• I-B-1: Variety of Assessment Methods
    Unsatisfactory
    Needs Improvement
    Proficient
    Exemplary
    Administers only the assessments required by the school and/or measures only point-in-time student achievement. May administer some informal and/or formal assessments to measure student learning but rarely measures student progress toward achieving state/local standards. Designs and administers a variety of informal and formal methods and assessments, including common interim assessments, to measure each student's learning, growth, and progress toward achieving state/local standards. Uses an integrated, comprehensive system of informal and formal assessments, including common interim assessments, to measure student learning, growth, and progress toward achieving state/local standards. Is able to model this element.
    Coming Soon
    What instructional practices should be observed? What student impacts should be expected?
    For TEACHERS this may look like.

    1. Teacher plans and administers only MCAS or other single point-in-time school-wide assessments.

    1. Teacher plans and administers too few informal and/or formal assessments, or informal and/or formal assessments are not aligned to standards.

    1. Teacher plans and administers a variety of standards aligned informal and formal assessments that include baseline, formative, and summative assessments.

    1. Teacher plans and administers an integrated, comprehensive set of standards aligned informal and formal assessments that include baseline, formative, and summative assessments.

    1. Teacher plans and administers informal and/or formal assessments that do not assess student understanding in multiple formats, or do not assess student understanding at varied levels of difficulty.

    1. Teacher plans and administers informal and/or formal assessments that assess student understanding in a few formats, or rarely assess student understanding at varied levels of difficulty.

    1. Teacher plans and administers informal and formal assessments that assess student understanding in multiple formats and varied levels of difficulty.

    1. Teacher plans and administers informal and formal assessments that assess student understanding in multiple formats, including real world application and at varied levels of difficulty.

    1. Teacher never or rarely checks for student understanding, or checks for student understanding are ineffective or uninformative.

    1. Teacher may check for student understanding at the end of lessons, but rarely does so during instruction.

    1. Teacher frequently checks for student understanding using quick, on-the-spot assessments during instruction.

    1. Teacher consistently checks for student understanding using quick, on-the-spot assessments throughout instruction that do not disrupt lesson flow.

    1. Teacher rarely offers assessment feedback, or feedback is often incomplete or perfunctory.

    1. Teacher may offer assessment feedback, but feedback is general and does not further student learning.

    1. Teacher provides frequent assessment feedback that is specific and extends student thinking.

    1. Teacher provides and guides students to provide each other with assessment feedback that is specific, actionable, and extends student thinking.

    1. Teacher does not maintain accurate records of student formal or informal assessment data.

    1. Teacher maintains a basic record of student formal assessment data, but does not track growth toward students' learning goals or progress on standards.

    1. Teacher maintains records of student informal and formal assessment data that track growth toward students' learning goals and progress on standards.  

    1. Teacher maintains records of student informal and formal assessment data that track growth toward students' learning goals and progress on standards.
    As a result, the IMPACT on STUDENTS may be...

    1. Students do not conduct assessments of their own work or the work of peers.

    1. Students rarely conduct assessments of their own work or the work of peers, or students only partially understand assessment criteria.

    1. Students frequently conduct assessments of their own work or the work of peers, and offer accurate feedback.

    1. Students consistently conduct assessments of their own work and the work of peers, and provide specific and accurate feedback.

    1. Students do not have a record of their growth or progress, and most students are unable to describe their understanding of specific concepts.  

    1. Students may not have a record of their growth or progress, but if asked are able to generally describe their understanding of specific concepts.

    1. Students maintain records of their own growth toward learning goals and progress on standards.

    1. Students maintain up-to-date records of their own growth toward learning goals and progress on standards.
    Name Description Type
    Checking for Understanding This 17 minute video from Research for Better Teaching shows a variety of different assessment methods teachers can use to check for students' understanding on an ongoing basis throughout the lesson. One strategy is a mini-quiz on notecards that are turned in at the beginning or end of a class for a teacher to assess each child's comprehension of a topic. Another teacher assesses student understanding through 'game show' methods and uses peer re-teaching or differentiated small focus groups to reteach afterwards. Video
    "Checks for Understanding" on the Teach Like a Champion site This un-narrated 5 minute video shows a teacher using frequent checks for understanding while teaching a lesson on vocab in context clues. Click here  Video
    "Cold Calling" at the high school level from the Teach Like a Champion site This un-narrated 5 minute video from the Teach Like a Champion site demonstrates a teacher using cold calling techniques and other instructional strategies to test whether or not students truly understand the lesson's content. Video
    Determine and Track Student Progress This seven minute video from the Houston Independent School District discusses how teachers can use assessment data to assess how students are progressing toward their goals. The video presents a systematic overview of how teachers can plan for, collect data, track progress, and adjust their practice. Video
    Comprehensive Assessment: An Overview This eight minute video makes the case for teachers to develop a comprehensive approach to assessing their students, beyond the traditional standardized assessments. It describes the benefits of using performance-based assessments to measure what students know and are able to do. The video provides concrete examples of how a few different schools use performance-based assessments to provide a more holistic understanding of their students' understanding of an identified area. Video
    Coming Soon
    Resource Name Description Type
    new! ODA Assessment Website BPS implements a Balanced Assessment System that is designed to support our district goals of eliminating opportunity gaps and accelerating learning.

    BPS Website
    new! Research for Better Teaching Free registration provides access to videos and downloadable materials. eLearning
    new! Peer-reviewed Research Paper: Uncovering Students Thinking About Thinking Research for Better Teaching (RBT) is a professional development organization dedicated to improving expertise in teaching and school leadership. PD Website
    new! Universal Design for Learning A method for uncovering students’ thinking about thinking, specifically their meta-strategic knowledge, is explored within the context of an ongoing, multi-year intervention designed to promote the development of students’ thinking dispositions. Research paper
    new! Grant Wiggins: Understanding by Design (part 1) Framework for improving student achievement that helps teachers clarify learning goals, devise assessments that reveal student understanding, and craft effective learning activities. Video
    new! Grant Wiggins: Understanding by Design (part 2) Framework for improving student achievement that helps teachers clarify learning goals, devise assessments that reveal student understanding, and craft effective learning activities. Video
    new! Multiple Intelligences Theory: Widely Used, Yet Misunderstood One of the most popular ideas in education is applied in ways that its creator never intended. Article
    new! Capacity Building: Student Self-Assessment Confidence and efficacy play a critical role in accurate and meaningful self-assessment and goal-setting. Research Journal
    Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Idea of Authentic Assessment In this article, Grant Wiggins (nationally recognized assessment expert for over 25 years) argues that the core function of assessments is to advance learning by providing feedback both to the teacher and student on what is understood and what isn't. Wiggins argues that the type of assessments that do this are authentic assessments: "performances and product requirements that are faithful to real-world demands, opportunities, and constraints". In these authentic assessments, students need to demonstrate their ability to problem-solve and think creatively to apply their learning in the appropriate context. Article
    Seven Practices for Effective Learning This article published in Educational Leadership promotes the practice of using diagnostic and formative assessments on an ongoing basis as a way of providing feedback to teachers on what skills need re-teaching in order to improve student achievement. This article highlights seven assessment practices with corresponding classroom-based examples that will provide teachers the ongoing data they need on student understanding to promote student learning. Article
    The Skillful Teacher: Assessment This chapter discusses the 12 components of good classroom assessment, validity and reliability, and methods of data gathering, Book Chapter 19
    edutopia Assessment Professional Development Guide This site features an assessment professional development guide. It is geared toward Project Based Learning, and includes presentation materials, readings and activities, and recommended readings and videos. Website
    Teaching as Leadership: Create or obtain assessments This page of the Teaching as Leadership site contains a variety of resources related to planning for assessments. Website
    Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom
    by Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey    		 This book provides effective methods for checking for understanding and examples of formative assessment techniques appropriate for a variety of subject areas and grade levels. Book
    Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College
    by Doug Lemov, Chapter 18: Check For Understanding    		 Technique 18: Check For Understanding describes the process of gathering data on student understanding and responding to it as quickly as possible while teaching and lesson planning. Book
    Check For Understanding Strategies Brief decriptions of 32 strategies that can be used to check for understanding. Summary of strategies
    PARCC Task Prototypes and New Sample Items Sample ELA and Math assessment items for each grade level from 3rd - high school. Sample assessment items