Improving Assessment
Literacy School-wide
School and System
Improvement
Improvement by Contract
-external threats and rewards
 Improvement by Culture
-partnerships, collaboration, teamwork,
community
 Caring is as important as learning

Hargreaves, 2003
School and System Improvement
Professional learning communities use evidence
and intuition in order to work and talk together
to review their practices and to increase their
success…In a professional learning community,
the culture changes – everyone sees the big
picture and works for the good of the whole
community. Professional learning communities
bring together culture and contract. They value
both excellence and enjoyment.
Hargreaves, 2004
The Big Ideas of Professional
Learning Communities

Ensuring that students learn

A Culture of Collaboration

A Focus on Results
DuFour, 2004
The Big Ideas of Professional
Learning Communities

Ensuring that students learn:
-Focus on learning
-What do we want each student to learn?
-How will we know when each student has
learned it?
-How will we respond when a student
experiences difficulty in learning?
DuFour, 2004
The Big Ideas of Professional
Learning Communities

A Culture of Collaboration
-partnerships
-sharing knowledge and learning
-team work
-community
-conversations
DuFour, 2004
The Big Ideas of Professional
Learning Communities

A Focus on Results
-establish baseline data
-set improvement goals
-work together to achieve goals
-gather frequent evidence of progress
-identify strategies that lead to the
greatest gains
-share these with colleagues DuFour, 2004
Teacher Learning: What Matters
(Linda Darling-Hammond, 2009)
Centred
on student learning
Integrated with school
improvement
Active, sustained learning
Principal Leadership
(DuFour and Marzano, 2009)

Create schedules so teams meet at least
one hour per week
 Create collaborative structures for teams to
focus on issues that directly affect student
learning
 Provide teams with training, support, and
resources to implement new approaches
 Monitor progress through tangible products
and dialogue
Time to Talk
Discuss the comments from
Hargreaves, DuFour, DarlingHammond, and Marzano
 To what extent does your school`s
current approach to improvement reflect
their recommendations?
 Which of their recommendations require
your attention?

School Improvement through
Assessment Reform
A Vision is Essential!
“Attaining any vision of assessment
excellence requires that certain conditions
be in place. Those conditions include
well-defined learning targets for students,
supportive school and district policies,
clear communication systems, and most
important, assessment-literate teachers
and administrators.”
Rick Stiggins
Improving Assessment Literacy:
Essential Elements - Cooper
Clear mission and vision
 Alignment of curriculum, assessment,
and communication systems
 Clear and coherent curriculum map,
K-12
 High-quality, “backward-designed” units
 High-quality assessments and tools

Improving Assessment Literacy:
Essential Elements - Cooper
Assessment and grading policy to guide
and support practice
 School-wide assessment literacy
 Students empowered to self and peer
assess and to act as instructional
support for each other
 Well-informed parents who support
initiatives
 Ongoing process to monitor project

Dare to Dream!
It’s June, 2012. You are
conducting a Walkabout
on your campus. Use
your creativity to
communicate to your
colleagues what you see
and hear during your
Walkabout.
Reality Check!
What are the
major obstacles
to realizing this
vision in your
school?
To realize our vision,
we need a plan ...
Designing Down from the Desired State
Goal Area:
e.g. Grading and Reporting
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What specifically needs to be done?
How does it need to be done?
What is the timeline for doing it?
Who is responsible for getting it done?
What resources are needed?
How will we monitor progress?
How often and by what means will we
communicate progress?
8. How will we celebrate success?
Desired State
Actions
Key Result Areas
Grading
policy
Grading
software
Report
card
design
Goal Area:
e.g. Grading and Reporting
Current State
Improvement Planning Template
Desired State/Goal:
Current State,
including
Evidence
Indicators
of Desired
State
(may
include
targets)
Specific
Measures
(tools used
to gather
data)
Strategies
(specific actions that will be taken)
Resources
(improvement
teams,
materials)
Lead
Responsibility
Timelines
Communicating
Progress
Celebration
of Success
Four Conditions for Sustainable
Improvement

Focus

Pressure and support

Collaboration

Stay the course
The Big Ideas of Classroom
Assessment
1. Assessment serves different purposes at different times: it
may be used to find out what students already know and
can do; it may be used to help students improve their
learning; or it may be used to let students, and their
parents, know how much they have learned within a
prescribed period of time.
2. Assessment must be planned and purposeful.
3. Assessment must be balanced, including oral and
performance as well as written tasks, and be flexible in
order to improve learning for all students.
The Big Ideas of Classroom
Assessment
4. Assessment and instruction are inseparable because
effective assessment informs learning.
5. For assessment to be helpful to students, it must inform
them in words, not numerical scores or letter grades,
what they have done well, what they have done poorly,
and what they need to do next in order to improve.
6. Assessment is a collaborative process that is most
effective when it involves self, peer, and teacher
assessment.
The Big Ideas of Classroom
Assessment
7. Performance standards are an essential component of
effective assessment.
8.
Grading and reporting student achievement is a caring,
sensitive process that requires teachers’ professional
judgement.
Four Conditions: Focus

Identify areas of greatest need
-human bar graph
-survey data
-observation

School-wide focus

Embed within other initiatives
Case Study: Walkden High School
3-Year Assessment for Learning Project
 Year 1: focus on specific, descriptive
oral and written feedback to students
 Year 2: strategies for self and peer
assessment
 Year 3: Lesson Design

Time to Talk about Focus

How focussed
is our school’s
improvement
plan?

Do we need to
sharpen the
focus to
improve our
plan?
Time to Talk about Focus
What sources of
data are identifying
our focus for
improvement?
 Are these data
sufficient?
 If not, what further
data do we need to
gather?

Pressure & Support: Walkden High School
Head and Assistant both teach a class
 8 AFL Key Teachers who work across
departments to model and coach best
practice
 They have half day per week outside of
school to do research
 Every committee and meeting must
have an AFL component

Four Conditions: Pressure ...
Teachers submit tangible evidence of
their collaborative work e.g. Units of
study, common assessments, etc.
 Annual improvement plans for all
teachers include the initiative
 Struggling teachers teamed with those
who have mastered the desired skills

Time to Talk about Pressure

How are teachers held accountable for
improving their practice?

How do we move from “pockets of
improvement” to a critical mass?
Four Conditions: ... and Support

Common resources
to communicate best
practice, etc. (print
resources,
handbook, on-line
resources, etc.)
 PD events to
communicate the
message
 Key teachers to lead
the charge and
provide training
Time to Talk about Support
What professional learning resources
are available to leaders and teachers to
inform this improvement initiative?
 What professional learning opportunities
are available to teachers during this
project?

Four Conditions: Collaboration





Within grade or course teams (unit design)
Between grade or course teams (program
design)
System-wide: e.g. efficient use of technology
to create banks of units, assessments, tools,
etc.
Coaching and mentoring within grade or
course teams
Key Teachers provide training across the
school
Unit Planning
Time to Talk about Collaboration

What collaborative
structures exist in our
school that facilitate
improvement?

Are these structures
sufficient?

If not, what needs to
change?
Time to Talk about Collaboration
Is peer coaching part of our
improvement initiative?
 If not, could it be?
 If it is, how well is it working?
 How might it be improved or expanded?
 What PLC or similar approach is being
used to facilitate our improvement
initiative?

Four Conditions: Staying the Course
Minimum 3-Year, ``design down``
from desired state plan
 Frequent monitoring of progress
 Adjust plan according to data
 Integrate with other initiatives as they
occur
 Celebrate success as it occurs
 Plan for sustainability

Time to Talk about Staying the Course

How are we monitoring our
improvement initiative:
- teacher self-monitoring?
(e.g. reflective journals)
- teacher peer-monitoring?
- administrative monitoring?
Some final thoughts...
“Change is a process, not an event…
beware the implementation dip.” (Fullan)
 Teachers must not work alone. Collaboration
will help them problem solve and will improve
the quality of your school’s initiatives.
 Be proactive - communicate with parents and
students before changing practices and
procedures.

Commitment to Action






Spend a few moments reflecting on your learning
today….
What was your most significant learning?
What specific actions do you plan to take
immediately and/or between now and June 2010?
Who will be involved?
What results would you like to see from these
actions?
How will you assess the effectiveness of these
actions?
42
School Improvement Bibliography
Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: High School Strategies and Tools, Nelson Education, 2010.
ISBN-10: 0-17-635712-2
Darling-Hammond, L. & Richardson, N. Teacher Learning: What Matters, Educational Leadership,
February 2009, 46-53
DuFour, R. &Marzano, R. J. High Leverage Strategies for Principal Leadership, Educational Leadership,
February 2009, 62-68
DuFour, R., R. Eaker, R. DuFour, and G. Karhanek. 2004. Whatever it Takes: How Professional Learning
Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn, Solution Tree, Bloomington, IN.
Guskey, Thomas R. Evaluating Professional Development, Corwin Press, 2000, ISBN 0-7619-7561-6
Hargreaves, Andy. Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity, Teachers
College Press, 2003. ISBN. 0-8077-4360-7