Formative Assessment and Differentiation

Topic:

• Authentic Assessment
• Checks for Understanding
• Designing Student-Centered Assessment
• Creating a Culture of Feedback
• Tracking Progress with Data
• Differentiation with Grouping

Overview:

Data is abundant in 21st-century schools, yet often this data is not used in an authentic way to drive student-centered teaching and learning. Assessment and feedback should be used as a way to direct instructional practices, shape future student learning, communicate with individual students about their progress, differentiate instruction, and ensure students feel ownership over their own learning and growth. All students are unique, and assessment should provide a way to understand how students learn in an effort to develop learning experiences to meet their needs.

What We Believe:

We believe teaching is about capitalizing on a student's strengths while working with the student to fill in gaps. By using assessments to identify and target what students need most in their learning, we can more successfully ensure each student is provided with learning opportunities that support their individual growth.

We believe that student understanding should be assessed in a variety of ways and at an appropriate level for the individual student.

We believe that teachers should give actionable, timely feedback to students on their progress, and that this feedback should empower students to feel a sense of ownership over their own learning and growth.

We believe that teachers should use student assessment data to guide and differentiate instruction. 

BetterLesson Blog Posts:

• Roehm, Leigh Ann. The Power of Feedback: Helping to Make the Invisible Visible for Students. December 4, 2018.

• Bankston, Krystal. How to Create a Classroom Focused on Student-Centered Assessment and Feedback. November 27, 2018. 

• Bankston, Krystal. The Power of Data: Instructional Strategies to Help You Create a Data-Driven Classroom. October 30, 2018.

• Lu, Tina. It Takes a Whole Community: Advancing from 23% to 85% of Students Showing Growth. September 4, 2018.

• Belknap, Cheryl. Two Effective Ways To Wrap Up Your School Year. June 19, 2018. 

• Rice, Lindsay. Why My Students and I Are Addicted To Exit Tickets. May 15, 2018.

External Resources: 

• Centre for Teaching Excellence. "Learner centred-assessment." University of Waterloo.

• Dougherty, Chrys. "How School District Leaders Can Support the Use of Data to Improve Teaching and Learning." ACT Research and Policy. 2015.

• Forman, Michelle L. "The Use of Assessment to Improve Instruction." Harvard Graduate School of Education. 2005.

• Jobs for the Future. "Student-centered Assessment Resources." 2013.

• Lockwood, Meghan; Dillman, Mary; Boudett, Kathryn Parker. "R&D: Using data wisely at the system level." Phi Delta Kappan 99 (1), 25-30. 2017.

• Miller, Andrew. "Using Assessment to Create Student-Centered Learning." Edutopia. 2015.

• Rich, John D. et al. "Creating Learner-Centered Assessment Strategies for Promoting Greater Student Retention and Class Participation." Frontiers in Psychology 5:595. 2014

• Students at the Center. "Student-Centered Assessment Resources."