In June of 2015, I attended the
National Conference on Student Assessment hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers. At that conference, I went to a session where two of my assessment heros were presenting. Those heros are Rick Stiggins and James Popham. I was happy to get a quick picture with both of them!!
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| Rick Stiggins |
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| James Popham |
At the time, they both proposed that there was an abundance of state-level summative assessments and that our students were being over tested. Moreover, they asserted that state-level summative assessment programs were of little use to teachers. In other words, it was very difficult for classroom teachers to use these types of assessments to improve instructional practice or provide intervention for students. Oddly, a year before I heard John Hattie make the same assertion at the
National Visible Learning Conference. In fact, Dr. Hattie spoke about assessment reforms in New Zealand where state assessment was virtually eliminated as we know it in the United States. Instead of a centralized, state summative assessment system where teachers have little/no control over item construction or test configuration; teachers in New Zealand select questions from an item bank, build their own assessments and the government uses those results to measure student achievement.
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| John Hattie |
Personal discussions with Popham, Hattie, and Stiggins suggests that greater teacher control over state-level assessments, certainly makes more sense. First, placing teachers at the center of state-level assessment provides ownership over the whole process. In fact, one could assert that teachers would view assessment as an integral part of the instructional cycle. For example, teachers may be more inclined to use assessment to drive and modify their instruction, as is called for in formative assessment. Finally, I would posit that placing teachers in control of state-level assessments would contribute to their agency and responsibility for increasing student achievement. In other words, teachers would feel a greater sense of responsibility to the assessment process.
While the US Department of Education might view New Zealand's assessment system as radical, there is a movement to reduce testing for US students and teachers. John King, US Secretary of Education recently unveiled a plan to reduce unnecessary and redundant assessments. All the details of the plan can be found
here. There are seven steps to the plan that include the following:
- Worth taking: Assessments should be aligned with the content and skills a student is learning,
require the same kind of complex work students do in an effective classroom and the real world,
and provide timely, actionable feedback. Assessments that are low quality or redundant should
be eliminated.
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High quality: Assessments should measure student knowledge and skills against the full range of
State-developed college- and career-ready standards in a way that elicits complex student
demonstrations of knowledge, and provide an accurate measure of student achievement and
growth.
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Time-limited: States and districts must determine how to best balance instructional time and the
need for high-quality assessments by considering whether each assessment serves a unique,
essential role in ensuring all students are learning.
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Fair – and supportive of fairness – in equity in educational opportunity: Assessments should
provide fair measures of what all students, including students with disabilities and English
learners, are learning. As one component of a robust assessment system, States should
administer key assessments statewide to provide a clear picture of which schools and students
may need targeted interventions and supports.
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Fully transparent to students and parents: States and districts should ensure that students and
parents have information on required assessments, including (1) the purpose; (2) the source of
the requirement; (3) when the information about student performance is provided to parents and
teachers; (4) how teachers, principals, and district officials will use student performance
information; and (5) how parents can use that information to help their child.
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Just one of multiple measures: No single assessment should ever be the sole factor in making an
educational decision about a student, an educator, or a school.
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Tied to improved learning: In a well-designed testing strategy, assessment outcomes should be
used not only to identify what students know, but also to inform and guide additional teaching,
supports, and interventions.
I believe this plan is a step in the right direction and predict that a movement will continue to grow where teachers have far greater influence in state-level summative assessment systems.
