New Teacher's Guide to Better Assessment

In "The New Teacher's Guide to Better Assessment," Mary Jo Grdina sets up two scenarios that hamper deft use of assessments for new and longtime teachers:

Newbies often leave teacher education programs with idealistic visions of the range of assessments they'll use to evaluate students;

And even seasoned teachers, who put serious time and effort into lesson design, resort to more efficient, rather than more effective, assessment instruments.

"How can we preserve the ideals of new teachers when they enter the hectic real world of teaching? And how can we convince veteran teachers that the aim of assessment is to educate and improve, not merely to audit student performance (Wiggins, 1998)?," Grdina asks.

Three important priorities guide Grdina's resolution to these assessment challenges. How do you answer these challenges at your school?

1. Coaching: Identify teachers' strengths and weakness and provide individualized support. Grdino explains, "An experienced teacher who does not see a reason to change the way he or she has always graded students will need different guidance than the new teacher who has been trained in designing rubrics but lacks the organizational skills to do so efficiently."

2. Questions: Use professional inquiry to guide growth. For example, ask teachers to include sample assessments with their weekly lesson plans. Or ask teachers to highlight the verbs used in lesson objectives or national and state standards. Highlighting the verbs used in the lesson objectives will help both new and seasoned teachers focus on goals that are higher than mere knowledge acquisition. Give teachers a forum to ask each other questions and share best practices about assessment.

3. Balance: Ask teachers to diagram the types of assessments they use over a year. "While preparing the diagrams, the teachers must quantitatively examine the importance they give to each type of assessment, and the final visual product gives the evaluator a clear graphic that shows patterns and changes in the way a teacher evaluates students," Grdino advises.

Comments

[Pat Dunphy,csj]

Has anyone developed a format to use with teachers to diagram the types of assessment they use over a year's time?
Pat Dunphy

[Laura Varlas]

hi Pat--On example the article cites is the assessment quad diagram used by Everyday Mathematics.

[Janice M. Martin]

I am a student at Walden University, working on my masters' degree. I enjoyed reading the article, and identified with many parts. I am wondering what a new teacher would do if they were hired in a school that did not offer a mentoring program as described in the article?
Janice M. Martin

[Melonee Hunter]

During student teaching experiences, some new teachers get a picture of teaching that that is vastly different from full time teaching. This article speaks to the importance of mentors. In my school district, mentors play a vital role for our new teachers. My mentors have been open and honest and willing to share insight about the school culture. They help me understand how to deal with difficult students and difficult teachers and difficult parents.

I too am a student at Walden University. I am working on my masters' degree in Middle Grades Science. I find that even through these online programs, a mentoring environment exists. The candidates in the program who have mastered areas in teaching offer excellent advice and insight. Their perspective means we are able to share our ideas and develop skills to help strengthen our abilities.

Melonee Y. Hunter

[Jill Love]

This article shares insight on the value of school learders. In our school we have a community of mentors who share best practices. New and seasoned teachers add perspective to strengthen skills and enhance the use of strategies. It is important to understand ones strengths and weaknesses as an educator.

It was interesting to read your prospective on the use of assessment. The tools given on improving the effectiveness of assessment was insightful.

I too am a Walden University student. I find this article helpful as an educator and a student.

[Wendy Bettez]

Assessment has been a prevailing topic of professional development in my school. I teach 6th grade math in a grades 6 - 8 middle school. When the state adopted the NCEE New Standards, teachers in my school took a backward design approach in aligning our curriculum, developing lessons and creating authentic common assessments (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). Grade level teachers created common assessments, which explicitly outlined what all students should know and be able to do at the end of each unit of instruction. Following that, we met with special educators to differentiate the assessments in order to meet the needs of our diverse learners. Our state has since dropped the standards and developed its own grade level expectations, which differ from the former standards. Now, we are in a review and alignment process of all curriculum and assessments. I hope we follow the same process in developing new common assessments.

Periodic and formative assessments are different. Each teacher, on the other hand, decides the periodic assessment used throughout a unit of instruction. We have a strong collegial atmosphere in my school and continually share resources, quizzes, and periodic assessments. Unfortunately, we usually share “on the fly” between classes or at the beginning or ending of the day. Allocated common planning time for teachers of the same grade level and same discipline would help to increase the use of sound assessments and assessment practices.

Wiggins, G. P. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded 2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD

[Patricia Childress]

I agree with the importance of developing a supportive school environment that will embrace not only the novice teacher, but the more seasoned teacher as well.

Identifying teacher leaders who can motivate teachers and communicate the goals and objectives of utilizing assessments effectively, is very necessary in planning for student success.

As a Walden University student, I find it very encouraging to know that I have a wealth of teacher leader experience available to me to share experiences, exchange ideas,and to gain new insights in the field of education.