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TED TALK - Providing Students with Multiple Assessment Formats

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December 2009/January 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 4
Health and Learning Pages 86-87

Robert J. Marzano

The strategy of tracking student progress on specific learning goals is well supported. For example, Fuchs and Fuchs found that providing teachers with graphic displays of students' scores on formative assessments was associated with a 26 percentile point gain in achievement. Unfortunately, this strategy has not received the attention it deserves.

When students track their own progress on assessments using graphic displays, the gains are even higher. Over my many years of working with teachers, I have had the opportunity to examine the effects of such an approach. In 14 different studies, teachers had students in one class track their progress on assessments; in a second class, these teachers taught the same content for the same length of time without having students track their progress (see www.marzanoresearch.com/research/strategy20_trackingprogress.aspx). On average, the practice of having students track their own progress was associated with a 32 percentile point gain in their achievement.

In the studies, students recorded their scores on a chart after taking each assessment. Figure 1 shows how a student tracked her progress on the topic of habitats using her scores on four different assessments. Using a rubric with a rating scale of 0 to 4 to score the assessments, this student began with a score of 1.5 on the first assessment and ended with a score of 3.5 on the fourth assessment.

Figure 1. Student Progress Chart

This approach provides two kinds of information for students and teachers. First, the rubric provides a description of the levels of performance that the teacher expects of the students. Second, the graph provides a representation of each student's progression of learning. The combination of these two types of information produces the powerful effect.

What Produces the Best Results?

Given the expected 32 percentile point gain, one might assume that this strategy is a sure thing in terms of enhancing student achievement. As is often the case, however, the details of the studies clarify the circumstances under which the strategy produces strong, as opposed to mediocre, results.

Address a single goal in all the assessments. To track student progress in the manner depicted in Figure 1, all assessments must address the same learning goal. For example, assume that a teacher has two learning goals that relate to the topic of habitats. One learning goal might be, "The student will understand that habitats provide plants and animals with the things they need to survive." A second learning goal for this same topic might be, "The student will understand how a local habitat of his or her choice supports specific local animals." The assessments should clearly differentiate between these two goals. One assessment can address both goals, but only if the teacher assigns two scores to the assessment-one for each learning goal.

Use rubrics instead of points. Across the 14 studies, teachers obtained the best results when they scored assessments using a rubric instead of points. Teachers typically assign a certain number of points to each answer on a test and then convert the total points to a percentage score. When teachers use this approach, they tend to change the type and difficulty of items from test to test, even when those tests measure the same topic. The first test might include all easy items, but the second test might include all difficult items. Consequently, a student might receive fewer points on the second test even though he now knows more than he did when he took the first test. A graph of his test scores would make it look as though he had decreased in knowledge when he had actually gained in knowledge. In fact, in the two studies that didnot show positive effects for students tracking their own progress, the teachers used points instead of rubric scores.
A rubric I have found useful involves five values, 0 through 4, with the score of 3 meaning the learner has mastered the content that is the target of instruction-the specific learning goal that the teacher wishes to assess and track. The teacher would state the learning goal in a form that describes what he or she expects students to do to demonstrate their understanding: "Students will explain and illustrate how habitats provide plants and animals with the things they need to survive."
A score of 4 indicates that students have mastered score 3 content and can also use that content to make inferences. For example, to earn a score of 4 on the habitat learning goal, students might be required to explain what would happen if the number of animals that the habitat typically supported increased dramatically over a short period of time. A score of 2 indicates that students know simple details and processes that relate to the learning goal (score 3 content) but not the more complex information and processes that the learning goal involves. In this case, a score of 2 might indicate that students recognize some basic facts and terminology associated with habitats even though they cannot explain and illustrate how habitats provide plants and animals with the things they need to survive. A score of 1 indicates that students cannot produce any of the content on their own but can do so with some help from the teacher. Finally, a score of 0 indicates that even with help, students cannot produce any of the content.

Use different types of assessments. The paper-and-pencil test is only one of many options that teachers can use with rubrics. Other types of assessments include demonstrations, probing discussions, unobtrusive observations, and student-generated assessments.
A well-constructed rubric allows for a relatively accurate measure of a student's level of understanding through both a demonstration, in which students demonstrate their skill at a procedure or their understanding of information, and a probing discussion, in which the teacher asks individual students to explain their understanding.
Unobtrusive observations involve a teacher observing a student demonstrating a procedure without the student being aware of the observation. For example, a physical education teacher might observe a student demonstrating the overhand throw on the playground. If the teacher has designed an appropriate rubric for this process, he or she can assign a score to the student without interrupting the student's play.
Finally, student-generated assessments are those that students have designed to demonstrate that they have met the requirements of a specific score on a rubric. For example, to show that she has attained score 3 status, a mathematics student might decide to explain how to solve a specific type of problem and demonstrate her explanation using selected problems from the end of a chapter in the textbook.

Benefits for All

When it comes to using classroom assessment to enhance student achievement, having students track their progress using rubrics is a hidden gem. This strategy involves multiple types of assessments, increases interactions between teachers and students, and provides students with clear guidance on how to enhance their learning.

Endnote

Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1986). Effects of systematic formative evaluation: A metaanalysis. Exceptional Children, 53(3), 199-208.

Robert J. Marzano is Cofounder and CEO of Marzano Research Laboratory in Denver, Colorado. He is the author ofThe Art and Science of Teaching (ASCD, 2007) and coauthor, with Mark W. Haystead, of Making Standards Useful in the Classroom (ASCD, 2008). To contact Marzano or participate in a study regarding a specific instructional strategy, visit www.marzanoresearch.com.

KEYWORDS

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When Students Track Their Progress - Educational Leadership

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December 2009/January 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 4 Health and Learning Pages 86-87 Robert J. Marzano The strategy of tracking student progress on specific learning goals is well supported. For example, Fuchs and Fuchs found that providing teachers with graphic displays of students' scores on formative assessments was associated with a 26 percentile point gain in achievement.

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Personalized Learning - Henry County Schools

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Personalized Learning: Enabling Voice and Choice Through Projects

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While the whole video is worth watching, you can spot watch the first 5 minutes.

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How World of Warcraft Saved Me and My Education-: Erik Martin at TEDxRedmond

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We've all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.

Practitioner's Guide to Next Gen Learning

Ownership. Freedom. Respect. Trust. Courage. Souls on Fire. Find out what student agency is and why it's so important to education today.

Student agency is one of the reasons why next gen learning looks and feels different from traditional instructional practices.

Despite the best of intentions, whole group instruction that is teacher-centered or curriculum-centered tends to ignore the agency of individual students to own their learning and direct their own path through it. When student agency is embraced, the instructional model shifts to a student-centered learning model.

For educators, the shift can be messy, uncomfortable, and hard. As a parent, I get it because I struggle with honoring the agency of my kids as I parent them. I wholeheartedly want my children to be agents of their own lives, growing into adults who are empowered to question the world and confident in their ability to change it for the better. But today, I just want them to put on their shoes so we can get to school on time, to wear sneakers instead of flip flops because it's cold outside, and to do it in the next three minutes! Under the pressure to get out the door, I ignore what choices they want to make now and what they will need to learn to do for themselves as they grow up.

The shift to embracing student agency is messy, uncomfortable, and hard, but the payoff is priceless. The guest experts in December's #NGLCchat on Student Agency-Grace Belfiore, Dave Lash, Andrew Miller, Casey Montigney, and Michele Savage-have the passion and commitment and strength and expertise to recognize the agency within students, enabling them to be agents of their own learning today and their own success tomorrow. In this post, I'll share what they and the other chat participants taught me about what student agency is, why it's so important, and how it can be promoted and supported in the classroom.

Why Student Agency Is So Important

Why are we talking about Student Agency? Because agency underpins the whole broader, deeper range of MyWays competencies needed for student success. And today's students NEED the skills to be lifelong learners:

Harvard professor Roland Barth has observed that in the 1950s when young people left high school they typically knew about 75% of what they would need to know to be successful in life. Today, he predicts that young people know about 2% of what they will need to know. (Barth, R.S. (1997, March 5). The leader as learner. Education Week, 16(23). 56.) This shift is not because young people are learning less than previous generations. In fact, there is good evidence that they know much more. The force behind this change is the rapid and ever-increasing pace of change, the complexity of the world in which we live and the unpredictability of what people will need to know in the coming decades-the future for which we are preparing today's learners.

Understanding Student Agency

Student agency is a bold concept, demonstrated by the words #NGLCchat participants used to describe what student agency requires and how it is exhibited:

But student agency is more complex than what is captured in a collection of related words.

Ownership & Persistence: Agency is present when students take charge of who, what, where, why, and when they learn. This includes choice, self-awareness, self-management, social relationships, responsible decisions, time management, organization, and self-regulation on the way to a long-term, personalized goal.

Agency also requires resilience, tenacity, and grit. It involves persistence to tackle challenges, to use failure along the way to success, and to embrace curiosity, creativity, and innovation as essential as breathing.

Students exhibit agency when they persevere, not just feeling in control but having the skills and tools to persist when challenged. We don't give young people enough credit for their ability to take on significant challenges, and facing challenges may be a necessary prerequisite for becoming strong adults.

A Student's Perspective: What conversation about student agency is complete without asking students what they think? One thread during the chat looked to the EdSurge article by Davidson College student Andrew Rikard who defines agency as recognizing the responsibility to take action in a world that needs makers and creators. He also said that agency isn't something you give or take, it's collaborative. It is a two-way street, part of a school's culture. Armaan Ismail, a student at Incubator School, started another thread of conversation when he joined the chat, this one about freedom:

Empowerment, not Learned Helplessness: Another thread during the chat focused on how children recognize their agency in relation to their environment. Agency is being in control of what happens around us, where we can influence events. And that starts with children believing that they can actually change or reshape their environment through their actions. When the environment is unpredictable, turbulent, and non-responsive to a child's actions, the child learns that they have little or no effect on the environment and are, in fact, powerless. A poor environment leads to learned helplessness in place of agency.

In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough describes how adverse childhood experiences create a hostile environment for students. Our schools exacerbate this when they teach compliance and prioritize getting the one right answer, both of which produce learned helplessness. To avoid learned helplessness, we need learning environments that empower students. When students are empowered, they can take an active role in their life path.

To sum up all of these ideas about agency, I like the imagery and impact of the MyWays definition of student agency that Grace Belfiore shared: " A deep and durable self in charge of one's learning and development."

How often do we think of ourselves as deep and durable and in charge? How wonderful would it be to have a generation of deep and durable and in charge citizen-learners in our midst?

Promoting Student Agency

This list includes strategies that guest experts and other participants shared as a way to describe what student agency looks like in the classroom and how schools can honor and encourage agency in the learning process, helping students learn not only that they can influence the world around them but also develop the tools and skills to do so.

Reflection. Students reflect on their learning, make connections to their prior learning, and engage in ongoing conversation through writing and dialogue.

Transparency. Students need to know where they are to know where to go.

Scaffolded and thoughtful teacher prep. Agency looks and sounds different for every student, and prepared teachers can more effectively release control to students.

Teacher modeling. Students need the support of their school leaders so teachers and administrators need to self-monitor as well.

Self-direction. Students are empowered to work on their own or collaboratively on assignments and projects at their own pace. They engage in learning strategically without waiting to be directed.

Choice. More than providing a menu of options, choice provides students with control leading tolower stress and more capable students.

Growth. Students work in their zone of proximal development, at exactly their level, all day every day. There's a school-wide growth mindset.

Real roles. Agency lives when students take on the role of inventor, artist, scientist, scholar. Agency increases when we provide broader and deeper student experiences. Historically, this was more often found in extracurriculars than in the classroom. Today, classrooms may provide whole game learning opportunities.

Many thanks to everyone who provided these insights and resources including, but not limited to, the #NGLCchat guest experts!

Grace Belfiore, Researcher and author, lead developer of MyWays project

Dave Lash, Researcher and author, lead developer of MyWays project

Andrew Miller, Consultant with Buck Institute and ASCD

Casey Montigney, Teacher at Medill-Shue Middle School, member of the Carnegie Foundation's Student Agency Improvement Community

Michele Savage, Principal of Medill-Shue Middle School, member of the Carnegie Foundation's Student Agency Improvement Community

Kristen Vogt

Knowledge Officer, NGLC

Kristen Vogt, knowledge management officer for NGLC, focuses on identifying lessons, strategies and outcomes from NGLC grantee projects and making them available to a wider audience.

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How Next Gen Learning Can Support Student Agency | NGLC

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We've all had the experience of truly purposeful, authentic learning and know how valuable it is. Educators are taking the best of what we know about learning, student support, effective instruction, and interpersonal skill-building to completely reimagine schools so that students experience that kind of purposeful learning all day, every day.

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Solution Tree: Rick DuFour on Groups vs. Teams

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Visit us at http://www.solution-tree.com Richard DuFour highlights the difference between a group and a team, using Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan as examples of members of respective groups and teams. He explains the how collaboration is essential for highly functioning teams. http://solution-tree.com

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In many of my presentations and work sessions I discuss the importance of teaching as a "team sport' and the critical role of collegiality in teaching. Often if I ask participants to assess the current degree of team, I'll get a comment like this:

Our department is a strong team. We are always sharing.

Or

We plan collaboratively each week.

While sharing is a great start for building relationships that can lead to teaming, it is far from the shared responsibility of a real team.

Here is how one website defines sharing
... to have or use something at the same time as someone else: ...to divide food, money, goods, etc. and give part of it to someone else: ....If two or more people share an activity, they each do some of it: .... If two or more people or things share a feeling, quality, or experience, they both or all have the same feeling, quality, or experience: ...... to tell someone else about your thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc.:
Contrast that to this definition of a team ....
A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members (1) operate with a high degree of interdependence, (2) share authority and responsibility for self-management, (3) are accountable for the collective performance, and (4) work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s). A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.
"TEAMWORK: the fuel that allows common people attain uncommon results."
-Andrew Carnegie

When a grade level group is sharing, they identify common resources and strategies for the delivery of a unit of study. They may create common lesson plans and assessments. But, teachers are individually responsible for the execution of the plan and the results.

When a teacher shares concerns about a struggling student, colleagues offer up ideas for working with the student. They share past successes they have had with a particular strategy. But, the teacher with the concern can choose whether or not to use any of the strategies and is under no commitment to report back to the group on progress.

If this was a grade level TEAM, plans being designed together need to be successful, executed in each classroom and members are available to assist each other in making that happen. They hold each other accountable. Student assessment results will be examined by team members and the results belong to the team.

School leaders need to consider how they build teams into the work of a school. A middle school principal interviews teachers for team positions. She stresses that the opening in her school is teaching math on a 7 th grade team where you are assuming responsibility for math, English, science, social studies and more for 100 students. She adds that you are on a math department team where you are accountable for math success for all students grades 6-8, across the school. In addition, each teacher is on a school wide team addressing a whole school concern like wellness or community service.

What would be the impact of a high school principal meeting with the math department and asking them to study the most remedial math students at each grade level? He requests a department plan for increasing the success of these students. He returns frequently examining student assessments with the department and encouraging their teamwork. Teachers instructing these students are representing the department in the delivery of the plan. All department members might spend some time instructing in these classes to understand student needs. The TEAM is responsible.

Our students deserve a TEAM.

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In many of my presentations and work sessions I discuss the importance of teaching as a "team sport' and the critical role of collegiality in teaching. Often if I ask participants to assess the current degree of team, I'll get a comment like this: Our department is a strong team.

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by Terry Heick
For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today.
Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are 'intellectually active' places. Progressive learning(like our 21st Century Model, for example) environments. Highly-effective and conducive to student-centered learning.

But what does that mean?

The reality is, there is no single answer because teaching and learning are awkward to consider as single events or individual 'things.' This is all a bunch of rhetoric until we put on our white coats and study it under a microscope, at which point abstractions like curiosity, authenticity, self-knowledge, and affection will be hard to pin down.

So we put together one take on the characteristics of a highly effective classroom. They can act as a kind of criteria to measure your own against-see if you notice a pattern.

10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment
1. The students ask the questions-good questions
This is not a feel-good implication, but really crucial for the whole learning process to work.

The role of curiosity has been studied (and perhaps under-studied and under-appreciated), but suffice to say that if a learner enters any learning activity with little to no natural curiosity, prospects for meaningful interaction with texts, media, and specific tasks are bleak. (Interested in how to kill learner curiosity in 12 easy steps?)
2. Questions are valued over answers 3. Ideas come from a divergent sources
Many teachers force students to ask questions at the outset of units or lessons, often to no avail. Cliché questions that reflect little understanding of the content can discourage teachers from 'allowing' them. But the fact remains-if students can't ask great questions-even as young as elementary school-something, somewhere is unplugged.
4. A variety of learning models are used 5. Classroom learning 'empties' into a connected community
Questions are more important than answers. So it makes sense that if good questions should lead the learning, there would be value placed on these questions. And that means adding currency whenever possible-grades (questions as assessment!), credit (give them points-they love points), creative curation (writing as a kind of graffiti on large post-it pages on the classroom walls), or simply praise and honest respect. See if you don't notice a change.

Ideas for lessons, reading, tests, and projects-the fiber of formal learning-should come from a variety of sources. If they all come from narrow slivers of resources, you're at risk of being pulled way off in one direction (that may or may not be good). An alternative? Consider sources like professional and cultural mentors, the community, content experts outside of education, and even the students themselves. Huge shift in credibility.
6. Learning is personalized by a variety of criteria
And when these sources disagree with one another, use that as an endlessly 'teachable moment,' because that's what the real world is like.
7. Assessment is persistent, authentic, transparent, and never punitive
Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, direct instruction, peer-to-peer learning, school-to-school, eLearning, Mobile learning, the flipped classroom, and on and on-the possibilities are endless. Chances are, none are incredible enough to suit every bit of content, curriculum, and learner diversity in your classroom. A characteristic of a highly-effective classroom, then, is diversity here, which also has the side-effect of improving your long-term capacity as an educator.
8. Criteria for success is balanced and transparent. 9. Learning habits are constantly modeled
In a highly-effective learning environment, learning doesn't need to be radically repackaged to make sense in the 'real world,' but starts and ends there.
10. There are constant opportunities for practice
As great as it sounds for learners to reflect on Shakespeare to better understand their Uncle Eddie-and they might-depending on that kind of radical transfer to happen entirely in the minds of the learners by design may not be the best idea. Plan on this kind of transfer from the beginning.
10 Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment
It has to leave the classroom because they do.

Personalized learning is likely the future, but for now, the onus for routing students is almost entirely on the shoulders of the classroom teacher. This makes personalization-and even consistent differentiation-a challenge. One response is to personalize learning-to whatever extent you plan for-by a variety of criteria-not just assessment results or reading level, but interest, readiness-for-content, and others as well.

Then, as you adjust pace, entry points, and rigor accordingly, you'll have a better chance of having uncovered what the learners truly 'need.'

Assessment is just an (often ham-fisted) attempt to get at what a learner understands. The more infrequent, clinical, murky, or threatening it is, the more you're going to separate the 'good students' from the 'good thinkers.' And the 'clinical' idea has less to do with the format of the test, and more to do with the tone and emotion of the classroom in general. Why are students being tested? What's in it for them, and their future opportunities to improve?

And feedback is quick even when the 'grading' may not be.

Students should not have to guess what 'success' in a highly-effective classroom looks like. It should also not be entirely weighted on 'participation,' assessment results, attitude, or other individual factors, but rather meaningfully melted into a cohesive framework that makes sense-not to you, your colleagues, or the expert book on your shelf, but the students themselves.

Cognitive, meta-cognitive, and behavioral 'good stuff' is constantly modeled. Curiosity, persistence, flexibility, priority, creativity, collaboration, revision, and even the classic Habits of Mind are all great places to start. So often what students learn from those around them is less directly didactic, and more indirect and observational.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Old thinking is revisited. Old errors are reflected on. Complex ideas are re-approached from new angles. Divergent concepts are contrasted. Bloom's taxonomy is constantly traveled up and down, from the simple to the complex in an effort to maximize a student's opportunities to learn-and demonstrate understanding-of content.

For professional development around this or related ideas in education, contact us.

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The Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment

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by Terry Heick For in-person professional development from TeachThought on how to create an effective learning environment in your classroom or school, contact us today. Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are 'intellectually active' places. Progressive learning(like our 21st Century Model , for example) environments.

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Dr. Heidi Andrade, Ed.D. Reflects on Self- and Peer Assessment

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Flexible Seating Elevates Student Engagement

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Breaking up rows of desks fosters collaboration and empowers kids to think about how they work best.

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Step 1

Select one resources (or set) to read, watch & explore. Avoid overlapping exploration.

Step 2

SELECT or CREATE one (1) statement that represents your biggest "aha" from the resource(s) you explored.

Graffiti WRITE your phrase or statement on your chart paper at your table. (15 minutes)

Step 3

In 2 minutes or less, each person will take turns sharing the resources they explored & the connections made to personalized learning.

Write words or phrases that stand out - your takeaways from what your group members are sharing.

Step 4

Build consensus based on small group conversations. CIRCLE the EIGHT (8) most important words on your poster.

Step 5
Use the eight words you circled to come up with a vision statement for personalized learning.