Assessment
and Your Child
International School Eastern Seaboard
Outcomes
● What is education today?
● What are best practices that we should be using
in schools?
Why I Hate School but
Love Education
video
Discussion Starter
Turn and Talk
In terms of assessment and reporting, what is
the “game of school?”
Using Assessment to
Improve Instruction
“It is very difficult for students to achieve a
learning goal unless they understand that goal
and can assess what they need to do to reach it.
So self-assessment is essential to learning.”
(Paul Black et al. 2003, p. 49)
Fixed Mind Set
● Children are born gifted
● Children have natural talent
● Their traits are set in stone
Growth Mind Set
● Success come from effort
● Success comes from practice
● Success comes from hard work
Problems with the
Fixed Mindset
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Children are given a label
Once they get the label they don’t want to lose it
Fearful of making mistakes
In order to grow and learn we all must make
mistakes
● When something does not come naturally, they
have to put in effort and at this point some don’t
know what to do
Growth Mindset
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Activity enjoyment
Learning enjoyment
Process enjoyment
Childhood enjoyment
Enjoy challenges
“People are, to a large extend, in
charge of their own intelligence.
Being smart- and staying smart - is
not just a gift, not just a product of
their genetic good fortune, it is very
much a product of what they put
into it.”
Carol Dweck, PhD
Drive and Motivation
Daniel Pink
We need to move kids toward autonomy, mastery,
and purpose.
Offer Praise…
The Right Way
● Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence
● Make praise specific
● Offer praise only when there's a good reason for
it
StandardsBased
Assessment and Reporting
Why Standards-Based?
“There is a century of
consistent evidence that
makes the need for change in
grading policies obvious....
many common grading
practices are ineffective and
counterproductive.”
Douglas Reeves
Why Standards-Based?
Our experience shows us that standards-based
assessment and reporting is best for student learning.
Standards-based is a growth model rather than a deficit
model. It promotes improvement and mastery learning.
Remember.....teachers are still teaching and the kids are
still learning. This is just a new perspective on
assessment and reporting that refocuses energy on
growth.
Standards-Based
A process where each student’s performance is
assessed against criteria of learning targets
within a specific subject. The standardsbased report card communicates progress
towards mastery of learning standards.
Common Misconceptions
● Confusion between the standards movement and
standards-based assessment
● Students lose motivation to do their work
● It’s an unfair system that rewards procrastinators
● It can work at elementary but not at the secondary level
● We can’t get rid of the letter grade in high school
“In a standards-based school, students
are active in thinking about their
learning. They know where they’re
going, where they are now and how to
close the gap between the two.”
Rick Stiggins
Five Major Elements
Students are aware of the criteria for
success.
In other words, students know what they have
to do in order to be successful. It’s not a
mystery.
Teachers provide students with feedback
regarding their progress against the criteria.
In other words, students know how well they
are performing.
Five Major Elements
Students receive feedback about how to
improve, so that they can work towards
meeting the criteria.
In other words, students know what they need
to work on to improve.
There are opportunities for students to
show improvement regarding the criteria.
In other words, students get a chance to show
improvement throughout the reporting term.
Five Major Elements
Learning is individualized.
In other words, the feedback that students
receive is specific to their own performance
when compared to a clear set of
expectations.
Standards- Based Grading
and the Game of School
Learning
Formative assessment
Summative assessments
No zeros
All work turned in
No penalty for late work, just get it done
New Role for Educators
Shift from teaching
TO
.....ensuring that all students are learning.
We have to ask ourselves, “Do our grading
practices reflect this new role?”
Updated Report Cards
• Product – Standards
• Process Goals
• ESLRs