Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_9
R. Lehrer
There is widespread agreement about the importance of accounting for the extent to which educational systems advance student learning. Yet, the forms and formats of accountable assessments often ill serve students and teachers; the summative judgements of student performance that are typically employed to indicate proficiencies on benchmarks of student learning commonly fail to capture student performance in ways that are specific and actionable for teachers. Timing is another key barrier to the utility of summative assessment. In the US, summative evaluations occur at the end of the school year and may serve future students, but do not help teachers better support the students who were tested. In contrast, formative assessments provide actionable grounds to improve the quality of instruction on the basis of both the granularity and specificity of their content and their timing. Unfortunately, the psychometric qualities of formative assessments are often unknown. I describe an innovative approach to assessment that aims to blend the productive characteristics of both summative and formative assessment. The resulting assessment system is accountable to students and teachers by providing actionable information for improving classroom instruction, and at the same time, it addresses the demands of psychometric quality for purposes of system accountability as it is currently practiced (in the US). The innovative assessment system relies on partnership with teachers to generate (1) a shared conceptual frame for describing instructional goals and valued forms of teaching and learning; (2) a set of electronic tools to help teachers detect, share, analyse, and interpret student learning data; and (3) classroom and school-level community professional development structures to support and sustain a widespread practice of assessing to guide instruction. These features are coupled with new psychometric models, developed by the Berkeley Evaluation and Research Center, that provide more robust estimates of student learning by linking information from multiple sources, including student classroom work, student responses to formative assessments, and summative evaluations. (Mark Wilson will address the psychometric modeling during this conference.) Here I describe challenges and prospects for this innovation with a case study of its implementation in a K–5 elementary school that is seeking to improve the quality of instruction and students’ understandings of measure and rational number arithmetic.
{"title":"Keynote: Accountable assessment","authors":"R. Lehrer","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_9","url":null,"abstract":"There is widespread agreement about the importance of accounting for the extent to which educational systems advance student learning. Yet, the forms and formats of accountable assessments often ill serve students and teachers; the summative judgements of student performance that are typically employed to indicate proficiencies on benchmarks of student learning commonly fail to capture student performance in ways that are specific and actionable for teachers. Timing is another key barrier to the utility of summative assessment. In the US, summative evaluations occur at the end of the school year and may serve future students, but do not help teachers better support the students who were tested. In contrast, formative assessments provide actionable grounds to improve the quality of instruction on the basis of both the granularity and specificity of their content and their timing. Unfortunately, the psychometric qualities of formative assessments are often unknown. I describe an innovative approach to assessment that aims to blend the productive characteristics of both summative and formative assessment. The resulting assessment system is accountable to students and teachers by providing actionable information for improving classroom instruction, and at the same time, it addresses the demands of psychometric quality for purposes of system accountability as it is currently practiced (in the US). The innovative assessment system relies on partnership with teachers to generate (1) a shared conceptual frame for describing instructional goals and valued forms of teaching and learning; (2) a set of electronic tools to help teachers detect, share, analyse, and interpret student learning data; and (3) classroom and school-level community professional development structures to support and sustain a widespread practice of assessing to guide instruction. These features are coupled with new psychometric models, developed by the Berkeley Evaluation and Research Center, that provide more robust estimates of student learning by linking information from multiple sources, including student classroom work, student responses to formative assessments, and summative evaluations. (Mark Wilson will address the psychometric modeling during this conference.) Here I describe challenges and prospects for this innovation with a case study of its implementation in a K–5 elementary school that is seeking to improve the quality of instruction and students’ understandings of measure and rational number arithmetic.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115584251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_2
D. Cloney, Kellie Picker
Children develop rapidly in their early years. A crucial component of this development is a child’s ability to learn and use language. Even before they enter formal education, children have learned much about oral language and literacy through meaningful interactions with others, and from their life experiences. Children, however, do not develop at the same pace – some children arrive in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs more advanced while others require additional support. Recent reviews of the assessment tools available to ECEC educators show a lack of good quality measurement and a reliance on checklist style inventories or narrative approaches. This paper presents a new measure of oral language and pre-literacy specifically designed to be accurate enough to reliably measure an individual child’s growth. Results from a combined calibration of children’s responses using a many-facets item response model show the measure to be reliable, valid and sensitive enough to measure growth within children and between groups of children over time. Implications for future assessment development and for educators’ practice are discussed, including how such measures can provide insight into what children know, understand, and can do (Reynolds, 2020) and what educators can do to support future learning experiences targeted at children’s specific language and literacy needs.
{"title":"Developing an assessment of oral language and literacy: Measuring growth in the early years","authors":"D. Cloney, Kellie Picker","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_2","url":null,"abstract":"Children develop rapidly in their early years. A crucial component of this development is a child’s ability to learn and use language. Even before they enter formal education, children have learned much about oral language and literacy through meaningful interactions with others, and from their life experiences. Children, however, do not develop at the same pace – some children arrive in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs more advanced while others require additional support. Recent reviews of the assessment tools available to ECEC educators show a lack of good quality measurement and a reliance on checklist style inventories or narrative approaches. This paper presents a new measure of oral language and pre-literacy specifically designed to be accurate enough to reliably measure an individual child’s growth. Results from a combined calibration of children’s responses using a many-facets item response model show the measure to be reliable, valid and sensitive enough to measure growth within children and between groups of children over time. Implications for future assessment development and for educators’ practice are discussed, including how such measures can provide insight into what children know, understand, and can do (Reynolds, 2020) and what educators can do to support future learning experiences targeted at children’s specific language and literacy needs.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114576976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_16
Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard, A. Hockey, Tegan Knuckey
The Communicating Student Learning Progress review produced by ACER in 2019 set out recommendations for schools and systems to improve the way schools report on student learning, in particular learning progress. Two case study schools from Victoria – a Catholic primary school and government secondary school – discuss changes they’ve made to their student reporting processes, in response to the review’s recommendations. Further research is recommended into how schools are rethinking reporting to engage students and parents in monitoring learning growth.
{"title":"Reporting student progress: What might it look like?","authors":"Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard, A. Hockey, Tegan Knuckey","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_16","url":null,"abstract":"The Communicating Student Learning Progress review produced by ACER in 2019 set out recommendations for schools and systems to improve the way schools report on student learning, in particular learning progress. Two case study schools from Victoria – a Catholic primary school and government secondary school – discuss changes they’ve made to their student reporting processes, in response to the review’s recommendations. Further research is recommended into how schools are rethinking reporting to engage students and parents in monitoring learning growth.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125642514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_14
E. Furtak
Learning progressions are often used as foundations for curriculum and assessment. At the same time, as representations of the development of student ideas and practices, they can also serve as maps to support teachers during instruction. This paper describes a program of research in which my colleagues and I have investigated how learning progressions can support high school science teachers in cycles of co-designing formative assessments.
{"title":"Supporting science teaching practice with learning progressions","authors":"E. Furtak","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_14","url":null,"abstract":"Learning progressions are often used as foundations for curriculum and assessment. At the same time, as representations of the development of student ideas and practices, they can also serve as maps to support teachers during instruction. This paper describes a program of research in which my colleagues and I have investigated how learning progressions can support high school science teachers in cycles of co-designing formative assessments.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114411092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_17
Nathan Zoanetti
Using assessment scores to quantify gains and growth trajectories for individuals and groups can provide a valuable lens on learning progress for all students. This paper summarises some commonly observed patterns of progress and illustrates these using data from ACER’s Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) assessments. While growth trajectory measurement requires scores for the same individuals over at least three but preferably more occasions, scores from only two occasions are naturally more readily available. The difference between two successive scores is usually referred to as gain. Some common approaches and pitfalls when interpreting individual student gain data are illustrated. It is concluded that pairs of consecutive scores are best considered as part of a longer-term trajectory of learning progress, and that caveated gain information might at best play a peripheral role until additional scores are available for individuals. This review is part of a larger program of research to inform future reporting developments at ACER.
{"title":"Interpreting learning progress using assessment scores: what is there to gain?","authors":"Nathan Zoanetti","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_17","url":null,"abstract":"Using assessment scores to quantify gains and growth trajectories for individuals and groups can provide a valuable lens on learning progress for all students. This paper summarises some commonly observed patterns of progress and illustrates these using data from ACER’s Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) assessments. While growth trajectory measurement requires scores for the same individuals over at least three but preferably more occasions, scores from only two occasions are naturally more readily available. The difference between two successive scores is usually referred to as gain. Some common approaches and pitfalls when interpreting individual student gain data are illustrated. It is concluded that pairs of consecutive scores are best considered as part of a longer-term trajectory of learning progress, and that caveated gain information might at best play a peripheral role until additional scores are available for individuals. This review is part of a larger program of research to inform future reporting developments at ACER.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127375864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_6
E. White
Learning progressions have become an increasing topic of interest for researchers, educational organisations and schools as they can describe the expected pathway of learning within a content area to allow for targeted teaching and learning at all levels of ability. However, there is substantial variation in how learning progressions are developed and to what extent teachers can use them to inform their practices. The ABLES/SWANS tools (Students with Additional Needs/Abilities Based Learning and Education Support) are an example of how an empirical learning progression can be applied to support teachers’ ability to not only target teaching to a student’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978), but also to plan, assess, and report on learning. Across Australia, these tools are used to help of thousands of teachers of students with disability to make evidence-based teaching and learning decisions and demonstrate the impact of their work with students. This approach, which scaffolds student achievement towards goals informed by an empirical learning progression, combined with reflective teaching practices, can help teachers to develop their capacity as professionals and provide the most effective teaching and learning for every student, regardless of the presence of disability or additional learning need.
{"title":"Applying empirical learning progressions for a holistic approach to evidence-based education: SWANS/ABLES","authors":"E. White","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_6","url":null,"abstract":"Learning progressions have become an increasing topic of interest for researchers, educational organisations and schools as they can describe the expected pathway of learning within a content area to allow for targeted teaching and learning at all levels of ability. However, there is substantial variation in how learning progressions are developed and to what extent teachers can use them to inform their practices. The ABLES/SWANS tools (Students with Additional Needs/Abilities Based Learning and Education Support) are an example of how an empirical learning progression can be applied to support teachers’ ability to not only target teaching to a student’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978), but also to plan, assess, and report on learning. Across Australia, these tools are used to help of thousands of teachers of students with disability to make evidence-based teaching and learning decisions and demonstrate the impact of their work with students. This approach, which scaffolds student achievement towards goals informed by an empirical learning progression, combined with reflective teaching practices, can help teachers to develop their capacity as professionals and provide the most effective teaching and learning for every student, regardless of the presence of disability or additional learning need.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132563391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_1
G. Masters
The formal structures and processes of school education – including the organisation of the school curriculum, processes for assessing student learning, methods of reporting performance, and the uses to which student results are put – are often inconsistent with what is now known about the best ways to promote human learning. Rather than being designed to maximise every student’s learning, these structures and processes often reflect 20th century priorities, including the use of school education to sort and select students into different education and training destinations, and future careers. This sorting function of schooling is becoming increasingly irrelevant in knowledge economies that now look to their school systems to provide every student with high levels of knowledge, understanding and skill, including skills in critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, using new technologies, and working collaboratively with others. The challenge is to ensure that every student reaches the levels currently achieved by only some. However, the structures and processes of today’s schools are often poorly designed to meet this challenge.
{"title":"Keynote: How education gets in the way of learning","authors":"G. Masters","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_1","url":null,"abstract":"The formal structures and processes of school education – including the organisation of the school curriculum, processes for assessing student learning, methods of reporting performance, and the uses to which student results are put – are often inconsistent with what is now known about the best ways to promote human learning. Rather than being designed to maximise every student’s learning, these structures and processes often reflect 20th century priorities, including the use of school education to sort and select students into different education and training destinations, and future careers. This sorting function of schooling is becoming increasingly irrelevant in knowledge economies that now look to their school systems to provide every student with high levels of knowledge, understanding and skill, including skills in critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, using new technologies, and working collaboratively with others. The challenge is to ensure that every student reaches the levels currently achieved by only some. However, the structures and processes of today’s schools are often poorly designed to meet this challenge.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128871297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_4
D. Siemon
Excellent progress for all students is an ambitious but necessary goal if we are to improve the life choices of all students. At the moment, we are not serving all our students well despite the best efforts of teachers. We need to look further afield to the curriculum and assessment regimes that drive current practice. Grouping students by ability and offering a watered-down curriculum for some is not the answer. Evidenced-based learning progressions that point to what is important in ensuring all students build a deep, well-connected understanding of mathematics over time is what is needed to support reform at scale Where the evidenced-based tools and resources produced by this type of research are used to identify and respond to student learning needs in relation to what is important, it has been shown to make a significant difference to student outcomes and engagement. Adopting a targeted teaching approach means that not everything has to be differentiated and not everything needs to be considered as often or to the same depth. Time can be spent researching challenging but accessible tasks and developing a culture that supports and reward persistence, effort and a growth mind-set.
{"title":"Karmel Oration: Excellent progress for all: A function of year-level curriculum or evidenced-based learning progressions?","authors":"D. Siemon","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_4","url":null,"abstract":"Excellent progress for all students is an ambitious but necessary goal if we are to improve the life choices of all students. At the moment, we are not serving all our students well despite the best efforts of teachers. We need to look further afield to the curriculum and assessment regimes that drive current practice. Grouping students by ability and offering a watered-down curriculum for some is not the answer. Evidenced-based learning progressions that point to what is important in ensuring all students build a deep, well-connected understanding of mathematics over time is what is needed to support reform at scale Where the evidenced-based tools and resources produced by this type of research are used to identify and respond to student learning needs in relation to what is important, it has been shown to make a significant difference to student outcomes and engagement. Adopting a targeted teaching approach means that not everything has to be differentiated and not everything needs to be considered as often or to the same depth. Time can be spent researching challenging but accessible tasks and developing a culture that supports and reward persistence, effort and a growth mind-set.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121540268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_15
C. Scoular
The nature of skills such as collaboration is complex, particularly given that there are internal processes at play. Inferences need to be made to interpret explicit behaviours observed from intentionally designed assessment tasks. This paper centres on the approach to develop hypotheses of skill development into validated learning progressions using assessment data. Understanding a skill from a growth perspective is essential for the effective teaching and development of the skill. The application of Item Response Theory (IRT) allows the interpretation of assessment data as levels of proficiency that we can use to map or monitor progress in collaborative skills.
{"title":"Identifying and monitoring progress in collaboration skills","authors":"C. Scoular","doi":"10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-638-3_15","url":null,"abstract":"The nature of skills such as collaboration is complex, particularly given that there are internal processes at play. Inferences need to be made to interpret explicit behaviours observed from intentionally designed assessment tasks. This paper centres on the approach to develop hypotheses of skill development into validated learning progressions using assessment data. Understanding a skill from a growth perspective is essential for the effective teaching and development of the skill. The application of Item Response Theory (IRT) allows the interpretation of assessment data as levels of proficiency that we can use to map or monitor progress in collaborative skills.","PeriodicalId":413895,"journal":{"name":"Research Conference 2021: Excellent progress for every student: Proceedings and Program","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133664183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：