Formative+Assessment+and+Standards-Based+Grading

=**Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading**=
 * by Robert Marzano**
 * Clearer reporting tool than grades
 * Implication…better for the students…know targets, goals, how to get there
 * Where has this worked…and what does the research say?
 * Connections…how to get there…looking for links
 * Deficits can be hidden by a grade?
 * K-5 vs. middle school experience?
 * Like the clarity of the targets at younger level
 * Practicality (from teacher point of view)…provides framework to be doable by teachers

=High School Discussion:= "One fact that must be kept in mind in any discussion of assessment--formative or otherwise--is that all assessments are imprecise to one degree or another. This is explicit in a fundamental equation of classical test theory that can be represented as follows: Observed score = true score + error score" (13).
 * Grades are truly imprecise, and I feel what I'm doing now isn't necessarily precise.
 * There is always going to be "wish-washy-ness."
 * For a long time, I didn't feel the assessments I developed were good because I was thinking of them as tests... Once I began thinking of them as assessments, I felt better about them. I like the idea of looking at different ways to grade kids. I do a lot more than just tests, which gave kids a vehicle for showing what they know.
 * The reliability for standardized text is .85 because of the error built into the testing process; the average reliability of teacher is .45. That is amazing!
 * Breaking down into areas in math and sciene makes it easier to for formative assessment.
 * It shouldn't matter what class my son is sitting in; teachers should have inter-rater reliability.
 * As a special education teacher, I see a lot of assessment strategies, and some are really good and some leave me scratching my head.

"While this system seems like good practice, without giving teachers guidance and support on how to collect and interpret the assessment data with which scores like advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic are assigned, standards-based reporting can be highly inaccurate. Indeed, at the writing of this book, no major study... has demonstrated that simply grading in a standards-based manner enhances student achievement. ... [A] fairly strong case can be made that student achievment will be positively affected if standards-based reporting is rooted in a clear-cut system of formative assessments" (18).
 * Clearly, it's important that we be very thoughtful about why we would move to standards-based grading and reporting out and how we would do it (in a way that is good for students); otherwise we might as well continue doing what we're doing.
 * This makes me very nervous that people will grade traditionally, and people will just change letter grades into standards grades. We shouldn't just change what we do to fulfill this need.
 * Teachers need help in designing a system around the skills so that it's not random.
 * I am concerned about teachers lowering standards to meet criteria.
 * People could take it as a negative.
 * We need good professional development so people are able to move in this direction.
 * When we change, there is always confusion so we need to understand it how standards-based grading and reporting works.
 * We need to make it relevant to students.
 * A lot of it seems like its how you feel the students are doing; it should be based on how the teacher feels... like the idea of a large number of formative assessments.
 * I've been using standards-based grading in elemenaty for 15 years, and it took a while to get used to it and not just falling back on changing the numbers and then averaging the grades.

"Unobtrusive assessments are most easily applied to content that is procedural, or content that involves learning a skill, strategy, or process..." (25).
 * Unobtrusive assessments aren't in my gradebook, but they should be....
 * I agree that doing it for skills is the easiest and the fairest... you can look over their shoulder and see if they're on the right track.
 * Again, it's so easy in math classrooms.... quick check in today... it helps inform instruction... what have I already done and what do i need to continue to work on.
 * The science example ("during independent work in the laboratory, a science teacher notes that a particular student is not following the correct procedure for combining chemicals safely") bothered me because it shouldn't be an unobtrusive example.
 * How am I going to be able to put it out on Infinite Campus? I am worried about justifying a grade on an unobtrusive assessment to students and parents.
 * I have a class participation section, but I'm looking at this type of thing all the time.

"In this book, we take strong exception to that perspective for one major reason: as summative score should not be derived from a single final assessment. Rather, a summative score should be the most reasonable representation of a student's final status at a particular point in time. All available information about a student should be used in the determination of his or her final status--his or her summative score" (27).
 * Totally gone are the days of averaging... We need to be looking at whether the child is gaining skills over the process of the year.
 * How can Infinite Campus be adjusted to reflect this practice?
 * This makes sense if the earlier assessments cover the same material as the end ones, but my class isn't structured this way.
 * Ignore the early 60... otherwise it punishes kids.
 * We will need a lot of professional development to move in this direction.

"The inconsistent patters of item weighting do not just exist between teachers, though; they exist between assessments designed by a single teacher as well... Because there is not reflection of the level of difficulty of each assessment or between assessments, tracking student progress over time using formative scores become difficult if not impossible" (41).
 * I struggle with this when I give a vocabulary quiz; 6 words versus 14 versus essay... they all show up in the grade book with a grade, but how should each be weighted?


 * You identfy what essential learnings are, and you show what you demonstrate.
 * Subjective nature of averaging vs. using assessments to track a student... faults of the assessments.
 * Some times you hit it and sometimes you don't.
 * Looking at it differently... how honestly is the assessment truly aligned to standards or learning outcomes?
 * If people are building courses on text books as opposed to on standards, there is really a question about the effectiveness of assessments. Unfortunately, a lot of curriculum is guided by text books.
 * There are greater ranges when using a 4-point scale.
 * The importance needs be placed on what we trying to assess when we're actually assessing.
 * It is really important to have consistency in assessments because people get off on their own path.
 * Windham Middle schools uses language instead of numbers because people's brains are too trained to go to averaging.

"To make scales more useful to students, they should be written in student-friendly language. This should be done in cooperation with students" (45).
 * This feels like we are losing complete control... why don't we just have students come up with skill and standards... Will students come up with levels of difficultly?
 * This speaks to the essence of successful standards-based grading... a team of teachers should come up with standards... taking them and translating them in language that they'll [students] will understand.
 * On my board, I have 1-4 on my board and ask students to evaluate themselves.
 * We need to rewrite our rubrics to be student friendly. Our school wide rubrics are not written in student friendly terms.
 * Again, we will need staff development to do this successfully.
 * This sounds like great idea... students should be helping make it student friendly.
 * If they [students] don't understand the language, then we need to make that more friendly, but the teacher sets the standard.
 * We have to have kids in on it so they understand it.

"Table 4.9 Uneven Pattern of ResponsesIn table 4.9, the student has answered all of the score 3.0 items correctly or with high partial credit. This indicates a score of 2.5 (if a half-point scale is being used) or a score of 2.67 (if a scale with one-third intervals is being used). However, the student has incorrectly answered two of the five score 2.0 items. Logically, such a patter should not occur. Unfortunately, in the real world of classroom assessment, such patters do occur. They occur in the world of state testing and standardized testing as well. Among test publishers, a pattern like this is referred to as an 'aberrant pattern'" (67).
 * I see this, and it's frustrating when kids really struggle to recall a peice of knowledge and they get the harder ones right, which involve training kids.
 * We need to train ourselves to look at what we're assessing and how we're assessing it...
 * The state had to throw out a response because a question was written poorly; we should do this too.
 * A number of assessments that go with a unit... it would be nice to have guidance with standards that are broken down...
 * I have kids in the abberrant patter all the time... they blow past the easy ones and focus on, what they consider, to be the more challenging ones.
 * I have them revisit in stead of writing the right answers... they they make the effort to get them right. In a standards-based system, you can revisit and revisit and one test is not the end all.
 * Again, we need a lot of professional help or development to do this well.

"The teacher has little option but to collect more information from the student when uneven patters of scores occur. This might take the form of asking the student what she believes she deserves. If the student says she deserves a 3.0, the teacher would invite her to suggest a student-generated assessment to verify the score 3.0 status. Alternatively, the teacher might engage her in a probing discussion to determine her true status" (83).
 * This seems really hard to mesh the midde sentence with what happens in my math class.
 * It's hard for me to see students coming up with assessment.
 * I agree with the idea... more info. is better but how it works is a challenge...
 * Capture the magic of teaching in knowing where students are and the tools you have... standards doesn't do away with real magic of teaching
 * If a student thinks they know more, it's hard to sit down and conference to get a feel to know they've reached the level they think.
 * It might have to do with the number of students you have....easier in a smaller class.
 * It's really easy... parents need to see all the evidence in numerous ways over numerous opportunities.
 * I could see it becoming a slippery slope where kids are bargaining grades.

"In a standards-referenced system, a student's achievement is reported (or referenced) in relationship to his or her position on the scales for specific learning goals. However, even if the students does not achieve a specific score on the scales for those goals, the students till moves on to new learning goals the next year when he or she has matriculated to a new grade level. In a standards-based system, students do not move on to a new level of content until they have mastered the content at their current level" (112).
 * We need to say to the students, "This is where you need to be or this is where you need to be."
 * At the middle school, we don't retain kids... standards kids really need to know or understand before we move on.
 * If you don't address this issue, we'll be pushing the problems on to the next level in the system.
 * It certainly makes the classroom a wide range of ages, but the ability range should be about the same.
 * I don't know if we serve the kids well by putting them in another situation where they're bound to fail.
 * But we kind of do this now when a kid passes with a 70 but doesn't truly understand the material; they go on to the next class and struggle because they passed the previous grade without understanding what they need to.
 * We needed greater contact k-12.
 * I can agree with the philosophy but see issues with logistics.
 * I have students in pre-cal who don't know how to graph a line... we spent 20 minutes working on graphing a line... they should be way beyond that, but they aren't.

**Middle Level Discussion / Highlights:**
Chapter 1 "the importance of knowledge and use of formative assessment is critical. The chapter provides an excellent description of this and how / why is it so important for staff and student understanding." "equally important is the understanding of the different types of grading, how imprecise the 100-pt scale really is, in addition to the notion of standard error of measure that is built in within any assessment. This relates to the danger of holding any one assessment with major weight for the determination of the degree to which a student can demonstrate proficiency within a content area or with a progression of skills." "standards-referenced vs. standards-based! most all systems are standards-referenced not standards-based. How many times do we //__require__// a student to demonstrate proficiency to specific standards before they progress on to more advanced levels of learning / assessment?" "knowing what effective feedback is and how to provide it...and all means of delivery...is a skill all teachers should know and be able to use with impact." "what are the uses of grading? Who is the audience?" "be clear and clarify standards - state and national...both too broad to provide clarity for learning goals; "if there aren't clear policies related to grading, grade will mean different things to different people; "many questions still exist... * when students are getting attention, does this lead to better learning?; what about the 'endless cycle' of evaluating learning / designing formative assessments?; importance of specific goals and general goals...what impact does this have re grouping of students?; by themselves, national and state standards are not good proxies for learning progressions; what about the importance of class rank with college admissions?; using standards by themselves ... no major study indicating that these enhance student achievement; "how can we create more focus upon the learning process and less on the specific grade?; "how can we move away from this traditional model, especially when you want to **//reward//** some students for their work (effort?)?; "a single-score system isn't compatible with standards-based grading - the **//average//** grade isn't the true measure of what the student knows and can do; "when you ask students in what area they want to improve, their answers lend themselves to a pattern that students want to work within a formative assesment framework; "grading is a professional judgment, not an exercise in math; "possible paradigm shift: instead of giving a grade for an assignment, focus assessment on for example "listening", "writing", - the standard; "**what's next?** - common conversation around grading - purpose? process? How do we shift slowly, but surely? (process)
 * ranking (for sorting students into those eligible for higher education and those not eligible)
 * reporting results (accounting to parents the degree to which students learned the lessons prescribed to them)
 * contributing to learning (providing feedback and motivating students)

Chapter 2 "definition of formative assessment - p. 22; "how is looking at all of the formative assessments to get final status any different than now? **(Good question for conversation)** "increase understanding of types of assessment "increase understanding of use of assessment "sometimes formative and summative assessment can be the same...it all depends upon timing (and use); "summative scores should not be derived from a single summative assessment. Also, the summative score should not be an average of formative scores because learning takes place during each assessment ...or if all assessments measure different things (standards); "instructional feedback doesn't record a score; "concern/question: book seems to not recognize the complexities of the classroom and heterogenous abilities that would require a great deal of time for lesson planning...grouping? student motivation? "what happens with students who 'get it' sooner than others? (what happens now?) "needs 'buy in' by students to work (how can this be framed and maintained)?; "grades on assessments...for teachers or for students?; "how do you use instructional feedback?; "what does summative score say to teacher? Mastery? Independent understanding?
 * obtrusive
 * unobtrusive (can see purpose for both obtrusive and unobtrusive)
 * student-generated
 * formative scores
 * summative scores
 * instructional feedback