Short Takes: Standards Based Assessment and Reporting

I posted the following (with a little more description) on my school based blog HERE. I thought it was worth cross-posting here as well.

I wanted to touch on a topic that has been in the news quite a bit recently - the idea of Standards Based Assessment and Reporting (SBAR), sometimes called Standards Based Grading (SBG).

SBAR represents a shift in the way students are assessed. Rather than resulting in a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F; SBAR refers all learning back to a predetermined group of standards that are developed for each course. These standards often correlate with state and national standards like the Iowa Core Curriculum. Parents and students are aware of the standards ahead of time and teachers use multiple points of evidence to determine how fully each student has progressed toward mastery of each standard. Progress toward mastery is usually reported as a number (from 1-4) or a descriptor (like Beginning, Developing, Secure, or Exceeds). In some ways it is similar to the use of a rubric in assessing a student project. The standards are laid out ahead of time as well as descriptive information that guides students in understanding what a 1, 2, 3, or 4 "looks like." In a true standards based environment, at the end of the reporting period (ex. quarter or semester) there is no letter grade issued - The report that parents receive contains a list of the standards as well as information as to which level of mastery the student has attained. In most SBAR systems, behavior and learning are assessed separately. The idea being that by the end of the course, we expect all students to be at a Secure level in these 10 (or whatever the number is) standards. Some may reach that level much sooner, some may take longer, but the amount of time they take to get there is secondary - the goal is to get all students there.

SBAR has been in the news in Iowa recently because of the Waukee School District's decision to move toward this type of assessment and reporting in both of their middle schools. The decision has not been readily supported by many. Many parents are concerned about what they see as a significant shift in the way their kids are assessed and in the way their progress is reported.

Common parent concerns have been that this represents a dumbing down or easing of academic rigor. There have also been concerns that the "real world" often uses letter grades to assess and schools should as well.

Let me be clear - I am certainly not an expert in Standards Based Grading. I have only begun to truly learn about the practice this year. However, the more I learn about it the more sense it seems to make.

Most of us have jobs in which we are evaluated. How many of those evaluations are boiled down to one simple letter? We have an evaluation process that we use in the Okoboji School District to evaluate teacher effectiveness. It is based on the Iowa Teaching Standards. You can find those eight standards and their benchmarks HERE. Every three years (for continuing teachers on a professional license) a teacher is observed several times, and their performance is compared with these Standards. The goal is for teachers to reach mastery level of all eight standards. A summative evaluation is written which describes their progress toward mastery of these eight standards. If a teacher is deficient in one or more of these areas, an assistance plan is developed that targets improvement in the identified areas of need. Progress is measured and noted and future decisions are based on the results of the plan. Most teachers interviewing for a job will reference the standards and during their first two years of teaching they are required to create a portfolio of evidence that they have met the standards.

Does this sound familiar to you? It seems to me we are already doing SBAR in the evaluation of teachers. I know if I tried to issue a single letter of A-F and call it my "summative evaluation" of a teacher, it would never be allowed. It would be decried as subjective, incomplete, and vague...and they would be absolutely right. If Standards Based Assessment and Reporting is good enough for a decision that affects the future of someones employment, their livelihood, and the security of their family...shouldn't it also be good enough for sophomore biology?

Just a thought...

I leave you with this final note about standards based assessment: I once heard someone talk about how in most classrooms you could get a poor grade on the tests but do great on homework and still pass. The speaker related that they were glad flight school did not work that way. They said if someone could get an A on takeoff and flying but a D on landing, they should not get a C+ in flight school. I, like the speaker, am glad that flight school has always used Standards Based Assessment and Reporting. :-)

Have a GREAT week!

Its ITED week, and I feel like a fraud...

Students at our high school will be taking the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) this week. We will devote almost 6 hours total over the span of three days to these tests. The results of two of these tests, Math and Reading Comprehension, will be reported to measure our adequate yearly progress (AYP) and will be published in the newspaper in order to comply with No Child Left Behind.

In preparation for these tests one of my main roles is to encourage kids to give their best effort. I can do this by:

• Impressing upon them the importance of the tests to them as individuals.
• Impressing upon them the importance of the tests to us as a school.
• Telling them that these tests are accurate, well designed, measures of their educational progress that give them important feedback as to their individual growth.
• Telling them that their performance on these tests will significantly impact their future educational pursuits and the course of their lives.

These are ways to intrinsically motivate students to take these tests seriously and give their best effort. There is just one problem.....

I don't believe any of it.

I believe that most standardized tests, ITEDs included, are outdated, narrow, and drastically inaccurate measures of anything. I do not believe they measure any meaningful learning beyond rudimentary basics, and of course, how to use an atlas (which we all know no 21st century learner can survive without.)

The only part of the above that does hold some truth is the idea that these tests are important to our district. They are important because they are used by our government to measure our schools progress. They stand as the only true measuring stick our state and federal governments use to determine how good (or bad) our school is. I can't begin to describe how ludicrous that is. The "quality" of a teacher, building, or district can not possibly be measured by 6 hours of annual multiple choice testing.

The mission of our school district is " We will prepare each learner with the knowledge and skills necessary for a productive life in a changing world." I LOVE our mission statement. It is deep, it is relevant, and it is worthy of the hours of time our dedicated staff puts into completing it. It CANNOT be measured by any bubble sheet or scantron machine in the world. I refuse to boil the quality of our school down to a single battery of standardized tests and the fact that my state and nation are willing to do so troubles me deeply.

I will encourage our students to do their best. I believe we should always do our best in all situations. I however, will not lie. I will not make these tests into something they are not, or should not be. I will not let them define our students, teachers, aides, or anyone else.

I cheered No Child Left Behind when it came into being. I was not alone. Great minds like Diane Ravitch, whose book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" I am currently reading, also embraced the movement to raise standards and implement accountability. However I, like Ravitch, have watched over the past 10 years as this law has done the opposite of what we had hoped it would do. It has created a myopic, punitive climate of fear as schools sacrifice deep, rich, true, learning at the altar of high stakes testing. Many schools across the country have slashed programs, altered curriculum, and turned a generation of students into great test takers, who don't really understand much of anything. I am proud to say our school has not. We will survive this era intact and with allegiance to our true educational mission.

I long for the era of No Child Left Behind to come to an end. I hope that as the pendulum swings once again, this time it will land in an place created by educators rather than legislators. Until that time, I will encourage and empower my staff and students to teach, learn, discuss, explore, and experience. Which ITED subtest will measure that?

Google Chrome Netbook Pilot - First Impressions

As I headed out to shovel the large amount of snow on my front step today I discovered something unexpected - a Google Chrome Notebook.  I had applied to be a part of the pilot project and receive a free notebook in early December.  As I unpacked the box, and began to gloat a bit on Twitter (sorry @acrozier22), several people asked me to write down my thoughts and reactions.  Here are a few of my initial thoughts after about 12 hours with the machine:

• It is durable - it spent its first night outside in -40 windchill on the front porch.  Started right up with no issues.  Probably helps that there is no hard drive or moving parts...
• The size is perfect, and would be perfect for 1:1.  A 12 inch screen, very thin, light and feels sturdy.  The entire body is covered in a rubbery coating, much better than the over-glossed, fingerprint prone netbook fare.  
• Startup is insanely fast.  Open it up and it is on in under 2 seconds.  This is one of the many features that reminds me of the iPad.  It is also one of the things that piques my interest in terms of 1:1 potential.  I worry about the startup time that laptops and even netbooks waste each time they are closed.  
• Speaking of the iPad, it is not a bad comparison.  It is app based and completely web dependent.  It is a little strange when you first open it and see the Google Chrome browser - and thats it.  It is a quick reminder that this is NOT a laptop - it is completely dependent on being online - in many ways it is like a thin client machine.  

This is a seriously intriguing concept - and its potential for the 1:1 movement is real.  In our school we have linked the move toward 1:1 with a move toward cloud based computing.  We have repeatedly said the importance of the box becomes less and less every day.  What we need is an onramp onto the web - this does that extremely well.  So, after a whole half-day with the machine, here are my initial pros (+) and cons (-)

+ Battery life - I have heard tale of 9 hour battery life and I would believe it...it has been sitting above 90% all evening.  No hard drive, no DVD/CD drive, not much to suck power.  

+ 3G - I think this might be one of the biggest pros in terms of its viability as a 1:1 tool.  We talk of 1:1 as bridging the divide between haves and have-nots but we often gloss over the fact that some of our students do not have wifi at home.  In the pilot program Google provides 100MB/month for the first 2 years via Verizon.  The possibility of a school subsidizing a 3G program for students that do not have Wifi access at home is an attractive prospect.  

- Track Pad - serious issues here.  No actual buttons (much like macbook) but not as functional.  Scrolling is spotty and needs improvement.  The lone USB port would work for adding a mouse, since there is really no other use for the USB port that I can see. 

- I am not sure we are quite there yet - this notebook could not be the only computer in our house.  There is NO on board storage - everything MUST be stored in the cloud.  While I am as on board with life in the cloud as anyone else, I am not ready to turn my pictures, videos, etc over to total net storage.  That being said, I applaud Google for this notebook (and not just because I got one).  It is an example of skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now.  Something about this notebook does feel like the future and I look forward to working with it more and watching what it (and its digital descendants) can become.