McTighe on Making Assessments Meaningful

"Anybody interested in teaching and learning is by definition interested in assessment. Sure, we taught it, but did they learn it? Assessment helps us check for learning." Jay McTighe's morning keynote, "Assessment at the Heart of Schooling," touched on the power of connecting assessment to explicit learning goals and assessing throughout the learning process.

On teaching to the test, McTighe said, "If you've coached or played a sport, you know there is value in practicing and testing discrete skills in a decontextualized way. However, playing the game requires putting it all together in an authentic and contextualized way."

McTighe championed assessment practices that support learning:

• Clear and worthy learning targets
• Specific descriptive feedback
• Opportunity to refine or retry
• Criterion–based achievement and improvement honored

"For many kids, in many subjects, school is an endless stream of sideline drills with no opportunity to play the game with knowledge. Ask kids what it is to do science, math, or history? Many think doing these subjects means cramming facts to pass the test," McTighe noted.

"What is assessed signals what is important to learn. How it is assessed signals how it should be learned. We want kids to use knowledge in game-like situations, not just in sideline drills."

Stay tuned for more reports from ASCD's 2007 Teaching and Learning Conference, happening now in Atlanta, Georgia.

Comments

[Susan]

In my opinion, there is way too much time spent and emphasis on assessment! I am a first grade teacher. My poor students had to take many difficult and burdensome assessments at the beginning of the year. These tests were to set a baseline to be able to record growth by the end of the year. To make matters worse, these assessments had to be done on the computer. This was more like an assessment on their computer knowledge rather than reading and math skills. I understand the importance of assessment, however, with all of the other duties we have as teachers it is definitely overkill!

[Ryan]

I think that there needs to be some form of assessment. But not necessarily a test, but something that shows that the students comprehend what was taught and learned. I think educators have to teach the test, especially in light of standardized testing and other mandatory assessments.

[Kerry]

I think that there are ways to assess for learning not of learning. I just have not figured out how this can be done without parents and administration having a fit about not tracking students through tests. Also the students need the practice of taking test so that they do not feel overwhelmed when they take the standardized tests.

[Andrew Brabender]

I am an elementary level physical education teacher. The opportunity for me to assess the children in my class is daily. I give the instruction and they might practice a skill or skills in every class period. Also, during this time the instruction and skills come together and the "game" is played. Physical fitness testing is completed two times within each school year. Improvement is charted from the beginning to the end of the year. From my perspective assessment is very important.

[Catherine Ruby]

All teachers are feeling the pressure of assessments for external reporting purposes (assessment OF learning). They also have the tension of trying to achieve the coverage of content for these tests. Both of these pressures are dramatically limiting our ability to involve students in their own learning process (assessment FOR learning), focus on depth vs. coverage and limiting opportunities for student to develop critical thinking skills. It is forcing dedicated educators to "teach to the test" by requiring discrete knowledge which is less expensive to test for from a short term perspective. However, it means we are selling our kids and our future short by not teaching kids the skills they will need to be successful beyond their current school experience. Assessment of how I am learning, where both the strengths and the gaps are and a personal plan for progress are critical to engagement and success in school. Having first graders take computer tests to indicate their reading ability, as the only input, ignores all that we know about triangulation. Using teacher/student interaction with their work and direct observation by a professional educator, aka teacher, who has a relationship with the student is critical to the progress and success of any child in a learning environment.

[Kevin Garinger]

There are two types of assessment that I want to speak to. We acknowledge the fact that teachers need to perform assessment on a regular basis. However, teachers should be assessing for learning rather than continually performing an assessment of learning. The formative nature of assessment for learning provides excellent opportunity for students to be engaged without the added anxiety of being tested. I do not mean to say that assessment of learning or summative assessment is not important...I believe it has a place as well. However, they can achieve so much through the formative nature of assessment and this is really where the majority of assessment should be focused.