Earlier this week I had a conversation with my daughter who is in her freshman year at our local high school. Just for context, my daughter is one of those students that you either love having in your classroom, or one who makes you ask, “what did I do to deserve this student?” My husband (and my mom) believe she is an exact replica of me—If this is true, then I apologize to all my past teachers.
My daughter is a thinker with tons of questions— most of which boil down to a simple—WHY?
In fact, I think why may have been one of her first words.
In some instances, the answer is the parent go-to of “because I said so;” however, most other times, it is a legitimate question that deserves to be answered regardless of the age and role of the person asking.
For me, the question of why is especially important in education, more specifically in assessments.
- Why this test?
- Why now?
- Why do these results matter?
My daughter’s question for her teachers was simply, “Why are we taking this standardized test?”
In this instance, some of her teachers did not have an answer beyond the fact that they were told to administer it and have students bring a fully charged laptop in preparation for the assessment.
As a parent, former classroom teacher, and an educator deeply vested in developing equitable assessments that provide insights to both teachers and students, I was bothered that teachers were essentially being told, “because I said so” with regards to assessment practice and decisions.
These thoughts take me back to yet another why question:
Why should teachers feel empowered to fully engage in the assessment decision making process?
In Part 2 of CenterPoint ‘s Advancing Interim Assessment Quality & Impact, I discuss the importance of integrated assessment systems. An integrated assessment system ensures that each assessment speaks to the other and builds purpose and targeted student performance data information. So now that teachers and students have that meaningful data, how can that information be used to empower instructional decision making?
Empowerment and Equity Through Assessment and Data Literacy
We know that to get a fuller picture of student performance, there is a need to analyze multiple data points. However, there is a challenge to distill the information so as to make timely and equitable instructional decisions. To meet this challenge, there is a need to build shared understandings that achieve the following:
- Familiarize educators with multiple assessment types and purposes.
- Develop an analysis or matrix of multiple types of student assessment data.
- Identify next steps to address findings from assessment data.
- Engage students in their assessment data and establish goals and partnerships with teachers for achieving individualized goals.
The final bullet is key.
When teachers are empowered, they can also empower students by setting expectations and building opportunities for students to become more engaged in and knowledgeable about their academic progress. Equity and empowerment include transparency. Students should know more than their score on an assessment. Teachers and students must both know areas of success and areas of challenge, so they feel empowered to build a plan to advance student success, not just on the assessment, but in their learning trajectory.
CenterPoint is focused on professional learning support as a means for not only ensuring equitable access for students to multiple, high-quality assessments, but also empowering teachers to know and understand the purpose of each assessment. With that understanding, teachers can apply their knowledge and skills to use assessment results as a tool to identify the needs of each student and develop equitable strategies to ensure that all students have what they need to achieve their full academic potential.
Click here to learn more about CenterPoint’s blended professional learning approach that includes “just in time” asynchronous modules that will increase your data literacy and empower your instructional decision making.
By Cheryl Harmon
Cheryl Harmon is the Chief Academic Officer of CenterPoint Education Solutions. Previously, Cheryl developed curriculum tools for a Khan Academy and Adobe Education partnership, and for Employment Learning Innovations. Prior to that, she was a senior director, instructional design at College Board where she managed the development of course materials and professional learning in humanities, world languages, and history Advanced Placement courses. Collectively, Cheryl has spent over twenty years as an instructional coach, technology specialist, K-12 classroom teacher, and instructor for higher education institutions primarily in underserved communities.
Success. Every student. Every teacher.
This is Part 3 of the CenterPoint series on Interim Assessment Best Practices.