not done any of the work, what is the grade.

We are well set up for each department to set up an action plan for what they are going to do to fulfill this philosophy. Spend next year look at reporting Go back to March - continue talking about what assessments take place in each grade. What is our balanced system of assesment in each department. We come up with our own plans based on the assessment philosophy.

If we give departments time to give discussion they will want to give feedback. Give questions for feedback based more on how it can be used in practice rather than specific comments about the philosophy. Give overall comments about the philosophy but not specific changes.

Rubrics -

May 4th, 2010

Discussion about what we are doing for PD day tomorrow 5/5/10

Guiding question - What will you do differently as a result of these discussions that we have had on assessment?

Why are we doing this assessment work? Stage 2 UbD. Defining our values about assessment. Strategic plan goal on balanced assessment. There is always room for improvement in our work. Aligning student assessment experiences from year to year.

Random Notes - We have spent this year assessing what we are doing - now we need to make a plan to move forward What do we value as far as content and skills? A lot of our conversation has been abstract - how do we now make it concrete. You have started the conversation before within departments - now look at our values (Assessment Philosophy). What are you going to change as a result of these values? Keep academic expectations in mind when determining assessments Aim High with assessment plans - What is your dream ending? We are not just recording current practice but evaluating that practice We need to make sure of - alignment from year to year, challenge that builds each year, honors expectations vs. CP, scaffolding skills from one year to the next, common format for certain types of assessment throughout the school (school wide rubrics, papers, research, etc.)

June 16th, 2010

What went well. .

Staff has a better understanding of formative and summative assessment Each department had conversations around assessment and they are continuing People have signed up for classes about assessment The ideas have filtered into the school Department assessment plans Raised level of awareness for project based and authentic assessments - content is not as important as the process Full day PD day on authentic assessment was successful - good model to continue Read article as a faculty together - fruitful conversations that came from interdepartmental conversations Interdepartmental discussions to formulate curriculum and assessment design We had an ending for the year - an end point and a final product asked for by departments There was a theme for the year - kept a similar focus for the year Re-visited UbD - Made faculty members question the types of assessments they are giving Functioning professional development committee

Next Steps -

Rubrics need to be addressed - some need tweeking, different times and ways to use them (do we have different exemplars for different grades) Needing exemplar documents for each expectation Assessment vs. grading conversation Portfolio idea - how do we accomplish this Looking at student work as a faculty - protocols w/departments and teams Summer reading book - can we do an assessment at the beginning of each year Grading, leveling, GPA, standards Things that get in the way of good assessment - time to do that, grading periods, structural issues Challenged based learning - connecting real world experiences Laptops - need help w/more training for faculty members Goal for the end of next year is to finish stages 1 - 3. We need direction for stage 3 - what needs to be included. Peer review for UbD. Have we looked at this together. Are we just putting it in there? Is that what people are doing. Need to get clear on what is expected here.

Planning for next year - getting ready ahead of time. The more time we planned - the more successful it will be.

Meeting calendar.

October 6, 2010

Outstanding issues to be addressed from last year 1. Assessment Philosophy - we need to review edits and suggestions and decide how this will be used in the school 2. Department-wide assessment plans - need to be reviewed by administration and returned to departments for review 3. School-wide rubrics - we need to determine how these will be used by teachers consistently and how we will report results (portfolios, senior project?) 4. Finishing UbD work including the peer review process 5. Looking at student work (examining data) as a school, departments and teams 6. Standards based assessment and grading

The idea of corrective assessment would be to get all kids to the standard. It should be addressed in the assessment philosophy of the school. We need to ensure that students are willing to come after school.

Common assessments - does it means same assessment, or can kids take part of of the assessment again

Looking at student work - What is the goal for teachers? Is it refining the assessment? Or trying to get on the same page as far as grading? Or making sure that all students are meeting the standard? Or using the results to inform curriculum and instruction?

By the end of the year, what is the ideal picture of what a common planning team or department would be doing? When a team looks at an assessment, what is the purpose?

You need to be purposeful in what technique you are choosing to decide what you want to get out of the process.

__Goals for the End of the Year__ We want everyone to acknowledge and accept that looking at student work together serves a purpose and that there are different purposes which are best accomplished via different processes. Teachers will understand that looking at student work with a defined protocol can accomplish different goals depending on how you do it and the main goal for looking at student work is to improve student achievement.

Purposes: Identify student strengths and weaknesses Identify strengths and weaknesses of the actual assessment Obtain faculty agreement on common standards that are being measured in the assessment (grading) Using the results to inform curriculum and instructional practices

If faculty cannot agree on grades, then it reflects a breakdown in the process. Either unclear expectations or unclear understanding of the standards that they are measuring. If they can agree then it demonstrates common objectives for the assignment How much do assessments reflect the essential questions and enduring understandings for each unit?

One purpose of LASW is to identify strengths and weaknesses in student learning, in instruction and in the assessment itself And to look at problems with the assessments. Student mistakes can be an opportunity to look at errors in thinking

__How do we meet these goals?__

What purposes can be served by looking at student work together?

What processes work best for each purpose?

Planning for Upcoming days Introduce the topic, related to standards based and talk about the different purposes Then demonstrate a protocol and have them practice it

October 19, 2010

1. Finish UbD work with critical review 2. Make LASW an integral part of our practice 3. Develop a plan for using school-wide rubrics that includes a final assessment 4. Revise and integrate assessment philosophy and include grading philosophy.
 * Goals for the year** -

1. Review and refine departmental assessment plans (to ensure balanced assessment) 2. Establish benchmark assessments 3. Looking at Student Work
 * Goals for departmental work** -

Review of the LASW activity from last week.

Protocols - what stands out to you. These are conversations we are not in the habit of having. We don't have time, culture, the focus. Good to also promote listening.

How can looking at student work be difficult - if you are looking at work and you are pointing out strengths and weaknesses, some might be sensitive to the conversation.

Possible agenda -

Talk about where student work fits in - talk about purposes for student work.

November 3rd

LASW protocol from last week -

Math - did not follow the protocol completely. Positives were seeing the projects and getting feedback about how to make it better. It was a positive session, positive feedback for the teachers. Adjust the time of the protocol - make sure you know how long it will take and what type of assignment you are sharing. This is especially helpful for teachers who are the only ones teaching the class. To get feedback as to how to make it better. Teacher's got some good ideas to help make the project better. A lot of the conversation switched to instructional methods and activity design. Think about the how

English - Teachers stuck to the focusing question almost completely. Was this too constricting? Where would this specific protocol fit into our practice? It would be good to have other examples of how it can be used in the school. Presenter thought it was a valuable experience.

History - Seemed very textbook. Assessment was unit summative assessment. Teachers were open to feedback in the assessment. The student work is a vehicle to help us better analyze and improve the assessment. Mike kept the discussion in line - kept them centered on the focus question. Saw the positive aspects of people not talking during the different stages. Liked the de-personalization of it.

Art - Really enjoyed the protocol. It was tempting to broaden the focusing question - but that comes back in the de-brief as well.

Science - This department has frequent conversations about assessments and student work. It was frustrating to follow the protocol because they could have just talked about it rather than go through the whole process. Devon suggested that this type of protocol is helpful when you have already gone through traditional means of discussing it.

Rather than a focus question - maybe it is better to call it a purpose question. The protocol is geared toward a formal goal. You need to know what your goal is before you go into the session. Coming up with the question is a big part of the process. Having help developing the question.

Foreign Language - Followed the protocol very well. Gave the department to see the design of another colleague. Suggestions that improve the assignment.

Wellness - Need to be comfortable facilitating. It is a good exercise because it is difficult sometimes to make time for this type of work.

1. UbD A large number of teachers were not completely trained on Understanding by Design. What we need? a. Exemplar Unit - we need a reminder of what they are supposed to be like (videos from UbD) - Introduction to Review Tool b. Professional Development - re cap of the stages in UbD c. Checklist of completion of each course at each level Algebra II Unit 1 stage 1 stage 2_ stage 3__ (course partners could initial to show what they will do) Map for what you are missing and to keep track of where you are at. Room for notes as to what you need to add. d. Critical Review - create a protocol for this to help teachers know what to do for the review. Whole department does a review of one unit within the department. And then assign teachers to work on their units as a group. e. This could be a process similar to the NEASC process. Teachers who have been through the whole UbD process would be the ones facilitating the critical review process. f. Clarify what needs to be in each stage, can it link to Moodle, what needs to be in stage 2 and 3.

2. LASW a. practice, practice, practice - you may be able to get it down to a shorter amount of time. Some departments need a facilitator b. develop focus questions - more training about this c. add more protocols so that people have a choice depending on the purpose d. Each teacher should be the presenter at least once this year to know how it feels and relate to it e. What are we doing with the information after the session? Also, are we looking at to help create the grading philosophy and to get on the same page as far as grading. What is the follow up about the assessment - did the person make any changes based on the information.

3. Rubrics a. Problem is conceptual - what is the purpose of the rubrics and what is the relationship between the rubrics and the practice in the school. b. One idea is to use them as a separate parallel track for the grades. Other people are incorporating them into their assessment practices. c. We need exemplars for assignments using the rubrics

4. Assessment and Grading a. Needs to be tied in to all of them - needs to be tied into all of them. b. We need more education about varied assessment

Peer Review Assessment Tool -

Purpose is not to fix it and make it better. Our purpose is to say "does it meet the standard" if it doesn't - then it goes back to the creator to revise it. We don't tell people what to do with it.

One idea is to have a more narrative piece in Stage 2 so that people can explain what their purpose is - make it more reflective rather than just uploading documents.

When we introduced stage two - it was not a value system. It was more about just uploading the assessments, not about thinking about evaluating an assessment plan in that way. Maybe what we have is a nieve understanding of the UbD process and now we are ready for a deeper understanding.

Next meeting - talk about we have a tool box coming to sit and look at student work. Introduce UbD and give people a preview of other ideas for protocol. Maybe calibration. BBM -

November 18th, 2010

Presentation on Monday - some concerns about completing the data base vs. using the ideas with the practice. It needs to be re-visited constantly so that people make changes based on how it was taught. You have to go back and re-visit it often.

Hard thing is the time to work and the energy to continue to update. Professional Development calendar is consistent from one year to the next. Wish that there was two PD days before school. Use one day to look at your curricular goals for the units. If teachers knew what the days were, then they would get into the habit of it. The interface is cumbersome. Teachers see that it is there because we have to have it there. They use Moodle ongoing, and make changes when they want to. Who "owns" the units.

Stage 2 - how do we put the information into the data base. Was there a PD activity about Stage 2? Do teachers know what is expected and why we are doing this. Assessment plan? Rather than putting the information in there as it exists, we would much rather spend the time working on revising the assessments.

There is a blank box to the left of the assessments, could it be re-named Assessment Plan rather than Previous Assessments. Could it be a place where people could explain their plan.

The way the data base is set up - it looks like - just get the plan done. Nothing in the data base really compels the teachers to think about the pieces of UbD.

We need Models for stage 2. Examplars. Looking at the rubric - it would really help if we had some kind of outline or somehting to fill in for an assessment plan and a learning plan. Template for stages 2 and 3. What would that look like and how would it work. Does the UbD workbook have an outline for both of these stages.

Looking at EQ's and EU's.

Exemplars - look at the data base and determine which units might be exemplars. We want it to illustrate what we want. We want it to model well. Maybe it is not a single unit that does everything. It could be from different units. Could it be all three stages and how they connect.

Like the idea of doing an activity about evaluating EQ's and EU's.

November 29th - Outcomes - We want people to know why we are doing this? This is not just to fill in space and be done with it. They should use it as a teaching tool. Are they using the first page in Atlas as a teaching tool. Are they relating that to the students as they go along. We need a product. When we see an exemplar, then go through our own units. Choose a unit to focus on and make our exemplar course and use it for peer review. If we have one exemplar per course - then we an use it for others. Final project is to choose a unit that they want to use for the critical review. The checklist of all of the Units in a course. Can we make it a google form. We need to make people feel like they have the time to work on this on their own.

Overview - EQ and EU activity. (It will be hard to move forward until we really understand this) Could it be a google form - could we have everyone work on it at the same time. Do we have different courses for different levels? What is the difference for CP and Honors? How do we see it when we are looking at it. Linda get access points.

When we look at the exemplar - we use the checklist to review with all of the stages. We like the idea about small group mixed departmental discussions. Start first with the EU's. Walk through the unit and use the rubric.

With stage two and three - we need models of learning plans. A scaffold for stages 2 and 3. We need the same goal in mind. District goal is to have all three stages finished by June 2011.

The bulk of the day needs to be letting people work. We need to know what stages 2 and 3 look like.

The stress comes from not knowing what the expectations. Are we worried so much about perfection and being so good at it, that it almost paralyzes us. If you get out your current information onto the tool to the best of your ability, then the review will make it better. It doesn't have to be perfect - we want it to reflect what is happening in our courses.

December 1, 2010

Feedback from PD Day on November 29th

Faculty started to understand that we are not just putting this in there for us. It is to help others who might take your place and explaining your own thinking behind it. Some people started finally seeing value in Atlas in general. People became enthusiastic and revised their stage 1 as a result and then added to Stages 2 and 3.

Program level understandings - who owns these. How can they change?

After review of units - what are the take aways. .

Some people are trying to put too much into their units. We need to look at the higher level stuff. Give examples so that people know what we are asking them to do.

Eu's and EQ's are still not quite right. In many cases the EU's are good and the EQ's need work. In some cases there was a lack of alignment of EU's and EQ's. Sometimes they are not expressing the the big ideas enough. Maybe looking at the program level EQ's would help.

Does the unit assessment plan connect to the essential questions? Disconnect between what is being assessed vs. the big ideas?

Sometimes the people who write it have a good idea of what they are looking for but it is not articulated clearly.

Drop down menu for stage 2. In the learning activities - could there be a drop down menu.

Faculty meeting - give back the units. Talk about the take aways, Assessment - are you using multiple forms of assessment? Remember to upload rubrics - school wide and other. Questions still remain - how much do we put in.

January 4, 2011

People are still concerned about time. People do have a better understanding about what stage 2 and 3 is about and what needs to be there. They also feel like they understand what essential questions are more fully. People are concerned about whether UbD will continue even with leadership changes. We want to assure people that it will continue.

We need to make the connection for people about how designing the units in Atlas will ultimately help us curricularly. There are two separate things - recording in Atlas vs. designing curriculum using the UbD process. The overwhelming message that people are hearing is just get it in. We only have so much power to change that mindset this year.

Atlas review protocol - Have a facilitator Everyone receives a copy of the unit. 5 minutes to review silently Group goes through each Stage and question separately

Upcoming Calendar 1/24 - Go over exams - identify strengths and weaknesses 2/28 - Preview Peer Review process - 1/2 hour introduction with group/ then working time 3/2 - Bullying Training/MAC training 3/11 - Full day - 2 hours for peer review process. Rest of day working on units. Checklist at the end of the day as to how much is left to be done in each course 3/21 - working time in units


 * April 6, 2011**

De-briefing the critical review - English -went well. Not enough time. Focused on Stage 1 FL - Difficult not to comment along the way. Several questions where there was Wellness - difficult to work with Art. Had difficulty with the mixed groups Math - efficient with the tool. Stayed on task for the whole time. Found a couple of the questions on the tool not applicable. Very helpful for making the units better. Could we do a group edit as we go?

What about the deadline? What are the consequences if people don't finish? Acknowledgment that people are at different levels

Differentiate - -People can work on their own units -People can help others finish their units -People can review others units

What about Special Education staff - what are they doing during this time? Special ed could look at the assessment tools. Are these working well?


 * June 15, 2011 - Looking forward to next year**

Returning to looking at student work - don't want to seem like we are drifting from the common purpose.

Our work with PD is to address biases and fears that people have that PD goals keep changing.

Benchmark assessments - we are adopting a tool for our district. The tool will allow us to test kids across the school as well as in individual subjects. There are forces beyond our control that will impact our time and what we do with it.

Do our assessments measure the essential questions. Have people bought into UbD - are they committed to the process.

Quality was stressed at the beginning of the year and then less so when we started "populating"

We need to focus on assessment - grades need to be "guaranteed and viable" as well. How do we know that kids have obtained the knowledge and skills that we want them to.

What is the relationship to grades with benchmark assessments? What is the relationship to school-wide rubrics? If you give them a benchmark assessment and you can see that they have made progress towards a standard but they are getting a D in the subject for not handing in the homework - how do you reconcile that?

We need strategic planning - we need to plan backwards design, we need to have strategic plans. What do we have to get done and what is the highest priority?

What are the guiding principles?

When we look at benchmark assessments - how do we keep it so it is not just skill and drill. We don't want to get rid of assessing the enduring understandings. We don't want this to corrupt what we have been trying to do for the last five years.

Need to look at scholarly articles - read an article and then look at then and

Last year we had a 2 hour meeting where we looked at the goals and brainstormed how to reach them. Could we work one day over the summer and set the strategic plan.

Sometimes we need a person to come in and talk to us from the outside. We need to be inspired. We want continuity within the PD plans.


 * August 22nd, 2011**

Perspectives from the new superintendent -

New Evaluation system will require us to have local assessments to help assess teachers. These could be benchmark assessments or course specific assessments. This will take place in 2013 - 2014.

If you teach multiple courses, do you have to have different assessments for each course? Do you need an benchmark at the beginning and end of each course? Yes - that seems to be the intent of this type of process. We want to measure what we are doing and show the progress that has been made.

Part of that process is also Walk-through's on a consistent basis. We need to discuss how we are going to provide feedback to teachers, what are the aspects we are looking for. Could we have teachers do peer walk throughs? The administrators want to have agreed upon focus areas for these walk-throughs and set the targets so that teachers get good feedback.

Strategic plan refresh - the plan needs to be revised to reflect aspects like the common core and looking at the goals and timelines.

Would like for this year to have teacher-led workshops for a full PD day this.

What do member of PD committee think that we should focus on this year?

We would like students know how they are being graded? could we move to a more standards based grading system?

Start out by looking at what is reported to parents. Now we look at our assessments, how do we model our assessments then to lend itself to standards based.

If we open grade books, that will help students know how they got the grade. If you used

Rubrics - if we built it easy, they will come. Can we build it as a google doc where you go in and put in a score for each expectation. Having all the rubrics was daunting for everyone. Start with just writing for the first one. Is progress relative to just one year or

When we have a disucssion about grading - what is our goal? Is it to have a standards based grading system? Or trying to change people's minds? Looking at data will be essential in this process. Rigor should be the same teacher to teacher in the same courses.

Looking for a balanced system of assessment - how do we determine this? How can we look at this. We need to do Looking at Student Work to help each other evaluate our work.

Should we develop a concrete agreement on grading practices. How much each element is in the grade. Talk about the expectations by department - focus on the percentages.

School-wide norms for grading? Work over vacation? Cheat sheets on tests. Corrective instruction. What are the norms around it? No extra credit? We need norms and boundaries at different tiers. Have a school-wide plan, have a departmental plan, have common planning team.

We expect everyone to have the same final exams and the same unit assessments. We need to have clear goals for these conversations. The purpose is that we will have school-wide assessment agreements. Having these goals and parameters is to help the students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Take the teachers out of it.

We need a final end product. If you are on a team, every teacher has the same grading system.

What is the perspective of the student? We need a directive about the rubrics?

Require teachers to give student evaluations. Give some suggestions, examples. Give feedback from looking at teacher's assessments.

These conversations can come out as working on a common focus together. Focus on writing - look at student work together, come out

Dictated norm school-wide could be for every group to give a writing assignment each semester.

What will our work look like at the end of the year?

November Full PD Day-?Guest Speaker from Teacher's 21 on Grading and assessments.
 * 1) Consistent grading policies at school/dept/course levels in order to make grades consistent & transparent for student
 * 2) Why
 * 3) Preparing for benchmarks
 * 4) Open grade books
 * 5) Department/course assessment plans
 * 6) Posting Common Assessments in Atlas
 * 7) Giving students a common playing field
 * 8) How
 * 9) Develop common grading policy
 * 10) Set minimum expectations
 * 11) Start with basic shell (hook) & look for feedback (proposed grading policy that is out of bounds)
 * 12) Implement S2
 * 13) LASW
 * 14) Use common planning time more effectively
 * 15) Application of a writing rubric in all disciplines across the school & communicate results
 * 16) Why
 * 17) Ensure each student is reaching proficiency in writing
 * 18) Establish a consistent expectation for writing throughout the school
 * 19) How
 * 20) Look at existing rubrics and agree on common tool
 * 21) Agree on frequency
 * 22) Calibrate/Agreement on grading/key phrases (i.e. What is a 3?)
 * 23) LASW
 * 1) LASW

Ideas - come up with a list of issues that need to be addressed. But determines what should be school wide, departmental, course based.

Common planning needs to be a part of this - how do we make it more effective? Use common planning to ensure consistency. How does the administration increase accountability and effectiveness of common planning? Google groups for common planning - could you ask people to post notes about what they did each time?

Talking about UbD - looking at Bob's graphic to understand the process. Design - Self-Assess - Peer Review - Revise/Reflect

Topics for grading discussions -

Testing conditions - cheat sheets, retakes/make-ups Assignment conditions - weekend/holidays, late policy Homework policy - %, P/F Grade breakdown - where are the grades coming from?

Questions to teachers - What are afraid you afraid of?

Message to parents - getting through the grading system. How can we help them navigate asking the right questions - not questions that are out of bounds.


 * September 7, 2011**
 * Devon, Sara W., Sharon, Carla, Tim, Anne, Valerie**

Question - how can we calibrate grades even among teaching partners Establishing common expectations among course partners When students switch teachers and they were getting an A and now they are getting a C Value system that produces the grades varies widely - a breakdown of the grade. We have to have agreement about how grades.

Having departments talk about the issues.

Have a framework to start with - overarching values

Course grades need to reflect mainly assessments - Having people talk about grading gives them an opportunity to determine why they do what they do.

Writing rubric - get an agreement on the rubric. Present it to the faculty. Get samples of student work from different disciplines and show how the rubric is used. Then have time with course partners to discuss when it will be used. Then get ready with course partners, and grade and calibrate it together. 2nd meeting, get together and then determine how many times it will be assigned.

If we had a full day professional day - could we focus on instructional techniques or assessment techniques. Exploring where people stand on the different issues.

In order to come to make everyone feel heard, we need to discuss the issues before coming to a full conclusion.


 * October 5, 2011**
 * Valerie, Carla, Sara, Ashoke, Mike W.**

Discussion of Goals for the year and activities to accomplish these goals.

What are the minimum expectations for each aspect?

Education of standards based assessment

Have large group as a school first - then departments, then course partners. Need for education and research first, then discussion in groups.

Videos about practice - organized it so that we read or saw something and then talked about it in inter-departmental groups.

LASW - look at teacher work as well. Assessments and Atlas Units.

We should start big picture about some of these grading issues.

Question about how grading and assessment are connected. Why are we doing this? What do people value when it comes down

Potential Activities for Grading - Common Planning Demonstration (video) Discussions on Common Planning activities LASW protocols and uses Reading and Discussing articles and videos on grading Discussing assessment philosophy Departmental assessment plans Looking at Data as partners, departments

Potential Activities for Writing - Using rubric on common task Calibrating results Traits of effective writing Rubric revision - common core

We need to go top down or bottom up - Define the playing field first, then align the boundaries for the school. Departments make their own policies. Changing what is reported to parents Effort and understanding grades

October 27th, 2011

Read through the discussion board.

Wrap up or review of what we have been talking about

Move towards time to talk as departments and as course partners

What are we doing with all of this information?

We need a simple survey to determine what people are doing.

Many of these changes should be programmatic - giving zeros, weighted GPA.

Question is "Are we contemplating programmatic change?" To continue to discuss it without an intent to change, there is no point.

Some things are programmatic, other things

If we are giving teachers a task, it should be related to policies that they can determine.

Assigning them to make up the work - making them stay after school - this idea has merit. What message does this send to kids if we do not allow them to "fail".

On extra help day, you could design

Examine grading systems within departments. Look at everyone's course syllabus. Look at the data from the common planning survey.

We want staff to have input into the development of the common grading policy. People don't want to be dictated to about the policies that they have to use, however, they are excited and interested in the conversions.

Rolling out sample report cards that day and letting staff look at them and have input.

How can we use our school wide expectations as a way to access the "soft skills" that students are learning. We need to review our expectations for students and see if we can use these to drive the learning.

For 11/8/1

1. Common Grading Practices is one area

2. School-wide Rubrics Report card changes

Looking at the list of areas that we are talking about and why we are doing this? How much can they be changed and how much will they stay the same?

iPass is going to be open in the end of January, we need to calibrate our grading scales. Develop departmental philosophies - looking at what is the common denominator in every department and class?

Want to look at guaranteed and viable curriculum - Give departments parameters of the Use the departmental

One intermediate step is that everything that goes into the numbers is the measurement towards the standards. That means that homework would largely not be counted towards the grade.

To what extent do the elements of your grading system reflect evidence towards the standard?

Two broad categories that we discussed. 1. Common grading practices - come to consensus before the grade books are opened up to parents. 2. Reporting out the soft skills

11/15/11

Discussion about PD last week or where we are:

Theory - home run with the idea. People agree that this is best practice. Now we need to know how to make it happen and what structures will be there to support it. Clear policy of what that looks like and find out what policies are we thinking about and where do we go from here.

Economy model and deluxe model - time and support from admin to make things up, structures in place to do this the right way. Whole school structures in place to make it happen. Problem with not counting late work is equity issues. People would support other ways to report out non-academic factors. Concern about what the school policies will be.
 * Math** department wants departmental agreements and school-wide agreement
 * English** - talked about corrective action, most recent evidence - should it count more?
 * Science** - Need for lack of support structures. What is manageable or do-able with a little bit of support. Block built into the day that was for remediation. Also, need for test bank of different questions of the standards.

Looking at Marzano's work -Assimilating information into a 4 step plan

1. Defining standards - defining program level enduring understandings Problems that come with standards based grading - benchmarks for each marking period. 2. Establish performance indicators - what evidence suggests that you have maintained the standard 3. Design the report card 4. Implement the report card

Another idea - Flesh out the policies - Then what do you need to get there Here are the standards

We have not had to get specifics about the standards because we do so well on external indicators Your assesments need to produce information about standards not just points on a test or quiz. Need for computerized list - how can we make this easier for people.Will iPass do that Standardized grading challenges the notion of "credit" - what do we give "credit" for.

Coming up with consistent, transparent grading practices.

Thinking about 2nd semester - we don't want to change the targets too much. What is our overall philosophy? Next steps - what are the other standards, if we were to break If we do go in a direction where whatever we call a "grade" is purely academic - what are the other factors that need to be addressed? Look at UbD and think - are we gathering information to address the standards?? Look at one unit and try to pull out standards from that unit. What should a good standard look like? Can we just show categories in iPass?

If a student comes to a teacher and asks, "Why do I get this grade?" Teachers need to be responsive to these concerns. Teachers need to be responsible to give them their grades if they ask.

Staff needs direction - when we are talking about some of these policies like re-takes, re-do's it is not unlimited. Parameters. If we are going to make these changes, when will we have time to accomplish them. We also need to know what support the admin will provide.

12-6-11

Feedback from BBM -

Most people are behind the idea of separating out the academic grades from the content standards.

Meeting with common planning partners - there will be some issues raised through this process. What will happen when there is disagreement? Whatever happens, you don't want people to feel badly after the meeting.

Some people don't have common planning time. Partners don't meet regularly.

Committees that need to be created -


 * Standards Based Report Card - look for examples (Is this too pre-mature because we have not made decisions about what the end-point in)
 * Current Research - Look at articles, visit other schools or talk to people who are doing this
 * Articles on hot topics, Creating a data base of resources, Contact other schools, Communication Plan for Parents
 * Schedule Modifications - look at schedule for places where more time could be taken
 * School-wide expectations - look at learning skills that are not academic in nature - connect to school-wide expectations
 * Action Plan needs to happen first - set a time line. Philosophy first. Then Policy. Then implementations.

What needs to be decided is what the teachers will do for the remainder of the year. The benchmark assessment tool is in place - we will need to start using it.

First thing the faculty as a whole needs to work on are standards. What are the standards for my course? Critical review. Could we have everyone take a unit and try to pull out the standards along with doing a critical review.

The philosophical connection of assessment and grading are a big piece of this.

January 18, 2012

Break out the work habits and social and civic expectations - measure and report both aspects

We need to show the connections between UbD and the assessment and grading practices We prepared an activity that compared standards to assessments - are you measuring the standards that you are assessing. Some subjects make up their own standards, others have them more prescribed.

What do we mean by standards that we are going to evaluate. What makes a good standard - what comes above us? What about the Massachusetts frameworks - can we pull these out of a larger picture? How will this help student achievement?

If we are sticking to letter grades, the data that produces those grades should be standards based. The grades should be standards based

When we identify standards, then we assess kids according to those standards, then we give targeted feedback based on the assessment results, then they have an opportunity to practice that standard and demonstrate proficiency at another time.

The more specific the expectations - the more success students can achieve.

Professional day idea - re teaching, data driven instruction, effective ways of dealing with re-takes, Also, work on Instruction -

Give teachers time to get back to their UbD -

We need time to do more critical review - to look at units, to identify,

Question that comes up is "If we are going to be evaluated based on benchmark assessments, but these are largely factual (state standards based), why are we doing the enduring understandings and big picture ideas." These are not mutually exclusive, the enduring understandings connect the knowledge and skills in a big picture way. Think of the three 5's, five days, five months, five years. How long will students remember this information?

Benchmark is grade-level wide. Are they meeting the basic standard. The idea is progress monitoring. We need training on the relationshiop between state standards, enduring understandings vs. teaching practice and assessments. What is the relationship between standards and EU's and EQ's.

We need more research about standards based learning. Look at the books on UbD - Wiggins and McTighe.

Once we have our list of standards -

How do we deal with struggling learners with this model - or the unmotivated learner?

Looking at final exams - Could we do a looking at student work session. Take finals and try to see which standards aligned with each questions? Could we differentiate this activity. Have some people look at alignment to standards.

They need PD on standards based assessments