Evaluating Success

Basics

The effective school frequently measures academic student progress through a variety of assessment procedures. The assessment procedures must emphasize “more authentic assessment” in curriculum mastery. Assessment results are used to improve individual student performance and also improve instructional delivery. Assessment results will show that alignment must exist between the intended, taught, and tested curriculum.

 

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will." Vincent T. Lombardi
First Generation Second Generation

In the effective school student academic progress is measured frequently through a variety of assessment procedures. The results of these assessments are used to improve individual student performance and also to improve the instructional program.

 

In the first generation, the correlate was interpreted to mean that the teachers should frequently monitor their students’ learning and, where necessary, the teacher should adjust his/her behavior. Several major changes can be anticipated in the second generation. First, the use of technology will permit teachers to do a better job of monitoring their students’ progress. Second, this same technology will allow students to monitor their own learning and, where necessary, adjust their own behavior. The use of computerized practice tests, the ability to get immediate results on homework, and the ability to see correct solutions developed on the screen are a few of the available “tools for assuring student learning.”

A second major change that will become more apparent in the second generation is already under way. In the area of assessment the emphasis will continue to shift away from standardized norm-referenced paper-pencil tests and toward curricular-based, criterion-referenced measures of student mastery. In the second generation, the monitoring of student learning will emphasize “more authentic assessments” of curriculum mastery. This generally means that there will be less emphasis on the paper/pencil, multiple-choice tests, and more emphasis on assessments of products of student work, including performances and portfolios.

Teachers will pay much more attention to the alignment that must exist between the intended, taught, and tested curriculum. Two new questions are being stimulated by the reform movement and will dominate much of the professional educators’ discourse in the second generation: “What’s worth knowing?” and “How will we know when they know it?” In all likelihood, the answer to the first question will become clear relatively quickly, because we can reach agreement that we want our students to be self-disciplined, socially responsible, and just. The problem comes with the second question, "How will we know when they know it?” Educators and citizens are going to have to come to terms with that question. The bad news is that it demands our best thinking and will require patience if we are going to reach consensus. The good news is that once we begin to reach consensus, the schools will be able to deliver significant progress toward these agreed-upon outcomes.
Best Practice/Activities Resources

 

  • The following links are related to a Classroom Assessment Techniques seminar held in Fall 2006, which was co-sponsored by the Office of Assessment and Teaching and Academic Support Center (TASC).
  • At the Arizona K-12 Center, finding and supporting the most effective practices in education is imperative to the accomplishment of our goals. This has led us to focus on the identification of Best Practices. Best Practices are research-based instructional or staff development practices that are most effective and equitable in generating improved student learning outcomes.

 

 Websites:

  • https://www.dmac-solutions.net/Default.aspx - DMAC Solutions consists of a suite of web-based applications developed to assist educators with their assessment and curriculum needs.

  • http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc// - The What Works Clearinghouse was established in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education.

  • http://www.utdanacenter.org/sciencetoolkit/assessment/portfolio.php#q1 - Assessment portfolios, like other portfolios, are a collection of work. They are a form of assessment that allows teachers to develop and use stimulating, complex activities that go beyond "covering the book."

  • http://www.interventioncentral.com/ - Intervention Central offers free tools and resources to help school staff and parents to promote positive classroom behaviors and foster effective learning for all children and youth.

  • http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/ - Welcome to the Authentic Assessment Toolbox, a how-to text on creating authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning.

  • http://www.solution-tree.com/Public/Main.aspx - For 20 years, Solution Tree resources have helped K–12 teachers and administrators create safe and caring schools and communities in which all children succeed.

Books:

 
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