Assessment

Assessment

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate





What is Assessment?

 “Schools are to undertake assessment to collect

information about students‟ learning. This will occur

through both formal and informal activities”

 Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and

interpreting information about students' learning.

 The central purpose of assessment is to provide

information on student achievement and progress and

set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning.





Policy Standards for Curriculum Planning and Programming,

Assessing and Reporting to Parents K-12

Who is to be assessed?

Assessment of student learning will be undertaken

for all learners, including students with disabilities:

 enrolled in regular classes;



 enrolled in special classes or in special

schools;

 accessing life skills outcomes and content in

Years 7-10 or following life skills patterns of

study in Years11-12.”

Policy Standards for Curriculum Planning and Programming,

Assessing and Reporting to Parents K-12

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









 Quality assessments should be:

 Valid

 Reliable

 Authentic

 Fair

 Comparable

 Educative

 Manageable

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Formative – Summative

Role of formative assessment

 indicates to student and teacher the

progress in learning: feedback

Role of summative assessment

 “how effective was the instruction?”

-ultimate summative assessment HSC

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









 Formative assessment often called

assessment for learning







 Summative assessment often called

assessment of learning

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate







Assessment „for‟ Learning

 acknowledges that assessment should occur as a

regular part of teaching and learning and that the

information gained from assessment activities can

be used to shape the teaching and learning

process.



 in the K-10 Curriculum Framework is designed to

enhance teaching and improve learning. It gives

students opportunities to produce the work that

leads to development of their knowledge, skills

and understanding.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Assessment „for‟ Learning

 Assessment for learning involves teachers in

deciding how and when to assess student

achievement, as they plan the work students will do,

using a range of appropriate assessment strategies

including self-assessment and peer assessment.



 Teachers of K-12 students will provide students with

opportunities in the context of everyday classroom

activities, as well as planned assessment events, to

demonstrate their learning.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Assessment “for” learning

Driving force:

 “…signals to students…what they should be

learning and how they should be learning it”

(Biggs, 2003)

Context:

 assessment component of teaching

 contextual-qualitative

Student‟s Role:

 likely to be participatory

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Assessment “of” learning

Driving force:

 grading or ranking; selecting; reporting

Context:

 separate from teaching (you don‟t tell the kid the

answers until review, if it occurs!)

 psychometric-quantitative (you need the numbers)

Student‟s role:

 Put up  take the punishment / bask in the glory

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head

Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate





Assessment for learning

 Britain: Paul Black and Dylan William, conducted

the major review of research on classroom

assessment and its impact.

 Resulted in the pamphlet, „Inside the black box‟.

 The review showed that effective, informal

classroom assessment (teacher and peers) with

constructive feedback to the student raised

levels of attainment.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Improving learning through assessment

Dependent on five key factors:

 effective feedback to students

 active involvement of students in their own learning

 adjust teaching to take account of the results of

assessment

 a recognition of the profound influence assessment has

on the motivation and self-esteem of students

 the need for students to be able to self-assess and

understand how to improve.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Why assessment for learning is critical



 Greater recognition of how people learn best –

constructivist approach: people create meaning,

using prior knowledge, from what they do

 knowledge is created by the student‟s learning

activities

 active learning, discovery learning

 learning as and for conceptual change –

challenging conceptions

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Why assessment for learning



 Recognition of the benefits of peer-and self-

assessment

–brings students “into the loop”; self-reflection

–more “authentic”

–need to create lifelong learners

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Why assessment for learning



Greater recognition of:

 how strongly assessment influences

student behaviour

 assessment as the strongest determinant

of what students learn

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate







Student view on “learning”



 What is the syllabus?

Students aren‟t experts on education – teachers are! (metalanguage of teaching)



 The assessment determines what I learn more than the

syllabus

“If it‟s not an assessment task I‟m not doing it”

“Is this assessable?”

“Will this be in the exam?”

 the assessment IS the syllabus



 and why not?

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate



Teacher view on “learning”

 Syllabus driven

“Today we are covering dot point…….”

“Today‟s lesson is aimed at outcome….”

“This assessment task is assessing outcomes…..”

 External exam driven

“This was an exam question in 2002”

“In the 2004 SC ……”

 Assessment task driven

“That‟s in the assessment task so I‟d better teach that well

and make sure they know it”

 Student responsibility

“I taught it, I know I did.”

“You did that as an assignment”

“That was covered in the homework”

“Kids always get that wrong”

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Qualities of the assessment “for” learning feedback

 Sufficient feedback is provided, often enough &

in enough detail

 The feedback is provided quickly enough to be

useful to students

 Feedback focuses on learning rather than on

marks or students

 Feedback is linked to the purpose of the

assessment and to criteria

 Feedback is understandable to students

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









What students must do to advance their

learning

 Feedback is received by students and

attended to – they do something with it

 Feedback is acted upon by students to

improve their work or their learning

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head

Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate





In practice, this means

 Clear evidence is gained about how to

drive up individual attainment (for both

teacher and student)

Therefore

 Students know what they need to improve

and how best they can do so

 A clear link between student learning and

lesson planning occurs

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Assessment for Learning occurs when

evidence* and dialogue identify where kids

are in their learning, where they need to

go and how best for them to get there and

this information is conveyed to the kid.

Should programming indicate what that

evidence could look like?

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Effective assessment for learning:

 is embedded in the teaching and

learning as an essential component

 involves sharing learning goals with

kids

 aims to help kids know and recognise

the standards they are aiming for

Effective assessment

 involves pupils in self-assessment

 provides feedback that empowers

students to recognise their next steps

and then to take them

 is underpinned by a confidence that

every student can improve

 has both teacher and student reviewing

and reflecting on assessment data.

Assessment for learning



Consider the key questions:

 What do the students need to learn?

 Why does that learning matter?

 What do the students need to do to and

demonstrate to show they have done that

learning?

 How well do they have to do it?

 Where is it taking them?

Plan the teaching learning program and

assessment to answer these questions.

Assessment „for‟ Learning

 Identify where

students are on

the K-10 Science

continuum and

design learning

activities that will

move them along

the continuum

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Collaborative planning and quality assessment

processes

 In Science teaching we recognise that

assessment is a two-way mode of

communication.

 As well as gathering information about students‟

learning, we know that it is through assessment

that we communicate to students what it is that

we value in Science.

 Assessment is anchored on a standard

Assessment of learning

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Assessment of learning

Driving force:

 grading or ranking; selecting; reporting

Context:

 separate from teaching (you don‟t tell the kid the

answers until review, if it occurs!)

 psychometric-quantitative (you need the numbers)

Student‟s role:

 Put up  take the punishment / bask in the glory

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers





Science Unit Curriculum Directorate





Assessment „of‟ Learning

 Assessment for learning informs “assessment of

learning”

 Enables teachers to report on the status of student

learning at various points in the teaching and

learning program.

 Involves teachers making holistic professional

judgements of student achievement, based on

evidence collected from both formal and informal

measures of each student‟s performance against

defined criteria, collected over time from a number

of assessment for learning activities.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Quality assessment

 Assessment promotes learning/ diagnostic

 Assessed tasks capture sufficient student time and

effort*

 Assessment tasks distribute student effort evenly across

topics & weeks*

 Assessment tasks engage students in productive

learning activity

 Assessment communicates clear and high expectations

to students

 Assessment is planned as part of programming and

feeds into progam revision - ESSA

Collaborative planning and

quality assessment processes

What kind of assessment can I use to provide

students with the opportunity to:

 show what they have learnt

 address significant scientific content

 provide quality feedback to the student on

their learning?



Assessment must be valid and reliable.

Collaborative planning and

quality assessment processes

In practice, effective science assessment is

characterised by tasks which:

 connect to prior learning

 engage students, are relevant and are valued

by them

 allow students to demonstrate their science

skills in context

 allow students to show what they know and

can do.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate







It is imperative that we build understanding of the

standards to be able to appropriately award grades



This understanding can be built by:

 Reflecting on the syllabus stage statements

 Reflecting on the Course Performance Descriptors

(CPDs)

 Accessing the Board of Studies assessment

advice, Assessment Resource Centre (ARC) and

the Standards Packages

 Professional dialogue - Reflecting on past student

performances

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head

Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate





Understanding the Standards

The Stage Statements in the K-10 syllabuses:



“summarise the knowledge,

understanding, skills, values and attitudes

gained by achieving the outcomes for a

stage of learning”.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









The Course Performance Descriptors for the

K-10 syllabuses:



“have been developed from the Board‟s

general performance descriptors, and provide

a more complete description of typical

performance in this course at each grade

level (A-E) ”.

http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/cpds/stage-5/science.doc

Understanding the Standards

CPDs for Science

Understanding the Standards

Accessing:

 Advice on Programming

and Assessment

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf

_doc/science_710_support.pdf

 The Standards Packages

 The ARC

http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au//

The Assessment Resource Centre supports assessing and

reporting student achievement relative to standards

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Through using the ARC website materials you can

become familiar with the A to E standards by

reading:

 the descriptions for each grade

 the tasks and activities

 the work samples, and

 the grade commentaries.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









 Through use of the ARC website materials you

can, while reading the student work samples

provided, think of your experiences with

students you have taught who have produced

work of a similar standard.



 This will give you a “mental picture” of the

knowledge, skills and understanding

represented by a student that would have been

awarded that grade.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









Discussions with your colleagues is critical. It may

be especially helpful for:



 New teachers

Or



 Where a teacher is not experienced with that

stage

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate







 Using work samples aligned to grades assists

teachers to have a clear understanding of the

standards at each grade level.

 For each subject area in each stage, the samples of

student work, together, show the standard of work

typically produced by students performing at that

grade level.

 Teachers can use this information to assist them to

consistently apply the Common Grade Scale to

award grades to students at key reporting points.

Curriculum Leadership Workshop for Science Head Teachers

Science Unit Curriculum Directorate









 Aligning a work sample to a particular grade

indicates that the work sample is of a standard that

would typically be produced by a student whose

overall performance, on balance, best matches that

grade description.



 The samples of work for a subject area for a

particular grade, when taken collectively, enable

teachers to clearly see the quality of work typically

produced by students who will be awarded each

grade at the end of the stage.

Allocating Grades

Awarding the right grade



 Reporting with grades requires teachers to use

their on-balance judgement in relation to

standards



 An on-balance judgement does not focus on a

single piece of work.



 This is a key professional skill.

Below and above standard

 Professional dialogue to determine how far

below or above standard.

 Assign an A-E grade (or equivalent)

 C at standard

 The allocation of a grade is based on a

body of work

Awarding the right grade

 Teachers weigh up the assessment

information collected for a student up to

that point in time.



 This information will come from both

formal assessment activities and informal

observations and will be built up over time

and in different situations.

Consistent teacher judgements

The consistency of judgements about

grades within and between schools comes

from:

 following teaching programs based on

common syllabuses

 using the common grade scale

 considering shared samples of student

work

 discussions with colleagues

Common Grade Scale

Grade Grade Descriptions

The student has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the content and

can readily apply this knowledge. In addition, the student has achieved a very

A high level of competence in the processes and skills and can apply these skills

to new situations.



The student has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the content and

B a high level of competence in the processes and skills. In addition, the student

is able to apply this knowledge and these skills to most situations.



The student has a sound knowledge and understanding of the main areas of

C content and has achieved an adequate level of competence in the processes

and skills.



The student has a basic knowledge and understanding of the content and has

D achieved a limited level of competence in the processes and skills.



The student has an elementary knowledge and understanding in few areas of

E the content and has achieved very limited competence in some of the

processes and skills.

A-E Grades

 At the beginning of a reporting period,

teachers will consider what students are

expected to learn. That is, the knowledge,

skills and understanding that is typically

spelt out in the syllabuses and the

teaching/learning programs developed by

schools.

A-E Grades

 During the assessment period students

should be told how they are performing

against the standard and guided on how

they can improve. This is done through the

development of tasks designed and

marked around explicit criteria and the

provision of meaningful explicit feedback.

A-E Grades

 At the end of the reporting period,

teachers will consider how well students

have achieved. This is addressed by using

the common A-E grade scale which

summarises the degree to which students

have demonstrated their achievement of

the knowledge, skills and understanding

they have had the opportunity to learn.

How well takes into account the breadth

and depth of their learning.

Allocating Grades

Assessment „of‟ Learning

The Assessment Program

1. Establish an assessment program that consists of

a number of assessment activities

2. Ensure the assessment activities cover a range of

outcomes and are established with explicit

assessment criteria

3. Provide opportunities for students to display their

achievements in different ways and to work in a

range of situations

4. Decide on the relative importance of each

assessment activity

5. Collect performance information on each student

from assessment activities

Course Performance Descriptors

(CPDs)

 Course performance descriptors have been developed by the OBOS

for each course. They describe the main features of a typical

student's performance at each grade measured against the syllabus

objectives and outcomes for the course.



 You will make the final judgement of the most appropriate grade on

the basis of available assessment information and with reference to

the course performance descriptors.



 The grades awarded should reflect the relative emphasis placed on

the assessable objectives of school programs and the syllabus. For

example, where a school has placed considerable emphasis on the

development of research skills, that emphasis should be reflected in

the assessment program.

CPDs for Science

 Download a copy of the Stage 5 Course

Performance Descriptors for Science from

the NSW Board of Studies website at

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syll

abus_sc/index.html#science

CPDs for Science

CPDs are:

 standards achieved by Year 10 students at

the end of Stage 5

 not intended to be a checklist or a

comprehensive description of student

performance

Using AE Grades and CPDs

Semester 1 A-E reporting

Year 7 scale makes

Semester 2

judgements on

Semester 1

Year 8 student

Semester 2 achievement

Semester 1 related to the

Year 9

Semester 2 syllabus

Semester 1 outcomes and BOS CPDs

content taught used to make

Year 10 Semester 2 during that judgement

semester only.

Helping New Scheme

Teachers

It is important for all teachers and

particularly for new scheme teachers to:

 share interpretations of syllabus

expectations and understandings with

colleagues or teacher networks

 use student work samples collaboratively

to make judgements

 have a shared understanding of student

achievement at a particular point