2023 State of Assessment in K-12 Education Webinar
Okay. Well, welcome, everyone. For some of you, we know it's morning. Others of you, it's afternoon. Some of you, it's just the middle of the day. But we welcome everyone to our state of assessment webinar today.
We're gonna talk to you about our research that we did and the trends that we found from that research. So we'll go ahead and get started if I can switch my oh, there we go. Okay. So, I'm gonna introduce myself. My name is Noel Gomez.
I am senior product marketing manager over assessment at instructure. And I have with me an incredible panel today of, educators from across the country, and I'm a let them introduce themselves. So turn it over to you, Greg, to give us a little bit about yourself. Hello. My name's Greg Bagby.
I'm the coordinator of instructional technology in Hamilton County Schools Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it says, started off as a classroom teacher moved into administration. I was a principal for ten years, and then I moved to central office to help folks get technology into their curriculum. Chris? Awesome. Hey, good morning for the, from the Pacific Northwest. I'm a instructional technology coach in a school district in Oregon.
Canvas admin as well for a pretty large district. And super excited to be here and can't wait to hear what all of these areas has to say. I'm Paul Tankovich. I'm a teaching and learning coach. I work for a school public school district in the middle of Ohio, about six thousand students in the district, so I'm gonna put a new Britney.
Hey there. I'm Britney Aquisto. I'm the math coach, in South Carolina, Spartanburg, school district too. Specifically, I'm at Chesney Elementary. And, I'm Jessica Coyle.
I'm also in Spartanburg two here in South Carolina. I'm a seventh grade math teacher. I've been doing that for seven years. Yeah. Awesome.
Thank you guys so much and we appreciate your time today. We're gonna, go through some of these these trends that we found. And and share with you some of our learning and then let our participants who you really wanna hear from tell you how it's working in the real world. So, first of all, I wanted to, talk to you about our study. So we worked with Hanover Research, and we had done a study in, twenty twenty two about the state of assessment.
And so we re did this this now to see where assessment is in the k twelve world and kind of feelings around assessment and all of these things, this year in April. Our study had a thousand respondents. Fifty five percent of those were teachers and forty five percent of those were administrators. And so when we work with Hanover Research, we put together the questions, and then, they'll send out the research, and then they'll do all of the data collection and analyze the data and help us kind of look at that data in an appropriate way. So That being said, these are the five key trends that we found from our research this year.
Number one, we need to prioritize assessment literacy. And we'll talk about assessment literacy and what our view of that is here in just a minute. We also found that both administrators and teachers value investment, but for different reasons. And then three, quality and reliability still matter most. And by still there, that was the same thing that we found in our previous study.
And so this is just an additional piece that this is still the biggest piece in really looking at assessment. And then the right assessment technology provides the right data at the right time that that's a very important piece as well in, in this process of assessing students. And then finally, educators are continuing to balance their assessment per approach. So that is kind of the the peace between, you know, formative assessment, as well as summative assessment, as well as our, you know, favorite assessments, those state assessments, right? Not so much. But anyway, so we're gonna go through each of these trends and let our participants speak to, their their experience with these trends in in the real world because we at instructure can say something is happening in the real world, but this will help kind of validate that and get the perspective of these participants.
Alright. So this is a little bit of our study overview. And these were some of the questions that we were really looking to answer by doing this study. So we're really looking at what is the current role of assessment in, k twelve education according to educators, what are the most essential attributes to k twelve educators when evaluating assessments and how do educators continue to use assessment data to inform instruction. And then what does the future of assessment in K twelve look like.
And one interesting piece of this study is that we found that seventy percent of educators reported that they're evaluating their assessments at least once a year, which is a really great thing because that is an improvement from what we were seeing in the past, but I still think, you know, we still have some areas that we can go to improve upon that. We'd love to see that be a hundred percent of educators are evaluating their assessments at least once a year. But, we're moving in the right direction as far as that goes. So let's move to our next slide. This is really where we wanna talk about assessment literacy.
And our data in this research study really found that we need to prioritize assessment literacy. And sometimes this has a little bit of a different definition depending on who is talking about assessment literacy So I wanted to kind of level set right from the get go as to what we specifically are talking about when we're talking about assessment literacy. So ultimately, we're talking about the fact that teachers need to know their standards, know them well. So they need to know what it is that they're supposed to teaching, they need to know the the level of depth and complexity that are part of that particular standard. So their particular grade level or their course, what, you know, what level of of knowledge students need to get to.
And then In addition to that, knowing how to write high quality assessments that are going to provide the teacher with information on whether or not students are understanding that particular concept. And then finally, the final piece of assess literacy is then being able to take the data that they get from that assessment and really analyze that to know the real ins and outs of of students' levels of learning on that particular standard. So with that being said, What do you guys think about, about this trend that we need to prioritize assessment literacy? What are you seeing out there in the real world? So as, kind of looking at it from our my take or our take, the important to be able to assess, it's, you know, the the step back and ask the question, well, why are we assessing or why you know, why go through all that taking all that time to do it. And so in my situation or in our school, we've done a lot of work shifting, trying to shift to standards based grading. And we spent a lot of time with the teachers digging into the standards, taking a look at it, And what came out of it for us is kind of looking at those standards and kind of grouping them together, making scales And so you're looking at the different levels of what's trying to be learned.
And so when you're assessing, they know or are able to look and ask questions to find out our kids getting each area, and then are they ready for the next step? So the fluency or the ability when they assess and know whether the students are getting what they have intended with what we've articulated as standards And then are they ready to move on, or do they need to spend more time learning? So it's not just testing, but what do you do with that information and act on it? Absolutely. And I think Paul, when we talked before, you were also talking about that your district does some, like, projects based learning and things like that. Is that accurate? Yeah. And so, you know, assessment is, you know, a term that is more of a catchall and I think we'll I think we'll get into that more a little bit later on of, you know, what is assessment. And so it's not just the old standards, but is that really kind of what's going in here when we talk state assessment? Well, that's always just kind of just a test.
But assessment really is so much more than that. And our the real goal is when you answer the question of why are we assessing? Well, we wanna know whether kids are learning. And what do they need to do to learn more? And so is it a project? Is it having conversations with it? Is it your observations of them as their talking and using the content, you know, that's all assessment that we kind of tend to forget about. When we just try and, you know, the the default thinking of, assessment is state tests or big tests. And so I when we talk assessment literacy, it's all of us getting comfortable and understanding not just summative, but the formative action, not just the formal, but the informal, paying attention to what's going on to assess is learning happening.
What needs to happen for more learning to happen? I'll have to step in and just say how I agree with what Paul is saying. The whole idea assessment in the state tests or the end of, well, the test that you will take on Friday. I I think folks lost that a little. And then the whole idea of, the literacy part, my wife teaches an, an assessment course at a graduate level. I about this, but it is the graduate level.
And it seems like a lot of the times that I I visited her class a couple of times just to see what these pre service teachers are doing. Their focus thought isn't necessarily making sure the students get the material. They just wanna be able to create something that maybe shows what the kids get. They just wanna test test them, test them, and not necessarily figuring out how to use the assessment for learning or assessment for teaching. It seems like they're just of the mindset of, oh, we need to assess because we have to put something in the grade book.
Yeah. Absolutely. Kinda description of the old postmortem Yeah. No. It's that's after the fact.
That's there's a place for it, but it's not the only place. We need to be able to act on it. Yeah. And I I found too that, you know, when I was a school administrator, district administrator, I found that I assumed that teachers knew their standards really, really well and those kinds of things. And what I learned through that process is that A lot of teachers come into the profession without really knowing or they've just changed grade levels or they've just changed courses that they're teaching And, you know, we don't provide them a lot of time to dig into those standards and really get to the understanding level And then also teachers don't come in with a lot of experience in writing high quality assessments.
That's not necessarily part of pre service teacher programs that much. I think I in my day. I think I had like one portion of a course that was on assessment. In my pre service teaching program. And so I came in and I was like, okay.
So you give a spelling test on Friday. That's how this works. Right? And, we've sort of evolved quite a ways from that, but are not necessarily has all of the training that we provide for teachers evolved in that way as well. And so really being able to kind of focus on that, I think, is a big piece to really make teachers more successful in the classroom for sure. No.
Well, Yes. Quick note. You said Focus by Mike Schmoker that talks about focus and it talks about taking the standards and making I guess, focusing on the ones, the the things that the students really need to get. And you just reminded me that, we used that book when I was a principal to figure out, okay, so we have all these standards. But what do we want the kids to know and be able to do when they leave here? And I I think that's something that many organizations should look at drilling down those standards and figuring out what is actually important.
Yep. And also you know, Paul, I think the other day when we were talking, you said something about really figuring out what those priority standards were and figuring out what the more supporting standards were. Do you wanna talk about that for a minute? Certainly. Yeah. A lot of what we've done, was based on the Marzana work.
And so, you know, we started out with our teachers, you know, of their different curriculum and and different subjects where they go in and they were prioritizing or looking at what are the most important standards or what are the critical things to kind of rate how much time do you spend on each of the areas? And, you know, you only have a limited amount of time. It's finite. So what do you put the most resources in to making sure the kids get. And so the next step then was creating, proficiency scales, which are kind of you organize, you know, the standards that are related and there's a hierarchy. And, you know, there's a foundation that everybody needs to have.
You wanna ensure they've got that. And then, as they've shown that they've mastered or gotten those, then you work up to the next levels with those kids that need more time to, you know, learn or demonstrate that they've learned knowledge or the skill of the other standards before you move on. You know, you can your fluency then or your, you know, your literacy assessment is being able to find out where the kids are, which steps have they made it through? Where do they need to go next? But you need to know the standards well enough and have well designed assessments or leveled assessments, however, to get through all of those different things. Absolutely. Thanks.
Okay. We're gonna move on to our next trend. This one was both administrators and teachers value assessment, but for different reasons. So who wants to talk about this a little bit? How about I'll be bad first and say, My main idea with the testing was making sure that everything was ready for the speed test. That was my big focus because that's what I get call to the carpet on, probably at the end of the school year.
But, thankfully, I had a amazing academic coach that talked to the understanding of formative assessment within the classroom, within the class period, and how those do have some value and they add value as to, well, the whole idea assessment so that they don't know what to teach next or what's where to go from there. And it's not just as we're saying. Find the standards. Do the standards. Put them out and, yeah.
So as a principle, I I had to learn how to understand the formative assessments in the classrooms that the classroom teachers were doing, and I think that's mainly because in principal school and when you become an administrator and you go to these district wide meetings, you're pounding on you. Oh, we gotta get this test ready. We gotta do this for the test. We gotta do that for the test. I wasn't a big fan of the test by the time I left left the principalship.
But I I I actually I was just very appreciative but my coach did for me to train me as to not be such a stickler or so in love with the state test. Well, and to kind of piggyback off of what Greg was saying, about the importance of formative assessment, you know, in my work as an instructional coach. That's part of my job and to kind of connect back to what we were talking about with assessment literacy I really feel like at our school that we have collective assessment literacy. This is kinda where we all sit down in our PLCs. And we talk about the standard, like, all was mentioning earlier.
And then we talk about, okay, what would student mastery look like, and we create assessments together? There are times that we use paid vendors, to help with this assessment creation because I know, you know, one of the trends that we were talking about with assessment literacy is that teachers may not be well versed in assessments because there isn't as much training out there for educators But I feel like teachers really have to see an exemplar. You know, these high quality questions, And then once we're able to, like, to look at those questions, we're able to also replicate that and make it better because we're working collaboratively together. I think a lot of it too is, you know, the administrators are tasked for looking at the system, whereas teachers are with those groups of kids and individuals So it's kind of a scale action of your lens is going to be determined on, you know, what impact or what are you going to be changing and looking to tweak So as you're assessing, or what are you looking, you know, what are you looking to do from the data? So I think that's part of that dichotomy between the different views. Yeah. I think that's why teachers value the formative assessment piece so so much is exactly what you were saying, Paul.
Is the day to day in the classroom what the kids are learning at that moment in time and where they are and being able to provide differentiation for those kids because you know exactly where they are and where they're headed next. And in the end, I mean, if we do that along the way, then the results should be favorable on the state assessment. I think, a big thing that I find myself wrestling with over here where I'm at is For a while, when teachers think of formative assessment, we've got a tool called formative, which is a fantastic tool. But it offers a an it offers an opportunity for students to engage multiple choice, true false. Like, lots of different question types.
And so what I feel like I'm wrestling with over here in this space is there's when people say formative, the brain goes to formative tool, the tool itself. That a lot of times I feel like folks don't understand that form of assessment is not just a quiz. It's not just taking in an assessment. It's I mean, in one of my favorite gurus, a form of assessment, her name is Margaret Heritage, amazing individual, And her big thing is formative assessment is based off of four things, which students do say make or write. And so what that means is that teachers should be able to feel have the freedom to say, this is not always a test example or a test quiz or whatever.
It's the reality is whenever I have my students do say make or write those things, and if I want to collect that evidence of learning, then I use that just like you had mentioned, Jessica, about or I might have been Jessica who said, now I could take that information, look at where they're at, know where they're supposed to be going, and then make adjustments and changes to those steps to move that direction. But I guess the big thing is I would love for staff to begin to understand formative assessment is not about a quiz. It's not about a quiz question. It's not even about using the tool formative assessment or formative. It's really about collecting evidence of students learning and thinking, doing, and saying, and then being able to make those adjustments And it's something that I'm still learning.
I mean, it's not necessarily something that we're born with, and I think it's challenging. But then, how do you take those everyday moments and sometimes there are minute to minute moments to help students move towards the ultimate goal, which is basically feeling like they have mastery toward the standards. And I think the big concept that I think is a misconception is that folks get tripped off between standards. And curriculum. Your curriculum is not your standard.
It's the playbook. Your standard is, like, the end goal. And so working with staff to kinda help move that process and begin to say, oh, wait, I don't have to just write a quiz every time. I don't have to just do these things, but also know what my standards are where students are moving towards. So, When I think of this question, we value things differently, just like Paul had mentioned, teachers value what's in the in front of them, their classroom, their students, their learning.
An administrator value is the holistic perspective of the school. But I definitely love to see more of a connective mindset between administrators and teachers to understand that the value really is important for both. Yeah. I would agree with that. Go ahead.
Chris, like how you said, you know, it doesn't have to be like a sit down quiz or a test. Like, those kind of assessments you know, we're good to to see where your kids, are and where they're, you know, where we wanna check them. But like in my classroom, I think you know, sometimes our students specifically thinking about them, they get so caught up on, okay, man, like, assess you, and they're like, oh goodness, we get a grade. Like, is this gonna go on the grade book? And, especially with with my students in my seventh grade classroom, you know, might give them, you know, ten questions And I'm like, can you guys answer these questions by yourself? And I'm like, you know, once you do five, let me, like, check them to make sure you're on the right track. And, you know, I always have kids even at the end of the school year.
After like a whole entire school year with me, they're like, is it gonna go in the grade book? I'm like, listen. That's not, you know, like, I just wanna make sure y'all know what you're doing. I want y'all to feel, you know, feel confident and and, you know, in your learning, doesn't always have to be about a grade. And so I think, you know, when our teachers can understand Chris, what you were talking about, you know, I have to be something always going in the grade book. You know, like, it's an ongoing process with with the learning.
I think our students will benefit from that too once our teachers can understand that. Well, the very nature of form of assessment isn't about a grade. It shouldn't go in the grade, but my right teacher should never put form of been in the great book. Right? It's about collecting of evidence for the moment. So you are spot on when it's when teachers need to change that mindset.
And I think your perspective, like, questions, quiz questions, those things are really important. But in the end, are I think of UDL, universal design for learning, and I think I'm a big fan of it. Am I giving my students multiple means of engaging and showing their learning instead of just only a text based response? You know? And so that's where I think of forward assessment is what students read, right, or what they do, say, make, or, you know, say so can they draw something? Can they can they do other things? And so I like the idea of helping your tea you're working with your teachers to broaden their perspective. I love that idea. Yep.
And really any assessment, can be formative in nature because ultimately it's not about the assessment itself. It's about how you use the data. And that's what determines whether assessment is formative or or summative in nature. So that's just my perspective on that. Alright.
Let's go to our next our next trend here. So quality and reliability still matter most. So when teachers are evaluating assessments, they're saying reliability, validity, and quality are those most important items. And this is again a trend that continued from our previous study. So who wants to chat about what they know about this.
I think I'll just kinda pick it up from where we were the conversation with Chris and Jessica had kinda just been talking about, and you had mentioned a little bit too, is this, you know, the this assessment stuff isn't off by itself. It part of a process. And I think when it's quality assessment, it's part of the learning cycle. And, you know, you're assessing And I think when it's good assessment, there's feedback that comes with it. And at some point in the history of, you know, education, you know, the only feedback kids got was the score on their test.
And, you know, there's not much that they can do with that. There's no quality to that. There's nothing to do from it. And so if we've got this good formative assessment, there's feedback that comes from it that it's part of the the learner can do something from that. And so I think that's where we get into this quality stuff.
And I know you know, the way it looked and to piggyback from, you know, one of the I think the first, bullet point, somebody had mentioned how teachers would collaborate, and that's where a lot of our good quality assessments have started to come out now. Where they've talked about, well, what are good ways to be able to tell? Are they getting the standard? What's the next step or, you know, having level set tests or assessments? That can check and provide feedback for the learner to keep getting better. It's kind of how we've seen it play out. Absolutely. Okay.
Anyone else have any comments about this particular trend? Okay. We'll move on then. So This particular trend is about having the right technology that gives everyone the right data at the right time. So we're at the point where data is kind of that thing that is guiding all of our instruction out there And so we're really looking at having technology that's gonna help us in this process. It's kind of the the necessary evil out there in the world these days.
So what do you guys feel about this particular trend? And do you feel like it hits what where you're experiencing in your districts. I was about to jump in. Go ahead, Greg. No. Go ahead, Greg.
You go first. Thank you, sir. I was just gonna jump in on Paul. What he was talking about with the quality assessment, and I I I think of how my district uses technology to create those quality assessments. We have a lead math, science, and other folks.
And they work with the teachers, and they gather around, and they create these assessments together. And then, of course, they share them out to the technology. And I and I like the ability to have teachers share the same assessments if they're in the same place, same time doing all the things with the kids, but being able to see what if your kids know, what my kids know, And I I think it makes makes for a a greater understanding of where the district is as a whole, and the whole idea of the trying to reduce the variability between a school and that school, which all kids are doing great things. The technology gives them the access to the same tools, the same teacher created materials that they can share across the district, and then, they can look at that and figure out okay. So this school's trending this way, this school's trending that way.
We need to figure out how we can change or what we can change in order to make Those positive changes in both areas. Chris, did you have something to add? Well, I think, Greg, what I hear you're saying is consistency is really important, I think. Right? The ability to share is important, but that consistency across the district, like, hey, we're all giving similar assessments, then we can do similar trends in CTrem. Is that kind of what you're saying? Cause I like that idea. Yes.
It is. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay.
I just wanted to make sure. I was like, I just wanna make sure I got here. So my take on this, I have a lot of personal feelings and stuff like that. But one of my favorite, surveys that I'm a huge fan of is called the speak up survey, designed by product tomorrow. And in their survey, they found in two thousand twenty one, they said that, eighty four percent of students find themselves taking assessments with their laptops or technology.
And that's what's happening. Like, the technology comes out and eighty four percent of that time is taking assessments. So I don't necessarily disagree that technology makes you know, the right data, the right technology gives us the right time. But what I find I struggle with is, is a student coming to class and the only reason why the Chrome book out is on the desk is to take an assessment. And so I think all this probably here would agree that we don't want that as a perspective for students.
We want them to engage in that Chromic or that device so that they're actually engaging in learning and and making that learning impossible. But then at the same time, there's this balance between it's easier to give assessments using the technology. So how do we balance between? It's not always a hundred percent all the time assessments when I take out the Chromebooks, we're also engaging in learning. And I'm also a big fan of, again, multiple means of assessments. I think that if we're giving our students multiple opportunities to share what they know and we can collect it in multiple ways, then we can definitely really hone in on what types of either barriers or what kind of gaps are evident what they're learning.
I think that's really, really important. But I will say And this is because I've done a lot of work with the data that we use. Collecting bad data still provides bad results. And and so we have to be careful with, yes, with the use of our technology, but we also need to be really aware of the types of data we're asking to collect because my experience here, especially being used as a campus admin, we really have to do a lot of scrubbing of the data before we make action take place. And so we just have to be really aware as as as users of data and users of of technology.
The data still needs to be really looked at and make sure that the data is clean and and, basically, actionable as well. So Hey. I would agree with all of those things. And I think too that we need to look at it from the perspective of what if the technology is helping. But including the idea, and we've kind of alluded to this, I think, on in multiple trends throughout this, but remembering that assessment doesn't equal testing.
That assessment can really be, you know, observational in nature. If you're walking around the classroom, if students are working on a practice assignment and you're saying, oh, tell me what you're doing here. Tell me about this particular character that you're reading about. Or tell me how you solve this particular math problem. Or tell me how this relates to, you know, the history that you're learning or anything like that.
Even that is an assessment. And so we have to kind of remember that that those those are all pieces of the same puzzle. That give us information about whether or not students are mastering standards along the way. But ultimately, having the ability to not just have to remember that or keeping that on our waterfall charts or something like that, but having the technology that allows us to really know whether or not students have mastered particular standards and whether they've mastered them once or whether they've mastered them multiple times throughout the year as we go back and recheck on skills that have been learned. So, you know, I think there's there's multiple places here.
And I know, Britney, you had talked a little earlier about, your use of mastery connect and how you have seen that make a difference for your classroom teachers. Do you wanna address that? Sure. Sure. And, I agree with everything that you guys are saying. Like, I feel like that there should be a balance when we're talking about assessment.
But I also feel like with using Mastery Connect, we were able to have actionable data. We knew, okay, what exactly each kid needed that next day. There wasn't, okay, we needed to go do the item analysis by hand or any of that. It was right there for us. We were also able to use the high quality questions from the item bank, to make those formative assessment, quick checks for kids, And I feel like at our school, the assessment, I guess, barrier with students, we're kind of overcoming that because The kids are realizing that we're using all pieces of assessment, just not just what we're doing on their iPads to put them in groups based on where they are and what they need next.
They also even the students I think are understanding the reliability that we need with that data so that they are in the correct group so that, we have plan the correct next steps for them. I I think that's pretty valuable. We've seen that you know, we're just able to differentiate so much more because we're also able to give, you know, different questions to different groups within the same class room because we're able to vary the pace of the content as a way to differentiate. These are things that we would not be able to do without the technology piece. And is it possible I can add one thing if you if it's alright with that? Sure.
I the the one part I was gonna add, and and I like that you share that, Britney, because I I was like, that's a great point. It is vital that the right students are put in the right groups And so there is vital that the data you're collecting is spot on. I love it, because those students are watching, you know. I think the one thing I was gonna say, and it and it kinda does allude to what Brittany had mentioned, which is I do feel like the positive, and I'm a huge technology fan, huge, is that feedback, which is really what I think we should be adding to the slide as well, is that feedback and frequent feedback is much more reasonable much more efficient and much more productive. Old school paper and pencil, we can still get students for feedback, but it's that time of passing back and receiving and all of that.
And so I feel like not only are we collecting the data, but when it comes to that feedback loop, which is vital, That's where the technology really think makes a huge impact on how we work with students is that I am able to see that feedback gets back to the students And that most likely that feedback is much more actionable, much more accessible, and much more use friendly for students. I feel like, especially because we're a district that uses Canvas. So where door students need to find that feedback. And so once they find that out and they discover that, I think that helps a lot. And then those teachers can use that information to make more actionable plans.
Yeah. I would agree. And I think that this trend goes a lot into not just talking about it. We've talked about it mostly from the perspective of teachers. But also having that data in the hands of the students as well, I think, is an important important piece to that.
Okay. Let's move to our last trend because we're running a little short on time. But our last trend is educators continue to balance the assessment approach. So the interesting thing about our findings from this particular trend was that teachers seem to be more positive about assessment than they were two years ago or a year ago when we did our previous one. And the levels of on the bottom row kind of making teachers anxious, making students anxious, all of those kinds of things have actually gone down a bit.
And more of the positive things about assessment have actually gone up from our previous study. So I thought that was an interesting piece. Who wants to kinda chat about about anything they're seeing in relation to this and their districts? I think, you know, when you had mentioned that the other day when we met, you know, how these things are dropping at the bottom, I think it's because as the assessment literacy has started to, you know, be a focus or a growth area with a lot of you know, the teachers and administrators, the different types of assessment are out there. And and again, shifting away from that the narrow view of what does assessment look like. And so this very it's been there for good teaching forever.
Being able to read whether your students are getting it or not, you know, reading body language in the classroom is probably the most powerful assessment that has always been in teachers' toolboxes and recognizing that that's part of the assessment that you're doing as a teacher and how it it it changes what your choosing to say next or what examples you're going to do, how what the instruction looks like. It's informing what choices are being made. And that's that balance of adding in more formative. It's not a separate event of assessment. Assessment is part of the learning of the learning cycle.
It's what causes or leads to the data is the feedback that can go to the students. It's a balance of who's getting the data. Who's taking the assessments? All of, you know, is it a technology based assessment? Is it, you know, paper based? Is it a real world, you know, practical project, you know, all of that different types and larger understanding of assessment. I think that's when when they talk about the balance, it's because we're expanding out and understanding all of that, and more of that is coming into play. That'll be my take.
Absolutely. Any last thoughts by anyone else before we kinda turn it over to our participants. That's that's also the hard thing about a webinar. You don't get to see anyone's faces to know whether or not they're with you or not with you. Right? No feedback that assessment we can't assess.
That's right. We're we're not we're not, you know, drinking our own kool aid here. I was just gonna say one more thing. I was just gonna say one more thing. I agree with Paul.
And I also feel like that knowledge that we're gaining as educators about assessments were in turn sharing that with students. So the students are more knowledgeable about, you know, why we are giving those pre assessments or formative assessments. And we're also leading down a path to where those kids are gonna have ownership over what they're learning. And eventually, they're gonna be able to self assess where they are in their learning. Which I think is our ultimate ultimate goal.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I really like this quote here that someone from our our survey put on there that assessment will reflect teaching more to the student needs than we sim than what we simply think should be taught. So really utilizing that data to make informed instructional decisions and really get that student from where they are to where they need to be on that learning continuum. So the future is student centered and data driven.
For sure. Right? Okay. So I know that some questions have been being answered in the Q and A. But Michelle, are there any other questions that we need to sort of address as a whole group. Yes.
We do have one. Comes from Michelle How can we increase our aptitude to deconstruct standards and to be able to write better assessments? Is there a PD out there to train teachers? How to write good tests? Well, I can tell you that at instructure, we do have some professional development sessions about actually creating quality assessments. And we also have, some some sessions that actually are deep dive into standards and really looking at how do you sort of break out your time and so forth So we can get you, you know, we can get you some more information about those those particular professional development sessions But ultimate Just just real real quick. I I just kinda pop in. Kind of the step that we went through with with, prioritizing standards.
There's, one of Marzano's books, and Peter Work was one of the authors on it. But it was kind of an objective way of looking at, standards and rating. How much does it impact other lessons in this or other standards in the course? How much does it impact other courses? How much is it impacted on, some other you know, state test or or things like that. So it was kind of an objective you, between those levels as well. It gave you kinda just a rating scale for each standard, and you could objectively look at it.
And then so that way you could go through, look at all the standards, and it gave you a way to kind of you know, prioritize or see which ones really are the most, important that you have to make sure, you get the most resources. So that was one way that we went through a a process to, break down the standards. Absolutely. Okay. Hopefully, that answered that question.
Are there any other questions that we need to address? I don't have it with me. Sorry. I don't I think I think it's making standards work for classroom leaders. I'd I'd have to look it up. I'm sorry.
That's also my last And we we have a we have a protocol that we use in our professional development sessions too that sounds like it's based on that same research about whether a standard is an enduring standard, whether it's a foundational standard, all of those kind of things. And it it allows you to kinda quantify standards based upon, you know, the criteria in the rubric. So, basically, assess the standards and, and then prioritize them based on that. So, agreed Alrighty. So thank you guys, for attending.
Michelle is going to put our ebook, our link to our ebook in the chat for all of you. If you're interested in finding out more about these trends and and digging in a little deeper into the data. We'll be very much appreciate your time today and hopefully You learned something from our phenomenal panelists that we had today. Thanks so much.
We're gonna talk to you about our research that we did and the trends that we found from that research. So we'll go ahead and get started if I can switch my oh, there we go. Okay. So, I'm gonna introduce myself. My name is Noel Gomez.
I am senior product marketing manager over assessment at instructure. And I have with me an incredible panel today of, educators from across the country, and I'm a let them introduce themselves. So turn it over to you, Greg, to give us a little bit about yourself. Hello. My name's Greg Bagby.
I'm the coordinator of instructional technology in Hamilton County Schools Chattanooga, Tennessee, as it says, started off as a classroom teacher moved into administration. I was a principal for ten years, and then I moved to central office to help folks get technology into their curriculum. Chris? Awesome. Hey, good morning for the, from the Pacific Northwest. I'm a instructional technology coach in a school district in Oregon.
Canvas admin as well for a pretty large district. And super excited to be here and can't wait to hear what all of these areas has to say. I'm Paul Tankovich. I'm a teaching and learning coach. I work for a school public school district in the middle of Ohio, about six thousand students in the district, so I'm gonna put a new Britney.
Hey there. I'm Britney Aquisto. I'm the math coach, in South Carolina, Spartanburg, school district too. Specifically, I'm at Chesney Elementary. And, I'm Jessica Coyle.
I'm also in Spartanburg two here in South Carolina. I'm a seventh grade math teacher. I've been doing that for seven years. Yeah. Awesome.
Thank you guys so much and we appreciate your time today. We're gonna, go through some of these these trends that we found. And and share with you some of our learning and then let our participants who you really wanna hear from tell you how it's working in the real world. So, first of all, I wanted to, talk to you about our study. So we worked with Hanover Research, and we had done a study in, twenty twenty two about the state of assessment.
And so we re did this this now to see where assessment is in the k twelve world and kind of feelings around assessment and all of these things, this year in April. Our study had a thousand respondents. Fifty five percent of those were teachers and forty five percent of those were administrators. And so when we work with Hanover Research, we put together the questions, and then, they'll send out the research, and then they'll do all of the data collection and analyze the data and help us kind of look at that data in an appropriate way. So That being said, these are the five key trends that we found from our research this year.
Number one, we need to prioritize assessment literacy. And we'll talk about assessment literacy and what our view of that is here in just a minute. We also found that both administrators and teachers value investment, but for different reasons. And then three, quality and reliability still matter most. And by still there, that was the same thing that we found in our previous study.
And so this is just an additional piece that this is still the biggest piece in really looking at assessment. And then the right assessment technology provides the right data at the right time that that's a very important piece as well in, in this process of assessing students. And then finally, educators are continuing to balance their assessment per approach. So that is kind of the the peace between, you know, formative assessment, as well as summative assessment, as well as our, you know, favorite assessments, those state assessments, right? Not so much. But anyway, so we're gonna go through each of these trends and let our participants speak to, their their experience with these trends in in the real world because we at instructure can say something is happening in the real world, but this will help kind of validate that and get the perspective of these participants.
Alright. So this is a little bit of our study overview. And these were some of the questions that we were really looking to answer by doing this study. So we're really looking at what is the current role of assessment in, k twelve education according to educators, what are the most essential attributes to k twelve educators when evaluating assessments and how do educators continue to use assessment data to inform instruction. And then what does the future of assessment in K twelve look like.
And one interesting piece of this study is that we found that seventy percent of educators reported that they're evaluating their assessments at least once a year, which is a really great thing because that is an improvement from what we were seeing in the past, but I still think, you know, we still have some areas that we can go to improve upon that. We'd love to see that be a hundred percent of educators are evaluating their assessments at least once a year. But, we're moving in the right direction as far as that goes. So let's move to our next slide. This is really where we wanna talk about assessment literacy.
And our data in this research study really found that we need to prioritize assessment literacy. And sometimes this has a little bit of a different definition depending on who is talking about assessment literacy So I wanted to kind of level set right from the get go as to what we specifically are talking about when we're talking about assessment literacy. So ultimately, we're talking about the fact that teachers need to know their standards, know them well. So they need to know what it is that they're supposed to teaching, they need to know the the level of depth and complexity that are part of that particular standard. So their particular grade level or their course, what, you know, what level of of knowledge students need to get to.
And then In addition to that, knowing how to write high quality assessments that are going to provide the teacher with information on whether or not students are understanding that particular concept. And then finally, the final piece of assess literacy is then being able to take the data that they get from that assessment and really analyze that to know the real ins and outs of of students' levels of learning on that particular standard. So with that being said, What do you guys think about, about this trend that we need to prioritize assessment literacy? What are you seeing out there in the real world? So as, kind of looking at it from our my take or our take, the important to be able to assess, it's, you know, the the step back and ask the question, well, why are we assessing or why you know, why go through all that taking all that time to do it. And so in my situation or in our school, we've done a lot of work shifting, trying to shift to standards based grading. And we spent a lot of time with the teachers digging into the standards, taking a look at it, And what came out of it for us is kind of looking at those standards and kind of grouping them together, making scales And so you're looking at the different levels of what's trying to be learned.
And so when you're assessing, they know or are able to look and ask questions to find out our kids getting each area, and then are they ready for the next step? So the fluency or the ability when they assess and know whether the students are getting what they have intended with what we've articulated as standards And then are they ready to move on, or do they need to spend more time learning? So it's not just testing, but what do you do with that information and act on it? Absolutely. And I think Paul, when we talked before, you were also talking about that your district does some, like, projects based learning and things like that. Is that accurate? Yeah. And so, you know, assessment is, you know, a term that is more of a catchall and I think we'll I think we'll get into that more a little bit later on of, you know, what is assessment. And so it's not just the old standards, but is that really kind of what's going in here when we talk state assessment? Well, that's always just kind of just a test.
But assessment really is so much more than that. And our the real goal is when you answer the question of why are we assessing? Well, we wanna know whether kids are learning. And what do they need to do to learn more? And so is it a project? Is it having conversations with it? Is it your observations of them as their talking and using the content, you know, that's all assessment that we kind of tend to forget about. When we just try and, you know, the the default thinking of, assessment is state tests or big tests. And so I when we talk assessment literacy, it's all of us getting comfortable and understanding not just summative, but the formative action, not just the formal, but the informal, paying attention to what's going on to assess is learning happening.
What needs to happen for more learning to happen? I'll have to step in and just say how I agree with what Paul is saying. The whole idea assessment in the state tests or the end of, well, the test that you will take on Friday. I I think folks lost that a little. And then the whole idea of, the literacy part, my wife teaches an, an assessment course at a graduate level. I about this, but it is the graduate level.
And it seems like a lot of the times that I I visited her class a couple of times just to see what these pre service teachers are doing. Their focus thought isn't necessarily making sure the students get the material. They just wanna be able to create something that maybe shows what the kids get. They just wanna test test them, test them, and not necessarily figuring out how to use the assessment for learning or assessment for teaching. It seems like they're just of the mindset of, oh, we need to assess because we have to put something in the grade book.
Yeah. Absolutely. Kinda description of the old postmortem Yeah. No. It's that's after the fact.
That's there's a place for it, but it's not the only place. We need to be able to act on it. Yeah. And I I found too that, you know, when I was a school administrator, district administrator, I found that I assumed that teachers knew their standards really, really well and those kinds of things. And what I learned through that process is that A lot of teachers come into the profession without really knowing or they've just changed grade levels or they've just changed courses that they're teaching And, you know, we don't provide them a lot of time to dig into those standards and really get to the understanding level And then also teachers don't come in with a lot of experience in writing high quality assessments.
That's not necessarily part of pre service teacher programs that much. I think I in my day. I think I had like one portion of a course that was on assessment. In my pre service teaching program. And so I came in and I was like, okay.
So you give a spelling test on Friday. That's how this works. Right? And, we've sort of evolved quite a ways from that, but are not necessarily has all of the training that we provide for teachers evolved in that way as well. And so really being able to kind of focus on that, I think, is a big piece to really make teachers more successful in the classroom for sure. No.
Well, Yes. Quick note. You said Focus by Mike Schmoker that talks about focus and it talks about taking the standards and making I guess, focusing on the ones, the the things that the students really need to get. And you just reminded me that, we used that book when I was a principal to figure out, okay, so we have all these standards. But what do we want the kids to know and be able to do when they leave here? And I I think that's something that many organizations should look at drilling down those standards and figuring out what is actually important.
Yep. And also you know, Paul, I think the other day when we were talking, you said something about really figuring out what those priority standards were and figuring out what the more supporting standards were. Do you wanna talk about that for a minute? Certainly. Yeah. A lot of what we've done, was based on the Marzana work.
And so, you know, we started out with our teachers, you know, of their different curriculum and and different subjects where they go in and they were prioritizing or looking at what are the most important standards or what are the critical things to kind of rate how much time do you spend on each of the areas? And, you know, you only have a limited amount of time. It's finite. So what do you put the most resources in to making sure the kids get. And so the next step then was creating, proficiency scales, which are kind of you organize, you know, the standards that are related and there's a hierarchy. And, you know, there's a foundation that everybody needs to have.
You wanna ensure they've got that. And then, as they've shown that they've mastered or gotten those, then you work up to the next levels with those kids that need more time to, you know, learn or demonstrate that they've learned knowledge or the skill of the other standards before you move on. You know, you can your fluency then or your, you know, your literacy assessment is being able to find out where the kids are, which steps have they made it through? Where do they need to go next? But you need to know the standards well enough and have well designed assessments or leveled assessments, however, to get through all of those different things. Absolutely. Thanks.
Okay. We're gonna move on to our next trend. This one was both administrators and teachers value assessment, but for different reasons. So who wants to talk about this a little bit? How about I'll be bad first and say, My main idea with the testing was making sure that everything was ready for the speed test. That was my big focus because that's what I get call to the carpet on, probably at the end of the school year.
But, thankfully, I had a amazing academic coach that talked to the understanding of formative assessment within the classroom, within the class period, and how those do have some value and they add value as to, well, the whole idea assessment so that they don't know what to teach next or what's where to go from there. And it's not just as we're saying. Find the standards. Do the standards. Put them out and, yeah.
So as a principle, I I had to learn how to understand the formative assessments in the classrooms that the classroom teachers were doing, and I think that's mainly because in principal school and when you become an administrator and you go to these district wide meetings, you're pounding on you. Oh, we gotta get this test ready. We gotta do this for the test. We gotta do that for the test. I wasn't a big fan of the test by the time I left left the principalship.
But I I I actually I was just very appreciative but my coach did for me to train me as to not be such a stickler or so in love with the state test. Well, and to kind of piggyback off of what Greg was saying, about the importance of formative assessment, you know, in my work as an instructional coach. That's part of my job and to kind of connect back to what we were talking about with assessment literacy I really feel like at our school that we have collective assessment literacy. This is kinda where we all sit down in our PLCs. And we talk about the standard, like, all was mentioning earlier.
And then we talk about, okay, what would student mastery look like, and we create assessments together? There are times that we use paid vendors, to help with this assessment creation because I know, you know, one of the trends that we were talking about with assessment literacy is that teachers may not be well versed in assessments because there isn't as much training out there for educators But I feel like teachers really have to see an exemplar. You know, these high quality questions, And then once we're able to, like, to look at those questions, we're able to also replicate that and make it better because we're working collaboratively together. I think a lot of it too is, you know, the administrators are tasked for looking at the system, whereas teachers are with those groups of kids and individuals So it's kind of a scale action of your lens is going to be determined on, you know, what impact or what are you going to be changing and looking to tweak So as you're assessing, or what are you looking, you know, what are you looking to do from the data? So I think that's part of that dichotomy between the different views. Yeah. I think that's why teachers value the formative assessment piece so so much is exactly what you were saying, Paul.
Is the day to day in the classroom what the kids are learning at that moment in time and where they are and being able to provide differentiation for those kids because you know exactly where they are and where they're headed next. And in the end, I mean, if we do that along the way, then the results should be favorable on the state assessment. I think, a big thing that I find myself wrestling with over here where I'm at is For a while, when teachers think of formative assessment, we've got a tool called formative, which is a fantastic tool. But it offers a an it offers an opportunity for students to engage multiple choice, true false. Like, lots of different question types.
And so what I feel like I'm wrestling with over here in this space is there's when people say formative, the brain goes to formative tool, the tool itself. That a lot of times I feel like folks don't understand that form of assessment is not just a quiz. It's not just taking in an assessment. It's I mean, in one of my favorite gurus, a form of assessment, her name is Margaret Heritage, amazing individual, And her big thing is formative assessment is based off of four things, which students do say make or write. And so what that means is that teachers should be able to feel have the freedom to say, this is not always a test example or a test quiz or whatever.
It's the reality is whenever I have my students do say make or write those things, and if I want to collect that evidence of learning, then I use that just like you had mentioned, Jessica, about or I might have been Jessica who said, now I could take that information, look at where they're at, know where they're supposed to be going, and then make adjustments and changes to those steps to move that direction. But I guess the big thing is I would love for staff to begin to understand formative assessment is not about a quiz. It's not about a quiz question. It's not even about using the tool formative assessment or formative. It's really about collecting evidence of students learning and thinking, doing, and saying, and then being able to make those adjustments And it's something that I'm still learning.
I mean, it's not necessarily something that we're born with, and I think it's challenging. But then, how do you take those everyday moments and sometimes there are minute to minute moments to help students move towards the ultimate goal, which is basically feeling like they have mastery toward the standards. And I think the big concept that I think is a misconception is that folks get tripped off between standards. And curriculum. Your curriculum is not your standard.
It's the playbook. Your standard is, like, the end goal. And so working with staff to kinda help move that process and begin to say, oh, wait, I don't have to just write a quiz every time. I don't have to just do these things, but also know what my standards are where students are moving towards. So, When I think of this question, we value things differently, just like Paul had mentioned, teachers value what's in the in front of them, their classroom, their students, their learning.
An administrator value is the holistic perspective of the school. But I definitely love to see more of a connective mindset between administrators and teachers to understand that the value really is important for both. Yeah. I would agree with that. Go ahead.
Chris, like how you said, you know, it doesn't have to be like a sit down quiz or a test. Like, those kind of assessments you know, we're good to to see where your kids, are and where they're, you know, where we wanna check them. But like in my classroom, I think you know, sometimes our students specifically thinking about them, they get so caught up on, okay, man, like, assess you, and they're like, oh goodness, we get a grade. Like, is this gonna go on the grade book? And, especially with with my students in my seventh grade classroom, you know, might give them, you know, ten questions And I'm like, can you guys answer these questions by yourself? And I'm like, you know, once you do five, let me, like, check them to make sure you're on the right track. And, you know, I always have kids even at the end of the school year.
After like a whole entire school year with me, they're like, is it gonna go in the grade book? I'm like, listen. That's not, you know, like, I just wanna make sure y'all know what you're doing. I want y'all to feel, you know, feel confident and and, you know, in your learning, doesn't always have to be about a grade. And so I think, you know, when our teachers can understand Chris, what you were talking about, you know, I have to be something always going in the grade book. You know, like, it's an ongoing process with with the learning.
I think our students will benefit from that too once our teachers can understand that. Well, the very nature of form of assessment isn't about a grade. It shouldn't go in the grade, but my right teacher should never put form of been in the great book. Right? It's about collecting of evidence for the moment. So you are spot on when it's when teachers need to change that mindset.
And I think your perspective, like, questions, quiz questions, those things are really important. But in the end, are I think of UDL, universal design for learning, and I think I'm a big fan of it. Am I giving my students multiple means of engaging and showing their learning instead of just only a text based response? You know? And so that's where I think of forward assessment is what students read, right, or what they do, say, make, or, you know, say so can they draw something? Can they can they do other things? And so I like the idea of helping your tea you're working with your teachers to broaden their perspective. I love that idea. Yep.
And really any assessment, can be formative in nature because ultimately it's not about the assessment itself. It's about how you use the data. And that's what determines whether assessment is formative or or summative in nature. So that's just my perspective on that. Alright.
Let's go to our next our next trend here. So quality and reliability still matter most. So when teachers are evaluating assessments, they're saying reliability, validity, and quality are those most important items. And this is again a trend that continued from our previous study. So who wants to chat about what they know about this.
I think I'll just kinda pick it up from where we were the conversation with Chris and Jessica had kinda just been talking about, and you had mentioned a little bit too, is this, you know, the this assessment stuff isn't off by itself. It part of a process. And I think when it's quality assessment, it's part of the learning cycle. And, you know, you're assessing And I think when it's good assessment, there's feedback that comes with it. And at some point in the history of, you know, education, you know, the only feedback kids got was the score on their test.
And, you know, there's not much that they can do with that. There's no quality to that. There's nothing to do from it. And so if we've got this good formative assessment, there's feedback that comes from it that it's part of the the learner can do something from that. And so I think that's where we get into this quality stuff.
And I know you know, the way it looked and to piggyback from, you know, one of the I think the first, bullet point, somebody had mentioned how teachers would collaborate, and that's where a lot of our good quality assessments have started to come out now. Where they've talked about, well, what are good ways to be able to tell? Are they getting the standard? What's the next step or, you know, having level set tests or assessments? That can check and provide feedback for the learner to keep getting better. It's kind of how we've seen it play out. Absolutely. Okay.
Anyone else have any comments about this particular trend? Okay. We'll move on then. So This particular trend is about having the right technology that gives everyone the right data at the right time. So we're at the point where data is kind of that thing that is guiding all of our instruction out there And so we're really looking at having technology that's gonna help us in this process. It's kind of the the necessary evil out there in the world these days.
So what do you guys feel about this particular trend? And do you feel like it hits what where you're experiencing in your districts. I was about to jump in. Go ahead, Greg. No. Go ahead, Greg.
You go first. Thank you, sir. I was just gonna jump in on Paul. What he was talking about with the quality assessment, and I I I think of how my district uses technology to create those quality assessments. We have a lead math, science, and other folks.
And they work with the teachers, and they gather around, and they create these assessments together. And then, of course, they share them out to the technology. And I and I like the ability to have teachers share the same assessments if they're in the same place, same time doing all the things with the kids, but being able to see what if your kids know, what my kids know, And I I think it makes makes for a a greater understanding of where the district is as a whole, and the whole idea of the trying to reduce the variability between a school and that school, which all kids are doing great things. The technology gives them the access to the same tools, the same teacher created materials that they can share across the district, and then, they can look at that and figure out okay. So this school's trending this way, this school's trending that way.
We need to figure out how we can change or what we can change in order to make Those positive changes in both areas. Chris, did you have something to add? Well, I think, Greg, what I hear you're saying is consistency is really important, I think. Right? The ability to share is important, but that consistency across the district, like, hey, we're all giving similar assessments, then we can do similar trends in CTrem. Is that kind of what you're saying? Cause I like that idea. Yes.
It is. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay.
I just wanted to make sure. I was like, I just wanna make sure I got here. So my take on this, I have a lot of personal feelings and stuff like that. But one of my favorite, surveys that I'm a huge fan of is called the speak up survey, designed by product tomorrow. And in their survey, they found in two thousand twenty one, they said that, eighty four percent of students find themselves taking assessments with their laptops or technology.
And that's what's happening. Like, the technology comes out and eighty four percent of that time is taking assessments. So I don't necessarily disagree that technology makes you know, the right data, the right technology gives us the right time. But what I find I struggle with is, is a student coming to class and the only reason why the Chrome book out is on the desk is to take an assessment. And so I think all this probably here would agree that we don't want that as a perspective for students.
We want them to engage in that Chromic or that device so that they're actually engaging in learning and and making that learning impossible. But then at the same time, there's this balance between it's easier to give assessments using the technology. So how do we balance between? It's not always a hundred percent all the time assessments when I take out the Chromebooks, we're also engaging in learning. And I'm also a big fan of, again, multiple means of assessments. I think that if we're giving our students multiple opportunities to share what they know and we can collect it in multiple ways, then we can definitely really hone in on what types of either barriers or what kind of gaps are evident what they're learning.
I think that's really, really important. But I will say And this is because I've done a lot of work with the data that we use. Collecting bad data still provides bad results. And and so we have to be careful with, yes, with the use of our technology, but we also need to be really aware of the types of data we're asking to collect because my experience here, especially being used as a campus admin, we really have to do a lot of scrubbing of the data before we make action take place. And so we just have to be really aware as as as users of data and users of of technology.
The data still needs to be really looked at and make sure that the data is clean and and, basically, actionable as well. So Hey. I would agree with all of those things. And I think too that we need to look at it from the perspective of what if the technology is helping. But including the idea, and we've kind of alluded to this, I think, on in multiple trends throughout this, but remembering that assessment doesn't equal testing.
That assessment can really be, you know, observational in nature. If you're walking around the classroom, if students are working on a practice assignment and you're saying, oh, tell me what you're doing here. Tell me about this particular character that you're reading about. Or tell me how you solve this particular math problem. Or tell me how this relates to, you know, the history that you're learning or anything like that.
Even that is an assessment. And so we have to kind of remember that that those those are all pieces of the same puzzle. That give us information about whether or not students are mastering standards along the way. But ultimately, having the ability to not just have to remember that or keeping that on our waterfall charts or something like that, but having the technology that allows us to really know whether or not students have mastered particular standards and whether they've mastered them once or whether they've mastered them multiple times throughout the year as we go back and recheck on skills that have been learned. So, you know, I think there's there's multiple places here.
And I know, Britney, you had talked a little earlier about, your use of mastery connect and how you have seen that make a difference for your classroom teachers. Do you wanna address that? Sure. Sure. And, I agree with everything that you guys are saying. Like, I feel like that there should be a balance when we're talking about assessment.
But I also feel like with using Mastery Connect, we were able to have actionable data. We knew, okay, what exactly each kid needed that next day. There wasn't, okay, we needed to go do the item analysis by hand or any of that. It was right there for us. We were also able to use the high quality questions from the item bank, to make those formative assessment, quick checks for kids, And I feel like at our school, the assessment, I guess, barrier with students, we're kind of overcoming that because The kids are realizing that we're using all pieces of assessment, just not just what we're doing on their iPads to put them in groups based on where they are and what they need next.
They also even the students I think are understanding the reliability that we need with that data so that they are in the correct group so that, we have plan the correct next steps for them. I I think that's pretty valuable. We've seen that you know, we're just able to differentiate so much more because we're also able to give, you know, different questions to different groups within the same class room because we're able to vary the pace of the content as a way to differentiate. These are things that we would not be able to do without the technology piece. And is it possible I can add one thing if you if it's alright with that? Sure.
I the the one part I was gonna add, and and I like that you share that, Britney, because I I was like, that's a great point. It is vital that the right students are put in the right groups And so there is vital that the data you're collecting is spot on. I love it, because those students are watching, you know. I think the one thing I was gonna say, and it and it kinda does allude to what Brittany had mentioned, which is I do feel like the positive, and I'm a huge technology fan, huge, is that feedback, which is really what I think we should be adding to the slide as well, is that feedback and frequent feedback is much more reasonable much more efficient and much more productive. Old school paper and pencil, we can still get students for feedback, but it's that time of passing back and receiving and all of that.
And so I feel like not only are we collecting the data, but when it comes to that feedback loop, which is vital, That's where the technology really think makes a huge impact on how we work with students is that I am able to see that feedback gets back to the students And that most likely that feedback is much more actionable, much more accessible, and much more use friendly for students. I feel like, especially because we're a district that uses Canvas. So where door students need to find that feedback. And so once they find that out and they discover that, I think that helps a lot. And then those teachers can use that information to make more actionable plans.
Yeah. I would agree. And I think that this trend goes a lot into not just talking about it. We've talked about it mostly from the perspective of teachers. But also having that data in the hands of the students as well, I think, is an important important piece to that.
Okay. Let's move to our last trend because we're running a little short on time. But our last trend is educators continue to balance the assessment approach. So the interesting thing about our findings from this particular trend was that teachers seem to be more positive about assessment than they were two years ago or a year ago when we did our previous one. And the levels of on the bottom row kind of making teachers anxious, making students anxious, all of those kinds of things have actually gone down a bit.
And more of the positive things about assessment have actually gone up from our previous study. So I thought that was an interesting piece. Who wants to kinda chat about about anything they're seeing in relation to this and their districts? I think, you know, when you had mentioned that the other day when we met, you know, how these things are dropping at the bottom, I think it's because as the assessment literacy has started to, you know, be a focus or a growth area with a lot of you know, the teachers and administrators, the different types of assessment are out there. And and again, shifting away from that the narrow view of what does assessment look like. And so this very it's been there for good teaching forever.
Being able to read whether your students are getting it or not, you know, reading body language in the classroom is probably the most powerful assessment that has always been in teachers' toolboxes and recognizing that that's part of the assessment that you're doing as a teacher and how it it it changes what your choosing to say next or what examples you're going to do, how what the instruction looks like. It's informing what choices are being made. And that's that balance of adding in more formative. It's not a separate event of assessment. Assessment is part of the learning of the learning cycle.
It's what causes or leads to the data is the feedback that can go to the students. It's a balance of who's getting the data. Who's taking the assessments? All of, you know, is it a technology based assessment? Is it, you know, paper based? Is it a real world, you know, practical project, you know, all of that different types and larger understanding of assessment. I think that's when when they talk about the balance, it's because we're expanding out and understanding all of that, and more of that is coming into play. That'll be my take.
Absolutely. Any last thoughts by anyone else before we kinda turn it over to our participants. That's that's also the hard thing about a webinar. You don't get to see anyone's faces to know whether or not they're with you or not with you. Right? No feedback that assessment we can't assess.
That's right. We're we're not we're not, you know, drinking our own kool aid here. I was just gonna say one more thing. I was just gonna say one more thing. I agree with Paul.
And I also feel like that knowledge that we're gaining as educators about assessments were in turn sharing that with students. So the students are more knowledgeable about, you know, why we are giving those pre assessments or formative assessments. And we're also leading down a path to where those kids are gonna have ownership over what they're learning. And eventually, they're gonna be able to self assess where they are in their learning. Which I think is our ultimate ultimate goal.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I really like this quote here that someone from our our survey put on there that assessment will reflect teaching more to the student needs than we sim than what we simply think should be taught. So really utilizing that data to make informed instructional decisions and really get that student from where they are to where they need to be on that learning continuum. So the future is student centered and data driven.
For sure. Right? Okay. So I know that some questions have been being answered in the Q and A. But Michelle, are there any other questions that we need to sort of address as a whole group. Yes.
We do have one. Comes from Michelle How can we increase our aptitude to deconstruct standards and to be able to write better assessments? Is there a PD out there to train teachers? How to write good tests? Well, I can tell you that at instructure, we do have some professional development sessions about actually creating quality assessments. And we also have, some some sessions that actually are deep dive into standards and really looking at how do you sort of break out your time and so forth So we can get you, you know, we can get you some more information about those those particular professional development sessions But ultimate Just just real real quick. I I just kinda pop in. Kind of the step that we went through with with, prioritizing standards.
There's, one of Marzano's books, and Peter Work was one of the authors on it. But it was kind of an objective way of looking at, standards and rating. How much does it impact other lessons in this or other standards in the course? How much does it impact other courses? How much is it impacted on, some other you know, state test or or things like that. So it was kind of an objective you, between those levels as well. It gave you kinda just a rating scale for each standard, and you could objectively look at it.
And then so that way you could go through, look at all the standards, and it gave you a way to kind of you know, prioritize or see which ones really are the most, important that you have to make sure, you get the most resources. So that was one way that we went through a a process to, break down the standards. Absolutely. Okay. Hopefully, that answered that question.
Are there any other questions that we need to address? I don't have it with me. Sorry. I don't I think I think it's making standards work for classroom leaders. I'd I'd have to look it up. I'm sorry.
That's also my last And we we have a we have a protocol that we use in our professional development sessions too that sounds like it's based on that same research about whether a standard is an enduring standard, whether it's a foundational standard, all of those kind of things. And it it allows you to kinda quantify standards based upon, you know, the criteria in the rubric. So, basically, assess the standards and, and then prioritize them based on that. So, agreed Alrighty. So thank you guys, for attending.
Michelle is going to put our ebook, our link to our ebook in the chat for all of you. If you're interested in finding out more about these trends and and digging in a little deeper into the data. We'll be very much appreciate your time today and hopefully You learned something from our phenomenal panelists that we had today. Thanks so much.