I’m beginning to wonder if some of the more critical “21st Century Skills” that we need to foster in our kids and in ourselves include the ability to assess and effectively respond to the stress created by some of these realities….what would you add?

• Overwhelming choice and opportunity–because we are bombarded by options, whether it is brands of ketchup on a supermarket shelf or numbers of channels and networks to engage in or bountiful learning experiences that are free and open to our constant participation. Stress isn’t always distress. We need to manage eustress as well and help our kids do the same.
• Noise levels–increased by the scale and reach of our social networks on the ground and online, the constant stream of conversation and chatter
• Interpersonal tension–naturally aggravated by the fact that we are connected to more people more often whose behavior we cannot control
• Setting and recognizing boundaries–saying yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no and respecting the boundaries set by others online and off
• Acting courageously–the choices we are called upon to make in order to protect our privacy, set boundaries, manage noise, get along with others, ensure the quality of our work, and capitalize on the many opportunities provided us requires us to act with courage more and more often. Grappling with the fear of acting courageously can be pretty stressful.
• Defining who we are, what we love to do, and how we can possibly make a difference—again, with so many options and possibilities now open to us, doing this important work becomes far more complex
• Knowing who we aren’t, what makes us unhappy, and what our limits are–I’m realizing that those same options and possibilities illuminate these dimensions of ourselves with greater frequency. We need to help ourselves and our kids understand that this is a good thing. It can help us prioritize and make strategic choices.
• Sharing and giving rather than owning and taking.
• Constantly seeking understanding and being increasingly critical consumers. This requires a tremendous amount of energy and generates significant stress.

Unfortunately, this is much of what the internet has to offer when I go looking for resources or conversation about rubrics. Quite a few people have created quite a few lousy rubrics and used them in quite a few lousy ways. This has perpetuated more than a few misperceptions and a whole bunch of bad practice. It’s also inspired a bunch of criticism, pieces of which I agree with. Poorly designed rubrics are often used for the wrong purposes, and when this happens, many can be hurt. It frustrates me when people decide that rubrics are everything from useless to evil based on misinformation, though.

So, hats off to my friend Jennifer Borgioli at Learner Centered Initiatives for creating what may very well be the best of what the web has to offer relevant to rubric design and use. I hope you will bookmark this wiki and share it with those you know.

If all of the professional development initiatives teachers have been a part of, all of the learning community work they’ve participated in, and every formative assessment they’ve “given” students inside of classrooms was heavily motivated by a thirst for improved student performance on tests of any kind…..what will happen now that this vision has been realized?

Yeah.

I’m thinking it’s hard to sustain teacher and student learning when all learning becomes about performance.

Also, I’m wondering what happens when the test disappears? Where does our confidence come from then? How will everyone measure success?

A few weeks ago, I was listening to an interview relevant to the recession. The speaker was discussing the long term effects of the state we are in—the fact that incredibly competent people have lost jobs that they will not be able to return to in five or ten years. Not because jobs in their field won’t be there (although some certainly may not be)….but because they will no longer have the capacity to do the work that they were once so incredibly skilled at, because they’ve been away from it for far too long.

This is my fear for those teachers who are working hard to do what is right for their students. Those teachers who are driven by test scores, mandated to march carefully through textbooks and manuals, and judged by whether or not they completed the district required workshop on something they don’t have value for. We aren’t simply silencing and disrespecting them. We are crippling them, and we’re crippling ourselves and students in the process.

Honoring people where they are at, embracing slow change, and allowing teachers and students to lead the way isn’t merely about “garnering buy in” or making people “feel” valuable so we can get them to follow our agenda. It’s about having enough intellectual humility to realize that maybe we don’t have all of the answers and maybe the most meaningful answers aren’t simply about student performance. Maybe they’re also about capitalizing on our collective and very distinct expertise for the good of all. Maybe they’re also about nurturing and sustaining teacher capacity….and enthusiasm…..and morale. Doing business this way might mean that people aren’t going to agree with us. It might mean that they move slower than we would like them to down paths we didn’t carve for them. But when we’re gone? They’ll know how to drive and they’ll know where they are going. Not because someone told them, but because they were trusted and truly valued.

Ironically, I’m wondering if this might have a positive influence on performance in the long run…….

One of the striking trends was around the use of multiple models. Teachers who allowed students to read and explore a rich variety of writing models before asking students to produce their own work noticed similar things:

• Students created pieces that were of higher quality
• Students were better able to create unique pieces of writing and less inclined to merely mimic the models
• Students were engaged in their work
• Students were able to provide feedback to their peers that was criteria-specific, varied, and anchored in their experiences as readers
• Students returned to the models without prompting during the process, as a means of studying writer’s craft
• Teachers found that teaching in this way required more time, resulting in fewer but higher quality products

The majority of teachers who did not use multiple models questioned the effect of modeling on student performance as writers. In their experience, when students were provided their single models, the work produced was closely reflective of the model. These teachers wondered if modeling inhibited risk-taking and the creation of unique products and simply inspired copying. All food for thought. What are your experiences with this? What have you learned about modeling, relevant to writing instruction?

The realizations below guided much of that thinking. Next week, I’ll share some of the findings from the work I’ve been able to do with teachers and students in a variety of schools and settings.

• Formative assessment is a practice that immediately informs teachers about each student’s progress toward clear learning targets.

• In order for formative assessment to provide meaningful information, it’s important to align the type of assessment we give to the selected learning targets.

• Formative assessment happens during instruction.

• Beginning this work inside of classrooms, using practices and tools that teachers and students currently value could help to establish the fact that ownership lies with them, not inside of district offices, with coaches, or with staff developers. As teachers begin to participate in inquiry relevant to improving student learning, the evidence they gather can begin to guide their decision-making. In my experience, this helps alignment happen in a natural and meaningful way that connects with past practice while improving future practice.

• When teachers capture data during instruction, this enables them to speak to students’ strengths and struggles as learners with a far greater level of specificity than other measures might allow. Using tools like checklists, annotated records, rubrics, transcripts, conference logs, and documented feedback empowers teachers and learners to notice, reflect upon, and document trends that can be responded to immediately and shared in a variety of other settings.

• Formative assessment should provide a level of information that has not been previously captured by state assessments, benchmarks, or other measures.

• Formative assessment that works improves teacher practice and student learning in ways that engage and empower them. It does not add to the “testing mess” or the stress and confusion stirred up in the wake of it. In fact, it inspires the understanding that assessment and testing are two different things.

• When assessment is working, the power is not in a tool or a test. It lies within teachers and students. They use their expertise to define goals collaboratively, identify learning targets, establish the criteria for what quality work might look like or achieve, and most importantly….study the effects of their efforts and intervene appropriately. This work not only improves practice–it enriches their expertise as well.

How do your current assessment practices align to the vision you began to articulate here?

If you were a parent approaching a conversation with your child’s teacher, which discussion would be most informative to you?

A. A discussion prompted by the results of an assessment recently given by your district or your state

OR

B. A discussion prompted by the teacher’s assessment of your child’s gifts and needs as a learner, shaped by evidence captured during instruction and practice

Constructed Response:

Please share your vision of what powerful, informative assessment accomplishes for students.

First, it’s my understanding that assessment encompasses far more than testing. It’s also my understanding that formative assessment (common or no) is a PROCESS, not a test. To that end, teachers might use a variety of tools to capture their assessment of learning during guided practice, but unless the assessment IMMEDIATELY informs instruction (as in–within moments or days–not weeks or months) the assessment is not really formative in nature. It’s something else. And maybe that something else is a super nifty shiny sparkly wonderful thing, I don’t know. What I do know is that it is definitely NOT a formative assessment of any kind.

Maybe you know this already. Maybe this doesn’t interest you. I’ll tell you why it interests me: when the formative assessment wave crashed upon the shores of Western New York, a lot of people (myself included) were led to believe that this type of assessment was something to be “built” and administered at benchmark points during a school year and then collaboratively scored. This is what many of us started doing, and it didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t getting any of us where we wanted to go. I’ve known this was the wrong approach for over two years now, and I’ve been pretty vocal about that locally. This doesn’t seem to be changing much in the way of practice, though. It’s also made some people really uncomfortable. There is something to be learned about bleeding for your country there, and I’m trying not to pay attention. The fact is that my own daughters continue to bring home benchmark tests that are called formative assessments fairly regularly. At least this year, these “formative assessments” don’t have grades on them. They don’t have any feedback on them either, but hey–at least my relentless questioning accomplished something. Maybe. Last week, this post by Seth Godin really got under my skin in a good way. Sometimes, I feel like my life is an endless example of the phenomena he illustrates there. The formative assessment scramble that we’re experiencing locally connects well, I believe.

Once the train has left the station (and it always leaves rapidly, I’ve learned), it’s hard to turn it around. There is a lesson to be learned about slow change in all of that, particularly for those of us who put these trains in motion. There is also a lesson to be learned about questioning “best practices” and standing up for what we know may be right rather than simply doing what we are told because someone who seems scary has told us to do those things. Nine  times out of ten, these people never intended to intimidate or dictate to anyone. We all have a job to do. Many folks are pressured to do it better and faster than anyone else.

Desperate people long for answers, and some of them tend to make messiahs out of mere men and women. Particularly charismatic men and women. Doing the sort of work we do can be a real ego boost in the beginning. Leading workshops and initiatives and being appreciated can make you feel like you are doing great things. This is deceptive and potentially destructive, though. Over the years, I’ve learned that having people like me is irrelevant. Many people do (particularly people who have walked the same path), and I’m grateful for that. But change is very difficult, and if everyone is thrilled to death with me, I find myself wondering if we’re really accomplishing anything meaningful after all.  I’m also realizing that all of us have a responsibility to help one another do our work well–even if that means respectfully disagreeing with powerful people. There are lessons to be learned about what makes someone truly powerful in these sorts of situations, though. I’m learning that too.

I’m glad to be working in a number of schools this year that are working hard to approach formative assessment in ways that truly serve students and empower teachers to change practice. I’ll be blogging about what this is looking like for us and what we’re discovering in the week ahead. I’m eager for your feedback and your perspective. In the meantime, I’m off to the New York State PTA conference in Saratoga Springs this weekend. I’ve been invited to talk with parents and educators about assessment, ironically. I’m looking forward to the conversations that will take place there. I imagine they might be very different, given this unique audience! Please drop in if you plan to attend.

Thanks to all of you who are helping me learn and grow in the work that I do. This is not easy stuff.

Students Who Demonstrated the Greatest Growth as Writers:

• Were provided clear learning targets as writers and were pursuing meaningful essential questions
• Worked with teachers to develop criteria-specific rubrics, which were used as learning tools
• Explored multiple models and authentic texts prior to beginning work
• Invested substantial time in pre-writing
• Watched their teachers think and write aloud
• Engaged in collaborative writing during guided practice throughout the process
• Learned and drafted in “chunks” rather than tackling the entire piece from start to finish
• Engaged in one-on-one conferencing and were provided criteria-specific feedback during drafting
• Completed more than two drafts of their writing
• Were reflective and evaluative of their own process and craft
• Had teachers who captured formative assessment data during guided practice via checklist, rubric, or annotation
• Had teachers who modified their instructional approaches in response to these findings
• Expressed satisfaction with their own work and with the level of support provided to them by their teachers before, during, and after writing

Teachers of Students Who Demonstrated the Most Growth as Writers:

• Shared artifacts that demonstrated consistently high levels of reflective practice.
• Made positive expressions about their efficacy as teachers and their students’ efficacy as learners and writers.
• Were also able to draw correlations between specific instruction or assessment practices and improvement in specific elements of writing process or craft.