Enhancing Teacher
Assessment Capacity
A Key Element of Inspiring Education
Assessment Capacity: Origins
The Assessment Capacity Project
supports and is responsive to the
direction provided by Inspiring
Education: A Dialogue with Albertans
(2010).
• “Review assessment to align with a
competency-based system.”
Assessment Capacity: Origins
•
Require school- and district-based leaders to demonstrate
assessment literacy within their instructional leadership practice
across all subject areas.
•
Be guided by the Principles for Fair Assessment Practices for
Education in Canada.
•
Require teachers to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the Program
of Studies for the courses they teach.
•
Incorporate student voice into all assessment practices.
•
Report academic achievement, behaviour, and social-emotional development separately
and accurately.
•
Focus on coherence among curriculum-teaching-assessment-professional development.
•
Be characterized by educators ongoing participation in coordinated and coherent school
and district-based professional development that occurs within and across schools, plus
within and across disciplines.
•
Be supported by evidence-based rather that opinion-based professional development.
Assessment Capacity: Origins
“Approximately 83% of educator respondents agreed
that their level of knowledge [of assessment] was
substantial… . Even though educators rated their
knowledge as high, many did not articulate this
sentiment overtly in the interviews… .” (page 96)
“We really don’t know how to assess. We’re lost about how
to assess many of our students.”
“Teachers should know more about making assessment objective.”
“There are differences in understandings across all the staff and that is where the
misconceptions are coming in when people don’t have the shared understanding.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done. It is personal experience but I know what is
going on in my school as well as other elementary teachers and we are working on
this [assessment] and trying to change things.
Assessment Capacity: Origins
http://education.alberta.ca/media/1165
612/albertaassessmentstudyfinalrepo
rt.pdf
Assessment Capacity: Origins
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE CURRICULUM
System-Focused
Student-Focused
Content-focused
Focus on competencies
Prescriptive curriculum with
limited flexibility
Opportunities for local decision
making and greater depth of study
Primarily focused on
summative assessment
Balance among formative and
summative assessments
Print-based
Digitally based
Ministry-led development
Collaborative and co-development
models
Sequential development
Synchronous development
Assessment Capacity: Goals
•
Provide educators with the necessary skills and tools to fairly assess student
progress.
•
Develop with stakeholders a sustainable system of professional development
for current and new teachers to provide them with opportunities to enhance
their ability to use assessment effectively in various contexts.
•
Communicate to educators the necessity to measure student progress
consistent with provincial standards.
•
Develop a shared understanding of educational standards amongst educators.
•
Familiarize educators with opportunities for the application of alternate
methods of assessment delivery such as digital and online.
•
Provide educators with opportunities to network and have professional and
focused discussions on various aspects of assessment.
Assessment Capacity: In Scope
•
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•
•
•
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Discussions with stakeholders and clients about the need for assessment
capacity in Alberta and the value of a sustainable system of professional
development for current and new teachers.
Potential contracts or grants with organizations such as the Alberta
Assessment Consortium, the Alberta Teachers’ Association, and the Alberta
Regional Professional Development Consortia to assist in the development and
delivery of assessment capacity.
Gathering information from the grant deliverables of Curriculum Development
Prototyping Request for Proposals relative to classroom based assessments.
Provide support to the prototyping sites related to classroom assessments.
Presentations explaining the goals and objectives of the Assessment Capacity
Project to conventions, conferences and forums hosted by stakeholder groups
such as the ATA, CASS, Speak Out, and the ASBA.
Professional development training sessions for teacher inservice leaders;
coordinated through existing PD providers such as the AAC, the ARPDC and
the ATA.
Assessment Capacity: Out of Scope
• Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) and related assessment
supports.
• Provincial Diploma Examinations.
• Mandating changes to locally-developed assessment and reporting
policies unless any such policies or elements thereof contravene
assessment and/or reporting policies of the ministry.
Assessment Capacity: Summing Up
Assessment is a central element of education. The Assessment Capacity
empowerment. It is intended to provide educators with
Project is about empowerment.
the skillset and tools necessary to fairly assess student progress in a
manner consistent with the values and principles stated in Inspiring
Education. The ultimate benefactors of an education system in which
assessment capacity has been enhanced are students. Students will have
assurance that they have been assessed in a fair, valid and reliable
manner, and have access to informative feedback that will allow them to
reach their full potential by developing the competencies of Engaged
Thinkers and Ethical Citizens with an Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Assessment Capacity: Courses of Action
Enhance the
ability of
educators to
fairly assess
student
achievement.
Support the
development of
assessment
models
appropriate to
new provincial
programs of
study.
Assessment Capacity: Enhancement for the
Current System
• Work with key stakeholders to establish a sustainable
professional development system to enhance and improve
assessment practices and establish networks to facilitate
dialogue on assessment practices
• Develop within Alberta’s k-12 education sector an
understanding of the importance of having a shared
understanding of provincial standards
• Work with universities to ensure education graduates possess
the capacity to provide fair assessment once serving in the
teaching workforce
Assessment Capacity: Preparation for a
Competency-Based Curriculum
• Work with prototyping sites to collaborate in the development
of assessment models consistent with and in support of a
competency-based curriculum.
• Provide support to the prototyping sites related to classroom
assessments
Assessment Capacity: Foundational
Documents
Principles for Fair Assessment Practices for Education
in Canada (1993) Fair Assessment Principles
• Co-constructed by representatives from the provincial and
territorial Ministries of Education and 9 educational organizations
in Canada over 21 months
• The document can be considered representative of the ideals within
the Canadian educational community about fair assessment in the
1990s.
• Chaired by Dr. Todd Rogers
• Part A for classroom assessment, Part B for standardized
assessment
• Should be considered neither exhaustive nor mandatory but rather
reflect the intent and spirit of assessment
Principles for Fair Assessment Practices for
Education in Canada (1993)
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Developing/Choosing Assessment Methods
Collecting Assessment Information
Judging and Scoring Performance
Summarizing and Interpreting Results
Reporting Assessment Findings
The principles are being edited and adjusted with
several new principles added to reflect changes that
have occurred in assessment practices since 1993.
Principles of Quality Classroom Assessment
(AAC, 2012)
Preliminary Steps:
Gather Input from Educators
• What PD support for
Assessment Capacity is most
needed?
Gather Input from Students
• What are their thoughts about
the assessments teachers
currently provide.
Questions and Comments
For further information contact:
Tim Coates, Coordinator
Assessment Capacity Project
780-422-5160
Tim.Coates@gov.ab.ca