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TALKING WITH PARENTS ABOUT ASSESSMENT: 5 Things Parents Need to Know

1. Tests and Assessments Are Not the Same
A test examines a student’s knowledge, understanding, and skills to determine what level of learning has been reached. It generally results in a numerical or letter grade.
Assessment involves gathering, analyzing, and responding to a student’s strengths and misconceptions about their learning. It offers informative feedback to the learner and also guides the teacher’s practice:  Similar to a BMI that provides a number but not a health analysis or fitness plan. There are times we need a test but more often success is built on assessment.

2. A Standardized Test Is Just a Snapshot
There’s nothing wrong with getting an annual family portrait to provide touchstones of change over time. But in the classroom, assessment that relies on a variety of strategies offers an ongoing kaleidoscope of a child’s skills and abilities. Rather than one test score, it is essential to routinely monitor progress and take steps towards continuous improvement.

3. Encourage and Acknowledge Progress
Children can become discouraged when they don’t get the score or rating they expected. So can adults, athletes, and accountants. With assessment it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. The goal of assessment is improvement and small steps are important in reaching the big picture goals. It’s not about the learning gaps; it’s how we cross over them.

4. Let’s Work Together: Stay Connected
All of our lives have ups and downs. If your child is going through a rough patch keep the teacher informed of their changing mindset, unusual setbacks, and setups that can support improvement. Follow your child’s progress on your school’s learning management system. Talk with them and their teacher about assignments and assessments, their progress, and what you can do at home to support learning.

5. Grades Don’t Mean Everything
Test scores and report cards do not represent the whole child. Emerging studies show that someone who is dependable or works conscientiously and diligently may be more successful in life than the one who studies 12 hours a day and gets high test scores. Maybe the child with a wonderful sense of humor, practical problem-solving skills, and a willingness to help others will go farthest.

“In school you are taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you are given a test that teaches you a lesson” Tom Bodett

5 Non-Negotiables of Assessment

ABCs of ASSESSMENT

DITCH THE TEST: ASSESSING WITHOUT TESTING

It is easy to test and report content knowledge. When students take a test they receive a score. Some “smart” people such as Bill Gates get high scores, while others such as Stephen King have mediocre test scores. Some people are good at taking tests and others take test-prep courses to raise their scores, but that does not make them smarter.

There are many ways to be smart. Large-scale tests do not measure a person’s emotional intelligence or will to succeed. In fact, Daniel Kahneman explains that higher IQ and SAT scores correlate with a bigger “bias blind spot” that makes them more vulnerable to believing their answers are correct.

People are too complex for one score designed to predict college success or 12 years of cumulative records to foretell their future. What is needed is a landscape of assessments, inclusive of and reaching beyond standardized tests.

A SPECTRUM OF ASSESSMENT  A panorama of assessments displays a student’s knowledge, understanding and skills throughout the taxonomy. It may reveal how their interpersonal trees reach to the sky, but their swamp of emotions results in indecision.

 STEALTH ASSESSMENT is what happens when students do not feel as if they are being tested. With EdPuzzle a teacher can embed questions in a video and gather responses as students watch. More and more digital games can assess during learning; from historical events to fossils, and digital literacy to coding.

INTEGRATED ASSESSMENTS are blended directly into teaching and learning. Examples include formative assessments such as entrance slips, empty outlines, Humpty Dumpty, and 3-2-1. Alternatively, if a teacher is required to use a communal selected choice test, space can be provided for students to annotate their response; for example: “I picked B, but based on what you said in class about it, parts of C are also correct because…”

Assessment is about the process of learning, not merely the final outcomes. An SAT score may show an individual’s potential but other measures are also essential to show analysis and synthesis. Comprehensive methods are essential to get a full picture of each learner’s strengths and struggles.

Quote from EdWeek

THREE LENSES OF ASSESSMENT

 Telescopes, binoculars, and magnifying glasses each have a purpose in improving our ability to see. Assessment also has many purposes and perspectives. Yet, it is easy to lose sight of its fundamental function: To improve student learning by illuminating outcomes and informing instructional responses. This is achieved through alignment of instruction and assessment with learning intentions. The result is tangible evidence of purposeful learning.

Choosing the right lens and the just-right response takes mindfulness of purpose and finesse of process.

1. A telescope provides a big picture view of far-off and often indistinct objects. It may help us see distant galaxies or confirm that the universe is expanding. Big-picture assessments show large-scale data or trends in large numbers of schools and students. This may inform policy decisions, but in general, does not cause significant variations in classroom instruction or student achievement.

 
2. Binoculars bring things that are somewhat distant into clearer focus. With them we can see the conclusion of a race or people scaling a mountain. In schools, this level of vision can evaluate the relationship between guiding principles and learning outcomes. It can also validate a district’s curriculum or delve into sub-groups of students. As with the telescope, binoculars look at broad issues, but at the school level offer greater potential for influencing local practice.

3. A magnifying glass brings learning and assessment up-close and personal. Somewhat like examining a bug or mathematical operations to better understand how and why each part has its place and purpose. This helps teachers know the strength of student’s knowledge and skills as well as recognize lingering gaps. These lenses also improve teacher’s practice by highlighting areas that may need upskilling. (My new favorite word indicating that their abilities are valued, yet can improve.)

In brief, effective lenses makes assessment intentional, illuminating, and informative.

5 ASSESSMENT MYTHS

1. Assessment is the Same as Testing
While tests are a form of assessment, assessments are NOT solely tests. Assessment originates from the Latin Assidere, meaning to sit beside. In doing so, teachers and students gather information about learning and use that to guide their next steps.

2. Testing Helps Us Teach Better
After centuries of testing (Civil Service tests began with the Ming Dynasty) there is little evidence that all this testing has improved outcomes. After all, since Alfred Binet devised the first IQ test in 1904 the average IQ is still 100.

3. All We Have to Do is Assess Harder
Some believe that if we assess harder, we can produce better data that leads to improved learning outcomes. Today, we are drowning in data, but it is not necessarily the right data. We can pinpoint exactly what a child’s reading level is, but we can’t figure out why they comprehend non-fiction better than fiction.

4. Comparing Students and Schools is an Effective Path Towards Improvement
Improvement is about growth. Everyone starts on their own starting line. Whether it be the ability to divide fractions, interpret the intent of the Constitution, or make a 3-point shot, we can all improve. But we cannot all reach superstar status. Sorry about that.

5. Data Informs the Best Decisions
Data is good; information is better. If I tell you that you are at the 85^th percentile, or scored in the 5^th tier, or had a Stanine of 4, would you be able to decide what to do next? So why do we trust that district and state decisions based on data are more relevant than teacher’s insights and information.

What does leads to student success is assessment that is relevant, mutual, engaging, and instructive.