How do you use information?

Hi everyone,

In light of my reply to David Rosen's post re:  Can Academic Standards Alone Boost Literacy, I started to think about how important it is to collect and analyze ANY information that you can get from your classroom so that you can make decisions that are actually informed.  It seems to me that this is an iterative process:  you collect information you are observing or receiving, you try to make sense of what that info is telling you, you determine what might address some point of that info, you try that out, you start all over again by analyzing the results.  That's basically formative assessment.  

I have said a bunch of times on the LINCS Discussion Lists that for me, "good assessment is good teaching", but in fact "good" doesn't really cut it.  It should be thoughtful, appropriate assessment equals effective teaching.

What do you think about that?

 

Comments

I agree with Marie "Appropriate assessment equals effective teaching"

Assessing students cannot be independent to what has been taught in class. It is based on the information given to learners after trying different teaching venues to make sure that all the multiple intelligences in the room have been exposed thoroughfully and clearly to the material.

The assessment is an option for the educator to find out what each student has grasped and if theoption to move on is fine or if a review of the material is necessary.

 

Kadidia Doumbia

 

Hi Kadidia,

I couldn't agree more with you: "Assessing students cannot be independent to what has been taught" - you must align your goals, curriculum, and assessments.  That's why formative assessment is so powerful - it's very definition implies that what the teacher (and student!) needs to look at is how both of them are progressing in what they are studying at that moment.  (I tend to include the teacher in the formative assessment equation because s/he must also be judging whether the teaching approach/materials are effective for the students and content - thoughts?)

Great point about multiple intelligences!  I would definitely agree that effective assessment will reveal the diverse strengths and needs of the students.  Thanks!

Assessment needs to be planned very carefully. It has the potential to divert the learner's attention and energies if the wrong emphases are portrayed. I totally agree with the notion that if done properly it leads to quality education. The looming danger is that learners may be enticed into concentration on acquiring high score at the expense of desirable learning goals.

Done properly, assessment results give teachers proper clues for the way forward.  Assessment and timeous feedback result in motivation for the learners.

Hi Erison, thanks for your comments.  Yes, I have to say that for the past 15/20 years or so, our education system (both K-12 and adult ed) has shifted its assessment away from the classroom to a more abstract and removed set of standards/goals.  While I understand that this is an attempt to define excellence and provide a path toward it, it has unfortunately largely left out formative assessment, and in some cases, has led to the "teach to the test" culture.  So as you point out, this makes many students and teachers feel like they need to pursue high scores instead of gaining knowledge and skill.

It's pretty exciting that formative assessment is starting to get the notice and recognition it deserves, right?!

The other thing that really rings true with me about your message is the notion of timely feedback/results!  Summative assessment (GED, TABE, BEST, etc) does not do this, you get no immediate feedback.  With formative assessment, your performance instantly reveals where you are.  You can use it right away.  

ps:  Full disclosure:  I am a TERRIBLE test-taker (I had to select a grad school that didn't care about GRE scores), and I think it's because of a few things:  I really couldn't connect the test items to anything in my world, it wasn't meaningful to me because I would not be finding out "how I did" until months later (who cares!?), and frankly, traditional tests are not my cup of tea.  

Hello colleagues, Maria has noted that "good assessment is good teaching," and we can also say that good teaching is good assessment. Formative  assessment is rightly becoming a hot topic these days since it focuses keenly on student learning and reflects the notion that instruction and assessment are reciprocal in nature, i.e., they are two sides of the same coin. Formative assessment (also called “assessment for learning”) is fully integrated into instruction and entails: 1) teachers’ ongoing and close observation of student work leading to next steps in teaching; 2) teachers providing timely and descriptive feedback with details about what learners have done well and what they can do to improve; and 3) learners’ active participation in the process through self-assessment. Each of these aspects is important, but the self-assessment involvement is critical since this is what supports learners to take more responsibility for their own learning.

I would love to hear how teachers are using formative assessment to guide next steps in teaching and, especially how teachers are involving learners in self-assessment.

Cheers,

Susan Finn Miller

Lancaster, PA

Hi Susan - thanks for this!  Yes, "assessment for learning" says it all, doesn't it!  That's so true:  it's vice versa because good teaching will include good assessment.

I'm so glad you raised self-assessment!  You are not fully embracing/engaged in formative assessment if you are not including student self (and peer!) assessment.  I second your call to hear how others are using both formative assessment as a guide and how they are using self- and peer- assessment.

I think I'll post an Announcement about this resource, but I'll also share it here.  If you have not read, Inside the Black Box, Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment by Black and Wiliam, then you need to.  It's a nearly 15 year old paper at this point, but it is the seminal resource for formative assessment and pretty much anything written/done in formative assessment since then is influenced by it.  It's in the LINCS Formative Assessment Collection:  http://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/collection/search?keys=&tid%5B%5D=26 

Here's a direct link to the resource within the Collection:  http://lincs.ed.gov/lincs/resourcecollections/formativeassessment/profile_18