Summative Assessment
Introduction
In my classroom, summative assessments are used to collect data on standards mastery rather than specific schools. In Achievement First Greenfield Models there are no grades. Students progress through the year based on standards mastery. For this reason, summative assessments are critical for students to demonstrate their ability to apply a variety of skills in different context. These are important assessments as we transition from one cluster of standards to another. It allows our spiral review in cumulative review classes to be better aligned to students current needs.
Unit Assessments
After each unit, students take a unit assessment to evaluate their mastery of four standards. At Achievement First Providence Mayoral Middle School, students do not receive grades. Instead, they are assessed on their mastery once a month on a Unit Assessment. Students are measured by standards and able to demonstrate mastery of standards during this time. For this reason, unit assessments are important to track student process. If students do not achieve mastery on one or more standard during the unit assessment they participate in a small group intervention group for two-weeks before taking a redo quiz to earn mastery of that standard.
With strict pacing guideline,s Unit Assessments occur at specific times. Students received instruct and feedback each day but there is a time when a review is not available. For this reason, a homework review is created to help students prepare for this assessment. Below is an example of the unit assessment review that students can complete. Parent communication is key to help students build the study habits necessary to succeed without adequate review days.
The image to the left is an example of the review packet where students prepare for their unit assessment. While looking at their work, I am paying close attention to how students are understanding and identifying top quality work that will guide them to academic success. This student demonstrates this work habit by annotating her thinking on the paper and drawing models to make sense of each problem.
Unit 8b Assessment
Each unit assessment is 16 questions with a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions. Students are given 80-100 minutes to complete the assessment on their computer. In order to evaluate student performance, students utilize scrap paper to justice their answer choice for each answer choice. Students are not able to receive any assistance. Similar to high-stakes testing, if students ask a question the only response I can give them is "Try your best". Seen below is a copy of the Unit 8b assessment.
The piece of evidence to the left is a student's scratch paper. Similar to weekly quizzes, scratch paper is an important part of my data analysis in order to understand gaps in student's learning and plan meaningful instruction as seen in the evidence below. By looking carefully at student work, I can plan a reteach aligned to the conceptual misconception students have about a particular standard.
Big Picture
Shown below is big picture data from Unit 8b Assessment. The overall average for the assessment was 54%, which seems low but when compared to school across the Achievement First Network is the second highest score. While the purpose of this assessment is for students to demonstrate mastery of standards and teachers to identify standards to prioritize, the overall average is less significant.
Standards Analysis
Looking at students mastery by standards is the most significant activity during this assessment process. Based on the breakdown seen below, students strengths and weaknesses can be identified. Students demonstrated the most mastery in 5.NBT.B.7.MultiDec which involved multiplying decimals. This is important to note, given our priority standard from IA 2 of 5.NBT.5 (standard algorithm multiplication). Overall students demonstrated similar levels of mastery among the other three standards. Ultimately the lowest performing standard is 5.NF.5 (interpreting multiplication as scaling). However, since students demonstrated equal levels of mastery amongst three standards, small group intervention groups will be determined based on this data.
Small Group Intervention
After looking at the standards, students are placed in small group intervention groups based on their individual performance. For students to achieve mastery on a given standard they must answer 3 out of 4 questions correctly. For this reason, students who were one question away from mastery are placed in a small group intervention for that standard. This allows students to receive the rapid feedback they need to address misconceptions and/or deepen their understanding of the content. While the names of the students are being kept disclosed, the following illustrates the plan of instruction during small group intervention.
The piece of evidence to the left is student work Small Group Intervention. The first image is student work that highlights the identification of multiplication from annotating and modeling the problem. The second and third image highlight student work that requires two steps. While the second student did not use annotations and models to represent the problem, they choose to demonstrate their thinking by writing equations. Both of these approaches demonstrate how I encourage students to communicate their learning in their own way.
Interim Assessments
At Achievement First, Interim Assessments (IA) are used to monitor student progress throughout the school year. This is formative data that is used to drive instruction as well as compare schools across the network.
The Interim Assessment is two parts. The first part is multiple choice questions. The second part is problem-solving based. Students take the assessment over two days. Each day students are given two hours to complete the assessment, however, this is not a timed assessment and they are allotted more time if necessary. Below is Interim Assessment 2 that is typically taken in the first two weeks of December. This is a blind assessment, therefore, I do not have access to it before the students. For this reason, teachers participate in a norming session for grading. While we compare work to a rubric, each school submits exemplar, incomplete, and not sufficient examples of each question. This allows us to establish a consistent grading system for comparative data. This entire process allows me to have an in-depth understanding of the skills and critical thinking skills need for students to master each student.
Big Picture
Shown below is data from IA 2. When beginning to evaluate student performance, this is where I start. This page allows me to see overall mastery, the performance by standards, and names of students who demonstrated mastery and approaching mastery.
The circle on this page demonstrate the percentage of students who mastered the content in green, students who are approaching mastery in yellow, and students who have not yet mastered in red.
Standards Analysis
The first step I take to understand assessment data is to look at students performance by standards. This allows me to evaluate where our strengths and weaknesses are as a collective group. Shown below is the standards breakdown for IA 2. Students demonstrated the most proficiency in 5.5.OA.2 and 5.5.MD.5.a. From this identification, I reflect back on the planning and execution of these lessons to find which strategies were most successful. Student demonstrated the least proficiency in a number of standards. However, standards 5.5.NBT.5, 5.5.NBT.6 and 5.5.MD.5.c were prioritized with the understanding that these were major skills (multiplication, division, and volume) students would need to find success throughout fifth grade and beyond.
Data-Driven Plan
Each of the steps exhibited above are practices I use for every assessment given in my classroom. For Interim Assessment, I develop a data-driven plan. Below is a copy of the data-driven plan I created while evaluated and reflecting on IA 2. This data-driven plan drove my instruction over the next eight weeks. Some key components included identifying fluency work, re-teach lessons, and homework. The priority standards identified above were chosen based on a question analysis completed in the DDP. This included looking at most common answer choices while simultaneously evaluating student scrap paper.
Re-teach Lesson
Based on the data-driven plan, I develop a number of re-teach lessons based on areas students demonstrated the most difficulty. Typically in my re-teach lessons, I begin with a chart the error. This allows students to make inferences and identify their mistake without me directly telling them. An additional reason I start by showing them student work is to prepare them to engage in a discussion. From looking at two pieces of student work and participating in a discussion, students are able to develop their own key takeaway and criteria for success moving forward. This makes reviews more meaningful and effective in addressing misconceptions and closing gaps.
Below is an example of my re-teach lesson on differentiating between multiplication and division. After evaluating each question within a standard, I choose one question from each standard to lead the re-teach lesson with. In this lesson, Question 27 was chosen because the most common response was multiplication. With the understanding, that students still struggle significantly with 5.5.NBT.5 (multiplication) and 5.5.NBT.6 (division) it was important to maintain the rigor of this reteach by asking students to conceptually differentiate between the two.
Conclusion
Within this section, I have demonstrated multiple methods of assessment used to inform instruction and invest students. While Interim Assessments are network-wide assessments, I have demonstrated a number of ways I use this information. Interim Assessments provide a plethora of information about student performance on a rigorous, high-stakes testing type of assessment. With this information, I create fluency work, homework assignments, and re-teach lessons. Each of these three components in math are daily data points that students are able to build investment and homeroom competition within. Additionally, students are made aware of their status in order to understand the impact of this work on their future performance.