Standards-Based Assessment
As I wrap up this 2022-23 school year, I need to record my thoughts on assessment and my plans to improve my current method of tracking what students know and can do. I feel done with the point-chasing system. The points mean nothing in terms of telling someone exactly what a student is able to do. I am done checking homework for points and giving ‘credit’ in the gradebook for something that is more likely than not copied. I want students to track their own learning progression and see for themselves what they know, where they are, where they are going, and what they need to focus on. I am weary of staying after school for students to frantically complete ‘test revisions’ to earn half their lost points back, because again, students want to do the least amount of work possible, and the ones who really need the revisions the most are the ones most likely to try coping someone else’s work. I cannot tell you how many time I have had to separate students during test revisions because they kept trying to just pass tests around or find people who got a certain problem right so they could copy it. They aren’t concerned with actually understanding the process. This doesn’t feel right and it’s a waste of my time and my students’ time.
I want to find a way to assess them that is fair, accurate, and realistic. I am unsure of how students will respond to a standards-based grading. Peter said is best on page 283:
“From system theory we know that when we try to change a stable system, the system will defend itself. If one feature is changed, the system will rush to repair the damage. When that system is a classroom, these defenses look like resisting, complaining, and apathy.”
Additionally, I am unsure of how parents and administrators will respond. I do know that our school is in support of a “modern classroom” professional development course that several teachers at my school are taking and implementing this upcoming school year. The modern classroom uses a mastery method of assessment, basically standards-based grading, so I am hopeful that there will be support for this new method of grading students.
I feel Standards Based Grading is now the only choice with A.I. entering our everyday world - students can cheat on basically everything now. All answers to any question are out there already. I need a way to truly see what a student can do in the moment without crutches and aids.
Here are my current Navigation Instruments that I used this past year. I called them ‘roadmaps.’ I am going to greatly improve on them and use them as a building block to help students take ownership of their learning and track their understanding of subtopics.
Here are some passages from Peter Liljedahl’s book Building Thinking Classrooms that stand out to me and that I want to remember:
Page 269: In regards to using roadmap navigation instruments to keep track of how students are doing - “You could color code your data such that one color is used for test and quiz data, one for observations, et cetera. The second method is to split each cell into two rows and record test and quiz data on one row and all the other forms of data on the other.”
Page 265: In regards to taking navigation instruments and turning them into a grade at the end of a grading period - “With all this assigning of points you may be wondering if we are back in the point-gathering paradigm. The answer is no. There is no gathering of points here. There is only an analysis of data, the results of which are recorded as points only at a time mandated for reporting out. Until that time, the data lives as data.
Page 263: In regards to how much is enough - “It turned out that tipping point is two consecutive demonstrations of attainment. That is, two positive data points were sufficient to match with teachers’ subjective assessments of a student provided the two positive data points were consecutive… A ‘check’ and ‘x’ may mean more data is needed.”
Page 270: In regards to what counts as ‘enough’ with observations - “It is up to you whether to count data gathered in groups as equivalent to data gathered individually. Most teachers would view success in a group followed by success individually as equivalent to consecutive individual success. However, if you have a positive group performance followed by an unsuccessful individual performance, there is a strong indicator that more data are needed before you can say, with certainty, that individual attainment has been achieved.”
Page 270: In regards to a new way of grading - “This means you might not grade every item on a test. If, by the time a test is taken, a particular student only needs to show you evidence of being able to do the advanced types of questions, then those are the only ones you need to grade. Indeed, that student should know these are the data you are looking for and may choose to only do those questions. As mentioned, a test is no longer an aggregated event, but a convenient venue for gathering data on a variety of outcomes at a variety of complexity levels… a collection of opportunities for students to evidence their learning.”
Page 277: In regards to test taking - “Organize your tests so that all basic questions are on the first page, etc. Let students pick which page of a test they need to do.”
Page 248: In regards to how to use a navigation instrument, for self-assessing after a review test or self-assessing check-your-understanding problems - “When we first developed this navigation instrument, we used it exclusively to self-assess after the review test at the end of a unit of study. Such a use tells students what they can and cannot do and highlights which outcomes and complexity levels they have encountered that they have yet to demonstrate attainment of. When they navigation instrument is used to self-assess check-your-understanding questions, it does so throughout the whole unit of study. In addition to showing students their attainment of outcomes and complexity levels, this way of using the navigation instrument can also show growth over time. So, a student who could not do outcome X the first time they encountered it in a check-your-understanding question can see, over time, how they are now able to do basic questions, intermediate questions, and eventually advanced questions for this outcome.”