Most Formative Assessment
Webinar
Bill Conrad and Dan Mason
Assessment and Accountability Department
408-453-4332
bill_conrad@sccoe.org
Dan_mason@sccoe.org
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Webinar Logistics
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What Problems Are We Trying to Fix?
How do we measure whether all of the students in
our classrooms achieve the intended learning
targets while instruction occurs?
How do we use the assessment information to
diagnose whole class, small group, and/or individual
student learning needs and then intervene to
support those learning needs?
How do we monitor how well our intervention
supported student learning?
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Webinar Outcomes
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Introduction to the Assessment Continuum
Definition of Most Formative Assessments
Examples of Most Formative Assessments
The Moral Purpose Supporting Most Formative Assessments
Research Supporting the Use of Most Formative
Assessments
Most Formative Assessment Model
Technology Support for the Use of Most Formative
Assessments
Leadership Support for the Use of Most Formative
Assessments
What is the Assessment Continuum?
Most
Formative
Minute to Minute
Classroom
Assessments
Whiteboard
responses to key
questions
Teacher/Student
and
Student/Student
Questions in Class
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Teacher
developed
assessments
for learning
Teacher
developed
quizzes and
curriculum
based
assessments
Exit Tickets
More
Formative
Grade-level
team
developed
common
assessments
Screening,
diagnostic,
ongoing
monitoring
Performancebased
assessments
Cognitive Labs
with Diagnostic
Distractors
More
Summative
Districtdeveloped MidYear
Benchmark
Assessments
Teacher
developed End
of Unit
Assessments
Placement
Assessments
Most
Summative
California
Standards Test
(CST)
California High
School Exit
Exam
(CAHSEE)
SAT College
Entrance Exam
California
English
Language
Development
Test (CELDT)
What is the Assessment Continuum?
Most
Formative
Definition: Most formative
assessments are closest to
instruction. They take place within
the actual instructional cycle and
provide students and teachers with
immediate feedback about the
degree to which all students are
achieving the instructional targets.
Results from these assessments can
be used to address student learning
needs quickly.
Examples
• Individual student whiteboard quick
assessment. Minute to Minute.
• Questioning by teachers and students
• Whiteboard responses to key
questions
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More
Formative
Definition: More formative
assessments are used after a short
instructional cycle of 1-4 weeks. They
provide students and teachers with
feedback about student learning needs
aligned to instructional targets.
Results from these assessments can be
used to address student learning
needs in an ongoing way.
Examples
More
Summative
Definition: More summative
assessments are used at the end
of a longer instructional cycle
of 6-8 weeks and are meant to
measure student achievement
of learning targets after the
student has had many
opportunities to achieve and
demonstrate mastery of the
targets.
Examples
Most
Summative
Definition: Most summative
assessments are usually used at the
end of a semester or at the end of
the year. Results can be used to
make key decisions for students.
Results are also used to inform the
success of the adults in helping
students achieve key learning
standards.
Examples
• Science Progress Assessments
• End of Unit Assessments
• California Standards Test (CST)
• Teacher team developed common
assessment
• Mid-Year Benchmark
• Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
• Math Placement Assessment
• National Assessment of Educational
Progress NAEP)
• Performance Assessments
• NWEA Assessments
What is the Assessment Continuum?
Based on your review of the Assessment Continuum, definitions,
and examples, work individually and then in pairs to answer and
discuss the following questions.
What are the purposes of the assessments within the Assessment Continuum?
How are they similar? How are they different?
How are the audiences for the assessments within the Assessment Continuum
similar and different?
Can we expect one Assessment type to serve multiple purposes and audiences?
Please discuss.
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How do the Experts Define High
Quality Assessments?
Formative assessment occurs while knowledge is being learned. Summative
assessment occurs at the end of a learning episode – for example, at the end of a
course. (McMillan, 2000)
Formative assessments are interactive and used primarily to form or alter an ongoing
process or activity. In contrast, assessments that come at the end of a process or
activity, when it is difficult to alter or rectify what has already occurred, are called
summative assessments. (Airasian, 1994)
Formative assessments are all those activities undertaken by teachers and/or by
students which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching
and learning activities in which they engage. (Black and Wiliam, 1998)
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Comparing Formative and Summative Assessments
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Comparing Formative and Summative
Assessments
Based on your review of the Assessment for (Formative) and the
Assessment of (Summative) graphic, please work with an elbow
partner to discuss the following questions.
How are the foci of Formative and Summative Assessments similar? Different?
Which type of assessment contributes most directly to building student capacity to
learn? What are some examples from your practice in using these kinds of
assessments?
Do summative assessments play a role in informing the quality of the system used
to support student learning? Please describe how your system uses these types of
assessment.
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A Model of Formative and Summative Assessments
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A Model for Formative and Summative
Assessments
Based on your review of the model for formative and summative
assessments, discuss the questions below with a table partner.
Describe whether you support or do not support the idea of using at least 3 ungraded formative assessments for every summative assessment that is administered
to students.
How do you think that un-graded formative assessments can contribute to
improved gains in student learning?
Can the summative assessments in the model provide any formative assessment
value for students? Please describe.
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The Importance of Formative
Assessments
The most important single factor
influencing student learning is what
the learner already knows.
Ascertain this and teach him
accordingly.
-Ausubel, Novak, and Hanesian (1978)
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What is the Definition of Most Formative
Assessments?
Most formative assessments are closest to
instruction. They take place within the actual
instructional cycle and provide students and
teachers with immediate feedback about the
degree to which all students are achieving the
instructional targets. Results from these
assessments can be used to address student
learning needs quickly.
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What are Formative Assessments?
Please use the Venn Diagram Below to Identify similarities and differences between
Formative (assessment for learning) and Summative Assessments (Assessments of
Learning). Please consider purpose, audience, and use in your comparison.
Formative
Assessment
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Summative
Assessment
What are some examples of Most Formative
Assessments?
The Book by Page Keeley called Science
Formative Assessment contains 75 high
quality examples of most formative
assessments. You will be given a packet
of 3 examples of Most Formative
Assessments. Please read each example
and then think about how you might use
the most formative assessment within
the context of your own teaching.
Please discuss the answers to the
questions on the subsequent slide with
a table partner.
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What are some examples of Most Formative
Assessments?
Please describe a classroom instructional event where
you might be able to use on of the Formative
Assessment Classroom Techniques described in this
book.
Key Questions:
• How would you embed the assessment into your
instruction?
• What might be some responses that you might get
from students?
• How would you use the information that you
collected to diagnose student learning needs?
• What interventions would you use to address
student learning needs?
• How would you monitor whether students
learned?
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What is the Moral Purpose for the Use of
Formative Assessments
"Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought
for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most
fundamental...The freedom to learn...had been bought by bitter
sacrifice. And whatever we may think of the curtailment of other
civil rights, we should fight to the last ditch to keep open the right
to learn, the right to have examined in our schools not only what we
believe, but what we do not believe; not only what our leaders say,
but what the leaders of other groups and nations, and the leaders of
other centuries have said. We must insist upon this to give our
children the fairness of a start which will equip them with such an
array of facts and such an attitude toward truth that they can have a
real chance to judge what the world is and what its greater minds
have thought it might be."
W.E.B. DuBois
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What is the Moral Purpose for the Use of
Formative Assessments
What role does Formative Assessment play in supporting student learning? How
does formative assessment support the moral purpose so eloquently stated by W.E.
B. Dubois?
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The Moral Purpose
To support every student in our school district as if
he/she were our own child.
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The True
Meaning of
Assessment
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What is the Moral Purpose for the Use of
Formative Assessments
The word assessment comes from the Latin root word assesare which means to sit
beside. Your team will receive a copy of a painting by Tanner called the Banjo. Please
describe how this painting exhibits the elements of a quality formative assessment
experience.
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Instructional Practices that affect Student Achievement
What the Research Says
Source
BangertDrowns; Kulik,
Kulik, &
Morgan, 1991
Fuchs & Fuchs
(1986)
Characteristics of
Feedback from Classroom
Assessments
Number of
Studies
Effect
Size
Percentile Gain
or Loss in
Student
Achievement
Right or Wrong
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-0.8
-3
Provide correct answer
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0.22
8.5
Criteria understood by
students vs not understood
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0.41
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Explain
9
0.53
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Repeat until correct
4
0.53
20
Displaying results
graphically
89
0.70
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Evaluation (interpretation)
by rule
49
0.91
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Source: Marzano, 2006
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What does the Research say about the use
of Formative Assessments
There is abundant research that supports the
use of Formative Assessment in supporting
student learning. John Hattie conducted over
800 meta-Analyses on 138 on various
influences on student learning. Providing
formative evaluation to students was the third
highest influence on student learning.
You will be provided with a reading from an
important research student about the use of
formative assessment. Please read these
resources and discuss the questions on the
following page with a table partner.
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What does the Research say about the use
of Formative Assessments
Source 1:Visible Learning by John
Hattie. Pages 173- 178
Source 2: Classroom Assessment and
Grading by Robert J. Marzano. Pages 111.
Source 3: Inside the Black Box by Paul
Black and Dylan Wiliam. Pages 1-6.
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What does the Research say about the
use of Formative Assessments
After reading your Research Source Material, please form groups of
3 and discuss the following questions with your team members.
What are two or three key research findings that you found in the
source?
Why are these findings important?
How can you use the findings in your practice of using formative
assessments?
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How can we model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
We can model the use
of Most Formative
Assessments by
beginning with a Lesson
Plan aligned to helping
students demonstrate
their understanding of
learning targets that
align with the Common
Core Standards. We
will begin this modeling
process with a lesson
entitled: Exponential
Growth: How Long will
it take for a bacterial
colony to grow as big
as the earth?
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How can we model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
Review the complete lesson
plan and then discuss the
following questions with a table
partner:
Are the learning targets
important for students to
know? Why?
What are the opportunities for
most formative assessments?
How might you use most
formative assessments to elicit
student misconceptions?
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How can we model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
Because the size of a bacterium is so small, and the size of
the earth is so large, students will probably believe that it
will take a very long time for a single bacterium through
repeated divisions to become as big as the earth. You can
use the most formative assessment of the Crumpled
Paper throw to elicit student understanding of
exponential growth by asking them to record on a small
piece of paper, how long that they think it will take for a
bacterium through repeated divisions to become as big as
the earth and tell also say why. You can find how to carry
out this Most Formative Assessment strategy on the
following slide.
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How can we model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
#7: COMMIT AND TOSS
Description
Commit and Toss is an anonymous technique used to get a quick read on the
different ideas students have in the class. It provides a safe, fun, and engaging way for
all students to make their ideas known to the teacher and the class without
individual students being identified as having “wild” or incorrect ideas. Students are
given a question. After completing the question, students crumple their paper up
into a ball and, upon a signal from the teacher, toss the paper balls around the room
until the teacher tells them to stop and pick up or hold on to one paper. Students
take the paper they end up with and share the ideas and thinking that are described
on their “caught” paper, not their own ideas.
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How can we model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
Teacher Diagnosis: Students do not have a concept of the
properties of exponential growth.
Intervention: Engage students in hands on and minds on
activities that will help them visualize and conceptualize the
properties of exponential growth. Students will use both
physical models and Excel models of exponential growth.
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How can we use technology to model the use of Most
Formative Assessments?
In order to model, exponential growth, students will need to be able to represent large
numbers using scientific notation. Students may exhibit the following error patterns in
representing large numbers using scientific notation.
Scientific Notation! A negative on an exponent and a negative on a
number…uhh? Are they the same?
Correct: 0.00036 = 3.6 x 10-4
-0.00036 = 3.6 x 10-4
36,000 = 3.6 x 104
-36,000 = 3.6 x 104
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How can we model the use of Most Formative
Assessments?
In order to find out if students have this error pattern in thinking,
a teacher could develop a quick selected response question and
embed the error pattern as a distractor in the problem.
What value below represents the number 0.00036
A.
B.
C.
D.
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3.6 x 104
-3.6 x 104
3.6 x 10-4
-3.6 x 10-4
Modeling Most Formative Assessments
Using Technology
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How can we model the use of Most Formative
Assessments using SChoolPlan?
Please produce an answer frequency table using SChoolPlan that shows a 42% selection of
letter B and a 40% selection of letter C.
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How can we model the use of Most Formative
Assessments using SChoolPlan?
The Exit Ticket is a
Most Formative
Assessment Tool to
gauge how well students
are achieving key
learning targets.
How might you use this
type of tool to measure
student understanding
of learning targets in
your classroom?
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Leadership Support for the Use of Most
Formative Assessments
Fixsen Model for Implementation supports a system that
effectively combines Leadership, organizational supports, and
staff competencies to ensure an effective implementation of a
Most Formative Assessment Initiative.
http://nirn.fpg.unc.edu/resources/implementation-research-synthesis-literature
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Leadership Support for the Use of Most
Formative Assessments
http://nirn.fpg.unc.edu/resources/implementation-research-synthesis-literature
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Leadership Support for the Use of Most
Formative Assessments
School and District leaders work collaboratively to build the capacity of teachers to
implement quality initiatives like the use of Most Formative Assessments within the
Classroom. Leaders do this by focusing not only on the technical capacities of staff to
effectively implement the initiative but also those transformational skills required to solve
problems that arise that are not easily characterized or defined.
Please read the article called Implementation Drivers - Best Practices for Coaching by
Karen Blasé et al. Please review the checklist for the implementation of quality coaching
for the initiative and discuss the following questions with your table partner.
Does the document provide enough information to implement a Coaching system for the
implementation of an innovation?
As a district leader, how would you modify this tool to monitor the implementation of the
Most Formative Assessment Initiative?
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References
Black, Paul and Wiliam, Dylan. 2001. Inside the Black Box. Raising Standards through
Classroom Assessment. King’s College London School of Education.
Blasé, Karen. Et al. 2009. Implementation Drivers – Best Practices for Coaching. National
Implementation Research Center.
Fixsen, Dean. et al. 2005. Implementation Research. A Synthesis of the Literature. University
of South Florida.
Hattie, John. 2009. Visible Learning. A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to
Achievement. Routledge. New York. New York
Keeley, Page. 2008. Science Formative Assessments. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks,
California.
Marzano, Robert, J. 2006. Classroom Assessment and Grading that Work. ASCD.
Alexandria, Virginia.
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Most Formative Assessment
Webinar
Bill Conrad and Dan Mason
Assessment and Accountability Department
408-453-4332
bill_conrad@sccoe.org
Dan_mason@sccoe.org
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