{"id":6389,"date":"2014-11-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/the-role-of-assessment-instruments\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:46:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:46:19","slug":"the-role-of-assessment-instruments","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/the-role-of-assessment-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"The Role of Assessment Instruments in a Competency-Based System"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>No matter how you approach it, you cannot mitigate the massive change agent that is competency-based education. It does not leave much room for \u201cold school\u201d notions of teaching and learning. It does not tolerate anything less than a committed belief that all students can achieve at high levels.<\/p>\n

It certainly demands a philosophical and ideological shift in thinking about \u201cbest practice\u201d in education.<\/p>\n

When I had first embarked on this journey, I had prepared myself for these shifts as they pertained to my practice. How can I become more student-centered? What does that look like? How will I know if my students are ready?<\/p>\n

The question I never asked: How will I assess it and grade it?<\/p>\n

Recently, I was sitting with a colleague who couldn\u2019t understand why her students weren\u2019t doing well on major benchmark assessments in her science class. She followed her curriculum and designed performance tasks that would challenge them by asking for synthesis and evaluation.<\/p>\n

As she handed me her performance task, I was impressed with its design and its rigor \u2013 students really did need to build off of their newfound scientific knowledge in order to create something new that they would test \u2013 either mathematically or through experimentation. They would then present their findings and their implications, both for future research and its impact on the environment.<\/p>\n

It seemed comprehensive, according to Larry Ainsworth\u2019s (2010) model for rigorous curriculum design. She had purposefully planned her assessment to align with her curriculum. It was authentic; she had prioritized which standards she would track. It wasn\u2019t the assessment that was problematic \u2013 it was her assessment instrument.<\/p>\n

The rubric specified no measurable standards. Instead, it looked at superficial elements of the students\u2019 work. For example, the first two criteria in her rubric stated: \u201cThe students\u2019 poster can be clearly read from three feet away\u201d and \u201cThe students\u2019 presentation was between 2 and 3 minutes long.\u201d According to Ainsworth, a rigorous curriculum provides not only a detailed road map, but also a \u201chigh-quality delivery system\u201d that insures attainment of standards. Rigor is essential in the work that students do. But when you examined her rubric, it didn\u2019t seem rigorous at all.<\/p>\n

This teacher certainly had rigor in her task, but it didn\u2019t translate to her assessment instrument. This misalignment between task and learning outcome also revealed a misconception about rubrics and their varied purposes.<\/p>\n

According to Susan Brookhart (2013), rubrics are not directions nor should they become task definers. The purpose of a rubric is to determine student learning. Rubrics, when well-designed and aligned with standards, can assist teachers in accurately placing a student\u2019s progress on a continuum and provide valuable information regarding instructional gaps and weaknesses.<\/p>\n

What my colleague had done was not uncommon. In working with this teacher \u2013 a popular and accomplished professional \u2013 I came to understand the role of assessment instruments more clearly. It wasn\u2019t that she couldn\u2019t design a rigorous assessment, it was that she didn\u2019t know how to use standards and knowledge frameworks to develop<\/em> the assessment instrument. When I asked her about her decision to assess the size of the poster or the length of the presentation, she looked puzzled and said, \u201cI thought the rubric was supposed to help the students follow the presentation directions.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Brookhart (2013), this is not an aberration. This is \u201ca very seductive but poor use for rubrics \u2026 to codify the directions for an assignment into a chart that lists the features of the task (for example, \u2018cover page\u2019) and the number or kind of required elements for each feature.\u201d This might create compliant students, but it does not create critical thinkers. It is also a \u201cgrade-focused\u201d rather than \u201clearning-focused\u201d approach because students only consider what they can earn on the assignment rather than what they can learn.<\/p>\n

When students enter my class, they only have one question about any piece of work they hand in: What\u2019s my grade on that? They are busy doing all sorts of creative math in their heads as they try to figure out what they need to pass the course. This is a mindset of minimal standards and accountability. It certainly isn\u2019t creating a culture of success.<\/p>\n

This becomes a huge challenge in competency-based education. First and foremost, it destroys an assessment\u2019s connection with and relevancy to the standards for instruction. Second, it mitigates critical thinking and creativity as students are confined to a rote set of low-level expectations that do not address what students should actually do with the knowledge and skills they attain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also terribly confusing. If I, as their teacher, don\u2019t value the task, why should they? My rubrics speak volumes about what I value \u2013 is it the size of their lettering or the quality of their thinking?<\/p>\n

These types of rubrics are all about the points and function as checklists rather than assessment instruments. These types of rubrics can be better used as components of a self-reflective activity for students as they consider how they handled an assignment\u2019s directives and expectations.<\/p>\n

When I first began my own reflective process in regards to my instruction, I didn\u2019t readily consider assessment. My primary concern focused on \u201cHow do I teach?\u201d, not \u201cHow do I assess student\u2019s understanding?\u201d But within a competency-based system, assessment will quickly arise as the \u201csticky wicket,\u201d and it certainly caused me to re-evaluate not only what I was doing, but also why I was doing it.<\/p>\n

It caused me to face the big questions of what I wanted my students to learn and how I was going to figure out whether or not they learned it. Rubrics in my classroom are not vastly different from assessment to assessment \u2013 in fact, we are currently focused on four primary standards as we deepen and strengthen our understandings \u2013 development of theme, use of evidence, language as agents of meaning, and author\u2019s purpose. No assessment has yet measured all four. Why would it? Students are still attempting to understand and explore the critical aspects of the standards \u2013 how to think about it and connect it to meaning as well as what it tells us about the world and the people in it.<\/p>\n

As I sat with my colleague and explored her standards and the rigorous thinking that students would engage in as they explored her content, I wondered how we can shift our attention away from rubrics as sets of directions and toward meaningful measurement of knowledge and understanding.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until after we explored her outcomes and standards as they could be translated into student act via the Webb\u2019s Depth of Knowledge<\/a>, that she began to make the connections to the rubric herself. \u201cWhat was I thinking?\u201d she exclaimed.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe it was her thinking that was faulty, but rather our collective focus on the change inherent in competency-based learning. How will we teach? What will we give up? Will it be worth it? But if the fundamental beliefs about assessment do not change, then instruction cannot be transformed in any meaningful, sustainable way.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Ainsworth, L. (2010). Rigorous curriculum design: How to create curricular units of study that align standards, instruction, and assessment.<\/em> Englewood, CO: Lead Learn Press.<\/p>\n

Brookhart, S. M. (n.d.). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Caroline Gordon Messenger has taught English for grades 6 through 12 for the past 14 years. Before earning her teacher certification, she was a professional journalist. Messenger holds a Master of Arts in Oral Traditions and a research Master of Philosophy in the Sociology of Education from Lancaster University in Lancaster, U.K. She currently teaches English and Journalism at Naugatuck High School in Naugatuck, CT. Reach her on Twitter: @cjmessenger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[417,104],"issue":[368,395],"location":[],"class_list":["post-6389","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","legacy_category-insights-into-implementationclassroom-practice","legacy_category-how-to","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-create-balanced-systems-of-assessments"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Role of Assessment Instruments in a Competency-Based System - Aurora Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/the-role-of-assessment-instruments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Role of Assessment Instruments in a Competency-Based System - 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