Assessment and the

Iowa Core Curriculum

Ideas about what to do right now

Learning Goals for this session

• Participants will understand the major components of an assessment system.

• Participants will understand reasons to focus on the classroom level of assessment.

• Participants will recognize that a thorough understanding of the Essential Concepts and Skills is a prerequisite to development of assessments aligned with the Iowa Core Curriculum.

What do we know?

• People are asking what they need to do with assessment relative to the Iowa Core

• Iowa Core content hasn’t talked a lot about assessment issues yet

• None of these have changed:– Chapter 12 rules related to assessment– The big ideas of good assessment– Our need to know what kids know & can do

What don’t we know?

• We don’t know the impact of National Standards on implementation of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

• We don’t know what changes may happen with Chapter 12 over time.

What IS going on?

• Iowa End-of-Course Assessments available• ITBS/ITED is up for revision/renorming (2011?)• Iowa is developing Assessment For Learning

professional development resources• Assessment Advisory

Group has providedrecommendations tothe DE (not yet released)

What is NOT going on?

• As far as anyone knows:– There is no comprehensive test being designed to

assess all essential concepts and skills of the Iowa Core Curriculum

– There is no secret plan to abolish Chapter 12 assessment requirements

– There are no plans to abandon the Iowa Tests– There is no evidence of a new high-stakes

assessment tied to graduation requirements

What else have you heard?

• Talk with your neighbors…• Be prepared to share

Iowa’s Assessment System

Accountability for the State; uses sampling, every other year

Accountability for the State; uses sampling, every other year

Accountability for Districts & Schools for Chapter 12 & NCLB (ITBS/ITED)

Accountability for Districts & Schools for Chapter 12 & NCLB (ITBS/ITED)

Accountability for Schools & Classrooms; supports instructional planning

Accountability for Schools & Classrooms; supports instructional planning

Ongoing assessment to guide instruction at classroom & student level

Ongoing assessment to guide instruction at classroom & student level

Big ideas in assessment

• The curriculum is important• All of your kids are important• It is important to know to what extent each of

your kids are learning and mastering the whole curriculum

• Your assessment system needs to give you this information in a consistent, trustworthy way

• No single assessment will do this for you• Compromises are inevitable

Assessment and the Three Bears• Large grain for national & state assessments• Smaller grain for district assessments• Fine grain for classroom assessment• ITBS too big for guiding daily instruction• Can’t assess everything for large-scale testing• Find the “just right” size for each purpose

Purposes of Assessment

• Screening• Diagnostic• Formative– Assessment for learning (instruction-embedded)– General Outcome (progress monitoring)

• Summative/Outcome

Where to work first?

• Given the ideas in the last few slides, where are we the weakest right now? Where should LEAs be focusing their efforts?

• Talk at your table.

Think about it…

LessControl

More Control

LessControl

More Control

Point to ponder

• In order to build or buy new assessments,we must first thoroughly understand the Essential Concepts and Skills we plan to measure

• If we don’t understand the ICC, we’ll end up building or buying assessments that don’t measure the right stuff or do it poorly.

• Vendor claims of alignment should not be trusted – they should be tested

Assessing the Core

ECS Reading (paraphrased) How to test?

Independently read text from a variety of genres

Read for a variety of purposes

Use strategies to comprehend nonfiction

Use strategies to comprehend fiction

Read fluently to support comprehension

Use strategies to understand vocabulary

???

???

ITBS/ITED?

ITBS/ITED?

ITBS/ITED?

DIBELS?

Assessment for Learning

• Research suggests quality classroom formative assessment practices will make a big difference in outcomes for students

• Formative Assessment is a process used by teachers and students as part of instruction that provides feedback to adjustongoing teaching and learning toimprove students’ achievementof core content.

Assessment for Learning

• Lives inside of “characteristics of effective instruction” content (Outcome 6)

• Assessment for Learning is embedded and inseparable from instruction

• Includes both planned and on-the-fly assessment opportunities

• Cannot happen effectivelywithout a strong understandingof the content

Iowa Core CurriculumDetermine learning

goals&

Define criteria for success

Formative Assessment Misconceptions

• Formative assessment is a thing (a test or quiz)• I already “do” formative assessment because I:– watch kids to see if they understand– give a pretest at the beginning of a unit– use data to make decisions about what to teach

• The XYZ assessment is formative. Itsays so right here!

• It’s too hard for the common teacherto do

What can we do now?

• FIRST… Help all educators develop a deep understanding of the essential concepts and skills of the Iowa Core Curriculum

• THEN… Begin to study best practicesin formative assessment.

• But remember, if you don’t knowthe content, you can’t teach it. If you don’t teach it, don’t assess it.

To worry or not to worry…

No worries:• New assessment

requirements• Buy a new test NOW• Train teachers in

formativeassessment ASAP

• Redo the entireassessment system

Worry about this:• Thoroughly understand

the Essential Concepts and Skills

The bottom line

All educators need a deep and thorough understanding of the Essential Concepts and Skills of the Iowa Core Curriculum across grades.