Replies to This Discussion

Forum 11. Comment on the following article: I am interested in your reasoned opinion. Your comments will fuel the discussions at our next meeting. Be prepared to defend yourself in class. Again, try and frame (or relate) your comments around your own experiences in the classroom. What would you tell other teachers after having read this article?

Fuchs, Lynn S. (1965). Connecting Performance Assessment to Instruction: A Comparison of Behavioral Assessment, Mastery Learning, Curriculum-Based Measurement, and Performance Assessment. ERIC Digest E530.

Reply by Cyndi Austin

The article “Connecting Performance Assessment to Instruction…” is directly linked to assessing FOR learning. I felt that the author, Fuchs, did an excellent job outlining and explaining the 7 criteria that assessments should meet. In total agreement with what the article was saying, I took copious notes. However, as one who has never felt strong in creating assessments FOR or OF learning, I wish the author had incorporated more examples. I did notice that the information is a derivative of Fuchs’ work “Connecting Performance Assessment to Instruction” and further research into this work (which I will do) may produce the examples for which I am looking.

The structure of the article was a little puzzling to me. Where I completely agree with the author on the 7 criteria that assessments should meet, I am unclear why Fuchs chose to segregate behavioral assessment, mastery learning, curriculum-based measurement, and performance assessment from the criteria list, in favor of, categorizing them as a method of linking assessment to instruction. Should not every assessment include some component of behavioral assessment, mastery learning, curriculum-based measurement, and performance assessment? I realize that each method utilizes different approaches to measure various tasks but I wonder if compartmentalizing the methods of assessment into (what appears to be) mutually exclusive forms of assessment, only contributes to the excessive amount of testing to which the students are subjected. Time is an issue in the school system and as educators we must work to create “synergy assessments”* rather than more assessments. *denotes synthesizing Fuchs’ criteria and methods in the development of assessments. (source: words created by Cyndi) ______

Reply by Anna Lankford

As I read the beginning of the article "Connecting Performance Assessment to Instruction...", I thought about the assessments I see teachers using in the classroom and past assessments I have used. The article sated the three types of decisions teachers make from the assessment results were 1) instructional placement, 2) formative evaluation, and 3) diagnostic. As I work with teachers, I definitely them use the results for instructional placement to determine if the student knows the material they have taught and whether they can move on or not. But I do not see them using assessment results for formative evaluation or diagnostic. This is another case of teachers just using assessments for a grade in the grade book. If they would use the results for formative evaluation they could make decisions on where they need to adjust their instructional decisions to meet the needs of the student learner. Many teachers also don't take the time to examine an assessment diagnostically to determine where the student is having difficulty. I have found this is extremely helpful in math assessments to determine exactly why the student is missing the problems. I have also worked with grade levels after a quarterly benchmark assessment to examine the items and student work to determine if students performed the opposite operation, failed to understand vocabulary, or had computation problems. This article also discussed the seven criteria for assessments. As a past classroom teacher, I rarely made a test up on my own. I did not trust my question design ability to ensure I had a valid and reliable test. I usually depended on test bank items provided from various software companies our county had access to, DPI's samples, and textbook samples. I sometimes used bits and pieces to test the learning outcomes I wanted to assess. After reading this article and know what the criteria are (and hopefully after learning more from this Classroom Assessment course) I would feel more confident in making an assessment of my own. Performance based assessments were also discussed as methods of linking assessment to instruction. I see the behavioral assessments being used more in classrooms on a day-to-day basis as students are involved in hands on activities or group work. The teacher may walk around with an observation checklist to assess students as they work. I believe the curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is similar to what our county is using in the RTI process this year. After teachers have identified a learning target through the use of probes, teachers provide intervention activities for the student. Then the teacher can use the "Classroom Based Measurements" which are one minute probes to monitor their progress to meet the goal they have set for the child. If progress is being made, then the interventions continue until the goal is met. If not the interventions may change until the child begins to show progress. ______

Reply by Jennifer Blankenship

As I read the article and Anna’s post, I could not help but agree that few teachers use assessments as diagnostic and formative tools. Many teachers I work with will most of the time say students did not do well on the test because they did not try or did not study. Few teachers will look at their teaching and lesson plans to see if they could have been more effective in delivering the information. I think because of the time constraints teachers work under it is easier just to put that grade in the grade book, move children around in cooperative learning groups based on scores, and move on. Unless, there is a support system and expectation to analyze those assessment scores a lot of teachers will not do it just because there are not enough hours in the day.

I do think our schools may be going in the direction of more performance based assessments. We are currently completing the content-based, research writing assessment across our school. The math prompts are performance based. The students must solve and explain in words a real-world math problem. As we have discussed before, students need to understand why they have to learn certain objectives (what’s the relevance to their life). Performance assessments would clearly show them how knowing these things are important life-skills for them. As teachers, we see performance assessments as too time consuming both in creating and analyzing and too difficult to create because you must grade using a rubric. I found this article to be very informative in explaining the criteria that assessments must meet to make instructional decisions. I have shared this information with a few teachers and have gotten some comments of “Well, I haven’t thought of it that way,” or “So, that’s what I need to be doing.” Knowledge is everything and let’s be honest, most of us do not know enough about making, giving, and analyzing assessments because we have never been given the knowledge until now. I know I have begun to look at assessments differently and can hopefully help some teachers at my school do the same. ______

Reply by Michelle Baker

I thought the introduction to this article stated the emphasis of AFL in a nutshell. Fuchs stated early on, "...assessments should affect learning positivley and enhance instruction." Each educator needs to adopt the premise of AFL that classroom assessment needs to be reconnected to student learning when discussing and defending views of assessment styles.

I do agree with Cyndi that assessments should not be so segregated that it can be clearly defined as this type or that type. The most effective teachers acknowledge the various learning styles among classroom learners and will assess in a variety of formats, using ecclectic venues that encompass diverse measurements. I thought Fuchs outlining the three types of decisions teachers make using assessment results, and presenting the seven criteria all assessements should meet, better helped the reader evaluate the four measurements discussed in the article. I was able to remain mindful of the pretext as I went through the characteristics of each assessment reviewed.

I am likely to utilize behavioral assessment when students are working in groups on a cooperative learning task. Often what I assess here as I facilitate group involvement is the observable behaviors of interaction among team members. I tend to address step by step behaviors of the group as they proceed with the assignment. I quickly monitor and address the following as it occurs: 1) are individuals able to find collective groups in which to interact 2) is everyone able to identify a role in the group to contribute to the work product 3) do students understand how to emerge as a leader without taking over 4) is productivity mantained or are sidebars occuring 5) are groups able to manage time and task so the product is finished Often, I am more focused on the groups' behaviors then I am on the actual task itself, but in defense, in cooperative learning, the behaviors are the means to the end result.

Although I teach for mastery of learning the identified target goals, I do not really think I utilize mastery learning as it was defined in the article. With the knowledge of Bloom's Taxonomy and the need to present lessons and goals that accentuate higher order thinking, I am not one to use a hierarchy form of assessment whereas I start with a low level and proceed accordingly as mastery is met at that level. Perhaps math curriculum and objectives could fall under this category of assessment. For example, students can not divide large dividends with two digit divisors until they understand mulitplication systems. However, even with math goals today, so seldom is it taught as one set of skills to the next. Long gone are the days of an addition chapter, a multiplication chapter, and a division chapter in math texts. Publishers now present spiraling lessons where skills are embedded in a set of problem-solving tasks.

Like Anna, I concur the new RTI (Response to Intervention) process adopted by many districts is a forerunner for curriculum-based management. It works exactly as Anna described using probes to determine and assess progress of a target goal over a designated period of time. Since CBM offers a broad range of instructional options and encourages students to set learning goals, this is an assessment type I would categorize with those of us that use rubrics, charting student progress, and involving students in developing self and peer assessment components.

Performance assessments are likely to have the greatest impact for student learning. They are real-world and have potential for direct implication to problem-solving in the workplace and everyday life. The video Eric added only emphasizes all the more how educators must find ways to assess through performance related tasks. One clip from that video stated students will hold jobs that have not even been invented yet! Performance assessments are a training strategy for what obstacles and decisions 21st Century learners will have to make as adults. The drawbacks I did take note of regarding performance assessment is this assessment is time consuming for educators, and additionally the effectiveness of this assessment hinges on the teachers' abilities and skills to implement this strategy effectively. ______

Reply by Michael Robbins

Fuchs does a fantastic job of describing how teachers use and interpret different assessment types to benefit a student's learning experience. The article is well organized and thourough in its descriptions of the various methods of linking assessment to instruction and the criteria required to do so. As I read this article, I was a bit perplexed as to why the different types of assessments (behavorial, mastery learning, curriculum-based measurement, and performance assessment) were considered such different entities. Due to the many learning styles of students, I believe that it's imperative to include various teaching and assessment strategies into daily classroom tasks. Fuchs makes a compelling point of how performance assessment does exactly this. I, personally, see how each of the above mentioned assessment methods, used simultaneously, fall under the umbrella of performance assessment. Students are given the opportunity to display their learned skills through real life problem solving and teachers are able to observe their behaviors, determine what skills they have mastered, decide what step in the learning process should come next, and develop a plan of action. Jennifer mentioned the new writing assessment that is being piloted by several districts across the state. I agree with her that this type of assessment is an example of performance assessment. The content-based writing prompts are cross-curricular in nature and allow students to express their learned knowledge in specific content areas while enhancing their problem solving abilities. This type of thinking will surely benefit our students by preparing them for their future in our always-changing society. ______

Reply by Deby Johnson Fuchs definitely provided critical information through the article. Curriculum Based Assessment makes so much sense. One of the drawbacks Fuchs stated was the time it takes to monitor growth. However, the time invested seems it would give much more of an accuarate reflection of what a student has truly gained. The details of a student's performance on specific skills are not only used to assess a student, but to assess and make improvements on the instruction delivery itself. Measurement is not an "eggs in one basket" approach, meaning there is one mode of delivery of instruction and one mode of assessment. So, it offers flexibility if one approach may not be working for a student, a teacher is free to switch modes of instruction and many can be used with the same student depending on the benefits to the child. Students know exactly what is to be assessed and set their own goals in learning. In my own classroom, I have experienced being told a specific reading program to use to teach all of my self-contained students. While I have had students to move three grade levels on informal assessments in one year and the program has been invaluable to most of my students, guess what.... it didn't work for every one of them! I had one downs syndrome child who didn't learn phonetically and could not differentiate sounds, yet was told to "keep trying" with this method of instruction and assessment. I received a lot of flack when I bucked! However, I took all of my data into my supervisors that I had collected over a few months and showed them, on paper, that the program was not working for this student and assessing her in this manner was not beneficial to her. I like the idea of the freedom to change the delivery and assessment type with the same child.

I agree with Jennifer on the example of performance assessment. I also believe our state is moving towards more performance assessments. Our writing assessment seems to combine the "test" and a performance assessment. The math writing prompt is definitely a performance assessment. Student performance is assessed on a task reflecting a real-world requirement and scoring does reflect patterns in student learning and thinking. There is one problem that I see with moving towards this assessment strategy. Yes, it's a great thing that the state is moving toward this approach to assessment. However, students are not yet being taught this way. When assessment for learning strategies are used in the learning process, then I do agree that this will be a more accurate way of gauging student progress. I hear teachers stating students are having a hard time "thinking this way" and "knowing what to do". I believe that the process of assessing student writing in our state is improving, yet we as teachers need the knowledge base to help them understand HOW to think this way. The only way to do that is through reading articles and training on these methods. I'm going to have to share that need with my collegues. I believe it was Sandra who said in class that these should be required for undergrad students before being in the classroom. I happen to agree. I guess my biggest question after reading these articles and chapters 1-3 is...... WHY? Why haven't I heard of these methods in my past 15 years of teaching when we realize that assessment as we know it hasn't been effective and beneficial to students? ______

Reply by Travis Richardson

When I read the beginning of this article I began thinking isn't this what teachers really want for their students. Teachers who are better informed "make better decisions about what a student needs to learn next and how to teach that material in a manner that will maximize the student's learning." I think Michelle stated it very well when she said "I thought the introduction to this article stated the emphasis of AFL in a nutshell. Fuchs stated early on, "...assessments should affect learning positivley and enhance instruction." Each educator needs to adopt the premise of AFL that classroom assessment needs to be reconnected to student learning when discussing and defending views of assessment styles."

I think there are some great guidelines for teachers to follow in this article if they will just put forth the effort to try them in their classrooms. We do CBM's weekly at my school and have gotten some very good results with most of the students. By using the information the CBM's give us we are able to clearly see what objectives the students are proficient with and which objectives they still need some help with. These results have been very valuable to the classroom teachers because now we can spend more time working on the objectives the students actually need instead of wasting time going over and over objectives that the students already understand. I am not as familar with the other methods mentioned in the article, but the CBM's have worked very well at my school. ______

Reply by Beth Hubbard

Assessment to Enhance Instruction...... Teaching IS continuous assessment of student progress and of instructional delivery methods and their effectiveness. Fuchs presents a compelling argument for performance assessments to be used to inform instructional decisions. However, many teachers, me included, get stuck in the rut of needing to have a grade to put in the gradebook. There are many informal performance assessments that take place in classrooms on a daily basis. I don't think we have investigated the art of doing performance assessments as formal assessments due to the time constraints that Fuchs mentions. Rubrics are wonderful tools to make the criteria clear and show levels of accomplishment, but are very time-consuming to construct. I don't know many teachers who would be opposed to using performance based assessments more often if given the appropriate time and support to develop the tasks and the scoring rubrics. This would be, in my opinion, a very effective use of the positions that we are calling "instructional specialist, instructional coach, curriculum coach," etc.) They could train teachers and model the use of performance based assessments within their particular content areas/grades. Once teachers see it done and maybe even get some assistance in developing them, they will see the benefit and be more willing to try them on their own. ______

Reply by Dustin Farmer

I felt Fuchs hit the nail on the head with this article. He summed up our discussions of AfL. His seven criteria for assessments make so much sense, yet said a lot to why teachers are not doing this. If a teacher was just introduced to these criteria without having been introduced to the actual process itself through reading and discussion, they might see it as a bit overwhelming. It seems as if it is so much work. One of his criteria is that the assessments be easily administered, scored, and interpreted. Yet, for many of us, the ability to make the "perfect" test is still unclear. Performance based assessments ability to evaluate teacher’s effectiveness and student learning is the great equalizer in the learning process. We are always concerned about whether our students are “getting it.” Are they really learning anything? Why after an entire week of instruction did half the class fail the test? If used and analyzed properly the assessment will give us all the information. Teachers will have clear data about each student and where as an instructor he or she may be falling short. If done properly, teachers can use the assessment to know what to review, and where to move next. Through large-scale assessments students can track their own progress throughout the year, giving teachers the feedback they need to determine the comprehension of each student. It also gives students the ownership of their success and failures.

I also liked the way that Fuchs broke down the three types of assessment and what areas they are strongest in. An effective teacher will use each of these throughout the course of the year to appeal to each child’s learning style. While each can be effective it is the curriculum- measurement assessments that we are using to show progress throughout the year, and over the course of a student’s career. As has already been mentioned, schools are moving in this direction. The sample math question that was used in the article was a great example of how we as teachers can stimulate our students higher order thinking skills. The question did not give students the opportunity to find the answer quickly and easily. Instead, there were several issues that needed to be addressed within the problem. It also allowed students to practice their writing skills in math class. Most importantly, it gave students a real-life scenario that they could possibly be confronted with, and that they might be required to figure out later on in life. This is the direction we should be moving toward. We must make student learning relevant to the real world so students can see its importance. While our nation has not completely caught on to the appropriateness of assessment, if we as classroom teachers can learn to properly use assessments, we can improve those scores of the dreaded assessments of learning. ______

Reply by Sandra Peterson

I thought this was an article that any teacher wanting to positively impact student learning would have a hard time disagreeing with. The seven criteria that assessments should meet if they are to inform instructional decisions provided a direct link to what we have discussed in regard to AFL. I felt like at my school that we are doing more curriculum-based measurement than any other form of assessment. We use the computer programs ClassScape, Success Maker and Study Island to administer assessments and manage data. Students are also STAR tested in reading every nine weeks to track their reading levels. These test are suppose to be used to analyze student performance over a period of time. Although the test are given, and results printed out for teachers to use, what I am not seeing a great deal of is that teachers use these results to actually impact their instruction. Like the article stated, this system requires longer time periods to reveal growth, and the connection between assessment results and instructional decisions are not clear. What I would tell teachers after reading this article is to take this data and sit down with each student and let them assist in evaluating it and setting personal learning goals. They should be involved in tracking their success in accomplishing these goals. As criteria number six states, the goals of learning should be communicated to teachers and students. Too often, the teacher keeps this data to him/herself and the student is never involved in the process of connecting assessment to learning. Another thing that I would stress to teachers is that all students should be involved in Performance assessment. I loved the example provided, and want to try it with my 6th grade class. Many of the lessons that I use with my gifted students are problems such as this that are anchored in a real-life, real application situation. Often when I have shared performance based lessons such as these teachers will comment that my students can do this type of lesson because they are the "smart kids." They state they could never get this to work in the classroom with lower level students because they don't feel as if they have the skills to think at this level. All students, at all levels will benefit from performance assessment because in using real problems such as the example, students can see how math is used every day in the working world instead of asking, 'What am I ever going to use this for?' ______

Reply by Callie Grubb

This article did an excellent job of describing the ideal purpose of assessments. To paraphrase Fuchs, assessment can enhance instruction because it allows teachers the opportunity to make better decisions about what a student needs to learn and how to teach that material. The first part of the article elaborates on assessments and how they relate to instructional placement, formative evaluation, and diagnostic decisions. If all assessments addressed these three goals there would be a much more holistic approach to education today. However, I do not feel that the current education system is devoted to these ideals. Instead, assessments are focused student achievement at semester end or year end. Very rarely are assessments used to adjust or modify teacher instruction. Teachers may want to implement such assessments but time constraints as well of a lack of understanding may prevent implementation. I also feel like this teachers are just not taught to do this.

While the educational system is focused almost solely on curriculum-based measurement, there are instances of performance assessments. The Graduation Project required for high school graduation, while not perfect, is one example. Students are allowed to pick a subject of their discretion, research that subject, and then create and present material related to that subject. Students are evaluated by rubrics that are given to them early in the planning process. Teachers and mentors help facilitate projects but students are clearly in control of the process. The Graduation Project, which can be modified to fit all students, is definitely a different form of evaluation/assessment.. ______

Reply by Laura

In 2003, Westwood Elementary was awarded the IMPACT Grant. At the time, all we understood was that we were going to get a bunch of great new technology and it was exciting. However, we soon found out that there were many training and staff development sessions ahead of us and that IMPACT was not only about technology, but was also about collaboration, integration, and project-based/student-centered learning. Throughout the 3 years of the grant, we learned a lot about collaboration and integration and a little bit about project-based learning. We also learned how to create effective rubrics, which I believe go hand-in-glove with performance assessments. We had a couple of teachers who really bought into this idea and began creating activities and rubrics for their students to complete. However, most teachers at Westwood don't use them. For one thing, teachers don't know how to implement them into the curriculum. The teachers who do "get it" find that creating them and scoring them takes time. And teachers don't see what merit performance assessments have now with NCLB and the pressure it puts on students to perform well on standardized tests. I believe that a performance assessment should be the result of a project-based learning activity. I believe that allowing students choices in what they want to learn and create is worthwhile. I think that giving students performance assessments is effective. But I don't know when teachers, with all they are expected to accomplish in 174 days, can fit this into their lesson plans. And I don't know many teachers who will be willing to ditch the EOG/EOC style of assessing in their classrooms in favor of open-ended/rubric scored assessments. ______

Reply by Paula Stevens

Reading the article by Fuchs helps me to see a positive thing going on at one of my schools. I am a part of the SSMT and I have been using CBMs for a few years now in order to help teachers. Although we are not an RTI school, we are still using researched-based interventions and CBMs give wonderful guidance. They give the exact area of “breakdown.” They do not tell you how to teach but they leave the instruction to the teacher. The interventions can then be used as teachers choose what will be best for the students, based on knowledge of the student(s).

By using CBMs and on-going assessments, it should give the teacher guidance about where each student is and if instruction should be changed. It helps to see a clear picture of where you should be going as a teacher and when things are not working, you know it before the unit is over or a test has been given and students’ performance is poor. You know shortly after teaching has begun so that you can change directions to better meet the needs of the students learning. After reading about performance assessment, I see a greater need at our school. Real-life, age- appropriate problems are presented and it just makes more sense. It includes many skills and appears to be more meaningful to the students. It appears that this is the new and improved CBM, which gives guidance to the progression of skills. Teachers definitely need training in this area in order to get the most out of its use. ______

Reply by Pamela A. Bare

The Fuchs article is very informative. I see how the three types of decisions that need to be made with assessment results could help mold me into a better teacher; however, it made me feel very inadequate as a current teacher. I feel like my lack of knowlege in assessment is cheating my students out of progressive learning. I agree that the goals of learning need to be easily and readily communicated between teachers and students. This lack of communication is deceptive in a way, because it leaves the students uncertain as to the overall goal in a process. It doesn't make sense that you would just begin a process without knowing the ultimate goal or an achievable, successful outcome; yet, I do this so often to my students. What is sad, is that I do it because that is all I know. I know what I know because it is what I have been taught. I have little experience in the "ways" of teaching; I have relied on mentors, testing materials provided by the school, and student teaching. I do not know how to generate an assessment for reliable and meaningful information to show progression of learning and use this information to reformulate my lesson plans. I know that I could sit down, study, and use trial and error to accomplish this goal, but how could I plan for my classes, organize Prom Promise and Beta Club, care for my home and daughter, complete graduate classes AND teach myself how to be an effective assessment maker. ______

Reply by Mickey Morehead

This article is one that does a tremendous job of explaining differnet types of assessment. We probably can see a little of each type in our own classroom. So much of what we are discussing and exploring is very new to a lot of us yet it appears to be something that should have been taking place in our classrooms all along. I feel like Pam stated earlier. That is I am not doing an adequate job of assessing my students to make sure they know what they need to know. One thing that we have to decide is what we want them to "know" when they leave our classroom. Do we want them to be prepared to achieve a high score on their EOG/EOC, do we want them to be better prepared for real life situations, do we want them to be ready for what they may encounter in their next grade/class, or a mixture of all of these as well as other things? I think we would all agree it is a mixture of all of these things. Each form of assessment mentioned in the article will help in relation to all of these items. As long as we have to work in our current system we will have to prepare our students for their "test." If we don't the students will not be "successful" according to the standards set forth by others. CBM can be really useful with this goal. We have to know what we need to be teaching long term to make sure we cover the entire curruculum and continually assesss to make sure the children are learning what we feel is needed.

Behavioral and mastery assessment seem to be the most unuseable of those mentioned for several reasons. The inablility to truly gauge how students are doing and the almost seemingly undoable task of monitirong the students progress through the information would seem to make these assessment types very "unfriendly." Performance assessment would appear to be the most attractive method of assessment of those discussed. However, there are many questions that are unanswered about this type of assessment. The article makes a strong case for using this type but does little to help us understand how to use it. As someone mentioned it would be very helpful to have some more examples of the entire process from beginning to end of a unit of study to help us make a decision and try to adapt it ot our own area of work. I feel this type of assessment does better job of AfL than any other mentioned in the article but does very little to help us truly understand what it "looks like." ______

Reply by Sherry Caron

Fuchs article confirmed many significant factors regarding the linking of instruction with assessment. The seven criteria assessment must meet to better inform instructional decision making remind me of Stiggins factors relating to student involvement in learning/assessment. Mastery learning includes the idea that all children can learn when provided with the appropriate learning environment and conditions for learning. This is based on some of Bloom's learning theories wherein instruction is fast paced with much student collaboration and many steps taught explicitly. It is not based on content as much as it is on the process of mastery. It works best with a traditional focused curriculum with very well defined learning targets which are organized into sequential units of learning. Not all teachers are always capable of adhering to such structure although perhaps many are, I do not think I am one of them. Since the measurement changes due to the difficulty of the material it is not a reliable tool for diaognosing learning difficulties or progress over time. The Fuchs article aptly indicates how important it is to use a variety of assessment tools and methods. Use of behavioral assessments are a good tool to use in observing learners and making anecdotal notes about the processes of student thinking and learning. In my own teaching experience I often learn more from what and how a student proceeds to solve a problem by observing their thinking from mis-cues in reading or mis-use of a mathematical operation than testing them formally. An excellent example of this in early childhood would be more of a performance assessemnt in math using manipulatives and having a student demonstrate what it means to subtract. Taking notes on the steps a child uses in this operation is often worth much more diagnostically than any paper and pencil test can measure. I believe this is what is meant by linking assessment to instruction as due to this type of observation of a student's performance instruction can be prescribed to directly to a child's need. The teacher can clearly observe the student's thinking process and then direct instruction to clarify a learning target if needed.

With the new teaching initiative being introduced in our state known as RTI (Responsiveness to Interventions), which others have commented on, CBM's are a worthy tool for charting a student's progress and growth over a period of time. The use of research based interventions followed by the feedback provided by CBM's are a powerful guide for a teacher to clearly evidence growth or lack of progress. An effective aspect of such measures is the student input built into them. It allows for students to clearly see where they are, where they need to go and with interventions, how to get there. They can help to set their own goals, again some of Stiggins AfL factors and be responsible for their own learning and progress. Such self-assessment is not as apparent with behavioral and mastery learning techniques. The student can be involved in setting goals with CBM's as they are aware of what and how they are being evaluated. I think the CBM's also allow for more focus on revision and re-teaching to reach learning targetrs. The teacher is provided with more information on a students' performance and thus can improve their own instructional methods to reflect the student's needs. CBM's provide for identificaiton of where learning difficulties exist thus allowing for effective instructional strategies to be provided to help the student reach positive learning outcomes. This is very motivating for learners. ______

Reply by Keith Ledford

Fuchs did an excellent job of explaining these different types of assessment. I personally used the behavioral assessment and mastery learning when I was coaching football and track. I would watch the kids repeat things over and over only stopping them when and where I saw a mistake. (Behavioral assessment) I would also start them off on what I called basics. The kids hated this part until they saw the reasons for doing things this way. We would spend a large amount of time taking steps with our right foot and then our left foot. (6 inch step straight ahead, 45degree, and then 90 degrees or flat down the line) We did these over and over because these steps were the beginning to every other thing that I wanted them to learn next. (Mastery learning) Fuchs said that these two types of assessment were difficult to use because the users did not know what was being assessed. I can see that point but that is where the teacher has to convey his or her expectations before they start.

Fuchs also talked about Performance assessment. This is a great way to assess if the teacher can give up some of the classroom control. I know many teachers that would like to do this but cannot give the students the control to create the assessments let alone grade them. That is where we as future administrators must begin to decide how are we going to do what is best for our students and what kinds of teachers are you going to hire when given the opportunity. ______

Reply by Eric Cole

During lunch today I brought the article along and discussed the three types of decisions teachers make using assessments. The first to respond was a Language Arts teacher with many years behind her:

“What about the punitive assessments? You know, the ones we give because we want to punish the kids who didn’t do their homework, and reward the ones who did.”

“Or the papers we assign just to get their attention? Or Pop Quizzes to see who is listening to me?”

Other teachers laughed uncomfortably and nodded, knowing those are all the wrong reasons to do assessments for learning; however, sitting there in the knowledge that WE all had done that before.

The Language Arts teacher summed it up with:

“You’ve been talking to us about assessments because you’re taking a class on it to be a Principal. And eventually, you’ll probably evaluate some teacher down on it because they don’t know about these three decisions. We do what we do with quizzes and tests to teach the kids we have.”

She was lighthearted, matter of fact, and 100% believes what she said to me. Attitudes around me and the answer to questions I ask about Education changed as soon as it became public knowledge I was in this program. Suddenly, I appear judgmental. As Pamela stated above in a response, as this Teacher also put it, as we have read and discussed in the articles, our “classroom for assessment” as a Teacher has been on the job training. Most of us have designed assessment with a common sense approach and not only used the three types of decisions. As for myself, when I taught English, it was more reflexive than it ever was analytical. I knew and communicated where I wanted the class to go, I taught lessons, some with evaluative work built in as Performance Assessment, and some summative or evaluative stuff along the way to detect mastery. I too feel guilty at not designing more efficient means of processing and designing assessment for instruction.

Perhaps that is what has led me here. It certainly led me into Instructional Technology nine years ago. I had fallen into such an instructional rut, doing things the same way, teaching to the endpoint prescribed by the State with EOCs, and the tools of Technology were coming fast with sweeping changes for the way I had been teaching. I wanted to get out in front of that train. My Master’s program had a heavy concentration in Instructional Design; however, the assessment tools taught were primarily the Behavioral assessments meant to dovetail into hands on multimedia based Instruction.

I didn’t seize the opportunities to change and become aware of assessment strategies because I never had the Instructional Leadership to guide me, nor the self-motivation to seek out better ways on my own. I take partial ownership of that. In this era of the ever-popular “project/problem based learning,” more teachers must be guided on Performance Assessment strategies. It sparks an interesting quote I got from a conversation with Kimberly Arnold - Educational Assessment Specialist at Purdue University:

“How do we assess collaborative learning if we can't define or measure it?”

As future educational leaders and as teachers, we have to serve as the guides to research, mentor and talk about effective assessment. ______

Reply by Jill Ward

Several years ago the state of North Carolina dabbled in a somewhat close relative to the performance assessments described in Fuchs' article. In 1991, North Carolina field tested open -ended test items in grade three through eight in the area of math, social studies and reading. These tests were administered along with the North Carolina End of Grade multiple choice assessments. The open-ended questions, as well as the scoring rubrics were written by a panel comprised of administrators, teachers, university representatives, accountability personnel, and DPI content area specialists. For scoring , a general rubric was used as to insure consistent scoring of each test item. Each question also had a specific scoring rubric that fully defined the level of response expectation for the question. Teachers were trained as scorers and the scores were designed to inform instruction I had the opportunity to work as a scorer in Raleigh for the field test of open ended questions in 1991. The field test questions were incredibly well written and the rubrics were directly related to standards. The tasks students were asked to complete or respond to were meaningful , content specific and tied to learning targets specific to the SCOS. The scores were tied to student standards outlined in reading, math and social studies and provided great depth and insight into the student’s thinking and application of skills. I remember thinking how cutting edge our state was in the area of assessment. The state hoped to fully implement the testing program across the state by 1994. With the onset of the ABC’s Plan in 1995, and the desire to reduce the amount of testing, the testing model was delayed. This type of testing has yet to come to fruition in our state. The cost of the testing , the controversy it precipitated and the implementation of the ABC’s education model eventually led to sporadic implementation and revision efforts for the next 5 years. Eventually the state phased out the open ended component of the EOG. After reading the Fuchs article, I immediately thought of the open-ended testing pilot. The criteria Fuchs' discusses are optimum for each form of assessment. He analyzes and states the advantages and shortcoming of four types of assessment as linked to instruction. Each type of assessment mentioned can generate information to the test administrator. Selecting and implementing the correct form of assessment in order to derive the desired data is paramount. I agree with the statement that performance assessment is fairly new to the public and is obviously undeveloped in its validity and ability to generalize results within a larger student population. Performance assessments are also labor intensive, requiring large amounts of planning and significant amount of time set aside to complete the assigned tasks. However, as we prepare our students to be active participants in the global economy of the 21st century, we must not only instruct them with the basics , but teach them to think critically, analyze and draw inferences. Today’s students face a world that will demand new knowledge and abilities. Helping students to develop these skills will require changes in assessment at the classroom and school level, as well as new approaches to large scale, high stakes assessment. As I consider Fuchs' seven criteria for good assessments and the recommendations for further experimentation and study of performance assessment , I wonder if North Carolina had it right 17 years ago with the “think testing” pilot. Maybe? ______

Reply by Lisa Baxter

When I read the article by Fuchs, it reminded me of the Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) testing that is done at our school to measure student proficiency. Children in first grade are given DIBELS benchmark testing three times a year. If at the time they are tested and the child is not on benchmark, then the teacher realizes that current teaching strategies need to change. As stated in the article, teachers at this time make “diagnostic decisions—in which specific difficulties account for the student's inadequate progress so the teacher can remediate learning progress and design more effective instructional plans.” Depending on the level of inadequate progress, the child will either be progress monitored on a bi-weekly or weekly basis. All weekly children will have a Tier plan written for them, a state program for RTI (Response to Instruction). These Tier plans are meant to serve as a plan for teachers to follow to provide these children with one on one or small group interventions 3-4 times a week to increase the desired skill. Progress monitoring assessments in this program meet several of the criteria discussed in the article. They measure important learning outcomes, provide clear descriptions of student performance that can be linked to instructional actions, are easily administered (all take one minute to administer), scored, and interpreted by teachers, communicate the goals of learning to teachers and students and generate accurate, meaningful information. This type of instruction is mastery learning. Interventions are steps that the children must master before they can move to the next level of learning. In RTI, the teacher works with the child on the lowest step, teaching and assessing knowledge. Then, when the student acquires that objective, the teacher moves on to the next level of performance. In my class, there are three students that have difficulty with their oral reading fluency. But they also have difficulty with reading sight words and nonsense words. My interventions consist of blending techniques with progress monitoring in sight words and oral reading. In all, I agree with the article and have found effectiveness in my school with the RTI approach which goes hand in hand with this article. Here are some websites that can help with information about Response to Instruction and great places to find intervention resources.

www.interventioncentral.org/. -reading, math, writing, and behavioral interventions

http://www.gosbr.net/ -reading, math, and writing interventions

http://www.msu.edu/course/cep/886/ -reading, math, and writing interventions

www.fcrr.org/activities -Reading interventions for K-1

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities23.htm -Reading interventions for grades 2-3

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities45.htm -Reading interventions for grades 4-5

http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php -interventions for both behavioral and academic problems ______

Reply by Amy Hopps

This article emphasized the need for teachers to reconnect large scale and classroom assessment to student learning. Currently high stakes testing is what drives instructional decisions in many cases. Teaching to the test, the big one at the end of the school year, is what teachers are so focused upon. While the big test at the end of the year is important, teachers also need to learn how to use assessments daily and to use assessments to enhance their instruction throughout the entire school year. The article makes the reader ask what can we do as teachers to use assessment to enhance our instruction?

Fuchs listed 7 criteria that assessments should meet if they are to inform instructional decisions. Two that stood out to me were 1- assessments should measure important learning outcomes. In my own experience there have been times that I have taken a second look at an assessment and wondered if students had achieved the most important learning targets. Did they learn what they needed to learn? Did I teach the most important concepts and ideas that needed to be taught? Assessments give us insight into student learning but make use evaluate what we are teaching. The standard course of study for language arts is so broad. I envy the other core subject teachers because their goals and objectives are so clearly spelled out. 2- easily administered, scored and interpreted by teachers. This one is so obvious and very important simply because teachers need to be able to devote their time to instruction.

In my experience with mastery learning in which the curriculum is broken down into a set of subskills and students work their way up, I have often used pre-tests and post-tests to measure student mastery of learning objectives. Pre-tests give you a quick snapshot of what the students already know about a particular topic or concept. This is an easy way to assess and teachers can use corrective strategies to help students progress though each skill level. As I was reading about curriculum-based measurements I couldn't help but think of how I used to have my students do EOG review at the end of the year. The students were so tired of it by the time came to take the test they were pretty burned out. I finally realized that there was nothing wrong with reviewing/assessing before the big test but I needed to be assessing for learning more so throughout the year instead of all at the end.

Finally, I enjoy performance assessment. In Language Arts, my students do book projects that demonstrate learning. We design the rubics for each different kind together and the projects themselves are fun to create. Performance Assessment also is valuable because it allows teachers to involve students in tasks reflecting real-world situations. A math teacher on my team does a math unit on careers. Students draw a career out of a hat, research the salary and then travel to centers in which they must purchase a car, an apartment, groceries, etc. all the while balancing a checkbook in which they must record bills they have to pay. It is always a big hit with the students and they learn real world skills that will be valuable to them as they become adults. I liked the 5 family garage sale idea that the author mentions as well. ______

Reply by Richard Gill

I appreciated the overview of the 3 ways assessment can be used to enhance learning and the criteria for effective instructional uses for it. We sometimes get caught up in AoL, and need to refocus on the various other important uses of well-constructed assessments. As a younger teacher, I tended to use CBM overwhelmingly, because I thought that was my job, to teach the curriculum. As a coach, just as Keith mentioned, I relied heavily on Mastery Learning, since most of what I was teaching was complex physical behaviors. As time has passed, I sense my professional role has changed to a “coach in the classroom”. I increasingly try to engage my students in learning activities and projects designed to use the course content in some practical and meaningful ways. In order to evaluate these activities, I have shifted my focus to a combination of CBM and ML, with occasional projects evaluated with rubrics (Performance Assessment). I also see many teachers, particularly younger, professionally-oriented graduates, who have more training in these alternative forms of assessment, changing the focus of instruction and assessment to a greater reliance on Performance Assessment. Fuchs’ analysis of the strengths and shortcomings of PA at the end of the reading suggests that with careful planning, PA: 1) can measure important learning outcomes, 2) show student learning of both skills and problem-solving abilities (21st Century learning skills), 3) work with a variety of teaching models, 4) communicate learning goals to teachers and students, and 5) generate meaningful, accurate information of learning outcomes. The main weaknesses appear to be usefulness for all 3 purposes of assessment and ease of administration, scoring and interpretation. But, as more teachers use rubrics as a main tool for evaluation, this last factor may become less of an obstacle. ______

Reply by Lisa Fulbright I agree with Fuchs from the beginning when stated that when teachers are better informed of the learning progress and difficulties of the students they can make better decisions about what the student needs to learn next. My first year teaching I thought I could create lessons plans and assessements and then I would have them forever. I could use the same ones each year and I would be set until I retired. I know you are probably laughing but yeas little did I know I would have different students. I knew the students I taught in Computer Applications I would be ready for Computer Applications II but I was not the only teacher of Computer App I but I am the only Computer App II teacher.

I think as a new teacher the ways to help instruction would have been great. I have to do instructional placement to make sure the students have learned the skills needed to do all work or my class. I quickly do a formative evaluation by making sure the students can complete a simple PowerPoint. I have found that students forget alot when not applied. After working in the classroom and through several performance assigments I can determine and make a diagnostic decision and see if I need to reteach something if the majority of students do not acquire the skill.

Most of our curriculum in CTE relates to the mastery learning. The first objective is taught and applied then you build on another one etc. As the article states, mastery learning provides information for instructional placement, formative evaluation, and diagnostic decisions. It tells us teachers what we are to teach.But also as stated mastery learning suffers because it focuses on discrete behaviors in both assessment and instruction.

In my classroom, I think the objectives are good and it is great to know the terms associated with computers but if the students cannot perform they have not mastered the subject. I have alot of performance based assessments. In Digital Communications it is typing and formatting for the first 3-4 weeks. The bad thing is they are suppose to already have the skills to type and we work on speed. As held true this semester, 90 % of the students do not know how to get the formatting toolbar. They do not know how to center, or put bullets into the document. That should have been basics taught at middle school level. Then we wander why they cannot pass the 8th grade computer test and I have a room full remediating each semester. In Computer Applications I they must be able to create word documents, resumes, etc. They must be able to create spreadsheets and databases given real world examples. In Computer Applications II they must be able to create Powerpoint that they make interactive and functional web pages from HTML. If I did not use perfomance based assessments I would never know if the students could actually do anything.

At the end of the article, I agree with how the performance assessment satisfy the seven criteria for assessment.

#1- measure important learning outcomes- this is what I do and I use real world applications in the examples.

#3- determining what students can or cannot do is easily assessed. The probelm we have at my school is the occupational students and students with some type of modifications. They are put in regular education classes but you have to give them limited assignments. My theory is how do we really know if they cannot do it unless we try. Some I have found just to be lazy and because they are identified as something and they use it to do nothing.

#4 If you have the kids I have you have to have alot of different assignments and it is not easy to modify assignments for 8 kids.

#6 - I try to get involved especially with the OC students teachers and give them the assignments ahead of time so they can work with them and I talk with the students and make sure they know what I expect and what they need to know and do to be successful.

I really liked this article and as a new teacher it has alot of good information. ______