And Using!
Building Common
Assessments
Rebecca Bush
Ionia County ISD
Kimberly Young
Ionia County ISD/MDE
Session Targets
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Session will address:
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The key factors to consider when developing
common assessments
Strategies and tools for building common
assessments
Understanding of the rationale for and
process of using common assessments
Common Assessments in the Context of
PLCs
(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many, 2006)
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What is it we expect students to learn?
How will we know when students have
learned it?
How will we respond when students don’t?
How will we respond when students do?
What Do We Mean by
“Common Assessments”?
Any assessment given by two or more
instructors with the intention of
collaboratively examining the results for:
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Shared learning
Instructional planning for individual students,
and/or
Curriculum, instruction, and/or assessment
modifications
What Constitutes Effective
Classroom Assessment?
Key Points:
 Assessment is information, not scores
(Scores are accountability)
 Assessment is best done early and often
(Assessment at the end is accountability)
What Constitutes Effective
Classroom Assessment?
Assessment that:
 Provides evidence of student performance relative
to content and performance standards
 Provides teachers and students with insight into
student errors and misunderstanding
 Helps lead the teacher and/or team directly to
action
Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment
Accurate Assessment
2. Clear Targets
1. Clear Purpose
Assess what?
What are the learning targets?
Are they clear?
Are they good?
Why assess?
What’s the purpose?
Who will use the results?
3. Good Design
Assess how?
What method?
Sampled how?
Avoid bias--how?
Effectively Used
4. Sound Communication
Communicate how?
How do we manage information?
How do we report?
5. Student Involvement
Students are users, too.
Students need to understand learning targets, too.
Students can participate in the assessment process, too.
Students can track progress and communicate, too.
Practical Standards of Assessment
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Serve clearly articulated purposes
Arise from and reflect clear achievement targets
Rely on the appropriate assessment method given in
the context
Sample student achievement appropriately
Avoid unwanted sources of interference or error
Mapping A Common Assessment
Plan
Template
Designing Classroom Assessments
Fundamental Questions
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What standard(s) are you assessing?
What kinds of evidence are you gathering?
What levels of performance do you
expect?
Kinds of Achievement Targets
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Master Factual and Procedural Knowledge
 To be learned outright or retrieved through
reference materials
Use Knowledge to Reason and Solve Problems
 Analytical, comparative, inferential, or evaluative
reasoning
Demonstrate mastery of Specific Skills
Kinds of Achievement Targets
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Demonstrate mastery of Specific Skills
 Speaking a second language, public
presentations, working on a team, carrying
out the steps in a process
Create Quality Products
 Term papers, artistic/craft products, or
science exhibits
Target-Method Match
How well does your method of assessment match your target?
Assessment Method
Target to be
Assessed
Knowledge
Reasoning
Performance
Skills
Products
Selected
Response
Essay
Performance
Assessment
Personal
Communication
Target-Method Match
How well does your method of assessment match your target?
Assessment Method
Target to be
Assessed
Selected
Response
Essay
Performance
Assessment
Personal
Communication
Knowledge
Good match
Good match
Not a good match
Partial match
Reasoning
Partial match
Good match
Good match
Good match
Performance
Skills
Not a good match
Not a good match
Good match
Partial match
Products
Not a good match
Partial match
Good match
Not a good match
Assessment Methods
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Selected Response
 Multiple choice
 True/false
 Matching
 Fill in
Writing Assessments
 Constructed response
 Extended response
 Essay
Assessment Methods
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Performance Assessments
 Skills
 Products
 Demonstrations
Personal Communication
 Questions/answers
 Conferences
 Interviews
 Oral examinations
Let’s look at an example of
one question in two formats
designed to gather different
information
Multiple-Choice Format
A school bus holds 36 high school
students. If 1,128 high school students
are being bused to a special event, how
many buses are needed?
a. 12
b. 31
c. 31.33
d. 32
Constructed Response Format
A school bus holds 36 high school
students. If 1,128 high school students
are being bused to a special event, how
many buses are needed? Explain your
answer.
Student Responses to the
Constructed-Response Task
1.
2.
If you have 31 buses there are 12 students left
over. These students can squeeze into 31
buses. So they need 31 buses.
You need 31 buses, but there are 12 students
left. They need to go too. So you just need
another mini-van. There fore, answer should
be 31 buses and one mini-van.
Student Responses to the
Constructed-Response Task
3.
4.
Twelve students are left, another bus is need
for 12 students, so the answer is 32.
Out of the 31 buses you can choose 12 busses
to hole the 12 students, each bus holds 1 extra
student. Therefore, you just need 31 buses.
How could this question be improved to elicit the
desired student response?
Why Create a Protocol?
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Creates a safe place to take risks that
positively impact student learning
Keeps the focus on student learning
Fosters collaboration that supports clear
learning targets and high expectations for
all students
Student Work Speaks!
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Seeking Evidence Protocol
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Post and Pass Scoring
Consensus in scoring
Reflecting on Data Sets
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Let’s try it!
8th Grade Inquiry Standard Common
Assessment
Data
Team Results
• I can define and identify Quantitative Data
• I can define and identify Qualitative Data
• I can create examples of and geographically display Quantitative Data
• I can create examples of and logically organize Qualitative Data
• I can manipulate quantitative data to be qualitative and qualitative
data to be quantitative
Classroom Proficiency
Far Below
Basic
Below
Basic
Basic
Proficient
Advanced
0.00%
0.00%
6.67%
13.33%
80.00%
8th Grade Inquiry Standard Common
Assessment Data
Individual Classroom Results
Teacher
A
Teacher
B
Teacher
C
Teacher
D
Teacher
E
Totals by
Target
Defn.
Quantitative
82%
89%
90%
90%
79%
86%
Defn.
Qualitative
100%
75%
80%
82%
71%
82%
Display
Quantitative
100%
100%
100%
100%
73%
95%
Organize
Qualitative
97%
93%
96%
100%
82%
94%
Transpose
each kind
100%
83%
86%
91%
80%
88%
Class
Averages:
96%
91%
90%
88%
77%
89%
8th grade Inquiry Test Common Assessment Data
Classroom D’s Results by Student
Student Name
Number
Correct
Percent
Correct
Student 1
30
100%
Student 2
29
96.67%
Student 3
19
63.33%
Student 4
30
100%
Student 5
19
63.33%
Student 6
27
90%
Student 7
28
93.33%
8th Grade Inquiry Test Common Assessment
Classroom D’s Results by Student and Target
Student
Name
Num
Perc
Correct Correct
Defn
Quantit
Defn
Qualitat
Display
Quantit
Org
Qualitat
Trans
each
Student 1
30
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Student 2
29
96.67%
100%
67%
100%
100%
100%
Student 3
19
63.33%
100%
100%
100%
33%
0%
Student 4
30
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Student 5
19
63.33%
33%
33%
100%
100%
100%
Student 6
27
90%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Looking at Common Assessments
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Imagine this is your data. Address the results for your
classroom/building as if you are trying to improve student
learning
Use the following Reflection Questions:
 As a team, which targets from the assessment require
more attention?
 As a team, which students did not master the targets?
 As a team, which classrooms require additional support:
 As an individual teacher, which area was my lowest, and
how can I improve in that area?
Looking at Common Assessments
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Create and explain a team plan of action to
address the needs of students who have not
mastered the required targets.
Planning a PLC/Team Response template
Contact Information
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Rebecca Bush
Ionia County ISD
rjbush@ioniaisd.org
616.522.1407
Kimberly Young
Ionia County ISD
youngk1@michigan.gov
517.373.0988