Features
The Assessment
11/3/2011 By:
Instruction and assessment should be one and the same.
To drive instruction, all members of a district, not just
administrators, must compile and understand data.
[The scenario]
Ms. Heller is giving a test—but you wouldn’t guess it from the energy in her
classroom. Students input answers to Ms. Heller’s open-ended oral questions about
the new algebra concept with their interactive clickers. In the back of the room,
Mr. Lanz, the district’s curriculum administrator, smiles as he records his own
observations on his smartphone, which instantly feeds the information into the
district’s learning-management system.
Ms. Heller used to get nervous when
her principal conducted these classroom
walk-throughs at the end of the semester,
but now that her school has created
the assessment team, which includes
teachers, curriculum directors, students,
and administrators, she knows that
the data collected by the learningmanagement
system will be used to
support her teaching, not jeopardize her
job. When she does get stuck on teaching
concepts, she discusses them online with
her personal learning network, a team
of teachers that has become her go-to
source for professional development.
She’s also seen her students thrive since
her school switched to the open-ended
data-collection model. Students don’t
even consider these “tests” anymore, just
part of their classroom experience that
they can add to their digital portfolios.
[Executive Summary]
Mention the year 2014 and many district
administrators just shake their heads
at the prospect of getting every one of
their schools to 100 percent proficiency
by this looming date. Most know that
the teach-to-the-test model just doesn’t
enable schools to prepare 21st-century
thinkers. So how do schools transform
their teaching and learning when they’re
using the same tired paper-and-pencil
bubble tests? The answer: They don’t.
They throw them out.
Educators are not teaching and/
or assessing; these are the same thing.
Assessment is a constant part of the
teaching process. By aggregating smart
data through online systems that provide
real-time snapshots of teachers’ and
students’ performance and supporting
those data with specific resources,
districts can do a better job of ensuring that curriculum will begin to drive
assessment rather than assessment drive curriculum.
SchoolCIO Summit attendees identified key steps that schools can take
to change NCLB-driven thinking: Build assessment teams so everyone
has a voice. Include teachers, administrators, and students. Provide
resources for your teachers to help them understand how to interpret
data—including someone they feel comfortable talking to about what they
don’t know, such as an instructional specialist. Create real-time and online
professional-learning groups that teachers can use as a continual resource
for development. Create job-embedded PD programs; show teachers not
just how to use tech but how to use tech to improve specific classroom
lessons. Make data collection a cyclical process. Instead of just having a
principal walk through in April, when often it’s too late to make changes,
collect curriculum-based assessments (CBAs) that use walk-through data
more regularly—and have not just the principals but also the curriculum
administrators, the APs, and others use them. These supportive models can
remind teachers of why data matter and help them connect these data to
the passion that inspired them to pursue teaching careers in the first place.
What
They
Said
“The weakest argument for why we
should analyze data is because it
meets NCLB or state standards. For
maximum buy-in, leaders must connect
data analysis to the major reason
teachers entered this profession: to
help students learn more. That is (or
should be) the real reason why teachers
must analyze data. It’s not about
NCLB or Race to the Top. It’s all about
student learning.”
— Ron Thomas, data coach,
Center for Leadership in Education
at Towson University, MD
“Classroom teachers must be taught
how to interpret and modify instruction
based on assessment data. Schools
cannot rely on administrators or data
committees for this important work.
Data analysis is the job of classroom
teachers working in teams. Leaders
have an essential role, however, in
developing the capacity of teachers
to use data effectively.”
— Ron Thomas
“In my district, we are focusing
on simplicity, clarity, and priority
[Schmoker, 2011]. Rather than
continuing to throw new programs at
our teachers and continuing to have
unsuccessful implementations, we
are prioritizing on fewer standards/
programs and focusing on them. We are
also focusing on common curriculum
and assessments and working together
in teams [PLC model] to ensure that all
students are learning.”
— Jenith Mishne, director of education
Technology, Newport-Mesa, CA
Working
Group
Take-Aways
6 Keys to
Effective
Data
Analysis:
• Promote a culture of trust among and between
faculty members and leaders.
• Provide a “compelling direction” for teams
to analyze data.
• Have interdependent teams and help them establish
and follow an explicit set of (ground rules) that
promote collective inquiry and active involvement.
• Provide common planning time, structure,
supports, and recognition so that teams can
complete their work successfully.
• Permit teams the autonomy they need to act on
their decisions based on data.
• Promote internal team accountability for follow
through to implement the results of team databased
decisions.
SOURCE: Ron Thomas, Center for Leadership in Education at
Towson University
Find more take-aways from the School CIO
summit in the program vault under schoolcio.com
(click on “Events”).
[Participants]
Steve Baule
Superintendent
North Boone CUSD 200, IL
Salvador Contes Jr. D
Director of Technology
Poughkeepsie City School District, NY
Charles Gobron
Superintendent of Schools
Northborough-Southborough, MA
Steve Young
Chief Technology Officer
Judson ISD, Texas
Karen Fuller
Chief Technology Officer
Klein ISD, Texas
Peter Griffiths
Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Dayton ISD, Texas
Mike Kuhrt
Superintendent
Dayton ISD, Texas
Jenith Mishne
Director of Education Technology
Newport-Mesa USD, CA
Ronald Thomas
Associate Director
Center for Leadership in Education