DDMs -From Conception to
Impact Rating
D
Easthampton High School – Team Leader Meeting
March 17, 2014
Facilitated by Shirley Gilfether
Performance vs. Growth

Most current assessments are measures of performance
and not growth

Growth takes into account the different levels of student
achievement

Measures of growth should provide all students an equal
opportunity to demonstrate growth
What is Growth?

Growth is about improvement and learning.
Does change represent growth?

Are the assessments similar enough to support
meaningful inferences about student growth during the
year?
 Do early assessments provide meaningful
information about what students do not
understand? baseline data
 Do future assessments provide meaningful
information about what students have learned?
 Do students have the opportunity to demonstrate
different levels of growth?
DDMs in a Backwards Design Model*

DDMs require us to define clearly what we want
students to be able to do following instruction.

After we have clearly defined what we want students to
be able to do, then we plan curriculum and lessons to
get us to that goal
Integration
 Mass Frameworks: What should students
 DDMs:
learn?
How do students demonstrate that learning?
 Curriculum
Mapping: How do we get there?
* Understanding by Design 2.0 © 2011 Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Steps in the Process
1.
Develop your DDM based on core learning objectives
for your course (backward planning)
2.
Develop a method for collecting baseline data on the
same set of objectives (this might be a pre-assessment)
3.
Develop assessment procedures (when will
assessments be given, what are the common directions
that will be given to students (consistency), define any
tools that can be used, e.g. calculators
Scoring Guides are Important
4. Develop clear directions for scoring individual student
work (scoring guide)
1. explicitly state the aspects of student
work that are
essential
2. Define the scoring tool (answer sheet; rubric
(holistic, analytic, growth); checklist;
3. describe who will score and how validity will be
insured (double blind, teacher exchange, spot check,
or objective assessment…)
Scoring Guides Must be Clear
Scoring Guide Example:

2 points for a correct answer with student work
shown correctly

1 point for an incorrect answer with student work
shown correctly
Issue:
 Not clear around how to score a student with a
correct answer with no student work shown or with
student work shown incorrectly.
 Not clear what “shown correctly” means.
Scoring Guide Example - Improved




2 points for a correct answer with either a chart or table
showing how the student set up the problem.
1 point for an incorrect answer, but the work demonstrates
setting up the problem with a table or picture. Supporting
work may include incorrect numbers or other mistakes.
1 point for a correct answer and there is no supporting work
or if student work is not organized in a table or chart.
0 point for no correct answer, and work is not organized in a
table or chart.
The scoring guide could be further improved by incorporating
anchor examples.

:
Using Rubrics
Rubric Style
Analytic
Holistic
Student work is assessed
by clearly defined criteria
along multiple dimensions
(i.e., each rows of the
rubric assesses a different
criterion).
Student work is assessed
as a whole product based
on an overall impression.
Growth Rubrics
Analytic
Low
Growth
0 or 3
Moderate
Growth
High
Growth
4-7
1
Low
Growth
Moderate
Growth
High
Growth
8 or more
Number of writing mechanics, such as
punctuation, capitalization, misspelled
word, where student has corrected the
mistake in future writing
0
Holistic
2 or more
Number of examples of improvement
of language usage and sentence
formation, such as word order, subjectverb agreement, or run-on sentences
student has corrected the mistake in
future writing.
Little to no
improvement
in following
writing
conventions
Average
improvement
in following
writing
conventions
High
improvement
in following
writing
conventions
Step 5 - Clear directions for
determining a student’s growth
Clear directions for determining a student’s growth

Pre-Test/Post Test

Repeated Measures

Holistic Evaluation

Post-Test Only
Learn more
Webinar 5 http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/ddm/webinar.html
Technical Guide B http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/ddm/TechnicalGuideAppxB.pdf
Step 6 – Setting Parameters for high,
moderate, and low student growth


First decide what comparison data makes growth

difference in raw score

difference in % score

percent of increase in score

other
Then build your moderate range

what constitutes normal growth? (in some cases a year’s
worth of growth)

this should be the largest range
Finishing the Range

After the moderate range has been determined build
the low and high ranges of growth
 the low range represents less than expected growth
 the high range represents
significantly higher than
expected growth

It is clearly understood that there may need to be an
adjustment to the ranges after you get data next year.
There will be an opportunity for that
Final Step:
Establishing Teacher’s Impact Rating

Using the class roster, teachers will identify each
student’s growth as High, Moderate or Low

Then the teacher is to find the MEDIAN (middle)
growth for that class (not average)

If there are multiple classes, the Median would be
found for all students’ growth data
Questions and Answers
Reminder: The second DDM Drop-In session will be held
on Thursday, March 20th from 2 – 5 pm