Category: Data

Using Formative Assessment Practices to Promote Rigorous Learning

~ askirkman ~ Leave a comment

As educators, we are always in the process of answering these essential questions that drive our daily practice: 

What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

What will we collect as evidence of learning?

What will we do when students don’t get the learning?

What will we do if they already know the learning?

How will we provide feedback to students so they know how to get to proficiency or extend the learning?

The nation’s achievement gap is wider than ever with many sub-groups still performing significantly below their white, asian and wealthier peers. As we shift to valuing authentic learning aligned to college and career expectations it seems that the achievement gap is really an “access and quality gap.” Engagement with quality, authentic, responsive, rigorous core instruction for ALL students will go a long way to making the opportunity gap disappear forever – a lifelong personal goal.

But how? As educators there is so much out of our control. It’s overwhelming on a good day to think of meeting all kids’ needs. But for a minute, let’s dream and dream big. What if instruction was framed by a process that provides frequent information about the learning going on and students were aware of where they are in terms of meeting shared learning goals and what steps to take if they are not?

The process of formative assessment involves day to day, minute by minute assessment for LEARNING. Using the term formative learning just may be more accurate as it describes a process that is not about a test, but more about partnering with students in their learning to create a flow of actionable feedback for both teachers and students to act on to accelerate learning. 

Assessment for learning facilitates the kind of differentiation crucially needed to address ALL students’ needs. Through a process of goal setting, documentation and reflection teachers and students collaborate together to make learning as visual as possible so learning and teaching moves are transparent and actionable.

How to set up a formative assessment system in your classroom?

  1. What is the intended learning? Set clear learning goals based on grade level skill and content with students and make it visible. 
  2. How will learning be elicited? Create and deliver learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning and document the process. 
  3. How will evidence of learning be interpreted? Students and teachers reflect and interpret the evidence of learning. 
  4. How will evidence of student learning be acted upon? Students and teachers act on the evidence to accelerate and/or validate the learning.
Tools for Teachers
Formative Assessment Process

To learn more visit: https://smartertoolsforteachers.org/landing/formative

It’s Time to Use Reading Science!

~ askirkman ~ Leave a comment

This APM Reports documentary by Emily Hanford Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? is a really thought provoking piece about how children read and how kids and families land in the middle of the tug of war over how kids read – phonics vs. whole language still at it. We can all agree that everyone needs to learn how to read. When we examine prison populations and reading literacy rates we starkly see why. Better readers do better. Is reading natural? If we just give kids lots of books, is that enough? Where does phonics fit in? For how long? The education community does not agree.  I am a scientist at heart. I must follow the science of reading to formulate my bottom line.

Reading instruction must be dynamic and include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Reading is natural for some but not others especially if you have a processing difference like dyslexia or are coping with trauma. Kids need support with phonics blending AND they need to learn whole words. Real tasks that use real texts across content areas to build background knowledge is essential for ongoing vocabulary development and reading comprehension.

Here are my Top 5 Reading Tips Based on Reading Science:

1. Phonics is ESSENTIAL through at least 1st grade and should continue as needed through strategic grouping.
2. Spelling instruction is important but should never hold students back from new learning or be overdone.
3. Word study or morphology with roots, prefixes and suffixes teaches kids to crack the code as they develop as readers starting in 3rd grade especially when gamified.
4. Leveled, “just right books” can limit access to and practice with complex language so beware.
5. Science, social studies, art and music build students general content knowledge and develop and even accelerate reading comprehension skills.

Need help developing your reading approach based on reading science? Let me know. I can help.

skirkman@ask-edcuation.org

Screen Shot 2018-11-01 at 10.52.08 AMBuilding Blocks of Reading

 

Taking the Time for Reflection

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The end of the school year is often a frenzy of activities and we all can’t wait for the summer to begin. We make a huge energetic push to get the kids and ourselves to the finish line so and the lure of sleeping in a little later and the summer adventure we have planned are naturally on the forefronts of our minds. But are we missing out if we don’t make time for some reflection on our year? Time flies and the school year ramps up and we think, “what was that system improvement I wanted to make?,” or “I know I wanted to tweak this unit but I can’t remember what I wanted to do and now I don’t have time to do it,” or “I really was never able to reach that student and I really need to do better for kids but how?” We often don’t have the opportunity to innovate or iterate because as soon as the year starts up again, the madness begins and we start our race to the finish line once again.

Taking the time to do a written reflection at the end of the school year is a powerful ritual that can go a long way to moving the needle for teachers and principals but also for the students we serve. Teachers who engage in reflection rituals often end up sharing this reflective practice with students. Same goes for school and district leaders. Self knowledge of accomplishments and areas for improvement helps our brains and the systems we create grow. Reflective mindsets are more open to collaborative inquiry and can more easily adapt and be responsive to challenges and changes and interrupt the status quo that continues to marginalize way too many students and families. The more reflective rituals are honored, the more they take root and flourish.

Here is a process for reflection that helps us be systems thinkers as we “go wide” to assess our current reality and lift that which we want to celebrate and replicate and that which we need to tweak or stop doing altogether.

An After Action Review is a high level set of reflective prompts that foster reflection in a short period of time.

Try this set of prompts:

  1. Based on your goals for the year, what was supposed to happen?
  2. What actually happened?
  3. What do you think accounts for the difference?
  4. Think of student who you had great success with. What actions did you take do you attribute to this success? What other factors in the system were at play?
  5. Now think of a student who you did not reach. What actions did you take do you attribute to this challenge? What other factors in the system were at play?
  6. What will you do with what you have learned from this reflection? Write out a list to act on.

What are some of the ways you reflect? Feel free to leave a comment.

And after some purposeful reflection…go to the beach! For real. Recharge those batteries. You so deserve it and in case not enough people said it – THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR KDIS EVERYDAY!

 

 

 

California Model Five-by-Five Placement Reports & Data for Accountability Dashboard Indicators

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Five-by-Five Colored Clickable Tables!

The new CA accountability system is here! It combines five Status and Change levels creating a five-by-five grid that produces twenty-five results. The colored tables provide a way to determine the location of a school or district on the grid and is a great way to see a district at-a-glance!

Performance for state indicators is calculated based on the combination of current performance (Status) and improvement over time (Change), resulting in five color-coded performance levels for each indicator. From highest to lowest the performance levels are: Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

The five color-coded performance levels are calculated using percentiles to create a five-by-five colored table (giving 25 results) that combine Status and Change.

Here is an example English Learner Indicator report

Screen Shot 2017-05-08 at 8.12.21 PM

The reports are available for:

The Chronic Absenteeism Indicator is not ready for prime time yet. Stay tuned. State data on this indicator will be available in the fall.

For easy access to the reports navigate to the California Model Five-by-Five Placement Reports & Data portal.

Enter the district into the field to access the 5 X 5 Report. You can click on the interactive report to expand the view.

One of many powerful uses for this handy data view is to conduct Community Asset Mapping by indicator. Since you can see the district at-a-glance, teams can identify potential school site assets in the district for potential replication of best practices.

What else might the reports good for?