Assessment Crisis: The
Absence Of Assessment
FOR Learning
By Richard J. Stiggins
Reviewed by Teresa, Seth, Ron,
Mitzi, Becky, & Shirley
“ A real voyage of
discovery consists
not of seeking new
landscapes but of
seeing through new
eyes.” - Marcel Proust
Introduction
Discuss the difference between
assessment of learning and for
learning.
Some Political Viewpoints:
• Use assessment for rewards/
punishments to increase teacher/
student effort
• Intensify intimidation associated with
annual testing to force achievement
• Fail to look at how to help students learn
or be able to learn
Observations:
School
administrators have
tendencies to bow
down to political
beliefs
The community
wants educators to
provide valid and
reliable test scores
School Improvement Should
Answer These Questions:
How can we use assessments to help all our
students want to learn?
How can we help them feel able to learn?
Can assessment have greater impact?
Can state and district assessments help our
students want to learn?
How can we maximize the positive impact of
our scores?
Considerations
Standardized testing goes against the “all
children can learn” philosophy
Teachers must rely on classroom assessment
for day to day decision making
Build assessment systems that balance
training and different types of assessment
Healthy assessment environments need to be
developed
The Evolution
of Our Vision of
Excellence in
Assessment
School Improvement
Requires:
Articulation of higher achievement
standards
Transformation of expectations into
rigorous assessments
Expectation of accountability for student
achievement
Assessment
provides the
evidence of
success on the
part of students,
teachers, and the
system.
School Improvement
We have set world-class standards as
opposed to minimizing competencies
Rewards for schools producing high
scores, sanctions for schools that do not
Since 1990’s…
Involved in international assessment programs
Invested billions of dollars to ensure accuracy
on these assessments of learning
Testimonial belief in the power of standardized
testing, we would permit so many levels of
testing to remain in place, all at same time and
at a very high cost
The Flaw in the Vision
Assess to motivate
Work hard….fail
harder….succeed
If you try to fail and
succeed, what have
you done?
A More Powerful Vision
A more powerful vision:
Assessments of learning
Assessment for learning
• Keep students learning and remain confident
Are Teachers Ready?
Only 12 states require
competence in assessment for
teacher licensing
Most teacher preparation
programs provide no work in
assessment literacy
Administrators also lack training
in assessment
Are Teachers Ready?
Con’t
Nation of educators “unschooled in the
principles of sound assessment”
Teachers don’t know how to use
assessment as a tool for teaching and
learning
Student progress often measured
incorrectly
Are Teachers Ready?
Con’t
Instructional decisions based on
misinformation
Misdiagnosis of student needs
Students misunderstand their own
abilities to learn
Miscommunication regarding student
progress
No effective assessment for learning in
classrooms
Relevant Position Statements
During 1990’s, virtually every
professional teaching association
adopted standards of teacher
competence that include an assessment
component
NEA, AFT, & NCME
Relevant Position Statements
con’t
These standards are over decade old
and still have little impact on teacher
and administrator prep
Joint commissions call for shift of
emphasis from external to classroom
assessment and a focus on professional
development for educators
Balancing Assessments of
and for Learning
Assessments of and for Learning
must be . . .
accurate in their depiction of
student achievement
used to benefit students
Assessment of Learning . . .
 Provides information once a year
 Reflects large-group increases or
decreases in learning
 Gatekeepers for high-stakes decisions
Assessment for learning . . .
 Informs moment-to-moment instructional
decisions
 Manages the learning process as it
unfolds
 Diagnoses students needs during
learning
Stiggins posed a critical
school improvement question : . .
What would happen to
standardized test scores if we
brought assessment for learning
online as a full partner in support
of student learning?
Startling Research . . .
Encouraging Answers . . .
What kinds of improvements in classroom
assessment practice are likely to yield
the greatest
gains in achievement?
-Black and Wiliam (1998)
Teachers applying principles of
assessment for learning by . . .
 Increasing the accuracy of
classroom assessment
 Providing students with frequent
informative feedback
 Involving students deeply in the
classroom assessment, record
keeping and communication
processes
Reported effect sizes of one-half to a full
standard deviation improvement which
equates to . . .
 gains of more than 30 percentile points
 two grade-equivalents
 100 points on the SAT scale
Anticipating the Benefits of
Balance
The Benefits of Balance For Students:
Confident learners because of success and
student permission to take the risk to learn
Greater achievement for all students
Reduces the gap between middle and lowsocioeconomic status students
Students in charge of their own learning
The Benefits of Balance For Teachers:
Students more motivated to learn
Instructional decisions informed by accurate
information about student achievement
Savings in time
The Benefits of Balance For Parents:
See higher
achievement and
greater enthusiasm for
learning from children
Understand children are
becoming life-long
learners
The Benefit to School Staff
Meet accountability
standards
Get public recognition
Know how to assess for
learning
Action Plan
Match every dollar invested for assessment of
learning with development of assessment for learning
Launch a comprehensive, long-term professional
development program for teachers and administrators
to promote assessment literacy
Change licensing standards in every state for
teachers and administrators to include assessment
competency
Action Plan con’t
Change licensing standards in every state for
teachers and administrators to include assessment
competency
Require all teacher education programs to include
assessment literacy for all prospective teachers
Questions For The Class
1.
2.
How would you advise the UNL Curriculum and
Instruction professors to prepare UNL student
teachers to meet the demands of assessment
literacy in their future classrooms?
What ideas do you have to share with NDE in the
process of changing licensing standards in
Nebraska to provide every teacher and
administrator with assessment competency?
Questions For The Class con’t
3. Finally, what are your
ideas for launching a
public relations
campaign for
educating the entire
population about
assessment for
learning?