Balanced Assessment

in the Classroom

Balanced Assessment

Learning Objectives will answer the following essential questions:

•What is balanced assessment?•Why is balanced assessment necessary?•What is the difference between

Formative and Summative Assessments?

Assessments have various purposes, provide answers to different questions, address different users, and have varying implications for an assessment system.

What is a balanced assessment system?

“A balanced assessment system is a set of interacting assessments focused on serving the needs of

different consumers of assessment information for the common

purpose of improving education.”-Pearson

Why is Balanced Assessment important?

A balanced assessment system is important to determine if a student is benefitting from the instruction and what changes might be needed to enhance his or her education.

A balanced assessment system helps answer these four questions:

▫What do we expect all students to be able to know and do?

▫How do we know if students are meeting the expectations?

▫What do we do if students are not meeting expectations?

▫What do we do if students exceed expectations?

◦ (DuFour, 1998)

Balanced Assessment

Types of Assessment:Formative

andSummative

Formative Assessment

What is Formative Assessment?

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievements of intended instructional outcomes. (FAST SCASS, October 2006)

Formative Assessment•occurs moment-to-moment as part of

instruction• is used frequently by teachers and students

and is embedded in the current unit of instruction

•are small scale, short cycle assessments given in the classroom to diagnose where students are in their learning

ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING--Stiggins, Arter, Chauppuis and Chauppuis, 2006

Uses of Formative Assessment

•Guide student learning on a daily basis by providing information about what critical skills were and were not learned

•Provide extra learning opportunities to students who are struggling academically

•Report student progress to students, parents, and other educators

The Formative Assessment Process

What It Is… What It Isn’t…

A planned process Unplanned

Based on assessment evidence Individual strategies

Using evidence to make instructional adjustments and/or

verifying learningMoving on regardless of student

evidence

Reflective feedback for students Grading

Formative Assessment Process

ETS, 2009

Formative and summative assessment are interconnected.

The vast majority of genuine formative assessment is informal, with interactive and timely feedback and response.

It is widely argued that formative assessment has the greatest impact on learning and achievement.

School Improvement•Assessment for learning, when done well,

is one of the most powerful, high-leverage strategies for improving student learning that we know of. Educators collectively become more skilled and focused at assessing, disaggregating, and using student achievement as a tool for ongoing improvement.

Michael Fullan

AssessmentFORMATIVE is for

learningTaken at varying intervals to provide information and feedback that will help improve

▫ the quality of student learning

▫ the quality of the instruction

SUMMATIVE

is an assessment of learning

Taken by students at the end of a unit or semester to demonstrate the "sum" of what they have or have not learned.

Must be reliable, valid, and free of bias

Forms of Summative Assessment

Performance AssessmentPortfolio

Traditional Tests

Summative AssessmentEvaluates student learning at the end of an

instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Examples:Performance Assessment

final projectsenior recital

Portfolioa research paper

Traditional Testsmid-term/final exam

Formative Assessment Techniques and Tools

Exit passExtended wait timeFind the errors and fix themGenerating test itemsGroup-based end-of-topic questionsGroup-based test prepHand signalsHot-seat questioningJournal entryIf you did know what would you say?If you don’t know, I’ll come back to youIf you have learned it, help someone who hasn’tIndex card summaries/questionsI-you-we checklists

Learning logsLearning portfoliosMini white boardsObservationOne sentence summaryOne word summaryOral questioning and interviewsPopsicle sticksPractice PresentationsQuestionnairesSelf/peer assessmentRanking exemplarsThink-pair-shareTwo stars and a wishWhat did we learn today?

Rick Stiggins

“If we wish to maximize student achievement in the U.S., we must pay greater attention to the improvement of classroom assessment. Both assessment of learning and assessment for learning are essential. But one is currently in place, and the other is not.”