PARCC Is Leading To Climate Change

I write this blog from my office near the shoreline of Lake Erie.  On any given day in March, I may look out my window and see snow, rain, sleet, sunshine, gusting wind, or total calm - all within an 8 hour work day.  In Cleveland, we have a saying that if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes and it will change.

I have heard this saying used when talking about the shift to Ohio's New Learning Standards/CCSS and  our Next Generation Assessments/ PARCC  Assessments.  Some people believe that if we just hang tight, that the education "weather" will change and we won't have to make any of these shifts.  I was a science teacher for a good chunk of my classroom career.  Weather is defined as the daily state of the local atmosphere - as measured by temperature, barometric pressure and precipitation.  Weather is variable and can change quickly.  The Cleveland weather analogy doesn't fit with what is happening in Ohio or in education across the US.  Global Climate Change would be a better match.  Climate changes slowly.  It is the average condition of temperature, precipitation and wind patterns in a large region over an extended period of time, beyond even a year.  Human behavior is impacting global climate change. Climate change is happening and we need to adjust accordingly to what the new "normal" is going to be.   

I think that PARCC and the CCSS are helping to shape Educational Climate Change.   Let's look at the components of Educational Climate - student knowledge, assessment of learning, and educational infrastructure and how we can begin to define the new "normal" in education.

 Student Knowledge

• CCSS/Ohio's New Learning Standards are designed to allow students to work on mastering a more focused set of grade level standards.   By vertically aligning these standards preK -12 and into college/career training, teachers will not have to re-teach material from prior years - but instead will be able to build on prior learning. 
•  Educational Climate Change 
• The first few weeks of a course or grade level will be focusing on new material, not review of the prior year.
• Lessons will be designed to allow students more time to practice and explore new knowledge/skills.  
• Students will have opportunities to apply their knowledge to real world problems.
• Lessons will focus on being able to read more complex materials -both fiction and informational.
• Assignments will focus on writing argumentatively using text based evidence to support ideas across all content areas.
• Reading will also center around  building vocabulary in context.
• There will be a balance of learning content and learning thinking skills like problem solving, modeling, analyzing, and questioning skills
• The use of technology to acquire knowledge, collaborate to build knowledge and to share knowledge. 

Assessment of Learning

• PARCC is the consortium of 22 states working together to build assessments around the new standards. Through the process of Evidence Centered Design - assessments will be based on "claims" of what a student should be able to do - these claims come from the standards.  Assessment designers and classroom teachers can look at the "Claims" and come to consensus on what "Evidence" they will look for to show that a student can do what the standards claim they should be able to do/know.  Assessments will be designed to be a tool to "Gather the Evidence" that everyone agrees shows what a student knows/or can do.
• Educational Climate Change
• Increased use of Formative Assessments (assessment FOR learning)  to help teachers and student monitor progress towards meeting the "Claims". Done on a regular basis, not just at the end of a unit (Summative Assessment).
• More use of "Growth Measures" to gather evidence of where a student starts in their learning - and where they finish over a given period of time.
• Technology based assessment tools - that allow for interactive questions, the use of simulations and modeling, built in testing accommodations and engaging questions.
• Assessment results that are more timely and more detailed.
• A balance of End of Course tests that measure content knowledge and Performance Tasks that measure mathematical and English "practices" as well as how well a student can apply knowledge to real world scenarios or problems.
• Shift away from "Teaching the the Test" and toward "Testing to the Teaching"  Assessments that are truly aligned to the standards - so that a teacher who is teaching and assessing in a classroom aligned to the standards should not have to take "time out" to practice for the new assessments.

Educational Infrastructure

• As the Educational Climate changes, we need to also change the way we think about what "school" is and what tools students and teachers need to be effective learners together.  Ohio's Next Generation Assessments/PARCC and  CCSS/Ohio's New Learning Standards both are helping to define these new infrastructures.
• Educational Climate Change
• Blended Learning classrooms where students and teachers use a mix of face to face and web based learning.  This can be done on a small scale, within the context of an instructional unit or on a large scale  within the context of a course by using Learning Management Systems (LMS) to organize student assignment folders, threaded discussion boards, resources and collaborative work.
• Traditional worksheets, practice workbooks and textbooks are now mixed with eBooks, student developed texts and supplemental materials pulled from a wide range of sources.
• Teachers who now have a common set of standards not only within a state, but across state boundaries working within collaborative teams - in district and beyond their district using technology as a communication tool.
• A progression of learning that spans not only the traditional k-12 environment but the preK- College/Career environment.
• Learning opportunities for ALL students, no matter where they are on the learning continuum. 
• More technology integrated into the daily learning process.  To quote Marc Prensky - "Assigning the tasks and not the tools." 
• Data driven decision making with the ability for district and building teams to work together to decide what data is important, how to gather it, where to keep it and how to use it to impact student learning.

As the "winds of change" blow across our state, we can choose to run down into the storm cellar, close the shutters and hope that once the wind stops, we will emerge to find everything just the way it was before OR we can acknowledge that the winds are part of a larger climate change and begin to plan for how to continue to help students grow as learners in our new climate zone.   

Assessment Literacy, SLOs and New Standards

Assessment is one of the main components of the educational shifts that are occurring in our district, our state and across the country -assessment of learning, formative assessment "for learning", growth measures, assessment of teacher effectiveness, Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), assessment of College and Career Readiness, and alignment of assessments to the rigor of the new standards.  Teachers, administrators, parents, students and community members need to become "Assessment Literate". 

 Let's start with what Assessment Literacy IS.  

I did some searching and came up with three definitions for Assessment Literacy.  A good starting point for discussions with your own staff might be "Define Assessment Literacy" and see what they think!

W.James Popham, in his 2009 blog post "Is Assessment Literacy the Magic Bullet" defines it as follows, "Assessment literacy is present when a person possesses the assessment-related knowledge and skills needed for the competent performance of that person’s responsibilities. 

Rick Stiggins, in his 2001 book Student Involved Classroom Assessment, states that
 " those who know the meaning of assessment quality with all of its nuances and know that one is never justified in settling for unsound assessments are assessment literate. "

The Standards for Teacher Competence In The Educational Assessments of Students, developed by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Assoc.,and the National Council on Measurement in Education in 1990, defines 7 areas where teachers should be able to demonstrate competency to be considered assessment literate.

• Teachers should be skilled in choosing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions.
• Teachers should be skilled in developing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions.  
• The teacher should be skilled in administering, scoring and interpreting the results of both externally-produced and teacher-produced assessment methods.  
• Teachers should be skilled in using assessment results when making decisions about individual students, planning teaching, developing curriculum, and school improvement.
• Teachers should be skilled in developing valid pupil grading procedures which use pupil assessments.  
• Teachers should be skilled in communicating assessment results to students, parents, other lay audiences, and other educators.  
• Teachers should be skilled in recognizing unethical, illegal, and otherwise inappropriate assessment methods and uses of assessment information.
   

What does Assessment Literacy Look Like?
Teachers - Reference prior student knowledge when planning lessons. Tier lesson expectations to stretch all kids based on regularly collected formative assessment data. Develop summative assessments that accurately measure what the standards are asking the students to DO. Regularly use assessment data to help with the design of instructional units. Can explain to parents the steps necessary for their student to move forward on the learning path, using data they have gathered on the student. Can explain to administrators how data is used to guide student learning. Reads assessment data reports and can understand student growth and achievement on state or standardized assessments. Use technology as a part of their assessment plan.  Use effective feedback strategies to help students monitor their own learning.  Have a variety of assessment strategies to choose from that are appropriate to the skill or task to be assessed.

Students - Can explain where they are in their learning - and what they need to do to move forward. Know what their strengths and weaknesses are as learners and can use appropriate strategies to support their own learning. Have a set of strategies to use when asked to do a performance task, answer Evidence Based Selected Response Questions, or write an argument, synthesis or analysis. Can use assessment results to decide what they may still need to spend time mastering vs. items they may have missed because of a careless mistake.  Can utilize a variety of study strategies (metacognition) to help them "internalize" information and build knowledge.

Parents - Can explain where their children are in their learning and what can be done at school and at home to help move learning forward. Can talk with teachers about their student's strengths and weaknesses as a learner and what learning approaches may work best for their students. Can look at assessment results and understand what is being measured and how this measurement reflects their student's learning.

Community Members - Can look at assessment data reported in district newsletters or local new articles and understand how this reflects the learning environment being provided in their local schools. Can look at the "District Report Card" information shared by the ODE and understand the factors that go into assessing the district - and what influences each of those factors.



Resources

• Assessment As A Tool For Learning (Jill Hearne, Education Oasis 2004)
• Needed, A Dose of Assessment Literacy (W.James Popham, EdLeadership Magazine March 2006)
• Preservice vs Inservice Teachers' Assessment Literacy - Does Classroom Experience Make A Difference? (Craig Mertler,PhD Bowling Green State University, Research Presented at the Annual Educational Research Organization Conference in Columbus, OH 2003) [Classroom Assessment Literacy Inventory - developed by Craig MertlerAdapted from the Teacher Assessment Literacy Questionnaire (1993), by Barbara S. Plake & James C. Impara, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in cooperation with The National Council on Measurement in Education & the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ]
• ODE Next Generation Assessment Homepage
• ODE SLO Homepage
• Metacognition Resources
• Understanding the Assessment Item Types on the Next Generation Assessments
• My blog posts relating to Formative Assessment