A Balanced Assessment System with Standards-Based Grading:

Practical Examples and Research

Leadership AcademyJanuary 23, 2014

Presenters: Amber Knapp and Amy Hodgson

Dansville Schools

Outcomes:*Participants will learn:

how to link CLTs to assessments

how to evaluate student performance on a summative assessment using rubrics

what a balanced assessment system looks like overall

what new grading practices have been implemented in Dansville

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Important Questions That Require Attention and Answers:

What does/should a grade mean?

What does it communicate to students? To staff? To parents? To colleges?

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Assessment Dilemma

Consider the following example:

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Who Do You Want Packing Your Parachute?

3 students are taking a course in how to pack a parachute.

A. Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work, 2000

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Packing a Parachute…The class average is the dotted line.

Student #1: Started well, but didn’t finish well.

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Packing a Parachute…Student #2’s scores are erratic.

It’s hard to predict how he will perform. 7

Packing a Parachute…When scores are averaged in the traditional fashion, students 1 & 2 passed the course, and student 3 failed.

But……

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Packing a Parachute…Only Student 3 demonstrated consistent & reliable success in packing his parachute by the end.

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Packing a Parachute…

Again.... Who Do You Want Packing Your Parachute?

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“What we know today doesn’t

make yesterday wrong; it only

makes tomorrow

better.”11

PROCESS*STEP ONE: ESTABLISH CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS.

Teachers developed student-friendly learning targets based on the Common Core Standards.

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Clear Learning TargetsMust be written in student-friendly language (“I can” statements).

Must be attainable.

Must share what it looks like when a standard is reached.

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Impact of Clear Learning TargetsLearning is focused on the most enduring standards.

No secrets- students know EXACTLY what they are expected to learn.

Increased transparency and improved communication to focus parent support.

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Impact of Clear Learning TargetsStudents report that they LOVE that every assignment/task is linked to a learning target.

This has eliminated busy work in standards-based classes, which has increased student motivation.

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Teacher’s Practical ExampleClear targets come in three parts in many of our classes:

1) Students receive the “Unit Plan.”List of guaranteed assignments connected to the clear learning target (CLT), which is listed on the back.

Students see the CLTs several times throughout the unit to self-assess their understanding on a 0-4 scale.

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Teacher’s Practical Example2) For formative assessments, students “grade”(often in colored ink)their own and ask questions.

The teacher either gives a rubric score on the 0-4 scale to ensure that students know their standing on the CLTs OR they get descriptive feedback and then the student marks their own score.

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Teacher’s Practical Example3) Students track formative assessments on their “tracking sheet” and keep a running record of the scores.

If students don’t see improvement on their tracking sheets, they know exactly which CLTs to study before the summative assessment.

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Sample Unit Plan

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Sample Unit Plan- Back

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Sample Formative Assessment

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PROCESS

*STEP TWO: DEVELOP COMMON ASSESSMENTS BASED ON CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS.

Teachers who teach the same classes must work together to develop QUALITY common assessments linked to CLTs.

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PROCESS*STEP THREE: CREATE RUBRICS TO ACCOMPANY CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS

Clear Learning Target = “3”

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Benefits of RubricsSeen as part of a progression rather than a judgment.

Creates the expectation that everyone can progress.

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Scoring Rubric for MathI Can Teach Others

4I’ve Got It!

3Not There Yet

2Just Starting

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Student demonstrates deep understanding of the concepts and procedures by mastery of almost all of the standards outlined in the summative assessment. All algebraic work is neat, complete and almost all correct and all steps are shown. All explanations are coherent and well organized. The correct mathematical language is used.

Student demonstrates understanding of the concepts and procedures by mastery of most of the standards outlined in the summative assessment. All algebraic work is neat, complete and mostly correct with all steps shown. All explanations are coherent and organized with the correct mathematical language.

Student demonstrates partial understanding of the concepts and procedures by mastery of some of the standards outlined in the summative assessment. Algebraic work is neat, somewhat complete and correct with most steps shown. Explanations contain some key elements and may not use some mathematical language correctly.

Student demonstrates little or no understanding of the concepts and procedures by mastery of little to none of the standards outlined in the summative assessment. Algebraic work is neat, but contains many errors in computation and shown steps. Explanations appear unrelated to the problems and have little to no key elements. Mathematical language is used inappropriately.

Assigning a Final GradeSummative Assessments – 90% Work Habits – 10%

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Thoughts on 0-4 Rubric: Adrianne

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PROCESS

*STEP FOUR: INCORPORATE STUDENT SELF-ASSESSMENT AND TRACKING WITH FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM (for CLTs and Work Habits).

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Self-AssessmentSelf-assess progress on clear targets based on formative assessments.

Gives the students a way to reassess their status on the CLTs and helps them develop goals to improve.

Students use scoring charts and writing assignments for goal setting.

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Work Habits FeedbackStudents self-assess regularly using a common work habits rubric developed by the staff.

Students track their progress and teachers record scores; comprises no more than 10% of students’ grades.

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Impact of Self-Assessing and Tracking

Students start to own their learning when they are asked to reflect on how well they know the CLTs, along with tracking the descriptive feedback from the teacher.

Students can track formative feedback, which helps prove to themselves what they can do/shows where to focus.

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Research to Support Self-TrackingIn Dec/Jan 2010 Educational Leadership article “When Students Track Their Progress”, Robert Marzano shared that having students record their scores on a chart after taking each interim assessment and following their progress over time brings about 32 percentile-point gains in achievement.

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Mastery Checklist

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PROCESS*STEP FIVE: IMPLEMENTATION OF A BALANCED ASSESSMENT SYSTEM (FA/SA)

Cannot take for granted a common language of assessment . Ongoing training is provided for all staff. 33

Formative AssessmentsIt is CRUCIAL to set up an

atmosphere where failure is seen as part of the

learning process and isn’t “judged” (graded).

“It’s a great day to be wrong”

(Ken Mattingly, ATI)

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Benefits of Formative Assessments

Formative assessments don’t “count” in the

grade, so students can often correct their own work and immediately recognize and fix their

mistakes. 35

Common Formative AssessmentsWhiteboards/Clickers, Learning logs, Journals, Quizzes

Quick visual checks – fist to 5 on chest, thumbs up/down/sideways

Anything can be formative– depends on how it’s used. The info from formatives shows students their gaps and informs instruction.

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PROCESSSTEP SIX: EVALUATE GRADING PRACTICES

From the work of Rick Stiggins and ATI:

-If we use grades to threaten to fail students, it leads to hopelessness.

-It takes 30-50 encounters of positive engagement with learning to turn around a student with a negative attitude toward learning.

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Changing Grading Practices

The entire staff agreed on policies regarding: retakes, extra credit, late work and cheating.

**Changing grading systems has never been mandated.

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New Grading Practices School-Wide

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New Grading Practices School-WideZeros: Not used for late work, cheating, missing work. Instead, viewed as incomplete or not enough information.

Late work: not penalized by a reduction in score. Viewed as incomplete until turned in.

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New Grading Practices School-Wide

Cheating: affects work habits, but not achievement scores; disciplinary consequences.

Extra Credit: used as extra learning opportunities ; counted as extra assignments.

Grades: based primarily on summative assessments.

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New Grading Practices School-Wide

Retake Guidelines:*Available on any summativeassessment except for final exams

*Retakes only for the learning targets that were missed

*Several teachers use interviews for retakes.

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New Grading Practices School-Wide

Retake Guidelines:Before being eligible to retake, students must do “target practice” (demonstrate preparation by getting tutoring, doing extra practice problems, redoing homework, etc.).

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New Grading Practices School-Wide

*Students must make an appointment with the teacher within one week of getting the summative assessment back in order to retake.

*The student’s new score replaces the old one.

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Impact of RetakesStudents report decreased test anxiety, which results in a more accurate reflection of proficiency.

Students report an expectation of proficiency.

Changing the culture so that getting a “D” on a test isn’t good enough- need to be proficient on all targets.

Post-secondary students- stories 45

Next Steps in Changing Grading Practices

Agreed upon our grading policies school-wide. All but the ELA core content area teachers counted summative assessments as 90% of the final grade and work habits as 10% of the final grade. (ELA = 80/20)

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Next Steps in Changing Grading Practices

All students self-assess regularly in all classes using a common work habits rubric developed by the staff. Students tracked their progress and teachers record scores in grade book; comprises 10% of students’ grades.

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Work Habits Rubric

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Another Work Habits Example

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Impact from Administrative Perspective - Anecdotal

Great for the overall culture of our school.

Students are more hopeful overall, leading to a decrease in discipline referrals related to academic engagement and an increase in graduation rate.

Many teachers have felt rejuvenated by the change.

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Impact from Administrative Perspective - Anecdotal

Most parents are enthusiastic about the changes and expect students to take full advantage of retakes, etc.

Students and parents report that the staff truly cares about the success of their students, which has been attributed by several students to the expectation of proficiency.

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Impact from Administrative Perspective - Anecdotal

Students are taking ownership of their own learning. They know what they know and what they don’t know and what to do about it.

Our graduates are reporting increased confidence in handling college-level content as well as benefiting from knowing how to monitor their learning from tracking learning in HS.

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Impact from Administrative Perspective - Anecdotal

As expected from the research, this change has created the biggest wins for the kids who need it most, but ALL students benefit from this focus on proficiency.

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Oh, And There’s Lots of Research…

Rick Stiggins, Robert Marzano, Jan and Steve Chappuis, Ken O’Connor (40 yrs)

John Hattie- Visible Learning; (Teachers seeing learning through the eyes of students and students seeing themselves as their own teachers)

*A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses (50,000 studies/ 200+ million kids) *Lists by rank order the relative impact each influence has on student achievement compared to each other. 54

John Hattie: Visible Learning Info

From the study: Typical effect size = .40

Rank: 37 Cooperative vs. competitive learning ES:0.55

Rank: 34 Challenging Goals ES: 0.56 (4s)

Rank: 30 Worked Examples ES: 0.57 (RUBRICS/EXEMPLARS)

Rank: 29 Mastery Learning ES: 0.58 (RETAKES)

Rank: 19 Professional Development ES: 0.62

Rank: 14 Prior achievement ES: 0.67 (SUCCESS)

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More John Hattie…Rank: 13 Meta-cognitive strategies ES:

0.69(Self-assessing re: CLTs and Work habits)

Rank: 11 Teacher-student relationship ES: 0.72(ERRORS ARE WELCOME/MUST build trust before kids admit not knowing)

Rank: 12 Spaced Practice ES: 0.71

(need 3-4 exposures over time; RETAKE/REVISIT)Rank: 10 Feedback ES:

0.73(powerful when kids are challenged; )

Rank: 8 Teacher Clarity ES: 0.75

(CLTs/rubrics/transparency)

Rank: 3 Providing Formative Eval ES: 0.9(students to the teachers; 70% of what happens in class we don’t know)

Rank: 1 Student Expectations /Self-reportingES: 1.44

(Tend to reach their own expectations; Push them to exceed these safe targets- Get a 4)

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John Hattie: From Visible Learning

Teacher Emphasis:Clear learning intentions (CLTs)Challenging success criteria (4s/rubrics)

Range of learning strategies (TAASOT)

Know when students are not progressing (Formative Assmt/Tracking/self-assessing)

Providing feedback (FA feedback)Visibly learns themselves (Show your thinking/modeling, mistakes, etc.)

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Lessons LearnedNeeded to develop retake parameters (included here).

Needed to provide detailed ways for students to earn a “4” on the 4-pt scale.

Needed to include more formative assessments in grade book for parents.

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Lessons LearnedNeed to provide parent communication often throughout the process.

Need to account for personnel changes each year.

Need to provide time and support for staff to implement, since this is such a significant change.

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Why Has This Hung On For So Long?

We aren’t perfect at this…but we keep trying to get better every year and put systems in place to ensure progress is made.

Every teacher who has made the switch has stuck with it because of the impact it has on students and proficiency. 60

Other Reasons…Overall, we have had very positive feedback from students and parents, which has encouraged those who have taken the plunge.

Teachers report that making the change is a lot of work up front, but the work from that point on is MUCH more rewarding.

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Processing ActivityAt your table, please find the 2nd

grade Math CLTs with accompanying rubrics.

Given your understanding of CLTs and rubrics, use the rubrics to score the student assessments in the folders at your table.

Next, grade the assessment using a traditional “points” scale and calculate an overall grade.

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Group Discussion1. Compare the feedback provided to the

student using traditional methods vs. SBG.

2. What are the benefits of the use of CLTs and rubrics in the evaluation of this assessment for each of the following stakeholders:

• The student• The student’s parents• The teacher• The administrator

3. Choose one representative from your group to share out about your discussion.

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Questions???Amber Knapp

Secondary Math Teacher 517-623-6120, Ext. 277

Amy HodgsonSuperintendent/

Curriculum Director517-623-6120, Ext. 250

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ResourcesClassroom Assessment for Student Learning – Rick Stiggins, Judith Arter, Jan Chappuis, Steve Chappuis

How to Grade For Learning – Ken O’Connor

A Repair Kit For Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades- Ken O’Connor

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ResourcesInside the Black Box – Paul Black and Dylan William

http://weaeducation.typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf

www.assessmentinst.com

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