RSA1: Getting the Most Out of Common Assessments

Getting the Most Out of Common Assessments

A focus on learning is the core that drives every professional learning community. Schools need to have tight expectations that all teachers will work collaboratively with colleagues when clarifying the following questions: What is it that we want our students to learn? How will we know when each student has learned it? (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, 2010) Teachers must also work together to create a guaranteed and viable curriculum. This gives students access to the same essential learning regardless of who is teaching the class and can be taught in the time allotted (Marzano, 2003).

One tool that can help teachers provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum is the common assessment. This tool helps educators to answer the question of whether or not students have learned what we have intended them to learn. The online article “Getting the Most Out of Common Assessments” discusses the challenges that one school faced even though common assessments were in use. The school discovered that there was a major disconnect in what happened to the assessments after completion. “When we discussed this question, we found great differences from team to team, with some teams digging deeply into their common assessment data and other teams doing almost nothing with the information.” (Mattos, 2009). All teachers should have common practices regarding what happens to the information after students complete an assessment.

This online article relates to the module because both discuss the importance of creating a focus on learning.  Both articles emphasize that common formative assessments can provide teachers with extremely valuable information. According to DuFour, Dufour Eaker and Many, summative assessments are much like autopsy data. There is nothing students can do at this point to learn the information. However, formative assessments can guide teachers in their instruction and help students to identify which standards of learning need more practice. The online tool supports the notion that common formative assessments are a very powerful tool in a teacher’s arsenal.

 

References

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning By Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Marzano, R. J. (2003). What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Mattos, M. (2009). Getting the Most out of Common Assessments. Accessed at   http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=92 on October 31, 2012.