Mike McKay

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Assessment Literacy BUILDING CAPACITY
KnowingDoingLeading
Mike McKay June 2011
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Assessment Literacy The Leaders Role in
Changing Practice

• Reframing the narrative and reclaiming the high
  ground
• Acknowledging where we are
• Identifying where we want to be
• Planning to get from here to there

With thanks to Rick Stiggins, Ruth Sutton and
other passionate leaders helping us to do the
work of changing assessment practices to support
student learning
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity

Mike McKay June 2011
3
Leadership 101 Our Self-Assessment Guide

• Attributes of successful people and organizations

• Brutally honest in self-assessment
• Develop a reasonable plan
• Relentless follow through
• (from McREL)

How does your learning environment hold up to
these standards?
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Our Context Leadership Focus and Guiding Truths

• 5 Guiding Truths
• Students First
• Results Matter
• Count What Counts
• We Are All Responsible
• Do Whats Right

• Is our sacred trust (every child, every chance,
  every day)
• important enough to change current norms?

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Foundational Values and Beliefs for our
Leadership Work

• There are no throw-away kids and no throw-away
  schools
• The overwhelming majority of the adults in our
  system come to work wanting to do the best job
  they can do
• We need to work smarter together rather than
  harder alone
• Skill and Will are not fixed assets. They
  can be influenced and increased by strategic
  action
• Each school is in a different place in its
  development, level of success and sense of
  efficacy.

Leadership is about taking the school from where
it is to where it needs to be.
Table Talk Where is your sweet spot for action
in these value statements?
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
6
Dynamic Tensions and the Leaders Brain
Values
Results
Pressure
Ingenuity
Compliance
Support
Opportunities
Rules
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Simple truth about learning

• Cramming more content per minute or
• moving from one piece of learning to the next
• virtually guarantees that little will be learned
  or retained
• Eric Jensen Teaching with the Brain in Mind

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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The Learner is Ready for the World Today and
Tomorrow WhenFrom Tony Wagner The Global
Achievement Gap

• We develop students 21stcentury skills by
  revolutionizing the curriculum into something
  that is interdisciplinary, integrated,
  project-based so that students engage in
  authentic experiences with
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Collaboration across Networks and Leading by
  Influence
• Agility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
• Effective Oral and Written Communication
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
• Curiosity and Imagination
• Table Talk How many of our classrooms achieve
  this on a daily basis? How do our current
  assessment practices support development of these
  skills?

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Where Do Todays Assessment Practices Take Us?

• We train the factory workers of tomorrow. Our
  graduates are very good at following
  instructions. And we teach the power of
  consumption as an aid for social approval
• or
• We teach people to take initiative and become
  remarkable artists, to question the status quo,
  and to interact with transparency. And our
  graduates understand that consumption is not the
  answer to social problems.
• Seth Godin, Linchpin

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Assessment for Achievement

• Provides descriptive feedback.
• 2. Engages children in their own learning
• Provides children with opportunities for
  self- assessment and feedback for improvement.
• Informs and guides instruction.
• 5. Is sensitive to effects on childrens
  self-esteem and motivation.
• Rick Stiggins

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Assessment 2 Different Purposes

• Assessment for learning
• Suggests next learning
• Audience is teachers and learners
• Continual conversation and marking
• Specific feedback, using words
• Self-referenced, progress over time
• Must involve the learner
• the person most able to improve learning

• Assessment of learning
• Checks learning to date
• Audience beyond the classroom
• Periodic
• Uses numbers, scores and grades
• Criterion/standards referenced
• No need to involve the learner

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Distinct Differences
Assessment OF
Assessment FOR
Measuring
Learning
Public/Parents
Students
Descriptive
Symbols (A,B,etc)
Daily
Event
Coach
Judge
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Letter Grades as Feedback

• NOT Timely often very removed from learning
  experience
• NOT Specific numbers or letters that provide no
  useful information to the learner
• NOT Understood students are not able to express
  what the letter grade reflects about their
  learning
• Does NOT Allow for Student Self Adjustment
• usually summative/final no opportunity for
  redos

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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How far have we come? Many students dont
survive old assessment practices as well as
Winston Churchill did.
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Formative Assessment Descriptive Feedback
(Coaching)

• These four criteria are key to quality feedback
  (assessment for learning)
• 1. Timely
• 2. Specific
• 3. Understood by student
• 4. Able to be acted upon by the student

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Transforming Assessment in a Winnipeg
School From Ruth Sutton

• Teacher is clear about purpose and task
• Teacher knows how to State, share and show
  learning expectations
• Teacher designs and explains the enabling
  tasks
• Teacher and students develop criteria
• Students check their work, while the task is in
  progress
• Students say whats OK and whats not
• Students identify a next step
• Students continue, or correct work so far
• Students reflect periodically on what theyve
  learned, and how they learned it
• Students present learning and achievement to an
  audience

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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When We Get It Right! (from Rick Stiggins)

• 1. We understand the relationship between
  assessment and student motivation and use
  assessment to build student confidence rather
  than failure and defeat.
• 2. We articulate to our students, in advance of
  teaching, the achievement standards they are to
  achieve.
• 3. We inform our students regularly, in terms
  they understand, about those achievement
  standards, by sharing the criteria and samples of
  high-quality work.
• 4. Our students can describe what standards they
  are to hit and what comes next in their learning.
  

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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When We Get It Right! (contd) (from Rick
Stiggins)
5. We transform these learning standards into
dependable assessments that yield accurate
information. 6. We consistently use school
assessment information to revise and guide
teaching and learning. 7. Our feedback to
students is frequent, descriptive, constructive,
and immediate, helping students know how to plan
and improve. 8. Our students are actively,
consistently, and effectively involved in
assessment, including learning to manage their
own learning through the skills of
self-assessment. 9. Our students actively,
consistently, and effectively communicate with
others about their achievement status and
improvement. Table Talk Where can we build from
current successes to consistent, high reliability
assessment norms?
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Assessment for Learning A dramatic shift in
long-established norms

• Six Key Elements
• Learning Intentions how clear are we in planning
  and sharing?
• Criteria what does good look like (and why)?
• Descriptive Feedback intended to guide, not to
  reward/punish.
• Questions Do our questions promote curiosity,
  risk taking, growth?
• Self and Peer Assessment engaging students in
  the work of critical analysis.
• Ownership is assessment something being done
  to students?

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
20
In your current leadership environment, what
strategies can you use to promote greater
understanding and ownership of quality AFL for
each of the skill/commitment quadrants?
Skill
High
Disengaged Educator
Master Educator
Commitment
High
Low
Struggling Educator
Beginning Educator
Low
Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Effective and Efficient Assessment Routines

• Connect learning activities directly with
  learning outcomes multiple learning outcomes if
  possible more time spent on fewer assignments
• Provide clear criteria, rubrics and high quality
  student samples help kids see what good looks
  like
• Assess/observe but dont mark all assignments
  particularly formative work
• Spend your time providing assessment feedback on
  the most important assignments to the most needy
  students

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Effective and Efficient Assessment Routines
(cont.)

• Give quick, clear, specific and supportive
  feedback to stronger students in the moment and
  on your feet
• 6. Move away from letter grades, numbers and
  scores on assignments replace with descriptive
  comments whats working, what isnt, where to
  from here
• Give more efficient formative feedback as you
  move from desk-to-desk or as you connect on-line
• Only summatively mark one or two
  performance-based assignments per unit - give
  constructive/formative feedback in between
• When will school stop being a place where
  young people go to watch old people work hard?
• .

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Grading Isnt Going Away! How Does It (Mis)Align
With AFL?

• Rate your current reality from 1 often to 5
  never
• with the following statements
• (not what you want to believe but what you know
  is taking place)
• Teachers decide on grades based on their own
  criteria (whatever information and formulas
  they choose to use) 1 2 3 4 5
• Every piece of work done by a student should be
  given a grade 1 2 3 4 5
• It is fair and effective for teachers to give
  zeros 1 2 3 4 5
• A percentage grade is more accurate than a letter
  grade 1 2 3 4 5
• Parents understand the basis on which grades are
  awarded, and what the grades mean about a
  students work and progress 1 2 3 4 5
• A letter grade factors in attendance/ behavior as
  well as achievement 1 2 3 4 5
• Grades are used to motivate students to improve
  their learning 1 2 3 4 5

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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The student is a learner when

• He remembers what he can already do
• He knows what he cant do yet
• He can identify one or two next steps that would
  improve his work
• He knows what to do when he doesnt know what to
  do
• He has some strategies for getting unstuck
• He is sufficiently confident to take risks
• These are our learners today and our leaders
  tomorrow. What legacy are we choosing to leave?

Assessment Literacy Building Capacity



Mike McKay June 2011
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Post-session reflection/self-assessment