Take-Aways: My biggest take-away is that CCSD Balanced Assessment Document. I think this is really powerful in making sure that we are using appropriate assessments at my school site and using them for their intended purpose.

Impact: I think using that document and providing learning opportunities for staff on the intended purpose of assessments will really help them start to understand the importance of grading being a true reflection on what students know about a subject.

Implementation: The next step that I want to take is sharing CCSD's Balanced Assessment Document. I want to make sure that staff at my school site can understand what assessments we have available, what type of assessment that they are, and the purpose behind those assessments.

Challenges: The biggest challenge as a strategist is getting teachers to understand the purpose of each assessment which goes hand in hand with grading because we need the grading to reflect the purpose and accurately communicate student progress.

Take-Aways: My biggest take-away from the course was the power of effective feedback and I feel like this relates to homework. The true purpose of homework is to provide extra practice with skills but in order for this to be effective there must be feedback given and goals set. In the past I haven't done more than reward homework completion with praise/dojo points and I have missed out on the opportunity for feedback.

Impact: My impact is a strategist is being able to provide homework options for parents with feedback and support that is focused on specific reading deficiencies.

Implementation: While I have resource folders available for parents I need to make sure that I am doing a better job at communicating with parents that these are available and providing feedback/goal setting to make these effective.

Challenges: As a strategist it's making sure that all teachers at my school site understand this too. I always hear in RTI meetings that students struggle because they don't do their homework, but we have to consider what we can control-which isn't homework. Teachers are ultimately responsible for learning!

Take-Aways: This was my biggest take away from the entire course. The strong impact that feedback can have on student achievement. Hearing the evidence presented in this course on the power of feedback really has me examining how I can get this word out to my school staff effectively!!

Impact: The impact of effective feedback is the power that grading should have in effective communication. We must be using grades on assessments to communicate to students their current understandings based on criteria, helping them understand how to get to higher levels of mastery, and then providing them the tools to do that. Grades should be used to communicate with students their learning.

Implementation: The next step that I want to take is to bring up this notion again and again during PLC's as we do data dives. I want to make sure that teachers really understand the power of using rubrics and going over these rubrics with students in providing feedback. As a staff we have also discussed during our next Staff Development Day including specific PD on learning intentions and success criteria.

Challenges: This biggest challenge I see in the elementary level is shifting that mindset that grades are for parents. While that is one purpose of grades we really need to make sure that students understand their grades...which means understanding where their current levels of mastery are and what steps to take for greater mastery.

Take-Aways: My takeaway is that as a school site we need to work together to brainstorm procedures for re-dos and retakes so that it is manageable for teachers (and also taking place as it should!).

Impact: We need to make sure that re-dos and re-takes are happening appropriately at my school site because without this we are not allowing students to build their understandings throughout the year and this being reflected in their grade. Instead we are communicating that their learning is done when a test happens which does not build lifelong learning.

Implementation: I have not begun to implement anything towards this. What I need to do as a next step is put this on our Building Leadership Team agenda to discuss.

Challenges: The biggest challenge is figuring out a system to allow for re-dos and retakes that don't affect Tier 1 pacing or are overburdensome for teachers. This is where we really need to brainstorm as a staff and have clear procedures in place.