Formative Assessment: Working Together to Gain a Deeper Understanding of CABS

Morgandale School- Mini Grant Summary

Objectives and Outcomes:

Participants in this project will:

Gain a deeper understanding of formative assessments and how to use them to guide instruction.
Recognize how using formative assessments to guide instruction can improve student learning.
Apply a working knowledge of assessment to the evaluation of CABS that are currently being used in each grade level for mathematics.

The teachers that participated in our project deepened their understanding of assessment in general and specifically formative assessment. When working on the project we were pleasantly surprised at the level of understanding that the teachers had at the beginning. We were able to go beyond our initial objectives and provide some practice in giving descriptive feedback. We were also able to have a discussion regarding grading practices as it pertains to the use of formative assessments. Because it was so late in the school year we really did not have the time for the participants to go back to their grade levels and share, however, we have informed project participants that they will be expected to share some of this learning in the 2006-2007 school year with their grade level teams. We did not evaluate the CABS that are being used because we decided that we would have to put together a more comprehensive CABS system.

Project Description:

The project started with a planning session in which a small group of learning team members worked to plan the first in-service session. We designed our pre-test and post-test for the participants and decided what we would focus on with the project participants.

The first session of the project was held during the school day with subs covering the classrooms of the participants. We started with participants creating a graphic representation of how curriculum, instruction, learning targets, assessment, and student learning fit together in the classroom. This activity started some very good dialogue about assessment and where it fits in the daily life of the classroom. We then defined summative and formative assessment and spent some time brainstorming examples of each type of assessment. We then read an article together about formative assessment and the research that supports the use of formative assessment in the classroom. At the end of the session we looked at a math target and brainstormed different assessments that we might use when we wanted to see how the students were progressing toward that target. We discussed what made that assessment formative or summative and really came out of this session understanding the difference.

We then had another planning session. We used this time to plan what we would do at the second project session. During this planning session we looked at the pre-test and discussed our observations about where we thought the participants were in their thought process regarding formative assessment. We decided that we would use the next session to apply some of the knowledge they had gained.

The second project session was held after school because we were not able to get subs on the day we had planned to have the session. The first thing we did in this session is to read the assessment principle definition that the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics published in the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. In this way we brought into focus the current research and thinking in mathematics as well as reinforcing the idea of using formative assessment in class. We then spent the rest of the session defining and practicing descriptive feedback. We were able to use student samples from the school-wide CABS that we had given. The participants were encouraged to look at the samples and evaluate their proficiency. We then challenged them to come up with descriptive feedback that they might give this student. At the end of the session we did have a short discussion about grading practices and how formative assessment fits in. The participants then took the post-test.

Project Evaluation:

In evaluating the pre-tests and post-tests taken by the participants we noticed some growth in participants’ ideas about assessment. Many of the participants were only thinking about chapter tests or other summative assessments at the beginning of the project. Their post-tests focused more on the role assessment can play in student learning. This was a crucial turning point for many of the project participants. We will continue to help the rest of the teachers to understand the importance that formative assessment has in a classroom. We did not have the participants evaluate CABS at each grade level because we decided that we wanted to focus on this in the upcoming school year and the CABS we have now would probably change. Each participant did make a goal for the application of this knowledge of formative assessment, but since the project was done so late in the school year they had to write the goal for next school year.

Concluding Remarks:

Overall we saw a very open attitude toward the idea of formative assessment and the application of descriptive feedback in the classroom. As facilitators it was a very enlightening experience because we were able to see what the teachers have learned over the last few years of staff meeting and banking day in-services. The participants were most influenced by the practice of giving descriptive feedback. Perhaps when they were practicing with this they were able to see how giving descriptive feedback would help their students. We were very pleased with the outcome of this project, although we were disappointed that it came so late in the school year because we would have liked to have participants share what they were learning with others at their grade level. As a follow-up to this project we will continue to work with formative assessment and descriptive feedback as a school-wide focus next year.