Designing Common Assessments

1
Designing Common Assessments

• A Presentation at the ASCD Annual Conference
• March 19, 2007

2

• Richard Delmoro Director of Secondary
  Education, Middletown (NY) City School District
  rdelmoro_at_ecsdny.org
• Douglas Harris Director, The Center for
  Curriculum Renewal dharrisnga_at_aol.com

3
Middletown City School District

• Focus on Standards and Student Performance

4
Overview of Middletown City School District
5
Changes in District Leadership
6
Systems Approach to Standards-Based Learning
7
Systems Planning Role of CCR

• Development of Model for Learning Focus on
  Instructional Practice
• Alignment of Scope and Sequence
• Developing a Comprehensive Assessment Plan
• Leadership Coaching and Development
• Building Data Systems and Analysis Protocols
• Support fo District Leadership and Board

8
Key Strategies

• Program Audits
• Alignment of Curriculum with Standards
• Research-based Instructional Strategies as Focus
  for Supervision and Evaluation
• Student Level Accountability
• Aligned Classroom Assessment
• Common Assessments
• State Assessments

9
Purposes of Quarterly Assessments

• Align instruction with standards
• Define curriculum priorities and pacing
• Utilize common language related to
  standards-based learning
• Provide data for collaborative decision-making

10
Key Early Decisions

• Quarterly Assessment 20 of grade
• Definition of assessing special needs populations
• Connectins to style, level of difficulty, scoring
  of state assessments

11
Development of Common Assessments

• Define Purpose
• Identify Fair Game
• Complete Balance of Representation
• Develop Assessment Blueprint
• Select or Develop Items
• Develop the Assessment
• Administer and Score
• Set Cut Scores

12
Review of Quarterly Assessments

• Review the Assessments You Have Been Given
  Science 8 and Chemistry
• What Do You Observe in Terms of the Items?
• What Do You Observe in Terms of the Assessments
  Overall Design?
• Having Reviewed the Assessments, What Questions
  Do You Have?

13
Item Analysis

• Sampling
• Frequency
• p-Values

14
Review the Item Analysis for the Chemistry
Quarterly

• What Do You Notice About the Results?
• What Questions Do the Data Raise?
• Given These Results, What Next Steps Would You
  Consider?

15
Challenges of Implementation
16
Impact on District to Date

• Accountability
• Focus
• Alignment
• Pacing
• Data-Driven Decision-Making

17
Next Steps
18
Questions and Discussion
19
For a Copy of this Power Point Go To

• www.curriculumrenewal.org