Whether you're tracking your running pace as your training for a marathon, memorizing multiplication facts for your minute timed tests (my 2nd grade highlight), or journaling before bed are all examples of assessments. So, where's the controversy? Equity and value is most commonly questioned for any of the above assessments, but more importantly, our focus today, is what takes place in our classrooms.
Equity is a hot topic in education, and the world, today. What is fair? Is there systematic racism in our classrooms? How can we provide equitable education for every single student despite their background, race, or social economic status? In an upcoming professional development, our staff is challenged to consider and reflect on their current assessments. One article, from Edutopia, guides their thinking focusing on: language skills, idiomatic language, socioeconomic and cultural issues with language use, topics to avoid, false cognates, proper names, and irrelevant material (Dame & Lea, 2020). The Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter Movements should have been enough, however, teachers continue to use their traditional assessments, which are notably not equitable for all students. Additionally, during the 2019 COVID pandemic, we had numerous students without stable internet connection with multiple siblings making it near impossible for them to engage online with asynchronous or synchronous instruction. This leads to our next topic of effectively measuring student progress.
Differentiation in assessments can be just as beneficial to student learning as differentiated instruction. Campbell (2020) suggests providing students with multiple attempts at mastery, teachers protecting student agency and promoting choice, as well as leading a holistic view of assessment focusing on student motivation over letter grades. This seems overwhelming, but taking one step at a time, giving yourself grace, and working with colleagues can help enhance assessments currently in use. I challenge my colleagues to focus on their questions, thoughts, and maybe even identify strategies they're using in their instruction and assessments already. As some have begun effectively utilizing technology, (i.e. Schoology, Blooket, Quizlet) in their day-to-day instruction, I want to highlight how digital assessments can deeply engage students before, during, and after instruction.
Digital assessments, especially during COVID, have introduced educators to extremely powerful tools providing accurate information on student learning. There are so many fun ways to Gamify instruction, my personal favorite is Blooket; but what is my purpose? Is this formative assessment effectively providing me with student data in inform my instruction? For the 6th grade Ancient Civilizations unit, no. The Blooket I created was merely a fun review. However, students were able to take initiative and play the game on their own to continue reviewing for the unit test. Was the unit test a summative assessment effectively providing me with student data to inform my instruction? Yes. This assessment my social studies team created on Schoology provided feedback to students, post test, and I used the following school day to review the most missed questions and facilitate conversations explaining the correct answer. After this discussion, not always, I allowed students to retake the test with the assumption they've learned from their mistakes and their corrected answer was more than memorization. Now we ask ourselves, is this information needing to be memorized how flexibly applicable? We can go on and on and in many circles analyzing our approaches to assessment, but Gehr (2021) suggests focusing on virtual assessments, student choice, and flexible deadlines to start. Therefore, if we utilize our digital resources to create differentiated assessments, we should be administering equitable opportunities to students to demonstrate their learning.
See the Google Slide presentation below for my upcoming school-wide professional development Reflecting on Assessments.