Session 4 Blog

FLaRE Professional DevelopmentCompetency Three: Foundations of Assessment

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Florida K-12 Reading EndorsementFlorida K-12 Reading EndorsementCompetency ThreeCompetency Three

Foundations of AssessmentFoundations of Assessment

Sessions Four Sessions Four

Foundations and Applications of Differentiating Instruction:Competencies Four and Five

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OutcomesKnowledge

Participants will be able to:– Explain the role of assessment in planning fluency,

phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction to meet student learning needs.

– Identify fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension assessment techniques appropriate for diagnosing and monitoring reading progress.

– Identify characteristics and uses of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests.

SkillsParticipants will be able to:– Use data to differentiate fluency, phonics, phonemic

awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction and match students with appropriate curricular materials.

– Analyze data to identify trends that indicate adequate progress in student reading development.


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For data analysis techniques to be valuable to educators, the techniques must enhance the chance that educators gain

insight into student performance and that they translate this insight into

improved educational experiences for children.

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BEFORE STANDARDS:

Teachers taught what they thought was important.

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AFTER STANDARDS:

Teachers are expected to teach the content standards.


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DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING

Data-driven decision making is using data that are gathered on a regular basis (and additional information as needed) to inform planning, decision making and evaluation and reporting activities.

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“D3” IS LIKE DRIVING A CAR• The instruments on the

dashboard help guide the decisions we make.– The speedometer monitors

our speed so we can avoid a speeding ticket.

– The fuel gauge indicates when we are low on gas.

– The turn signal tells those around us what direction we are going.

Arien Van der Ploeg,NCREL,20006


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AVOIDING “D3”

•Data Driven Decision-making makes it seem as if you can take the data and make a decision.

•“D3” should mean Data Driven Discussions. Create a forum and culture for examining and talking about data.

•It’s about student needs and instructional planning. 7


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“Without data, you are just another person

with an opinion.”

Boeing Aircraft Company

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TEACHERS USING DATA

1.Evaluate student progress2.Define the problems and

needs3.Select improvement

strategies and academic goals

4.Initiate change9


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HOW DO WE START?

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Establish Goals

• Where do we want to go?

Make Comparisons

• Where are we now?• Where were we before?• Are there others like us who are ahead of us?

Learn

• What have we learned?• What does the research say?• What do “best practices” suggest ?


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TYPES OF STUDENT ASSESSMENT ANDRELEVANT QUESTIONS

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Feedback Relevant Question Type of Assessment

Daily Are students learningit?

Classroom assignments

Weekly Did students learn it?

Classroom Unit Tests

Every 9 weeks How are studentsperforming in general?

Student Report Cards, FAIR

As needed What are studentsinstructional strengthsand needs?

Diagnostic Assessments (DAR)

Annually Are students meetingstate standards andbenchmarks?

FCAT/SAT10Alternative Assessment


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WHY DO WE ASSESS STUDENT LEARNING?

•Diagnose learning problems•Improve instruction•Be accountable•Know if we are achieving our standards•Assess individual or group achievement•Make sure students “do not fall through

the cracks”•Make decisions about instruction,

curriculum or educational programs12


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WHERE TO START WITH DATA?

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•Create a system for organizing data reports that increases the effectiveness of their use.

•Delineate the necessary and provide options for other appropriate sources of data.-Individual Data binders for teachers

-Coach’s Data binders with school data


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When you change the way you look at things, the things

you look at change.”

Wayne Dwyer14


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CYCLE OF INQUIRY

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Academic Focus

InquiryQuestion

Measurable Goals

Major Strategies

Actions

DataAnalysis


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ACADEMIC FOCUS

While making progress towards efficacy for all students, more

needs to be done to sufficiently close achievement gap.

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MEASURABLE GOALS

•Meet or exceed goals in all areas

•Increase student achievement

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MAJOR STRATEGIES

•Continue focus of data driven teacher practice and student achievement in literacy

•Align professional development with classroom and School Improvement Plan

•Increase number of classroom visits by Literacy Coach

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ACTIONS

•Assessments•Conduct meetings•Professional Development•Before and After-school Programs

•Tutoring Programs

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DATA ANALYSIS

•Continue focus on language development, fluency and comprehension

•Focus on a particular group of students

•Continue use of assessment

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What have we learned from the places that are

improving?

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•No excuses: Everybody takes responsibility for student learning

•Student performance isn’t blamed on kids and their families.

•Embrace state standards and assessments as benchmarks

•Clear and specific goals

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Who’s to BlameThe college professor said:

“Such rawness in a student is a shame; lack of preparation in high school is to blame.”

Said the high school teacher: “Good heavens! That boy’s a fool. The fault, of course, is with the middle school.”

The middle school teacher said: “From stupidity may I be spared. They sent him in so unprepared.”

The primary teacher huffed: “Kindergarten blockheads all. They call that preparation” Why, it’s worse than none

at all.”The kindergarten teacher said:

“Such lack of training never did I see. What kind of woman must that mother be.”The mother said:

“Poor helpless child. He’s not to blame. His father’s people were all the same.”Said the father at the end of the line:

“ I doubt the rascal’s even mine.”


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DATA CONVERSATIONS

•Look for patterns!•Similar patterns in past years?•Are trends moving toward our goals?

•Does the data surprise you?•Are there other data that show similar patterns?

•Use Data Chats form 24


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Involve Students

•Thinking about my reading performance…


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Brainstorm Carousel

• Static • Dynamic• Formal• Informal


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Types of Assessment

Static (summative) assessment• Static assessment refers to measuring the student’s

individual performance to assess actual development or what the student has already learned. Static assessments have established procedures for their administration and interpretation. The consistent procedures are necessary for reliability in supporting validity of quantitative information.

Dynamic (formative) assessment• Dynamic assessment refers to measuring the

student’s assisted performance during collaboration to assess potential development or what the student is in the process of learning. Dynamic assessments provide information on the amount and type of help students need to perform a task.

L. Dixon-Krauss, 1996 Vygotsky in the Classroom: Mediated Literacy Instruction and Assessment


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Types of Assessment

Formal assessment• Formal tests may be standardized. They are designed

to be given according to a standard set of circumstances, they have time limits, and they have sets of directions which are to be followed exactly.

Informal assessment• Informal tests generally do not have a set of standard

directions—they have a great degree of flexibility in how they are administered. They are constructed by teachers and have unknown validity and reliability.


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Principles of Effective Literacy Assessment

Principles of Effective Literacy Assessment for Grades

K-12 in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension should:• be reliable and valid.• be done on an ongoing basis to monitor progress.• be an integral part of instruction.• inform instruction.• identify students’ strengths and needs.• be based on what we know about how students

learn to read and write.• reflect changing academic demands as students

move up through the grades and encounter higher-level comprehension and study skills.

• be a blueprint for instruction, not an end in itself.


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The Role of Assessment

Assessment may guide decisions about:• Students

– Screening of students– Diagnosis of students’ strengths and needs– Placement of students– Monitoring of students’ progress– Student outcomes– Class progress

• Teachers – Planning for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,

vocabulary, and comprehension instruction– Selecting appropriate materials to promote phonemic

awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension– Meeting students’ needs based on strengths– Developing Individual Professional Development Plans (IPDP)

• School progress• School districts


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Keep in mind that everything students do and say can be assessment information if we use it to guide our teaching.


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Why So Much Emphasis onReading and Assessment?

In order to partially answer this question, we need to revisitthe scope of the reading problems in America. Here are some crucial indicators:• “Overall, national longitudinal studies show that more than 17.5 percent

of the nation's children—about 10 million children—will encounter reading problems in the crucial first three years of their schooling.”

~ National Reading Panel Progress Report, 1999, Introduction

• Approximately 75% of students identified with reading problems in the third grade are still reading disabled in the 9th grade.

~ S. E. Shaywitz, et al. 1992Distribution and temporal stability of dyslexia in an epidemiological sample of 414 children followed longitudinally

New England Journal of Medicine, 326, 145-150.~ D. J. Francis, et al. 1996

Developmental Lag versus Deficit Models of Reading Disability: A Longitudinal, Individual Growth Curves Analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 1, 3-17

• In a sample of 54 students, Juel found the probability of being a poor reader in fourth grade given you were a poor reader in first grade was 88%.

~ C. Juel, 1988Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of Fifty-four Children from First through Fourth Grades

Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437-447

• Students in the bottom 25% of the reading continuum have a trajectory of progress that diverges early from their peers who have learned to read successfully.

~ Big Ideas in Beginning Reading, 2004


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Why So Much Emphasis onReading and Assessment?

• Schools are facing a period of rising enrollments after a long period of decline.

• Many more disabled students, particularly those with learning disabilities, are receiving special services.

• Many more students speak a language other than English at home and have difficulty speaking English, a likely indication that even more students may have difficulty reading and writing in English.

• Many children live in poverty (21% or 15.3 million), and these children typically live in neighborhoods and attend school together.

• The fastest growing demographic group in the country from 1980 to 1990 was the prison population, which increased 139% with recent rates estimated at 300%. There were 1,000,000 people in prison in 1994, twice that of just ten years before. The US has the highest prison population in the world.

~ H. L. Hodgkinson, 1992

A Demographic Look at Tomorrow

• The illiteracy rate among current US prisoners is 86%.• The rising level of students scoring at Level 1 and 2 on FCAT.

FLaRE Professional DevelopmentCompetency Three: Foundations of Assessment

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Follow Up – Session 4

• Read Assessing Reading Fluency by Tim Rasinski.

• Find one statement in the article that best defines fluency.

Session 4 Blog

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