How we achieve student success with assessment mastery

Key points:

• Creating assessments can be cumbersome, but it’s also one of the most important steps in accelerating student learning.
• Teachers are the only professionals who can create these assessments most effectively for their students.
• See related article: 4 interesting assessment ideas for middle and high school
• For more assessment news, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching page

Teachers use a variety of methods to assess mastery of a topic. We use observations, quick formative assessments, longer summative assessments, and long-term baseline assessments. The problem is that these evaluations are carried out in various ways, depending on where it is taught.

Many districts use pre-designed assessments from curriculum resource companies. Others create assessments based on curricular resources and change them every 4 to 6 years with their new resource adoption cycles. Some will create assessments based on their state-approved learning standards and work to adapt curricular resources to their true “curriculum” and assessments.

It is no wonder that teachers are more cautious and insecure than ever about their ability to assess and close learning gaps effectively. This is clear from the most recent surveys on the state of assessment, including from Instructure 2023 Assessment Status in K-12 Education.

Curriculum services versus teacher-created assessments

The teachers are amazing people and they assess students in a variety of ways throughout the day. However, pressure often increases when it comes to developing an effective assessment that identifies skills directly related to state learning standards at a variety of skill levels. The need to collect effective data that can be used to drive instruction and intervention can increase levels of stress and uncertainty.

This anxiety and lack of confidence in the educator’s ability to create an effective assessment is why district administrators often opt for prefabricated assessments from curriculum companies. It’s easy and removes a task from the teacher’s already overloaded schedule, so why not? Shouldn’t these companies have the most experience in the content they write for the resource? The short answer is no.

Assessments, by design, must show a stepping stone of understanding toward mastery of state-approved learning standards. But assessments should also provide a clear picture of students’ understanding within those skills so that teachers can take that information and fill in the gaps.

The curriculum companies don’t know my individual students in De Soto, Missouri, but I do. While it creates an uncomfortable feeling for teachers to be thrown into the pond with the creation of assessments, it is also one of the most important steps we can take to help accelerate student learning.

Breaking down the evaluation process

Teachers are the only professionals who can most effectively create these assessments for their students. With support and training to develop standards, create learning objectives, design proficiency scales, and analyze data through collaborative professional learning communities to drive instructional decisions, teachers can better design assessments. And through that guidance and support, teachers will maintain the rigor of the state’s end-of-year assessments, but provide mastery levels that are used to meet students where they are and provide the interventions they need to be successful.

Teachers want nothing more than to find success for struggling students. To do this, they want to have a thorough understanding of their state’s learning standards. Teachers want to identify what barriers are preventing a student from being successful and are excited when they can find this in assessment data. Most importantly, teachers are most successful when they can do this work in a collaborative environment, such as a professional learning community.

At De Soto, we have had success using these same essential components for the past several years. Our state assessment scores have increased by double-digit percentage points in many areas year over year, with growth in almost all areas overall this past year in grades 3-12.

Finding a viable solution in De Soto

The ingredients are simple, but the work is difficult. Collaboration and data analysis are key and generate great benefits for students! We have spent the last few years reviewing our deep dive into crafting our state standards, creating effective learning objectives, designing proficiency scales, and learning about designing effective assessments. Although this is work we have done as a district many times in the past, it is even more important now. We had a vision in mind to find the most effective way to diagnose student learning gaps and provide the most effective interventions to support them.

However, an assessment is only as good as the data it receives. That is where Domain connection by infrastructure came into play for De Soto. Mastery Connect is a program that provides teachers with a platform to create assessments with individual questions aligned to specific standards. After facilitating the assessment, teachers get immediate graphical and data feedback showing student mastery for each standard tested and a breakdown of that data by question, class, teacher, and team. This gives teachers the tools to effectively analyze data and drive instructional decisions to best support students.

While we’re asking teachers to dive into creating assessments, we’re giving them some lifelines through programs like Mastery Connect that can show them immediate, effective feedback from that assessment work and give them the information they need to see big change. . rewards student growth.

Evaluation work is always a work in progress. We will always refine, revise, and improve our assessments to provide better data, increase rigor, and align more closely with state standards. However, it is this work that can have the greatest impact on student achievement. Teachers, more than anyone, have the experience and ability to create and design effective assessments for their students. In partnership with effective collaboration and tools like Mastery Connect, we can see those learning gaps continue to close and students continue to achieve.