Standards Based Assessment Systems

Dana AndersonESD 113Danderson@esd113.k12.wa.us

Purpose of Today

• Engage in a dialog regarding grading practices

• Explore and reflect upon aspects of a Standards Based Assessment System

• Begin to build consensus about grading

• Chart a course for next steps

Topical Agenda

• Why change grading?

• What are grades for?

• What makes a grade?

• What are standards based grades?

• How do you manage it?

• What is a standards based report card?

• What are our next steps?

Concerns Based Adoption Model Level of Concern Expression of Concern

0. Awareness I am not concerned (yet)

1. Informational I’d like to know more…

2. Personal How is this going to effect me?

3. Management What materials/resources will I need?

4. Consequence How is this going to effect my students?

5. Collaboration How can I relate what I am doing to what others are dong?

6. Refocusing How can I make this work even better?

CBAM- Standards Based Report Cards

• Where are you with regard to this change?

• Where do you think the staff is?

• Discuss and Share Out

A Brief History of Time…• Prior to mid 1700’s students did not get grades, they

received written narrative feedback• 1780- Yale University quantified feedback on a 4 point

scale (4.0 system)• 1877- Harvard created “Divisions”

– Division 1: 90 to 100– Division 2: 75 to 90– Division 3: 60 to 74– Division 4: 50 to 59– Division 5: 40 to 49– Division 6: below 40

Why Change the Current Grading System?

1. We Consider Factors Other Than Academic Achievement when Assigning Grades

2. We Weight Assessments Differently

3. We Misrepresent Single Scores on Classroom Assessments

4. We compare students against each other instead of what they need to learn (standards)

(Source: Transforming Classroom Grading

by Robert Marzano)

Student 1 Same Teacher Student 2

Same Course

Same Homework Scores

Same Tests Scores

Same Quiz Scores

Same Project Scores

Same Presentation Scores

Factors Other Than Academic Achievement

Grade “A” Grade “B-”

Percentage of Teachers Reporting Use of Effort, Behavior, Cooperation, and Attendance in Determining Grades

Grade Level Effort Behavior Cooperation Attendance

K 31% 7% 4% 8%

1-3 29% 8% 4% 8%

4-6 30% 8% 8% 10%

7-0 36% 10% 8% 18%

10-12 36% 14% 9% 24%

Factors Other Than Academic Achievement

Teachers Weight Assessments Differently

Teacher 1 Teacher 2

Team Teaching Same Class

Same Students

Same Homework Scores

Same Quiz Scores

Same Test Scores

Grading Based on Achievement Factors (No effort, behavior, etc)

Exactly the same Assessment Information to Construct Grades

Agreement 57.7% of the Time

Misrepresentation of Single Scores

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3

All 3 students do the same class assignment

Assignment has two parts

Part I – Multiplication

Part II – Deductive Reasoning, Problem solving, Communicating Mathematically

Each part is worth 10 points

Part 1 Directions: Fill in the answer for each multiplication problem.1. 7 x 6 = 2. 12 x 11 =

3. 9 x 7 = 4. 7 x 32 =

5. 6 x 6 = 6. 13 x 5 =

• 42 x 7 = 8. 5 x 5 =

9. 14 x 3 = 10. 6 x 9 =

Part II

Directions: Write your answer and show all your work on a separate piece of paper.

Treena won a seven-day scholarship worth $1,000 to the Pro Shot Basketball Camp. Round-trip travel expenses to the camp are $335 by air or $125 by train. At the camp she must choose between a week of individual instruction at $60 per day or a week of group instruction at $40 per day. Treena’s food and other expenses are fixed at $45 per day. If she does not plan to spend any money other than the scholarship, what are all the choices of travel and instruction plans that she could afford to make? Explain your reasoning.

Mathematics Assignment

Misinterpretation of Single Scores

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3

All 3 students do the same class assignment

All 3 students receive the same percent score

All 3 students receive the same grade

All 3 students have demonstrated different understandings

Misrepresentation of Single Score – Single Score represents a wide array of Skills

and Abilities

Students ComputationProblem Solving

Score

Karen 10 4 14

Mike 4 10 14

Sue 7 7 14

Think Time

• What do you think about the four problems with grading?

• Are there other issues related to grading practices that concern you?

At What Price?

• Have you ever received a grade that was a flagrantly inaccurate representation of your achievement in a course of study?

• How many of you believe that grades you received in school were not an accurate representation of your achievement?

What Are Grades For?

• On at least 3 Post-it Notes write what you think is the purpose of grades.

• Place them on butcher paper at your table and discuss your thoughts.

• Group purpose statements into themes.

In the assessment literature…

• Administrative Purposes– Retention– Placement– College entrance

• Feedback about achievement• Guidance

– Courses of study– Career planning

• Instructional Planning• Motivation

What is the most important purpose?

How do you determine grades?

• Not digging too deeply yet, but what method do you use to determine student grades?– Percentage of points (“Modified” Norm

Referenced)– Attainment of learning goals (Criterion

Referenced)– Knowledge Gain (Individual Referenced)

A tale of two scenarios

Scenario #1:In your 7th grade social studies class, report card grades were based on quizzes, tests and an out-of-class project, which counted as 25% of the grade. Terry obtained an average of an A on his quizzes and tests, but has not turned in his project despite frequent reminders. In this situation, you would…

Scenario #2:You teach English to a class of 8th graders with varying ability levels. During this grading period, the student’s grades are based on quizzes, tests and homework assignments that involve working out exercises. Kelly has not turned in any homework despite your frequent reminders. Her grade on quizzes have ranged from 65 to 75%, and she received a D on each of the tests. In this situation, you would…

Brookhart, 1993)

Grades are often based upon

• Academic Achievement

• Effort• Behavior• Attendance

Academic Achievement

• Subject-Specific Content– Information-Based Topics (Standards)– Process or Skill-Based Topics (Standards)

• Thinking and Reasoning Skills– Information Processing Skills (Comparing, Analyzing,

Classifying)– Logic (Argumentation, Induction, Deduction)– Knowledge Utilization (Inquiry, Investigation, Problem Solving,

Decision Making)

• Communication Skills– Writing– Speaking– Other Media

Non-Academic Achievement

• Effort– Participation– Work Completion

• Behavior– Following Rules– Teamwork

• Attendance– Tardiness– Absenteeism

Feedback Time…

• What would you like to see included on your report cards?– Academic

Achievement– Non-Academic

Achievement

• Discuss at your tables and share out.

Cycle of Assessment Reporting Standards

Rubrics &Anchors

Self-Assessment

Assessment

Learning Opportunities

Reflection Against Rubrics

Feedback

StandardsReporting

System Student Teacher

How do you track achievement?

• Most of us assign points to assignments, quizzes and tests.

• Grades are based on points earned ÷ points possible.

• What might be wrong with this practice?

What’s Wrong With Points?

Multiple Topics in Various Assessments

Assessment Topic #1

Topic #2

Topic #3

Topic #4

Homework #1 (10 points) 5 5

Homework # 2 (10 points) 5 5

Quiz #1 (15 points) 5 5 5

Homework #3 (15 points) 5

Quiz #2 (20 points) 5 5 10

Performance Task (40 points) 10 10 20

Homework #4 (10 points) 5

Final Exam (100 points) 20 20 20 40

Total: 220 points 55 45 55 65

So where did points come from?

• 1917- US Army develops Alpha test, multiple choice and true false to determine training placement of recruits. (Evolves into ASVAB)

• 1941- College Entrance Examination Board commissions SAT, multiple choice format

• 1942- Essay portion is dropped from SAT

• 1950s- Textbook publishers begin to adopt correct/incorrect model of assessment

• Test results begin to be reported as percentages, and single scores become indications of general achievement in content areas.

• Items that could not be scored as correct or incorrect are given points (essay, oral presentations, etc.)

So how can it be managed?

• Use a Standards Based Grade Book

• Assess students topically (standard)

• Use rubrics to score student work

• Report results by topic (standard)

Standards Based Grade Books

• Moving from Columns to Rows and from Points to Rubrics

• Look at sample grade book– How is it different from a traditional grade book?– Why is it organized by student rather than class?– How are differently weighted assignments handled in

this model of tracking progress?

Rubrics

• It is assumed that rubrics are well understood by staff, but…– Rubrics can be holistic, item specific, qualitative, and/or quantitative– Rubrics can be designed to assess Information-Based as well as

Skill/Process-Based Tasks– Rubrics should have between 3 to 5 levels of quality (odd numbered

scales tend to regress toward the middle when used for scoring)

• Appropriate use of rubrics has been shown to increase student achievement

• Rubric scores have been shown to be more accurate than grades when correlated with standardized tests

Moving from the abstract to the concrete

• A quiz has been designed to assess student’s knowledge and skill in the topics of Precipitation and Reading Tables.

• Take a moment to take the quiz yourself.– Which items are assessing the

two topics?

• Now read the rubrics provided and determine (as a table) the rubric scores for students A and B in both topics.

Still want points?

• Use the table provided to determine the point value and score you would give to each student’s response and determine the overall percentage score for students A and B.

• How do your results compare with the rubric scores?

• What does this mean in terms of assessing learning?

Think Time

• How does this example illustrate the differences between points and rubrics?

• What would you need in order to systematically assess students in the manner we’ve been discussing?

Okay, but what about time?

• Recording multiple standard scores takes more time than single percentage scores.– Average: 7 minutes longer for

a class of 30 (3 standards)

• Scoring student work using rubrics takes less time than assigning points and calculating percentages– Average: 14 minutes less for a

class of 30

Assigning Final Grades

• Check for understanding:– Pretend you “buy” everything that we have

been talking about so far, why would averaging be a less than desirable method for determining end of term grades?

– What is “lost” when grades are reported as A, B, C, or D?

True Score Based on Averaging

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

True Score = 1.5

Avg Score = 1.64

Assessments Displayed Chronologically

Rub

ric

Sco

re

One pesky problem…

• Averaging makes up for over or under scoring students’ work (when compared to “true” score.

• However, the average over time method assumes that the true score, or learning is constant over time.

• This is not supported by research on learners and learning.

• The “Power Law of Learning” indicates that true scores increase over time as a result of multiple opportunities to practice new skills or apply new knowledge.

Power Law of Learning1 22.9%

2 11.7%

3 7.7%

4 5.6%

5 4.3%

6 3.5%

7 2.9%

8 2.5%

9 2.2%

…

20 .85%

True Score Based on the Power Law

1 1

1.5 1.5

2

1.5

3

0.71

1.24

1.55

1.781.94

2.082.21

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

True Score = 1.5

Avg Score = 1.64

Final Standard Scores

• Are best determined using the Power Law of learning.

• Can be closely estimated using .25 point intervals over time.

• Should be based upon multiple small assessments evenly spaced over time.

Topic Scores for a Grading Period

Assessment Topic #1 Topic #2 Topic #3

#1 2.0 3.0 2.0

#2 1.5 2.0 1.0

#3 2.0 2.0 1.5

#4 3.0 2.5 2.0

#5 2.5 3.0 2.0

#6 3.0 2.0 2.5

#7 3.0 3.0 3.0

#8 2.5 2.5 3.0

#9 3.0 3.0 3.5

#10 3.0 3.0 3.0

Final Power Score

Now you try…What Final Power Score would you assign?

3.00 2.71 3.00

Think Time

• What are some “issues” with regard to final grading?

• How could technology make this process simpler?

Assessment Items

• There are 7 types of assessment items that are used in classrooms to assess student achievement.

• The role of the classroom teacher is to purposefully select the appropriate item type and to construct assessments that determine topic proficiency.

Types of Assessment Items and FormatsAspects of Grading Assessments

Forced Choice

Essay Short Response

Oral Reports

Performance Tasks

Teacher Observation

Student Self-

Assessment

Informational Topics

M H H H H M H

Process Topics L M L M H H H

Thinking and Reasoning

M H M H H L H

Communication L H L H H L H

Non-achievement Factors

L L L L M H H

Your task if you choose to accept it Mr. and Mrs. Phelps…

• Jigsaw reading and cooperative group teaching activity.

• You need to get into groups of 5.

• Each group member needs a set of the reading materials (one color per individual)

• Read your section and share:– What is your item type

appropriately used to assess?

– How is it best scored?

– What are some key points or guidelines for using your item type?

Report Cards (Finally)

• Look at the sample report cards provided and discuss:– What do you like from each sample?– What would you change?– What would you like your report cards to look

like?

• Share out…

Next Steps• Determine leadership and organizational structure of building

report card team• Gather survey and perception information to determine where

folks are on the change continuum.• Determine what you will include in grades• Determine weights you will apply to your grading categories• Create draft report cards• Craft topic assessments• Select a management system• At each step

– Communication plans– Professional development and staff support