December+7+PD+Committee+Meeting

Members present: Alyson, Tim, Maxine, Diane, Valerie, Sharon, Ann Marie, Alan

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.

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

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__. · 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 timeframes · 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.
 * 1) ** Make assessments useful **
 * 2. **** Follow assessments with corrective action **
 * 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.