The Confluence of Teaching and Learning: The Center for Assessment Annual Conference

The Confluence of Teaching and Learning: The Center for Assessment Annual Conference

Why do states require schools to test all students in grades 3-8?

In 2001 newly elected President Bush signed the bipartisan, widely praised No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) The law has driven classroom instruction ever since, states determine standards, school districts/or schools choose curriculum and classroom teachers design lessons to reflect state and federal mandates. The National Governors Association, acting as a surrogate rolled out the Common Core Standards, states compiled, surprisingly parents and advocates across the political spectrum revolted and Common Core slid into the dustbin of educational policy mandates.

Under the Obama administration NCLB was reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), every state had to reconfigure their plan, and, in the law, in addition to the testing requirements could design an “innovative” assessment alternative.

I was working with a member of the Board of Regents and attended all the work sessions. Scott Marion, from the Center for Assessment and Linda Darling-Hammond from Stanford University facilitated the formation of the new plan. Unfortunately the commissioner, in my opinion, was disinterested, unfortunately opposed pursuing an “innovative” alternative while facilitators made modest improvements in the state plan (crediting schools for growth in addition to proficiency).

I have followed the work of the Center for Assessment, subscribed to their frequent posts (nciea.org) and attended their conferences in 2024 and last week. A gathering of over 100 folks from state departments of education and support organizations who all maintain sections concentrating on assessment and accountability, two days of panels and interactive discussions, wonky at times, intellectually challenging, with folks from across the nation, from large cities to low population states. At my table two folks from Wyoming, Brooklyn has 3x as many folks, Wyoming has basically rural schools, high levels of poverty, increasing pressures from very conservative school boards.

The title of the conference: “What It Takes to Implement a Balanced Assessment System.”

As a New Yorker, outspoken, I had my hand in the air in the many Q &?A opportunities.

If we’re going to improve outcomes we have to improve inputs, the act of teaching. I describe a teacher as the writer, producer, director, actor and critic of a play with a run of one performance, and management sees us as workers tightening bolts on an assembly line and improving performance by changing tension on the wrench.

Teaching is a complex act, kids change, from period to period , from day to day and we have to align our “art” with the changing needs of our students.

Assessment is akin to a golf score, to the sabermetrics in baseball, data drives assessments in sports and in teaching, however, in teaching, the world surrounding our students may have more impact than the classroom teacher.

Generational poverty, chronic absenteeism, sociologists have developed poverty risk load indices, whatever the barriers, it’s our job to improve outcomes.

Are we “measuring” the meeting or exceeding of standards? the knowledge embedded in a curriculum? in courses, Earth Science? Civics? or the Picture of a Graduate attributes?

Have teacher training institutions adequately prepared teacher candidates?

Teachers are not fans of student assessments, tests in April, results in September, aside from stamping a mark of Cain on students, what is the value? Is more testing simply burdensome? Does student testing impact day-to-day instruction? How can we include classroom teachers in the design of an assessment process? Ideally a loop: what do we want students to learn and how do we engage parents and teachers in the process, and, how do we engage parents and teachers in the assessment design process? Are there valid and reliable alternatives to tests?

We know that teams with the highest metrics don’t always win the World Series, the metrics do drive decision-making and drive preparation, how can we loop classroom teachers into the teaching-learning process?

A few of the slides from the Conference,

Coherence Starts in the Classroom

If coherence across levels of the system are based on shared models of learning then the assessment design should start at the classroom level with an understanding of deep disciplinary learning and the support needed to enact ambitious teaching practices.

Clarify

Shift the language to focus on specific purposes and uses we want to support, for example,

* Get better information to support instruction in early reading.

* Support deeper learning

* Evaluate program effectiveness

Identify the constraints and parameters for solution

* Testing time

* Costs

Criteria

* Describe the characteristics and features of a successful outcome

* For example, a balanced assessment system will be aligned to the adopted curriculum

* Provide instructional useful feedback after each unit.

* Support comparability across and within years

* Provide annual estimates of academic growth

* Include sources of evidence that success criteria will be achieved

Each of the presentations was accompanied by a panel with interactions and with the audience, we were asked to identify ourselves, I identified myself as a “Teacher Union Thug,” accompanied by a few audience chuckles, a room full of state and school district staffers, I think I got their attention.

A thought provoking few days, sign up for their frequent free newsletters, (nciea.org)

Is there a teaching gene? For another day.