Assess Student Learning
To assess student learning a teacher will: adapt
teaching, based on evidence, to meet the needs of
the student; check student progress in meeting standards;
actively involve students in assessment to promote
continuous learning; and inform students, parents,
and others about student achievement.
- Expectations for Learning: Develop and communicate
learning targets, set learning goals with students, and mutually
determine what success looks like in terms of reaching
targets.
- Checking for Understanding: Use a range of approaches
to identify what students have learned up to a certain point,
gaps in student learning, areas where students have exceeded
expectations, and questions students wish to explore.
- Feedback: Provide consistent opportunities for students to
receive detailed information on how to advance in their
learning (descriptive feedback). Effective feedback can come
from teachers, peers, or student self-reflection.
Case Study:
How to Best Assess Student Learning
In the new era of fair grade, and formative and summative assessment,
the real question is have we been effective in delivering
instruction and have our kids learned, asks Marshall High School
Principal Jay Pearson.
“As educators we're pretty good at summative assessment,
whether it's an end of unit test or preparing for the SOLs. But we
have a lot of capacity to build around formative assessment.”
At the high school level, Pearson believes teachers struggle with
the notion that formative assessments should actually be graded.
“We need to shatter the paradigm around how we arrive at
grades, particularly with formative assessments. We all need to
decide that it's ok for students to know where their deficiencies are
and for teachers to know when they need to re-teach.”
What educators need kids to learn isn’t a mystery, for concrete
targets are determined by the FCPS Program of Studies, the
Virginia Standards of Learning, and the standards of the
International Baccalaureate program.
“To ensure teachers are on task, they meet on Friday mornings
from 7-8 a.m. in their Professional Learning Community teams to
talk about the scope and sequence that has been provided,” he
says. “Our teachers then focus on creating common assessments
and having proficiency determined prior to students taking them.”
To assist, Marshall’s teachers use an instrument called Senteo,
an interactive response system that is an assessment tool designed
to enhance learning.
“It's a good technological solution,” says Pearson. “We need to
constantly be providing feedback to students, and finding ways for
them to participate in the assessment process so they have ownership
of their work and do more self-assessment of their own learning.”
Pearson knows this will help them better understand their
deficits so they can know what to work on to achieve the required
targets. “It’s a two-way street for students and teachers to work
together to assess student learning so that every student reaches
their potential.”
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